Citizen Kane (Welles, 1914)

Narrative summary of ‘Citizen Kane’                           

At the start of the film we see the death of Kane in his mega mansion of Xanadu, with his last words being ‘Rosebud’ he says this as he drops a small snow globe with a tiny wooden house inside. We see a news real of the life of Kane but it ended with the team who is making it looking for something else and they start the search for what the term rosebud meant. We then start to follow his life from the start through the stories people who knew Kane, they our being interviewed and questioned by a journalist. We first see the real wooden house of Kane’s childhood where we see his parents arguing and organising for him to be taken with thatcher to educate him because a mine they had taken over had just been found to have a lot of gold meaning that in later life Kane would become incredibly wealthy at the age of 25, Kane didn't want this and struck him with his Sled in anger, Their also seems to be some anger from the dad about all that was happening. Kane then gains full control of his trust fund. One of Kane's first thing is buying the New York Inquirer and made some fairly scandalous stories that were published mainly about the Thatchers business. Kane did have to sell control back to the thatchers because of the financial crisis in 1929. We then go back to the present, Thompson interviews Mr. Bernstein (business manager) who recalls how he brought in the best journalists for the Inquirer. Kane manipulated the public through his newspaper and his first marriage to Emily Norton who was the niece of the united states president. Thompson then interviewed Kane's best friend Jedediah Leland at a retirement home. Leland recalls how Kane's marriage to Emily slowly deteriorated and how a simple mud splat started an affair with Susan Alexander, at the same time he was running for governor of New York. Kane's wife and main political partner found out and consistently a public scandal ruined all of Kane's chances. Leland (Kane's best friend ) asks to be transferred to Chicago to in a way get away from Kane. Kane ends up marrying Susan, Kane then pushes Susan into a singing/opera career which is met with huge criticism. Leland starts to rebel and writes bad things about Susan's career which ends up getting him fires. We then finally meet Susan who agrees to be questioned by Thompson, she talks about her failed opera career with a few of the shots being repeated from Kane's perspective but from a different angle. We find out that Susan tried to commit suicide this finally stops Kane from forcing her into a singing career. Kane and Susan move to Kane's mega mansion of Xanadu where they live out a boring a dull life. We find out that Susan left Xanadu through Kane's butler Raymond who says that after Susan left he became angry and started to trash the room in front of everyone, Kane calms down a bit and picks up one thing the snow globe that we see at the start of the film and he quotes “rosebud” again. Thompson gives up on trying to find out what Rosebud meant and decides that it will stay an enigma. We then our shown Xanadu where we see staff burning worthless items one of which is a sled very similar to the sled at the start of the film which has the word “Rosebud” written on it, this we then can infer that Kane just wanted true love a thing that he only had with his mum which was taken away from him.

I like the scene where it shows all of the belongings that have been gathered from around Xanadu as it has such a large scale showing off size and wealth but in a more secret and sneaky way. It also shows that he didn't spend money on people and that he just spent money on things like statue.

One of the first scenes in the film is just before the report is sent out to find out what rosebud. Lighting brings this scene alive as it gives the person standing up authority and the person sat down feel like he's being told off and the lighting is helped by the use of the smoke filled room which really amplifies the lighting effect.

The scene where we see the snow globe fall off right at the start seem insignificant at first but then we realize that it is the whole significance of the film and the thing we our chasing, the simple 3 shot sequence helps make the point quick and dramatic. This scene has simple snow transitions that make you feel like the snow globe has a much bigger role than just a random item.







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Camera were hidden in the floor to get low angle shot. These were used to give the character power and authority.because of the cameras bulk this was the only way to get a shot that was so low.

Special experimental lenses were used to make the Foreground, mid ground, background all appear in perfect focus this was also helped by the intense amount of lighting that was used the further back someone was. This specific shot was actually two with Kane being one and Leland being in a completely different shot the seam line being just to the right of Kane's shoulder this was because of the lighting challenges of the shot and the fact that he wanted it to all be in focus.  

The statue is a miniature this is done to save costs but the first time you watch you have no idea because of the way the shot flows down in one seamless motion. Rooms were often drawings these were used to create the scale of a giant room even if they were in a fairly small sound stage.