Movie: Citizen Kane
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Dorothy Comingore, William Alland
Rating: ****
In Orson Welles-directed critically acclaimed film Citizen Kane, a newspaper tycoon dies a lonely death, uttering on his deathbed the last mysterious word, “Rosebud”. Arousing immense curiosity, the word becomes the focus of an investigation by a battery of newsmen.
The film’s portrait of a media giant drew parallels from real life for the hero, Charles Foster Kane (Orson), was reportedly patterned on William Randolph Hearst, the 1940s answer to Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch, all rolled into one.
Kane, who begins his journalistic career as a champion of the underdog, follows the usual trajectory of power, glamour, money and fame that replace his cause-oriented motives. And as journalists try to decode his life while trying to find the meaning of “Rosebud”, they draw the picture of a lonely man at the top, trapped in a loveless marriage, a doomed extramarital affair and a cold mansion.
The film is timeless because there’s a rosebud in every man’s life. Rosebud was the name of a sled that was taken away from Kane when he was being sent to boarding school. Metaphorically, the word symbolizes the universal yearning for unbridled joyousness and innocence that elude mankind. In all lists of chartbusters, “Citizen Kane” is acclaimed as Hollywood’s best film.
