Citizen Kane

Directed and acted by Orson Welles, the movie Citizen Kane was said to be the “best film of all time” or “the greatest film every made”, of which I only agree partly with it. Yes, the technical part of the movie is good but it still fails to capture my full attention and make me relate to the movie.
At the beginning of the movie, the shot of the “No Trespassing” sign first reminded me of one of Mr. Patrick’s movie, Exit. In my opinion, it’s a good way of starting and ending this movie. This movie began by showing Kane’s big mansion, named “Xanadu”. The beauty of the beginning of the movie was that when the mansion was shot at every angle, be in front or at the reflection of the water, the window of Kane’s bedroom in particular was in all the shots of different angel of the house. At first, I did not realize anything extraordinary about all the shots of the house, but it suddenly hit me that all the shots have the bright yellow light coming out of the window in it. It made me think it was a horror film at first but I was later convinced by the movie and Mr. Patrick’s explanation that “Kane propose a fictionalized biography of media magnate William Randolph Hearst.” I honestly think Orson Welles did a good job at the shots of the window because it’s unique. This movie is mainly about a man, Chiles Foster Kane, fragments of his life and the search of the meaning of “rosebud” which was the last word he said before he died. The reporter that was assigned to find out the meaning of “rosebud” did all sorts of research such as tracing back his life, meeting up with people that associated with Foster Kane when he was alive and reading Foster Kane’s journal. Even with all the information the reporter had gathered, he could not find out what “rosebud” meant. It was later at the ending of the movie that showed “rosebud” was the name of a sled that Kane used to play when he was young. It symbolizes the lost of his childhood innocent and love. After uttering the word “rosebud”, Kane died and a small glass with snow inside dropped out of his hand. In my opinion, it reminds Kane of the time he was taken away from his mother. It was snowing when he had to leave his poor but loving mother and live with a wealthy businessman. That point where he was “adopted” by the businessman, Kane’s life changed. He loved his life yearning for love, in “his” own terms. Quoted from Susan, his second wife’s words “Love! You don't love anybody! Me or anybody else! You want to be loved - that's all you want! I'm Charles Foster Kane. Whatever you want - just name it and it's yours! Only love me! Don't expect me to love you” It’s sad to know that all he ever wanted was what he could never get, that is just to leave a normal life with his mother and just be blessed with the love his mother could give him.
There were also a few jump cuts in the movie such as when he was growing up and on Foster Kane’s first marriage. The time frame for those events was long, but Orson Welles did some jump cuts and made it in a few minutes. There are also scenes in the movie where Foster Kane was always in a box, as if he is trapped and cannot get out of the situation or he is always bounded with things around him. One of the scenes were when he was dancing, he is always in a frame even when the dancing part was hot in another few angels. There is another part where Foster Kane was standing in front of a lot of mirrors after his second wife walk out on him. It seems like the director is trying to indirectly show the different times in Foster Kane’s life.