Stop and Smell the Rosebuds Why are the homeless happy with nothing more than a sleeping bag and a loaf of bread while multi-millionaire celebrities are choosing to take their own lives? Orson Welles indirectly answers questions of this nature in his award-winning film Citizen Kane. The film follows the life of a man by the name of Charles Kane from his peak as an innocent boy to his rise in the newspaper industry and eventually to his ultimate deterioration. The story of Kane allows the audience to question ideas that hold beliefs such as that luxuries such as money and power are inevitably toxic in large quantities or that the temptation to seize instant gratification is a recipe for disaster. Welles explores the dark truth masked by Kane’s abundance of riches and possessions and exposes the downward spiral that characterized Kane’s career and life by incorporating specific narrative forms, carefully chosen camera techniques, and the perspective of other characters. Foremost, Welles draws a distinct contrast between Kane at his happiest and at his lowest by utilizing flashbacks to display him as both a cheerful boy in his youth and later an affluent yet grumpy grown man. From the very start of the film, the audience is introduced to Kane as a small child who has a big heart and a gift of great potential. By incorporating these flashbacks, …show more content…
One pivotal instance in which Welles effectively uses deep focus is during a flashback that takes place in Kane’s childhood home in which the audience can see Kane’s mother signing her son away to Thatcher while simultaneously young Kane is playing outside in the snow with no knowledge of what his future holds. This scene is deeply influential because it draws emotion from the audience, as people tend to feel tenderly toward
Citizen Kane is presumably the best that American Cinema has ever offered, impeccable from beginning to the end. Frequently rivaling Its a Wonderful Life for number one, Citizen Kane is in a group of its own and unmatched in artistry on a number of fronts. The innovative development and the specialized headways used during production, can be minimally viewed as inconceivable and amazing, for a 1941 film. Citizen Kane has stood the test of time for well over six decades, serving as a benchmark and wellspring of motivation to storytellers of all walks of life. Citizen Kane is a sad tragedy about the fictions character Charles Foster Kane, a business head honcho and a daily paper investor. Through this movie, Orson Welles deified Charles Foster Kane as well as showed his determination, as an author, chief, on-screen character and above all as an auteur. The scenes displayed as flashbacks, not simply show his flexibility as an on-screen character (dealing with the subtleties and the nuances anticipated that would depict the diverse stages and parts of Kane's life), additionally his narrating brightness. Kane's muttering of "rosebud" at the moment of his demise and him openly destroying his political adversary, Jim Getys, speak to the two extremes of human life, the low and the high, individually. The scenes in the middle of Welles and Joseph Cotton are a flat out treat to watch. Feelings of sensitivity and disdain towards his childhood friend,
While the opening scene works to establish the mood of the film, the scene in which we see the final interactions between Charles Foster Kane and his parents is a key scene that establishes the relationships he has to them and Walter Parks Thatcher. This scene reveals the circumstances that led to Kane being under the care Thatcher and his inheritance of vast wealth. The scene begins by showing a young Charlie playing in the snow. Inside his mother’s boarding house, there is a very different scenario occurring, one in which the mother is making the final arrangements to send Charles away while his father protests. Following this, the mother tells Charles of what is to occur, which upsets him greatly.
The titular character of Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane is developed as one of the most powerful men in the world due to his wealth and power in the social, political, and economic worlds. Throughout the film, it is very apparent that he yearns for control over those around him and believes that the only correct way is his. The use of lighting, camera angles and distances, and shots in the classic film allow for Kane’s dominant side to be applied throughout the entire film. However, with Kane’s such great amount of power also comes the dull sense of isolation. Citizen Kane truly conveys the message that “money can’t buy happiness”.
One of the main areas where “Citizen Kane,” adjusts and challenges the conventions of its time is through its own narrative structure. Even by today’s standards of film, “Citizen Kane,”
In movie Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles, Kane has too much pride and always cared about his image in front of the cameras. As Kane grew up with his new rich legal parent, he never knew what love was and showed arrogance instead. Kane thinks he can have anything just because he has money and power. In order to have a perfect image he wants he lost his only friends that are loyal to him. Both of his marriages broke through because he thinks he has power and money.
He was extremely curious to find out what ‘Rosebud’ Kane’s last word signifies, ‘and what could have happened to make so powerful a man so solitary at the end of his life?’ (David Bordwell, 1979, p. 82). Therefore Thompson was head of the investigation to find out the meaning of ‘Rosebud’. ‘The order of the newsreel’s presentation of Kane’s life roughly parallels the order of scenes in the flashback related to Thompson’ (David Bordwell, 1979, p. 83). Citizen Kane introduced this new form of filming by the use of flashbacks to put a story together as the newsreel has several similarities to the flashbacks throughout the film. Welles cunningly provokes curiosity and suspense in the audience, as the narrative ‘dramatizes Thompsons search by means of flashbacks that encourage us to seek the sources of Kane’s failure and to try to identify ‘Rosebud’’ (David Bordwell, 1979, p. 84). The plot of Citizen Kane ‘is internally composed of layers, from the surface of Thompson’s investigation to the hidden meaning behind key objects.’ (Mulvey, 1992, p. 9). Kane’s mother made an agreement with Thatcher and from a young age, Kane would no longer be living with his parents but under the guardianship of Thatcher, and he grew up to be a money and power obsessed man. Rawlston’s dissatisfaction with the newsreel began
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) is an American drama film that narrates the story of a newspaper magnate who gained worldly success in his life, but he lost connection with people around him during this process. With the help of a series of flashbacks, the film illustrates Kane’s personal life. The film starts with the scene where Kane is on his deathbed and says the word ‘Rosebud’ before dying. A newspaper reporter, Thompson gets intrigued by this word, which becomes the motivation for him to learn about the life of Charles Foster Kane and the significance of the word ‘ Rosebud’. The director, Orson Welles depicts the personal life of Kane beautifully in
When his second wife leaves him Kane realizes the corruption wealth has done on his life and says “rosebud” because he wants to return to his sled, his childhood, to return to the beginning when wealth has yet to corrupt him. Citizen Kane is the story of a man’s great ideas to make the world better, but unable to because of the corruption wealth brought him.
No matter what the reasoning, the evidence can be found throughout the film’s entirety. Perhaps what is most striking about Citizen Kane is the film’s aesthetic qualities: its cinematography and mise-en-scène. From the film’s opening, mise-en-scène takes precedence in every scene. Contrary to the popular chronological narrative, the film begins with the death of its protagonist and continues in a series of flashbacks.
Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, released in 1941, is a technologically profound film full of innovative techniques with camerawork, lighting, and spacing. Wells’ groundbreaking visual elements further emphasizes his stylized mise-en-scene. The theme of Citizen Kane, is wealth does not buy happiness. The life of Charles Foster Kane was interpreted in many different ways in different perspectives throughout. The film leaves more questions than answers, however, the central one being who really was Charles Foster Kane?
Basically, Citizen Kane tells the story of a fictional newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane. Director Welles could have presented Kane’s life story chronologically, letting their plot present incidents in story order as most fictional biographies do, But he chose another option he decided to trace Kane’s life through flashbacks, recalled by people who knew him. To motivate the characters’ flashback, Welles hit upon the idea of having a media reporter seek the meaning of Kane’s dying word, “Rosebud.” This generates a second line of action the reporter Thompson’s investigation of Kane’s life. The result is a film that creates an unusual relation of plot to story.
Citizen Kane was a black and white film that appeared to be lonely and sad with very suspenseful music with Charles Kane lying down holding a snow globe. The snow in the globe could have perhaps reminded him the day he left his parents in the snow during the winter season. This drew me into suspense to question why he dies and says the word “Rosebud.” The reporter, Jerry Thompson has been assigned to interview friends that were a part of Kane’s life to find out the meaning of “Rosebud”. With many flashbacks, Thompson learns more about Kane’s life during his interviews.
The whole story of Citizen Kane is based on the word ‘rose bud’, it is the last word that Kane said before he died. Because of that the producer was not satisfied with the documentary made for Kane, journalist Thompson interviewed everyone who was still alive and was connected with Kane in order to find out the meaning of ‘Rose bud’. Kane’s life was uncovered through the memories of the five interviewed people. Despite the story of the film, ’Citizen Kane’ was a film that bravely broke the classical Hollywood linear narrative system but developed in a non-linear diversified narrative form, with many flashback shorts. It points out the clue: rose bud at the very beginning of the movie and makes the journalist kept mentioning this word to promote
A film released in 1941 that tells the story of a man thrown into high social class. The audience witnesses the predicament of a man, who is split in half between his polar personalities. Charles Foster Kane has recently died and the predicament of interpreting his life and its meaning is left upon a single reporter. “…A group of prominent films critics were asked to list the greatest directors and the greatest films, Orson Welles and Citizen Kane both came in first (Carringer 32).” Orson Welles’ produces, co-wrote, directed, and starred in the great American classic film, Citizen Kane, at the age of 26. Throughout this entire film, the audience is morally challenged along with being entertained about the rise and fall of an American hero or villain depending on which way you look at it. It is unquestioned that this film achieved great things in cinema. Welles’ utilizes the techniques of deep focus, close ups, visual symbolism, and using several perspectives to tell the story of Charles Foster Kane.
The backfire effect is seen when information is presented to a person with contrary beliefs. This person will believe their view and ideas more strongly, even if the presented information is based on fact. This relates to confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is a bias in which people tend to look for or even remember only the information that supports their belief. People want to be correct, they do not want to be wrong.