Analyzing Orson Welles Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane (CK), directed by Orson Welles in 1941, is a dramatic film which explores the corrupting nature of power due to an individual’s vanity which gradually leads to the collapse of one’s moral compass, as well as the futile search of his identity lost amongst his possessions. By incorporating multiplicity of perspectives on Kane’s life, Welles effectively communicates this message through the innovative cinematography and structure to the contemporary audiences.
In CK, Welles conveys how the social concerns of wealth and power has resulted Kane’s sense of vanity and arrogance which led to his corruption of his moral integrity. Initially, through the deep focus throughout the negotiation between Mrs Kane and Mr Thatcher highlights Kane’s

sense of powerlessness as he was surrounded by the border of the window and isolated, oblivious to what was going on in the house. The framing of the window represents his entrapment and inability to control over his future, while ironically his parents are persuading him that “probably be the richest man in America someday. This progresses into how Kane protests against Thatcher’s capitalist views as this is denoted in the panning shot across the passengers on the train reading the headline “Traction Tract Exposed”, highlighting how Kane’s idea has been widely spread in the community. Later on, the film presents Kane as a powerful totalitarian leader as this is evident in the film’s striking shots during Kane’s political rally. Kane’s image is dwarfed by a massive campaign poster and he was projected from different camera angles to highlight his charismatic emotions. This domineering nature of Kane is emphasized with only the matte painting of Kane and himself illuminated whilst the massive crowd is in the darkness, signifying his moral demise from his obsessive pursuit of power.
Due to this vanity that Kane possesses, his moral compass erodes and begins to transform to a character just like Thatcher whom Kane used to despise as well as demoralizing the identity of his wife. This is particularly highlighted through the lap dissolve of Thatcher’s portrait in a black suit to a similar portrait of Kane in Berstein’s office as the visual symmetry of the two characters suggest the Kane’s thoughts have completely been aligned with Thatcher’s capitalist views. Kane’s deterioration of his moral compass is further delineated through the disintegration of relationship with his wife. Kane’s eventual immorality comes especially in his attempts to dominate Susan. This is particularly shown through the use of mise-en-scene where Kane confronts Susan before she leaves him with the camera positioning the doll in the foreground with Susan adjacent to it. The symbolism of the doll dehumanises Susan’s identity and accentuates the fact that Kane treats her as one of his possessed materials. This fact is supported with Susan conveying “You just tried to buy me into giving you something” to show Kane treats Susan just his worthless possessions. Thus, through Kane’s change in his capitalist views with his corruption of relationships, CK supports the view on how vanity can play a major role on the corrupting nature of power.
Welles’s ground-breaking film also presents how this vanity of gaining and maintaining power gradually wears away an individual’s identity, thereby conveying the concept of the futile search of one’s identity.

As the news reporter Thompson takes the responder on an adventure in discovering Kane’s identity, it is evident that Thompson’s figure is always hidden and remains mysterious to the responder. Through Welles’s use of dark lighting upon Thompson’s face throughout the entire film, Welles expresses the fact that the responder has a vague understanding of Kane’s identity, just like Thompson. This concept is further displayed through the double exposure when Thompson is interviewing multiple characters as Thompson always has the back of his head facing towards the camera, further exemplifying the fact that Thompson has a lack of understanding of Kane’s identity. Furthermore, through the chiaroscuro lighting which clearly shows Thompson’s silhouette, we get a further understanding of the obscurity of his personal identity. Through Thompson’s statement “Rosebud was a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle”, the recurring motif of jigsaw puzzles symbolizes the process of piecing Kane’s identity and shown in the montage where Susan is playing with them. Finally, Kane’s loss of personal identity is established through the use of mise-en-abyme where Kane walks past the infinite mirrors without looking at himself and creating an infinite number of his reflections, highlighting his

emotional stagnation and the lack of introspection, providing the responder with the limited perspectives of Kane’s identity due to the futile search.
The futile search of Kane’s personal identity is also displayed through the obsessive passion of Kane’s material possessions. Towards the end of the film, Thompson stated that “Mr Kane was a man who got everything he wanted then lost it, maybe Rosebud was something he couldn’t get or something he lost”, showing how the idea of materialism has consumed Kane completely and shows the limited understanding of the definition of the word Rosebud. The search for the meaning of Rosebud progresses with the camera’s bird’s eye view panning through the great abundance of Kane’s physical possessions and eventually the close-up shot on the word “Rosebud” on the sled being melted, the textual integrity shows how the identity will always be lost within the flames. Thus, through Welles’s innovative cinematography, CK portrays how the futile search provides significance towards the process of combining the fragmented perspectives to identify someone’s identity.
As a modern audience, the responder would still appreciate the complex and multi-faceted nature of CK as it shapes how an individual’s desire of obtaining power and wealth brings happiness and satisfaction, however disregarding the morals and true relationships that an individual possesses.

This concept is displayed through the majestic and grandiose layout of Xanadu on the outside and significant amount of material possessions on the inside, Welles cinematography successfully conveys how the spacious layout of Xanadu’s residence symbolises how the growing distance between Kane and his lover leads their eventually emotional breakdown, as well as immorality due to wealth. From responders’ perspectives on CK, this action of the pursuit of materials still exists in today’s society as this may bring the eventual corruption one moral compass and relationships, therefore the responder gains an insight as to how CK remains to be a provocative film even

today.
Overall, through Welles manipulations of cinematic techniques, he challenges the responder to reflect upon the great and provocative ideas of how an individual’s portrayal of vanity and power leads to the futile search for one’s lost identity in the changing world, causing the responders to sympathize Kane’s rise and demise in his life, as well as our perception of the lonely man’s hubris in searching for his lost childhood.