Citizen Kane - The Rosebud Movie

Director: Orson Welles
Release Date: 1941

I think it would be fun to run a newspaper. –Charles Foster Kane

You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man. –Charles Foster Kane

No, I don’t think so. No. Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn’t have explained anything. I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life. –Jerry Thompson

Did you know Citizen Kane was black and white? I didn’t. Clearly I walked into this one knowing nothing about it. I was so excited to start my project that I popped the movie in without even reading the Netflix description. About 30 seconds into the movie, I paused it to read:

Orson Welles reinvented movies at the age of 26 with this audacious biography of newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane, which, in essence, was a thinly veiled portrait of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Welles’s complex and technically stunning film chronicles Kane’s rise from poverty to become one of America’s most influential men – and it’s considered one of the best movies ever made.

I felt like I learned more about Welles than about his movie’s content. But, I pressed on. And then the first word was spoken: “Rosebud.” I exclaimed to an empty room, “Oh, the Rosebud movie!” It’s one of those spoilers I’d heard about but had no idea what exactly was being spoiled. I suppose I won’t give it away here, though let’s face it, likely you already know who or what Rosebud is.

While the plot of the movie was interesting, it was the cinematography and the editing that drew me in. I found it visually breathtaking. I don’t know who deserves the credit for things like this – the director, editor, lighting guys, set directors… The use of shadow and light, of fade-ins and –outs was beautiful. A few of my favorite parts of the movie would have had the same affect with or without sound: the sad and ominous opening and closing, depicting the forlorn Xanadu, the cheerless crow and unmoving gate; the solitary minutes when Mr. Thompson sat in Thatcher’s library hall, thumbing through the deceased financier’s journal; and the moment when Kane stood to his full hulking height over the seated Susan Alexander, surrounded by her unflattering newspaper reviews, to demand that she continue singing despite the public reaction and her own desires to quit.

My favorite character was Mr. Bernstein, whose voice I could listen to for days, for no real reason other than his cadence. In contrast, while I feel that Dorothy Comingore is quite beautiful, the character of Susan Alexander thoroughly annoyed me from beginning to end.

After watching, I don't feel like my life has been significantly changed; however, the two hours I spent on the movie don't feel like a waste of time.

My takeaway: Money can't buy happiness; but it can buy a palace full of statues and artwork and two of every animal. If no one knows about the one thing you loved the most in life, you die a lonely man. Also, if you want people to remember you, make your final words cryptic.