Citizen Kane-ideas

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Analysis of Bernard Herrmann's filmscore for Citizen Kane

Ideas

Citizen Kane is an investigation into the character of a prominent public figure, Charles Foster Kane. It is a search for the real man behind a well known facade.

Synopsis of the film:	A reporter is trying to discover the meaning of Kane’s last word "Rosebud".
	The reporter talks with several people who were intimitely involved with Kane.
	In a succession of flashbacks we learn something about Kane’s childhood, about his character, his rise to success (power) and his final downfall.

This way the reporter, comparable to the leader of the choir in a classical Greek tragedy, functions as a spectator, leading the audience by the hand through a tragic life that unfolds.

Rosebud represents the unspoilt world of Kane’s childhood. It is the name of a sled
with which Kane played in the snow as a little boy. This fact is not revealed until the
very end of the movie, and only to the spectators, not at all to the reporter. Right
before the final sequence he says: "Kane is someone who got everything and then lost
it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn’t get, or something he lost". For
Rosebud you should read childhood.
The anti-thesis of Rosebud is Kane’s Will to Power, his all consuming ambition which
in the end proved to be of no value.

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