I am going to analyze the breakfast montage that depicts Charles and Emily Kanes’ marriage. Orson Welles manages to depict the gradual emotional separation between Emily and Charlie over years of marriage using only a few minutes of film set all in one room.

 

In the first scene, the newlywed Kanes are happy in their marriage. Both sit close together on a small table eating their breakfast. The lighting is bright due to a window behind them, the music is happy and romantic, and Charles and Emily are frames in a two shot together at first. Their conversation focuses on them at first, but quickly turns to Emily’s concern for how much time Charles spends at the Inquirer. After this subject change, Emily and Charlie are not framed together in a shot together until the very end of the montage. The rest of their breakfast conversations are shown using Shot/reverse-shot, with only one character in frame at a time. This helps emphasise the growing divide between the two.

 

Between each scene in the montage, there is a swish pan signifying the passage of time. After the first scene, instead of sitting close to each other, they both sit at opposite ends of a much longer table. Because of this seating arrangement, the window is no longer in the background, making the lighting much darker. The music gradually gets darker as well. Flowers and various breakfast items are on the table, physically dividing the couple. Charles and Emilys’ expressions and vocal tones both get more serious and angry as the years go on. Their clothes getting more formal, which matches the serious tone Emily and Charlie use to address his devotion to the Inquirer over her.

 

There is no dialogue in the final scene. Emily is shown overtly reading the Chronicle, showing she doesn’t care for Charlie or his work at the Inquirer anymore. Both seem to have no concern for the other as they read their respective papers. The camera zooms out to a long shot showing the large divide between the two characters. This is the first shot since the very beginning of the montage where both are in frame together, likely to emphasize the significant change that has gone on between the couple during the montage.