Why Citizen Kane is Still Relevant Today: A Non-Specialist’s Perspective

I recentely joined some friends of mine to a Retro Cynemateque where the legendary Citizen Kane (a.k.a. Quarto Potere, for Italians speakers like me) was projected. Attracted mainly its fame, I decided to join this journey and oh booooy if it was worth it.

Little disclaimer: I am neither a film critic nor do I claim to be one; this is simply a personal opinion of the movie, taking inspiration from the short discussion that followed the projection.

Themes

• The very first theme that we encounter is the different perception that people might have about the same topic and multi-faced nature of reality. Reality is often different from what we think and from what we might have seen and experienced.
• Memory and nostalgia is another ever present topic in the movie: The film is structured as a series of flashbacks where the linearity of time is broken leaving the stage to a “spezzatino” flashback, as characters remember and reflect on Kane’s life. Once again characters remember different pasts and they have a different perception about what actually happened (connected to the first theme). The film explores how memory and nostalgia can distort our perceptions of the past. This effect is particularly evident and enhanced by the genius of Orson Wells, by the use of the “Deep Focus Cinematography”, where by keeping both the foreground and background in sharp focus, characters are allowed to move within the scene and create complex and layered compositions. Particularly famous remains the scene where Orson Wells walks close to the house fire, where the viewer is purposedly mislead to miss the actual size of the object present on the scene.
• Power, corruption and the manipulative nature of human beings: The film’s central character, Charles Foster Kane, is a wealthy newspaper magnate who uses his power to manipulate and control others. The film explores how his quest for power ultimately leads to his downfall, while also remembering sveral dystopic moments from 1984 where reality is not what people believe but what they’re told to believe (especially during Kane’s political campaign).
• Isolation and loneliness: Despite his wealth and power, Kane is unable to form genuine connections with others. The film shows how his isolation and loneliness contribute to his unhappiness.
• The American Dream: The film critiques the idea of the American Dream, which holds that anyone can achieve success through hard work and determination. The film shows how Kane’s pursuit of success and wealth ultimately leads to his unhappiness and loneliness.
• Love and relationships: The film explores Kane’s relationships with the women in his life, including his wives and his childhood friend, and shows how his inability to connect with them contributes to his unhappiness. It is often explored in the movie the incapacity of Charles Kane to actual love; what he truly seeks his the desired of being loved and love and admiration is simply something that can be bought (tell me what you want and I’ll buy it for you, provided that you’ll love me). The theme of love is actual the main fil rouge of the movie and unconsciously the main quest of the characters involved in the re-discovery of Kane’s personal life. Rose Bottom is nothing but the name of his childhood sledding, hence closing the circle of the origin of Kane’s main desire: the will to fill the gap of the missed love from his parents.

Further comments

While remain quite difficult to exactly state the importance and the role that this movie played in the development of modern cynematography for an amateur like me, it is quite obvious why this movie is a timeless classic and a cynematographic masterpiece. Do not forget that Orson Wells comes from a background in audio (and not in video!) and this is particularly evident by the film’s use of sound, with the soundtrack and dialogue being carefully crafted to create a rich and immersive audio experience.

Also, Citizen Kane is a mild biographical story of the newspapers magnate William Randolph Hearst. Hearst was an American newspaper publisher who built up the nation’s largest newspaper chain and whose methods significantly influenced the practice of American journalism. At the Oscar ceremony, Citizen Kane, that was a critic success but a boxoffice disaster, won the the prize for the screenplay; at the ceremony though that there was no one from the film cast to receive the prize, since no one considered the movie to be actually seriously considered given the mediatic campaign that was created against the movie.

Concluding remarks

Finally, “Citizen Kane” has had a lasting impact on the film industry and popular culture. The film’s innovative techniques and themes have inspired generations of filmmakers, and its influence can be seen in countless films that have followed in its wake. The film’s enduring popularity and critical acclaim are a testament to its lasting impact and its status as one of the greatest films ever made.