Citizen Kane (1941)
*contains spoilers*
Synopsis: Citizen Kane follows the life of Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper tycoon, and the mystery of his last word “rosebud” which left people around him wondering. Throughout the story, different people narrate their memory of Charles Foster Kane and how a successful businessman fell into a downward spiral.
Citizen Kane offers a great cinematic experience to its audience both by its story and the techniques used in the film. Immediately, at the start of the film, the film shows a crane shot of a sign that says “No Trespassing” and then with every clip, the scene reveals a closer look of Xanadu. In this scene, the camera allows the audience to “trespass” into the castle. Inside the castle, we see Charles Foster Kane utter his last word “rosebud”. He drops a snow globe and then through it, we see a reflection of the nurse entering the room.
In terms of technicalities, the film greatly makes use of deep focus where the foreground, middle ground, and background are all in sharp focus to give an idea that each has his/her meaning regardless of his position in the scene. Add to that, it also makes use of low-angle shots to signify the power that Kane possesses like in the scene where he is giving a speech for his campaign. However, when he loses the election, the camera uses a low-angle shot as well, perhaps to show that even in times of defeat, Kane will always be the powerful man that he is.
The audience gets to see another side of Charles Kane which for a moment deviates from the rigid character established in the start when he meets Susan and jokes around her to make her smile. Charles Kane even creates shadow figures to uplift Susan. But all that changes when he forces Susan to a career in Opera. In the end, Charles Kane shows his true colors by showing his dominance over Susan through a forced opera career. Finally, after many years of submission to Charles Kane, Susan leaves their relationship. The next scene provides an interesting perspective on the personality of the man, and further adds to the air of mystery that surrounds his last word - “rosebud”. After Susan leaves, he violently destroys everything in the room but when he finds a snow globe, he begins to calm down and utters “rosebud”.
The film follows a non-traditional way of storytelling as it completely uses flashbacks to tell the life of Charles Foster Kane. As those narrators are old-aged and may now be unreliable, we get to wonder if their memory of Charles Foster Kane is real and accurate, which we further question by asking if someone knew the real Charles Foster Kane or will he remain the enigma that he is?
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
*contains spoilers*
The beginning of the film shows the plight of the working class – a reality that has been revealed in the onset of Italian-Neorealism. It can be noticed that the first scene where the credits roll is greatly similar to that of Lamberto Avellana’s Anak Dalita.
The next scene is where the story begins. A man calls for Ricci, played by Vittorio De Sica (who is also the film’s director), and offers him a job but under one condition: he needs to have a bicycle. Ricci jumps to the opportunity even when he does not have one. His wife, Maria, portrayed by Lianella Carell, finds a way to get him a bicycle by selling their bedsheets. They come to the shop and before them are several people lining up to also trade their belongings in exchange for money. Ricci, who is waiting for his bike, painfully watches the man stack the linens – a symbolism for the families imprisoned by their society. The piles of linen stacked in the shop represent the families who are willing to sell a part of their homes to sustain their poverty-stricken life.
The title itself shows cleverness. It means that the bicycle will ultimately be stolen and so every interaction and dialogue that suggests the action creates a thrill for the audience. First, when Ricci enters the office of his new workplace, he’s been told twice to put his bicycle down, asking if he was afraid. Second, when he leaves his bicycle in front of Via della Paglia, a house where his wife wants to pay a visit, the camera keeps on focusing on the children outside as if to say that they are the ones who will steal the bicycle. In here, the camera movements, as well as the background music, play a crucial part in exhilarating the audience.
In the scene where Ricci carries his wife to see the interior of his new workplace, the door is closed on them. This is what the film wanted to present to the audience – the rejection of the disdainful upper-class on the wounded yet hopeful society. Also, the job of Ricci pasting and affixing film advertisements offers quite an ironic contrast between the divisions of class in post-war Italy.
What could be the most miserable part of the film is the ending where Ricci, after attempting to steal an unattended bicycle ends up being attacked by men. Afterward, he is seen with Bruno crying while they hold hands as they fade into the crowd - their faces filled with hopelessness and defeat.
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Synopsis: Set in Medieval Sweden, The Virgin Spring tells the story of a girl named Karin, and how the tragedy of her death changes her family. It deals with themes such as rape, revenge, morality, and religious beliefs.
The story starts when Karin’s father, Tore, asks her to deliver candles to a church. Accompanied by her servant Ingeri, they set out on a journey. Ingeri, who appears dirty and disheveled and whose pregnancy symbolizes her loss of innocence, is the complete opposite of Karin, who appears clean and refined and whose virginity is a sign of her innocence.
While on their travel, Ingeri asks Karin what she will do if men try to force themselves on her. Karin confidently says that she will be strong enough to push them away. Unbeknownst to Karin, Ingeri prays to Odin, a Norse god associated with evil and death, so that something terrible may happen to the young woman. Ingeri’s question to Karin seems like a foreshadowing of the tragedy that is about to happen to Karin.
Because of Ingeri’s fear that something bad will happen, she leaves Karin to set out on her own. While traveling, Karin meets two men and a little boy who invites her for lunch. Karin naively agrees to their request and soon faces bad fate when the two men rape her. It was mentioned before that Karin will be strong enough to protect herself when such a thing happens but this scene presents quite the opposite. The men, as if not satisfied with raping Karin, even kill her.
Afterward, the two men unknowingly seek shelter to the home of Karin. Märeta, Karin’s religious mother becomes nervous when her daughter does not go home. Her mother’s impending suspicion that something bad happened to her daughter is confirmed when the two men gave Karin’s clothes to her signifying that Karin is once in the hands of those men. Tore learns about this and seeks revenge on them. It is then revealed that his wife has been jealous all along of him, wishing that she’s Karin’s favorite parent instead.
Meanwhile, Ingeri goes home and confesses to Tore that she has seen the rape and murder of Karin and that she has prayed for this to happen all along. Surprisingly so, Tore is not angered by this fact and even asks Ingeri to prepare a bath for him.
Afterward, Ingeri leads Karin’s family to the woods where Karin is raped and murdered. Towards the end, Märeta lifts her daughter from the ground where spring starts to flow upon. Tore, on the other hand, questions why God let this happen but also promised that he will build a church in Karin’s place of death. The water from the spring symbolizes renewal and absolution for the tragedy surrounding Karin’s death. Ingeri uses the water to wash her eyes that witnessed Karin’s rape and murder, and her hands that prayed for Karin’s death.
The Last Laugh (1924)
*contains spoilers*
Synopsis: An unnamed doorman, played by Emil Jannings, loses his position in a hotel and is demoted to a post as the washroom attendant. The doorman’s seemingly hopeless life radically changes when an unexpected turn happens in the end.
F.W. Murnau introduces the “unchained camera technique” in this film by using the camera to track motion. The camera is of great significance in the storytelling that it somehow becomes a character in the film, enabling the audience to see through the eyes of the main persona. Janning’s exaggerated facial expressions, combined with the zooming of the camera, gives the audience an in-depth realization of what the main character is going through. The film attempts to present his psyche through the use of facial distortion. A symbolism depicted in the film is the doorman’s uniform. It represents masculinity, power, and confidence that when he loses his job and ultimately his uniform, he also loses all of these characteristics.
German Expressionism contradicts realism in every way possible. As exemplified in one scene, the doorman falls asleep and dreams of himself showing off to the visitors by carrying a lot of baggage in one hand as if magically. In terms of the cinematic techniques used in the film, it rejects reality by using extravagant stage designs, clearly, a contrast with the ruins of World War I. The film pays no attention to perspective and proportion as it uses unconventional and disorienting camera angles.
The lavish and luxurious setting of the hotel, in contrast with the impoverished community of the doorman, is also another way German Expressionism rejects realism because instead of focusing on the doorman’s poor lifestyle, the film highlights extravagance through the hotel.
The use of intertitles is not present despite The Last Laugh being a silent film. Instead, F.W. Murnau incorporates exaggerated movements combined with extreme set designs to let the film speak for itself. However, in the “An Unexpected Turn”, a title card appears to interrupt what would be the supposed sad ending for the doorman. It says, "Here the story should really end, for, in real life, the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death. The author took pity on him and has provided a quite improbable epilogue." He is seen having a feast in the restaurant of the same hotel. It is then known that the doorman becomes the beneficiary of the man who died in his arms. F.W. Murnau once more illustrates German Expressionism by offering a different kind of reality where the protagonist meets a rather unrealistic ending.
The Blue Angel (1930)
*contains spoilers*
In the morning while having his breakfast, Professor Rath playfully whistles to his bird only to find out that it has already died. Already, in the beginning, the audience is confronted with the idea of death through a scene that foreshadows the fate of the professor.
Professor Immanuel Rath calls on Erztum, one of his students, to recite the famous Shakespearean line, “To be or not to be”, a soliloquy spoken by Hamlet when he is in contemplation between life and death. Again, the theme of death resurfaces. And perhaps it is this line that the conflict of the film revolves upon. The man faces circumstances that require him to decide, such as whether or not he would give up his professorship to be with Lola Lola; and if he would continue his pathetic relationship with her or simply end it all. How the story progresses such that the start is a foretelling of the end is what makes this film one of a kind.
It is interesting to point out the difference in the characterization of Emil Jannings as a doorman in The Last Laugh and as a professor in The Blue Angel. In The Last Laugh, Jannings’ character does not require that much dialogue, compared with his role in The Blue Angelwhere conversing for an hour or so is an inevitable part of his job as a professor. The advent of sound plays a significant part as to why Jannings’ characters differ in the two films. The director experiments with sound and so the best way to test this is to employ characters that use it as an essential requirement - Marlene Dietrich as a singer and Emil Jannings as a professor.
It is also important to notice Dietrich’s two performances of “Falling In Love Again” and how they show a great disparity in the course of the film. The beginning, where Professor Rath sees Lola Lola the first time in the cabaret and becomes attracted to her, distinguishes the ending where the professor exits the club signifying his departure from their suffocating relationship. And all this happens with Lola Lola in the background singing quite the ironic song, “Falling In Love Again”. In the end, Professor Rath unknowingly answers Hamlet’s query – “To be or not to be”, and it is the depressing silence of eternal rest.