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

[calocagathia]

How much weight should we give to interpretations of a work of art that aren't what the artist intended, but something that nonetheless may make sense or even come from the unconscious of the artist

[la_vita_nuova]

I agree with what you said. I brought up that question mostly b/c that was kind of James's position on my interpretation of C.K. and I wanted to see if anyone else felt that was as well.

[lhynard]

I think it is a great movie; it was advanced for its time, but now is a little dated. I don't think it is the greatest American film ever made, but it is certainly one of the most influential ones made.

I think your way of viewing it is a great object lesson, but I don't think it was nessessarily the director/screenwriter's intent.

I'm highly opposed to the postmodern way of viewing art, but what you have done is made a parable or object lesson of a work of art, and there is nothing remotely wrong with that.