1. 1. In class, we talked about Citizen Kane and how it was named the greatest film of all time. It has so many qualities that are able to back that up such as the way the camera seems to always be in focus so that everything on screen is very detailed, the lighting helps establish which characters are important during the story and how each of the characters are able to give superb performances. It showed when it came time for the Oscars and the picture was nominated ten of them, which Orson Welles was nominated for four himself. It’s too bad that it was a commercial failure at the time because in studying film today, it’s almost mandatory to see this movie to appreciate all of the little things that Welles did to give more character to the picture.
2. 2. This website is dedicated to hosting some of the fun information that surrounds the movie both about when it was being filmed to the interesting facts that came after it. One of the things that caught my attention was that Steven Spielberg purchased the Rosebud sled at a movie memorabilia auction for $60,500. Orson Welles thought that they had burned the sled when they were filming and was a bit confused and surprised that he was able to purchase it. There are other interesting facts found on the site that give more background to the film and more on Orson Welles. http://www.destinationhollywood.com/movies/citizenkane/funfeatures_content.shtml
3. 3. The article was great in that it pointed out a few key things that makes Citizen Kane even more interesting. Welles modeled the Xanadu castle after William Randolph Hearst’s castle and it can still be seen and people can take tours there. They also give mention to Roger Ebert in that he says the movie is the greatest of all time, but it’s not his favorite. Orson Welles also has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for radio.
4. 4. In my opinion, I liked Citizen Kane and it shows that Welles knows how to get an audience involved with the characters on screen, even if they wouldn’t care about them. It’s such an easy movie to watch because if you open your mind to the inner insightful self, there is so much symbolism that allows you to understand what Welles is trying to get across. In particular, even though one of the main characters is a reporter who is trying to find out what Rosebud is, he is never seen by the audience and shows that the main focus is always going to be on Kane and why his last word was Rosebud.
Kane’s life just gets more and more depressing as he gets older because he isn’t able to have heartfelt relationships with his partners. The more they stay together, the further they drift apart and that’s one of the things that constantly happen in this film. All the money in the world can’t buy happiness in anyone, it just makes people more depressed and not able to feel that what they are trying to do will live up to anyone’s idea of what’s good. Sometimes, it’s the little things that make us happy, it was Kane’s sled when he was a kid, and what we can ultimately take away from this film is that we need to stop dwelling on the bad things and start admiring the things we have.
