Watching the marvelous Blu-ray edition of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), I was struck by how certain shots foreshadowed the imagery of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) released by the same studio, RKO, only four years later: the gothic castle at night with its one glowing window …
… the outstretched hand dropping the apple (or, in Kane’s case, a snow globe) to show the passage from life to death (or, in Snow White’s case, a death-like state from which she will eventually be awakened).
The purpose of this gothic faerie tale imagery in the prologue of Citizen Kane is to establish Kane as a figure of myth and legend, like an ogre or an archetypal fairie tale king. What’s most remarkable is not Welles’ usage of this fairie tale imagery, but the sudden transition from the *mythic* imagery of the prologue to the hard documentary *reality* (almost cinema verite in some shots) of “News on the March.” This abrupt and dissonant clash in styles was virtually unprecedented in film at the time Kane was made (Had Welles been reading Joyce’s Ulysses?) and serves to warn the viewer that henceforth the character of Kane will be viewed simultaneously through two lenses, the lens of myth and the lens of reality. In fact, as the film progresses, we will see Kane through several other clashing points of view. Style in Kane equals content, the style of the film telling us that no man or event can be understood through only one way of seeing.
Wow! Nicely done, Jer…you are THE cross-comparison king when it comes to this stuff. I think it's also interesting how both Disney and Welles were obsessed with the technical trickery of pulling off their respective visions, and how they both assembled crackerjack teams to get the job done. They both seemed to view themselves as mythic, larger than life…and they had a real knack for corralling talent.
And the newsreel is itself a type of abstraction and mythology–the myth of "reality."
Love the comparison you made. Time to see Snow White again.
Those images side by side are incredible. Thanks for pointing out a connection I never suspected between Disney and Welles.
Amazingly brilliant. Congratulations!
What a thrilling post, and nice perspectives on Citizen Kane, which reveals more and more with each viewing. I initially was not impressed with this classic, but after watching it three times a year for many years when I teach film history, I have come to love it and I never get tired of watching it.
That's a fascinating connection.