Citizen Kane

I watched Citizen Kane this afternoon, a freezing cold Thursday when I was off work with a sore throat and a lost voice.
The film was made in 1941, and was directed by Orson Wells, who was also the main character actor. Wells was only 25 at the time, and he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Citizen Kane often features in Top Ten lists of the best ever films, or variations of this theme, so I was curious about it. Realising that I have seen very few of the classic films, I decided to add one to my List, and Kane was the obvious choice. But I have also taken the opportunity to see some other classic films as part of my quest, notably some Hitchcock movies, including Spellbound and Rebecca.

So what did I think of the film? Beautifully shot in black and white, strong use of shadows and light. I like the way the story of Kane starts with his death, and his life is told through the eyes of other people who knew him. Kane was immensely wealthy through inheriting a silver mine, and used his wealth to buy a newspaper empire. But power corrupts him, from being idealistic to cynicism, and he tries to get elected as state governor. This fails because his affair with a singer is made public. The overbearing way he treats both his wives shows that power is more important than anything else, but his dying word is 'Rosebud', and when this is made known to the newspapers, there is a hunt to find out what this meant, giving the reporter a reason to interview people who knew Kane, and to tell their story.
It turns out that Rosebud was the name painted on Kane's sled, which he was playing on when his parents sent him away to be brought up by a guardian in the city, aged 8. The reporter never found this out, but I suppose the significance is of a small child being denied parental love, which affected his whole future life.

I am glad I have seen this film, I appreciate it is wonderfully made, but some of his motivations are hard to understand, and his second wife is very annoying. It is not as emotionally accessible as I would prefer, it did not draw me into the feelings of the characters enough. But this could be age of the film.
7.5 out of 10

Number 6 crossed off the List