Citizen Kane: Who is Rosebud?

In Robert L. Carringer’s article “Rosebud, Dead or Alive: Narrative and Symbolic Structure in Citizen Kane,” he indicates that “Rosebud becomes the symbol of [Kane’s] youthful innocence, lost when he was adopted into a family of bankers.”
Adversely, he believes this to be a “fallacy” and I completely disagree with him. His reasoning on disproving this apparent fact is weak and ill-conceived. He is very critical of the film throughout the article and at times calls the best film ever made it “gimmicky.” He writes through his argument, quoting things that he’d never be able to write, and at times passes up the simple explanation for the elements of the movie. Citizen Kane is really that simple: Rosebud is his childhood.

Melodrama: Then and Now.

The creativity of Sunrise
In his book American Silent Film (New York: Oxford UP, 1978) William K. Everson suggests that the silent film Sunrise is “equipped with an evocative score and sound effects that are used extremely creatively” (324). The musical score and sound effects are used to not only reiterate the plot, but to reveal the varied settings of the movie.
The director of Sunrise, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, uses his score to display to the viewer that the storyline should be represented in the music to further reveal the plot and have the viewer get a sense of setting as well. When the couple go to the city, the score changes to a fast-paced tempo, showing the hustle and bustle of the city. The viewer gets a sense of being overwhelmed as the characters travel throughout the busy streets. When they go to the circus, the music is still frantic and the sound effects show a busy night of partying and fun. Murnau uses the sound effect of the pigs to show the greediness of the city people and is also used to reference the girl from the city who the male character had an affair with.
The entire cast is also showcased through the use of the music and sound effects. When the man is plotting to kill his wife, a dark tempo song is playing, but when the wife is displayed on screen, a sweet melody plays to show her innocence and purity. Murnau uses the score so effectively to show characterizations and plot that Sunrise will forever go down in history as one of the best silent films.

Body Language of Sunrise
William K. Everson, throughout his analysis of Sunrise, suggests what in fact was true of German Expressionism in silent films: that sets, incidents, props, sound effects (sic), and even the style of acting-“body language”- were used symbolically to communicate to the audience. A few important ways this occurs in Sunrise is through the use of makeup and costume and ironic events.
In Sunrise, the costume and makeup of the characters reveals a vital definition of who the character is. In the opening scene, the "femme fatale" is getting ready to see her lover. She is smoking, which is pertinent to the femme fatale archetype, and shows that she is not virtuous. Also, she is wearing mostly black and has dark hair, which furthers her seediness and foreshadows the events to come. In opposition to the femme fatale, the wife is refreshingly plain and simply clad. She is light-haired, revealing to the audience that she is pure and she also wears light clothing which also suggests her innocence and frailty. The two women are juxtaposed in the movie and cause the male character much grief. In the beginning of the movie, the male character is scruffy and poorly presented, having dark rings around his eyes to show his unhappiness. His distain for his wife is show through his garb. As the movie progresses and he falls back in love with his wife, his face is shaven and he undergoes a symbolic rebirth. The dark rings around his eyes are gone and he can finally be happy with his wife.
The director also employs special scenes solely for the purpose of revealing the characters further. When showing the wife, she is feeding some baby chicks and it is evident that she is a kind soul, unlike the man. When the couple goes for a boat ride, the man takes the dog and puts it back into its gate, which shows that he is no friend to animals and can not be trusted. Scenes like this are not the only important scenes in the movie. Ironic scenes, like the wife drowning, show how the plot and the characters have progressed throughout the course of the film. At first, the man took his wife out in a boat to drown her, but towards the end of the movie, the man is distraught because he thinks she drowned during a storm.

Melodrama Today
Reservoir Dogs by Quinton Tarantino is a contemporary film that was not discussed by Belton in Chapter 6 of American Cinema/American Culture.

Melodrama is a drama accompanied by music, but has been morphed into all types of cinema today. In Reservoir Dogs, the soundtrack is evidently just as important as all of the monologues that accompany the score. Tarantino used music, explicitly the song 'Stuck in the Middle with You' by Stealers Wheel, to built tension when the psychotic character Mr. Blonde was about to torture a police officer. The music was not vital to the plot, but helped me to appreciate the insanity of Mr. Blonde. The music created a feeling of sympathy for the police officer and utter fear for Mr. Blonde.
The opening scene also made me realize that Reservoir Dogs was a melodrama when the main characters all had their own monologues, which is an important element to the melodrama genre. Although some were comical, like the monologue given by Tarantino’s character Mr. Brown, I still got a sense of the complacency felt by all the characters as they were about to rob a bank. They were more concerned with Madonna, tipping the waitress, and an unknown person named Toby than with the nervousness that comes with committing a crime.
The next and following scenes are hard to watch as a viewer. I became particularly sympathetic to Mr. Orange, who is screaming for his life in the backseat of the car, having been shot several times. The entire purpose of the melodrama is to evoke some sort of sympathy for the characters and Tarantino uses this genre quite effectively.
Towards the end of the movie, we find that Mr. Orange is in fact an undercover police agent and the plot twists. A sudden urgency to find out the conclusion overwhelmed me and I was attached to the screen. The use of the melodrama in Reservoir Dogs enhanced my appreciation for the film and it evoked a special emotion that is synonymous with the melodrama genre.

My response to The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
I actually found the documentary The Cutting Edge to be very informative, as I am hopefully pursuing a career in the film industry. It enhanced my appreciation of film editing and gave me a sense of history on the subject.
Before watching the documentary, I was not enlightened on the history of film editing. I learned that women mainly held the Editor title due to their intricate handling of the film. Most of the time, men directors get all the credit for the entire film and it is good to know that behind some male directors, like Quinton Tarantino, there is a talented women Editor. They were, sadly, not recognized for their art and most male directors took all the credit. I also learned that movies were put out once a week and the Editor’s hands had to be quick in order to effectively edit a good film. I had no idea how movies were edited back then and the documentary enlightened me extensively.
Also, I was not aware of the progression of technology that was used to edit films. Over the years, the film editing process has changed so that one doesn’t need small hands or good eyes to edit a basic film. With the rise of the computer, editors made the change to digital copies of the films and thusly digital editing software for the films. This knowledge greatly enhanced my appreciation for the editor of film as one of the most important jobs to have in the film industry.

Wow

Sitting through "Kick-Ass" is like seeing a Tarantino movie for the first time. Terrible things are happening, and yet, somehow, they're breathtakingly funny.

My Ten Favorite Women Lead Singers (argue if you must)

Readers,
As you may know, I am very particular to the type of music that runs through my ears. Having said that, I have picked over my extensive library of sound and have, alas, found the 10 sexiest, most captivating, most talented female lead singers out there (or at least the ones on my ipod).
So, here it is. IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER.




1. Natasha Khan from Bat for Lashes

2. Chibi from The Birthday Massacre

3. Kelly Ogden from The Dollyrots

4. Amanda Palmer from Dresden Dolls

5. Shirley Manson from Garbage

6. Patricia Day from Horrorpops

7. Carah Faye Charnow from Shiny Toy Guns

8. Skin from Skunk Anansie

9. Souxsie from Souxsie and the Banshees

9. Destroyx from Angelspit

English 1301

I just wrote the funniest essay about writing essays ever written.

Awesome!

I have a follower.

Well, its snowing in Houston (the only place that snowed today, mind you).

“Come now my child, if we were planning to harm you, would we be lurking here beside the path in the very darkest part of the forest?”
- Kenneth Patchen

Stupidity

I sit alone in this crowded room filled with criminals and stoners and degenerates, watching the time pass slowly. The room is silent aside from the sporadic shifting of legs and arms, and the dull hum of the radio that I have now grown accustom to hearing everyday. I sit with only my thoughts that creep in and make my stomach turn: if only I hadn’t said no to him, if only I had watched her better, if only I hadn’t taken those bars. My life changed the day I got sent to alternative school, because it taught me to take responsibility for my impulsive actions.

I could feel the blood pounding from my heart and into my cheeks. My hands clenched into fists and tears streaming down my face. The cause of my disposition was not anger, not despair, not betrayal, but hopelessness. I had all the anger that was previously built up inside of me released at once in a flood of blood to the brain. My friend since birth had betrayed me with the boy that I loved, no less. They had been dating secretly for a month now. Everyone knew about it, so I guess the only secret was hiding it from me. All of our ‘friends’ knew. It just added up at that minute. I had been wondering why everyone was acting strangely, but the answers were no good until the day I found out the true answer to the equation: the betrayal of all my close friends. Ouch. Sitting alone in a bathroom stall, red hot tears found no rest in my eyes. I had just found out from a friend and I was afraid to go to class in fear I might start bawling again. Sleep pervaded me that night and it so consumed me until finally, I needed an escape and I knew exactly where to find it.

The next day, I held the tiny pills in my hands, debating. I needed a release, yes, but was this the way to do it? And in school? It had to be done. Everywhere I looked, a different shade of pain was revealed to me. It had to end immediately. I couldn’t wait till after school. I popped the bars into my mouth, drank some water, and waited. I woke up to people yelling at me in muffled voices, a supreme look of distress of their face.
“She’s breathing!” Someone yelled.
“Oh my god!” Someone else breathed.
I was disoriented for a moment. Wasn’t I just awake? How long had I been out? And how was I going to get out of this situation. I contemplated this as I was carried to the nurse’s office and then set down as a waited for my mother to be called. I think in the course of the thirty minutes it took my mom to arrive, I just about used every excuse in the book as to why I passed out in Algebra. I was taken to the minor emergency center and given a pee test to only further confirm the weight of my decision. Of course, the school was notified and the next day at school, I was promptly yanked out of class to speak with the assistant principal. She informed me that they know my passing out was no accident and that they knew the guy who sold me the bars. She told me with a frown on her face that she was sending me to alternative school and that she had no other choice. She lowered her head, and after a moment of silence, she told me that something similar had happened to her and that if she had been so easily available to such drugs, that she probably would have done the same thing I did. She smiled and it warmed my heart a little to know she understood. I swallowed deeply the itching feeling of pride in my throat and took my punishment, literally, sitting down. She promised me it would be okay and I actually believed it would. I grew up within a matter of a few days. I then realized that even though I was past the point of hurt, it doesn’t mean I can try to escape from my pain. As I left her office, he handed me a pamphlet reading: “The anger inside of you and how to deal with it”. I would read this when I got the chance.

I could say, reader, that I was one-hundred percent willing to take responsibility for my impulsive action, but I would be lying. It took me every will my body had to step into the Alternative Placement Center, to walk down the hall alone, to walk into the room and talk to the red-faced man sitting at the desk.

“I’m Emily Williams.” I said, hoping he would know who I was.
He only looked up once from his newspaper to say, “I suggest if you have a phone on you, that you turn it off immediately or it will be confiscated. No weapons, paraphernalia, phones, ipods, gaming things, or anything of that matter will be tolerated. You hear me?”

I nodded.

He nodded back. “Good, well, then sign here stating that you will not enter Crosby High School property for ANY reason until your sentence with APC is complete or you will face a $2,000 dollar fine. Do you understand that? Also, you will be required to wear a white collared shirt, a tie, and blue jeans only. Do you understand that?” He said mechanically.

I nodded again, forcing back tears.

After I signed the necessary papers, he pointed to what was to be my seat for the next three months. The room was a dead silence as I took my seat and I felt eyes following me. Why the hell was I in there with all those criminals? I was a good kid and now I have to sit in a quiet room, quietly doing my work, quietly eating my lunch at my desk, while I force back not-so-quiet thoughts. This was the worst punishment: to be left alone in a crowded room to just my thoughts, but I finally got over myself and resolved to go about this diligently and reverently. I worked hard on my school work and received straight A’s in all the work that I did. Later, I was even promoted to a Grader, which meant that I graded everyone else’s things and that I would receive 100’s for doing so. Also, I got my speech credit done in 3 days, never to worry about taking it after I resumed high school. One day, with nothing to grade or work on, I picked up the Anger pamphlet and began to read. It taught me a breathing exercise that I still use today when I feel the anger rise up from below. One instance, when my car was towed a few months ago, rage filled my face once more, but instead of acting on impulse, I just took a few deep breaths to clear my head and think things logically. And sure enough, the situation worked itself out nicely.

That moment made me the person I am today. I am a calm, logical person who is not so quick to anger as before. I am willing to take responsibility for my actions readily and without complaint and in them, I find the time to work on the things I need to improve upon. I am now a more responsible person because I swallowed my pride and faced my punishment for my petty impulsive actions.