Analyzing Orson Welles 'Citizen Kane's Rosebud'

At the end the film we are visually told a strong message that a man isn’t necessarily the sum of his achievements, possessions, or actions, but that something deeper must drive him. Kane was more than his public accomplishments is the last word Kane uttered: “Rosebud.” Kane’s life story unfolds in layers through the reporter Thompson's investigation and is told by a succession of people who were close to him. Kane never gets to tell his own life story, and we must wonder how much his telling of it would differ from the reminiscences of his associates. None of these people ever really knew what drove Kane to do the things he did. Only Thatcher would have had the chance to fully understand Kane, but he was too concerned with making money to have any compassion for a lonely child. He viewed Kane through a distant, mature lens of acquisition and conservatism. The differing perspectives on Kane’s life, especially in the absence of Kane’s own point of view, force us to question what was truly important in the life of Charles Foster Kane as well as to ponder what constitutes a life in general. Judging by Kane's last word, the most important pieces of his life were not the things that made him newsworthy, such as his newspaper successes and political ambitions, nor his friendships and associations. Instead, as Kane's life comes to an end, he grasps at a memory from his

Citizen Kane begins the movie with an interesting opening of a man dying while saying his last words. This began the mystery of who was this man and what did he mean by his last words “rosebud”. In the next scene it jumps to a news article

Charles Kane, a newspaper mogul, died at his home in Xanadu. His last dying words were ‘Rosebud’ which no one had any idea what they meant. A newspaper reporter is given the task to investigate what the word meant. He had to interview many people including Kane’s friends like Jedediah Leland and his concubine Susan Alexander who only shed some light on the mystery of Kane’s life but no information about the Rosebud word. Citizen Kane is the movie that has received lot applause for centuries despite flopping at the box office in 1941. The narrative structure line non-linear form, the mise-en-scene composition, and the cinematography put the film in high regard.

Citizen Kane is filled with symbolic imagery. In most of the movie you can pick out scenery, character actions, lighting, camera movement, and the composition within the frame of key shots that help tell the story without the character orally telling the full story. However, because of its new and experimental use of mise-en-scene, the movie did not do well in the box office. In time Orson Welles movie would become one of the best movies of all time and would even come to change filmmaking in

"I don't think any word can explain a man's life," says one of the searchers through the stockroom of fortunes deserted by Charles Foster Kane. At that point we get the celebrated arrangement of shots prompting the word's closeup "Rosebud" on a sled that has been hurled into a heater, its paint twisting in the blazes. We recollect that this was Kane's youth sled, taken from him as he was torn from his family and sent east to life experience

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane is a revolutionary film. Although it might not look like much to the modern viewer, many aspects of the film were the first of their kind to appear and are still used today.

The debate over Casablanca and Citizen Kane has been a classic argument between film critics and historians alike because both of these pieces contain great cinematographic value, and are timeless pictures that have managed to captivate audiences well beyond their era. However, the real question at hand is which film is the greatest? Which film transformed the future of American film making? It is these questions that I as many others have, will attempt to answer in the following essay as I explain why I believe Citizen Kane has achieved the status of greatest film ever made.

The debate over Casablanca and Citizen Kane has been a classic argument between film critics and historians alike, and this is because both of these pieces are timeless pictures that have managed to captivate audiences well after their era. On a broad spectrum analysis this is an apples and oranges debate as the two films both have great cinematographic value but for different reasons. However, the real question at hand is which film is the greatest? Which film transformed the future of American film making? It is these questions that I as many others have, will attempt to answer in the following essay as I explain why I believe Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made.

in that Thompson, the man in charge of Kane's life story is now on the

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.

Charles Foster Kane, a man robbed of his childhood to become a world known entrapenour. after passing away he leaves the world with his final words “Rosebud”,only to leave everyone baffled as to what the meaning behind his final words.”Rosebud”, the name of his sled from his childhood. This ecocentrist 1941film by Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, a personal score of 4.5 star rating, film has very good qualities and some that could use some improvement. The establishing shot, overall plot and camera shots were all very great aspects of the film

There are many reasons as to why Citizen Kane has been lauded as one of the best, if not the best, film of all time. Orson Welles's Citizen Kane has had a lasting impact on cinema and continues to influence directors to this day. Visually striking, Citizen Kane helped to usher in a new era of cinema through its innovative techniques and use of mise-en-scene.

Citizen Kane brought the aspects of a newspaper tycoon in the 1940’s to life in a form of a dramatic narrative. This film is based on a true story of a newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst and based off of some aspects of Orson Welles(Writer and Director). This filmed has been named, “The best American film of all time” due to the fact that, during the time of its making, it was the first film to take on many new techniques of cinematography. Citizen Kane is a revolutionary film not only in the drama genre, but in filmmaking of all forms.

When Citizen Kane was first released in 1941 it was cinematically groundbreaking because first time director Orson Welles had taken various types of filmmaking, much of which had been used in Expressionistic German films in the 1920’s and incorporated them all into one film. Despite the fact that Welles did not create the techniques used in the film he revolutionized the way films were shot. When Welles was asked where he had gotten the confidence as a first time director to create a movie that was so different from its counterparts, Welles said, “ Ignorance, ignorance, sheer ignorance-you know they is no confidence to equal it, it is only when you know something about a profession, I think, that you are timid or careful” (Welles). This “ignorance” was important to the film as it resulted in the use of cinematography that had not been popularized yet, some examples of this are:

Citizen Kane is a movie that can be rewritten and implemented into any film created today. In many ways, the storyline tells us more about ourselves than anything else and it relates to each one of us who has ever wished for a better life. From his flamboyant adventures to the blah blah to his political agenda in his later years. Every film that came after Citizen Kane owes a great deal to Orson Welles because of the way he used special effects, music, and shadows and lighting, which without a doubt makes it one of the finest movies ever made. Some even call it the Mona Lisa of its time because Orson Welles was the first to implement all of these techniques, which revolutionize cinema forever.