Citizen Kane

We have started (and finished since I never post) a new film called Citizen Kane by Orson Welles. At the beginning, it was really fast-paced with the whole newsreel scene, but it really caught your attention with all the headlines. It's confusing to watch when we have a DVD player and can stop it any time, so I can't imagine what it was like when people were watching it on the big screen. I love how they almost told you the entire story in a matter of seconds, but it was too fast to really comprehend. After watching a scene, I feel like I have to sit and think about what just happened to understand it.

The film begins with a dark, gloomy place that is Charles Foster Kane's home, 'Xanadu.' He is on his deathbed and whispers Rosebud and drops a snow globe. The camera angle after is shown through the snow globe, which was a really interesting choice. His dying word was 'Rosebud.' The film is a mystery, as someone is trying to figure out what Rosebud meant by interviewing the closest people in his life. The someone (whose name I forget) doesn't find much even from the closest people in Kane's life, showing how surrounded by people he was yet so alienated.

The themes that Mr. Bennett first mentioned in the beginning were alienation, loss of innocence, materialism, and power. The alienation was clear in the beginning as he was the only person living inside this huge castle. He had no one to share it with and wanted no trespassers. Throughout the film, we see that even though Kane is surrounded by so many people and had two wives, he was still a private and secluded person. No one really knew him or what he was thinking. Materialism is pretty obvious since Kane was extremely rich and built structures to try to satisfy himself, including the opera house for Susan Alexander and his paradise home, Xanadu. Even at the end of the film, you see all the statues, things, etc that he collected throughout his life. He had so many materialistic things, but could not satisfy himself and had no one to give them to when he died. Kane himself even says that if he hand't been rich, he might have been a great man.

Loss of innocence was first introduced when Mr. Thatcher came to take Charlie Kane away from his drunk father and his mother who was supposedly trying to help Charlie by sending him away. I really don't get how that's supposed to help. Kane is only a child and is being sent away to live with the bank; his childhood innocence is lost.
Power is also prominent in the film; the gain and loss of power makes up much of Kane's life. Kane, when he first started The Inquirer, was very powerful and everyone wanted to please him. However, as his life goes on, and he starts cheating on his wife with Susan and loses the governor position, his power is deteriorating. Charlie Kane seems to believe he has a lot of power over everyone, as shown when he says that people will believe whatever he tells them to believe in his newspaper. But during that scene, the reality is that he is losing much of his power. Even when he builds the opera house for Susan, his own friend Leeland has his own opinion: that Susan was terrible. Also when his screaming was bleeped out into a car horn noise. What Kane says is no longer held up on a pedestal; now, all he says is just common noise.

During the scene where Kane is making a declaration of sorts, he turns the light off, keeping all the characters in the dark. I liked this scene because Leeland suggested that Kane might not keep to his promises, and sure enough, he didn't. It connected with another scene when Kane receives the declaration in the mail and he furiously rips it up. In the last part of the film, the other people in the film never find out what Rosebud is and just let it go because 'a word can't describe a man's life.' However, we as the audience find out when the sled, named Rosebud, is thrown into the fire to burn. The sled is the last thing from childhood that Kane owns, the time when he was 'innocent' and happy. Even after he gained all this power, wealth, and material things, on his deathbed, he said the name of just a sled from his childhood.

When Mr. Bennett mentioned that people called it the greatest film of all time, I had a bad feeling because whenever someone says that and I watch the film, I end up thinking 'Oh that really wasn't that good.' and I feel disappointed. However, the 'cinematography' (I'm starting to really like this word =D) was great, and I actually did like the film. It was really interesting and even though it's negative, I will deal with it. I'd just like to say that I liked the scene where it was connected with "Merry Christmas..." as Kane was opening his present "...and a Happy New Year" when Kane was much older. I just thought it was cool :P