Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane was released in 1941 under the direction of Orson Welles, an American director originally from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Welles was a sensation of both the stage and radio when he was invited to bring his Mercury Theatre group to Hollywood to direct any movie he chose. He was 24 when he signed with RKO to direct Citizen Kane. Unlike directors such as Hitchcock and Chaplin whose reputations rest on a great number of films, critical respect for Welles rests primarily on Citizen Kane. It is widely considered to be the greatest sound film ever made. The film won the American Film Institute top 100 and the Sight and Sound top 10. Welles also directed such films as Macbeth (1948) and A Touch of Evil (1958), which could never reach the acclaim that Kane did.Citizen Kane is the story of Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy newspaper publisher who gets caught up in the idea that whatever he doesn't have he can buy. This is seen in the film as he tries to win over the love of the people as he runs for political office, and even when he tries to buy the love of his second wife when he builds her a theatre.What makes Citizen Kane a great movie is the film's technical brilliance. Welles uses a strange vis
Today it is regarded as the greatest film of its time. The film is tied together with the idea of Rosebud, Kane's last word. A reporter tries to figure out why a wealthy man like Kane would want his last word on earth to be Rosebud, and whether or not the word would give a clue into the man's life. The cinematic structure of Citizen Kane is basically set in the first sequence. The camera starts at the gate of Kane's mansion, Xanadu, and steadily moves closer inward until it comes to rest on the man himself. Again, the dream of finding out what Rosebud means keeps the viewer tuned in to the film. In the boarding house scene, Kane is a young child being taken away from his parents. The sequence begins with the two eating breakfast at the dining table, sitting close and chatting happily. The shot ends with his mother closing the window, signaling both an ends to his childhood and life with his parents. Its series of montages, mise-en-scene, and use of deep focus and long shots to expand space make the movie seem very realistic and believable. Citizen Kane followed its tragic premises to their logical, gloomy end.
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