Citizen Kane

"Citizen Kane" is a 1941 movie by Orson Welles. It is described as one of the greatest movies ever made in Hollywood as well as World cinema. It has begun various trends, like deep focus, and thus influenced many succeeding directors. The film deals with, in a pseudo-biographical manner, the life of a newspaper-magnet Charles Foster Kane. Born in poverty in Colorado, his mother handed him over to Mr Thatcher. Therefrom his journey to be a tycoon begins. The narrative of the film goes through various perspectives of different characters. Sometimes overlapping, the people associated with Kane's life opine regarding the life of the late Kane. He was trapped in his own world of ego and his Xanadu, the pleasure-dome surrounded by statues, draperies, curtains, furniture, marbles, symbolizes that world. He dies alone in that palace. Citizen Kane was an unsolved enigma and remains so throughout the film, even after the finish, the audience fails to configure the dilemma of 'Rosebud', his last word before death. The reporter Mr Thompson realizes the puzzle and the consequent aporia at searching out any meaning in his last word. It is as incomprehensible, as the reason of his final utterance. However, in the final shot, through an omniscient point of view, the viewer sees the word 'Rosebud' imprinted on his childhood sled, thrown by his stuff taking it as a junk. It may hint at his last wish to go back to his family home, to return to that world of childhood. This interpretation substantiates Kane's lifelong penchant to disparage the materialistic pursuit of life, which he invariably dispenses with all along.