Citizen Kane

The plot of Citizen Kane centres around a man, Charles Foster Kane, and his rise and fall of his career as a publisher. The film covers many different aspects of his life such as his rise to power, his personal relationships with different people in his life, and what caused his downfall. I feel that it was cleverly made as it tells the story through the perspectives of the people in his life that knew him on emotional levels and not so emotional levels. This is done by the film focusing on a reporter who sets out to understand the meaning of ‘rosebud’ which was Kanes final word on his death bed and get a deeper glimpse of what Kanes life was really like. It has a non linear structure which differed from many of the other films made at this time which made it stand out and people were excited to see it as it bought a newness to American cinema. The way that the black and white film took advantage of light and dark, considering the mood, atmosphere and emotion in each scene had a very coherent connection to the lighting and the angles in which it was filmed. This was enticing to the audience and people found it to be a very interesting take on a new way to create ideas within cinema without using dialogue. Like most people I think that this film is a classic that had great influence on many film makers and is one that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. I believe that it sparked ideas for cinema and was very unique and ahead of it’s time.