Movie Review Citizen Kane

Five million years ago primates began to stand upright. By 1804 steam powered locomotives were pulling train cars across railroad tracks. In 1903 we became airborne at Kitty Hawk. In 1984 the Macintosh personal computer hit hundreds of thousands of living rooms nationwide. We are now relanding rockets. Think about that for one minute; about relanding rockets, from space. Wernher von Braun of V-2 fame would be 106 today, and one wonders what he would say in 1944 to the concept of relanding rockets from space. With the steepness of the learning curve in our current technological and communication renaissance being basically vertical, it is easy to overlook some profound achievements within just the last 100 years, to take them for granted.

That door must be important.

In 1941 Orson Welles wrote, directed and starred in Citizen Kane. Every Artistic Tool you can imagine is deployed in this masterpiece without subtracting from the story, a monumental achievement. When artists try to show off one usually loses track of what is going on, this is not the case with Citizen Kane. The Frame Story is that of Kane’s death wrapping around interspersed biographical Vignettes, from the day his mother “transferred” him to a new guardian to the day he dies.

That skylight illuminates more than just the table.

Ever wonder where the exasperated “Rosebud” cry in film and performing arts comes from? This meme to start all memes was the name of the snow sled Kane was playing with when he was taken away from his family. It turns out he inherited the sixth largest fortune in the world as a child. His parents transferred his fortune and guardianship to one Mr. Thatcher as he was playing with his sled. Thatcher whisked him away and the sled was left behind. Kane used his fortune to run newspapers, run for political office, sponsor a wife’s singing career and also build a huge, monumental castle on a man-made hill in the land of few hills, Florida.

If it doesn’t have double mirrors, is it even a movie?

Artistically speaking, we see all manner of Chiaroscuro. Simply put, that is the origin of the light in a painting if you haven’t taken renaissance art 101 yet. Shadows are everywhere, one exception being the biographical account left by Mr. Thatcher. These notes are taken from a safe far away in a long room with a huge door, proportions are out of whack but there is no mistake the skylight is there to focus the observer on the prose. Regarding proportions, the fire place in Kane’s mansion was huge, big like a school bus, and there is a scene of Kane standing in front of it and being dwarfed. If there isn’t already a genre of art where everything is out of proportion there should be. We know Surrealism started in the 1920’s, was that an influence on Orson? There are moving cameras giving the “concealed observer” look while peeking into Kane’s past, the moving camera stops suddenly, jolts, moves in on Kane’s face as he says something important. This use of cinematography to accentuate the story is marvelous. You want depth of field focus play, texture, reflections off of water, slow moving fog, eerie music, dissolve style scene to scene transitions? All of that is in the very first minute of the movie! If you haven't seen this movie before drop everything. And don't blink, else you'll miss the montage.

Before

Wardrobe and make up are superb as we see Orson Well’s character age from mid twenties to geriatric by the time of his death. You have to hand it to them.

After

Did I mention he did all of this in 1941? Orson wells was 25 years old by the way.

We call this camera angle the voyeur

Psychologically speaking this lavish, adventurous and project filled lifestyle left little time for introspection, but the scar from being taken away from his parents while playing lingered in the nether reaches of his mind. When Kane died he was holding a snow globe that reminded him of that fateful day he was stripped from his parents. He was already upset after a fight with his wife, that memory pushed him over the edge and he passed away, his last breath, “Rosebud”. Kane went through a divorce, spent time muckraking the guardian who raised him, claimed to represent the ordinary man. Was his subconscious dictating the way he spent his time and money? Had he come to terms with this childhood incident would he have lived a different life? How did we the viewer overlook that childhood trauma while being swept up in the gallivanting whirlwind tour of a life financed by his immense inheritance? Not only was this movie a treat for the eyes but it leaves one pondering philosophical questions as all good stories should.

Surrealism? In film?

That castle in Florida? Its name was Xanadu, reminds us of the poem Kubla Khan. They say Coleridge awoke from a stupor with a thick tome of poetry in his head from an opium dream. He only got very little of it out before he was interrupted by a visitor and then forgot the rest. That poem, like Kane’s life, had unfinished business. Was he worried about everyone except himself? Was he all extrovert with no introvert? Was his life unexamined?

Shadows everywhere, even puppet shadows

Ever wonder where the middle eight in The Union Forever by the White Stripes comes from? You guessed it, Citizen Kane. “There is a man, a certain man, …who loves to smoke, enjoys a joke…”

This movie receives an amazingly high 5 out of 5 farts from the harsh judges here at fartinthewind. A perfect score. The only negative we could find is maybe lack of humor, we here in fartville love to laugh. Perhaps that’s one of the things Mr. Kane would have done more of had he dealt with certain scars earlier in his life.

Will any other movie past or present match this amazing result? Is there a movie you’d like us to review? Upvote, follow, and comment below.