The movie
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film directed by Orson Welles. The cast includes Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, William Alland, Dorothy Comingore and Agnes Moorehead.
Citizen Kane was Welle’s first feature film. It is considered as the greatest film ever made. It was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories. It won the Oscar for Best Writing (Original Screenplay; Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles).
The movie is a quasi-biographical film. It concerns the life of Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles), a character drawn from media barons and tycoons of that time.
The film brought public attention when French critics (e.g., Andre Bazin) expressed their admiration. It was re-released in 1956. Film scholars and historians consider Citizen Kane as an attempt to create a new style of filmmaking by combining various forms into one.
In a mansion called Xanadu, part of a vast estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed. He holds a snow globe and utters his last word, “Rosebud”. Then he dies.
A newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher and industry magnate. Kane’s death becomes sensational news around the world. The newsreel producer assigns reporter Jerry Thompson (played by Alland) the task to discover the meaning of the word “Rosebud”. Thompson sets out to interview Kane’s friends and associates.
In this way, we gradually learn about the life of Kane from his childhood till the end of his life. Eventually, Thompson concludes that the meaning of Kane’s last word will remain unknown. Only at the last scene, it is revealed to the audience.
The film rejects the traditional linear, chronological narrative. It tells the story entirely in flashbacks using different points of view. Each narrator recounts a different part of Kane’s life, with each story overlapping another.
The scene
It is the opening scene. In Xanadu, Kane is on his deathbed. Holding a snow globe, he utters his last word, “Rosebud”, and dies.
Citizen Kane is a masterpiece. It deserves by all means a leading place in any cinephile library.
0 Comments