Citizen Kane (1941)

It’s been seventy three years since its debut and still maintains its ranking as the best movie of all time on numerous lists. Citizen Kane is undoubtedly the most talked about movie of all time. Its advanced camera techniques and angles allow the movie watcher to time travel through Charles Foster Kane’s life. From the beginning, I can understand why the forties’ movie watcher would become immediately enthralled. After watching Kane pass away and mutter ‘rosebud,’ we’re launched into a news reel of his life. The rapid pace leaves the watcher wondering what just happened. The entire film is filled with artistic and deliberate choices by writer, director and star Orson Welles. These choices direct the watcher’s attention and are necessary so that we understand the location and time of the scene.

The entire film revolves around the faceless news reel editor’s quest to comprehend Kane’s final word: “rosebud.” As the search becomes more desperate, I found myself making guesses at what it could mean. In the end it was a moot point. Even had they discovered what rosebud was in reference to, they would never uncover the entire story or what it meant.   

One specific stylistic decision I remember distinctly is how the camera showed us we were in Atlantic City post-Kane-death with Susan Alexander. The camera would zoom through the same sign that read ‘El Rancho’ and then through a ceiling window into the room. When the scene was complete, the camera would then zoom back through the window and sign, dragging the watcher back. This feeling that we were flying into the room from the sky leaves one feeling like a fly on the wall.

For movie watchers at the time, the realistic conversations were refreshing. However, this is something I would not have noticed. I, myself, not having seen many thirties or silent films find it hard to relate to this. To me, the conversations in the film seemed extremely theatrical yet entertaining nonetheless.

This film is exciting for two main reasons. The first being that Kane’s character was loosely based on newspaper guru William Randolph Hearst. Seeing that this was a well-known man at the time and many people were making this connection made the movie all the juicier. Welles got a lot of heat for this and Hearst even tried to shut down the film. The second reason is that this was one of the first movies that used techniques to transition between settings and time periods forcing the watcher to orient themselves constantly. Just like Ms. Alexander’s puzzles, we were trying to piece together the memories of Mr. Kane along with the news team. 

 By Haley Dougherty