Who is Citizen Kane?

Written by: Eduardo Ramos Olivera

The screenplay of the film "Citizen Kane" breaks down the fictional life of one of the most
important media tycoons of the United States of America, Charles Foster Kane (1863-1938).
The story begins with the tragic death of Kane, alone, surrounded only by his servants and
employees in his vast mansion Xanadu, a gloomy, cold and ghostly place whose construction is
estimated on untold millions of dollars. Kane, before dying, utters one last word: "Rosebud", a
word that becomes the leitmotif of the film. Thompson, a reporter of a rival newspaper, will be
commissioned by his editor to interview all persons who were part of Kane's intimate social
circle to find out the meaning of the word "Rosebud." The script takes a circular form, which
core is Charles Foster Kane. One by one, the characters will be interviewed and gradually the
true character of Kane will be drawn for the viewer. Each character will have flashbacks
describing the merry ways and bitter experiences with Kane. Characters like Mr. Thatcher
(banker who becomes Kane´s legal guardian), Mr. Bernstein (friend and loyal employee of Kane
till the end), Jedediah Leland (friend of Kane from the unfinished college times, art critic of
Kane's newspaper, "The Inquirer"), Susan Alexander (Kane's lover and second wife) and
Raymond (Kane´s Butler) tells the attractiveness and conflictual character of Kane. Reporter
Thompson shall collect information, but will never have the answer or define what "Rosebud"
means. Director Orson Welles' camera becomes the omnipotent gaze Filmmaker that looks
through events, searching for the meaning of the word "Rosebud."

The film camera internalizes the life of each of the characters who in turn deepen Kane's life
through their stories told in flashbacks; furthermore the camera will go beyond the characters
and the work of the reporter, entering to areas where only the viewer will have access. The film
camera report that Charles Foster Kane was a child deprived of his freedom after eight years of
age by decision of his mother, Mary Kane, who obtained ownership of a mine that turned out to
be a beta of gold, the largest in the State of Colorado, for which decides to send his son Charles
to the big city to study under the tutelage and protection of the banker Mr. Thatcher, who is
responsible for managing the fortune of Charles Foster Kane until he turns 25 years old and can
dispose of their property, under the supervision of Mr. Thatcher. Kane will no longer enjoy
freedom of choice until he reaches 25 years of age. Feeling free, Kane will begin to look like a
big kid having fun with every project he makes.

The character construction of Charles Foster Kane has considerable economic power, but no
religious training, never expresses sympathy for any religion. Everything indicates that the
training has been strictly to become a businessman, cold and calculating. At times in the movie
Kane expressed sympathy for the needy, but what he really wants is to be recognized and
applauded. Orson Welles builds a self-centered character, narcissistic and ambitious, that
destroys everyone who participates in his projects and ambitions. The characters are presented
by Welles as worn people, without further horizon but to spend their days confined in a hospital,
a bar or an office. The deployment and vitality no longer exists, since Kane was the one who led
them. They are the chess pieces left on unfinished chess positions, abandoned. All characters
in the intimate setting of Kane have been brutally deprived of something by him. Susan
Alexander, passes of being a young happy lady to a sad drunken woman, spending her days as
a singer and owner of a bar. Jedediah Leland, Kane´s faithful friend, ends up being fired from
Kane's newspaper and spends his later years, alone and penniless in a city hospital. Mr.
Bernstein, never gets married, just has memories of a young woman he met many years ago
and never sees her back again in his life. Mr. Bernstein is the friend who has sacrificed even his
personal goals and desires in order to uphold Charles Foster Kane´s friendship.

The film "Citizen Kane" describes the profile of a man without religious formation, deprived of
his parents´ love at an early age. Later in adulthood, these shortcomings manifest themselves in
successive failures in everything he undertakes, longing to recover, before dying, what he lost at
an early age: his childhood, family and freedom.