The answer to the first question can provide the central idea. The second provides the thesis and supplies the topic for each body paragraph. To achieve this effect, the essay says, the film-makers Mankiewicz and Welles design the characterization, structure, camera work, lighting, symbolism as an unflinching examination of reality. A result of reading the essay is that it gets one to reconsider one s definition of greatness. Not only does the reader know the plot.
Film analysis is about sharing meanings.
The mark of a great film is the multitude of meanings it can bring out, and Citizen Kane is no exception. Given that, viewers may prefer to emphasize their pet interpretations for that or other films. That s okay, as long as they can support them from the film s elements and as long as they don t hog the popcorn. They may have meant it negatively, but it can also point to a bright future for the mind. In his 1982 book, Orality and Literacy , Walter J. Ong states that when writing was invented, it freed brain power from its all-consuming task of remembering.