Who is Charles Foster Kane?

[la_vita_nuova]

I watched Citizen Kane the other day and I know it's supposed to be sort of a biography of William Randolph Hearst and some other guys, and partly autobiographical of Orson Welles himself. But another interpretation occured to me while watching, which I haven't seen elsewhere as of yet, so my theory could be full of it. Here it is

Comments

[lookingland]

rosebud.... (sorry, someone had to say it).

i've always thought that was welles intention (moreso than the hearst parallel). that he was just using hearst as an exemplar of screwed up american ideology and how overcomplicated we've made our lives with greed, one-upmanship and even the innocuously sounding "pursuit of the american dream".

i love the movie. i feel it's definitely the second greatest american film, Sunrise being the first (but i may be partial here).

i dunno if i can make the choice globally ~ i still strongly tend to lean toward Andrei Rublev as the greatest ever overall (thus far). but it feels like comparing apples and oranges.

: D

[la_vita_nuova]

Cool, I'm glad to know that a writer thinks I'm not completely reading into it! He says "Charles Foster Kane was a man who gained everything and then lost it" and I thought that that was a key to it except the other reviews I read seemed to take that on the most superficial level.

I dunno what I think is the best american movie / best movie of all time - I don't think I've seen enough to make that call. I do love the Big Lebowski though - "Sometimes there's a man, and he's - well, he's the man, for his time & place."

[disgraissa]

i thought it was really long, probably because i'd gathered that whole rosebud thing from an episode of tiny toons about a decade before i saw citizen kane. it kind of destroy the suspense and, subsequently, my attention span. :(

[la_vita_nuova]

Yeah, it was hella long. I think I heard about rosebud from Family Guy before I watched C.K. as well.

[nine_muses]

While I don't think that it is the main point of the film, I think you're right, actually. Definitely right about the mirror part, and although I'm not positive that it is specifically aimed at Americans, I would say that aspect is quite plausible. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was part of Welles's intention.

How much weight should we give to interpretations of a work of art that aren't what the artist intended?While I don't think it's applicable here (see above), it's an interesting question. I'm not sure I have an answer either. I'd have to say that in general, it is important to at least understand the artist's intention, and appreciate the work within the context and culture in which he was working, etc. If someone takes Virgil and reads Christianity or something into it, that would be a problem. But then, on the other hand, maybe it's not so bad for a person to come away with something that was not specifically intended by the artist... I suppose I would be comfortable with that as long as they understood that that

[izaaksmom]

During my time as a film studies major, this film came up a lot. And for good reason, I believe. Part of it is technical (he was one of the first to play with angles--particularly extreme ones, going as far as cutting holes in the floor for the camera and cameraman--and his observations on linear time management still is modeled after him to this day). For those reasons alone, it is a seminal film in history. Is it the best? That depends on who you ask and what they are looking for...many college students would say no because it's black and white (but then, they're a bunch of idiots anyway). I would argue that any film that continues to influence what we watch today must be included in the best of the best (as the references to tiny toons and family guy show, it still even touches the ever-fleeting eye of pop culture--impressive

[la_vita_nuova]

"Particularly in a "but...but...he was just a scared kid trying to get ahead!" kind of way."

Nope, the way he treated his wives completely ruined any chances of sympathy from me.

[lhynard]

same here

[uccellina]

Oooh, that makes me want to see Citizen Kane. Being outside America has definately made me more anti-American. I think it's because I can see it from the outside. But almost all the American expats that I meet here are cool, bc they are more open-minded. And even the tourists are more open-minded than the ones that never leave. I guess I don't really know what I'm saying right now, but I am going to think about it. And try to see the movie.
As for the "how much weight should we give things that the writer didn't intend", it's also interesting. Maybe it depends on how the write reacts when people call attention to it? Just throwing it out there, i've had such a long week that I can't think straight right now.