Fernando
12 September 2014
to
tell
the
story
of
Charles
Foster
Kane,
zeroing
in
on
Rosebud, the last word he ever utters. This quest to find who or
what Rosebud means is what drive that moves the film's narrative.
Thompson, one of the journalists attempts to interview Susan
Alexander, Kane's 2nd wife, but is unsuccessful, and instead goes to
look through Thatcher's diaries. Thatcher was Kane's guardian after
his parents, and the failure to interview Kane's wife implies that
we, as an audience, are to go with Thompson, and uncover Kane's life
chronologically, beginning from when he was taken into Thatcher's
care.
The different people Thompson interviews have varying degrees of
closeness to Charles Foster Kane, and the order in which they were
interviewed
corresponds
to
the
different
stages
in
Kane's
life.
Thatcher is a banker who was his guardian, and through his written
memoirs, we gain an idea of Kane's childhood: how he was sent away by
his parents, how he came by the large fortune, how he was as a child.
Next are Mr. Bernstein and Jedediah Leland, who talk about Kane's
rise as an influential man in the newspaper industry as well as the
political
world.
Bernstein
talks
about
Kane
as
if
he
were
an
eccentric man to be impressed by, while Jedediah talks about the sour
side of the man. Thompson then converses with Susan, who talks about
her extra-marital affair with the Kane, his apparent fascination with
her (amateur) singing, and finally how their relationship came to an
end at Xanadu. Finally, Thompson talks to the butler, who tells him
when he heard the word Rosebud spoken by Kane.
Throughout the film, it is noticeable that Charles Foster Kane
is almost never alone. Because the narrative is always told from
another person's perspective, we have reason to doubt that the Kane
we are presented with is the man himself. Kane is dead for the
entirety of the story, and so we never see his own motivations and
reasons for his actions.
Among the many scenes that tell the story of Kane's life, I will
focus on three. First is the scene wherein we watch as Kane's mother
converses with Thatcher regarding Kane's education and the fortune
she accidentally came across. One of the most prominent mise en
scenes is where there is a use of deep focus where everything from
background to foreground is clearly shown. In the background, through
the window, we see a young Kane, playing with his sled in the snow.
From middle to foreground we are watching and listening to Kane's
mother and father disagreeing about Kane's future.
The second is the scene wherein we are shown the deterioration
of his relationship with his 1st wife, Emily Monroe Norton, over time.
the
music
dies
out,
so
does
the
bulb,
leaving
behind
the
out,
such
that
we
can
no
longer
see
the
people
in
the
represents
Kane's
childhood:
we
are
brought
back
to
the
References:
Bordwell,
D.
and
Kristin
Thompson.
(2013).
Film
Art:
An