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KANE

The main flaw of Citizen Kane is that you really have to be a movie “buff“ to like it. To the average moviegoer the film is, frankly, quite boring. It was really groundbreaking at the time of its release, and as a great man once said, new things make us feel scared.. The lighting, the cinematography,the editing and the acting are all top notch. Its main flaw is the story. One critic noted that it chose “style over substance“ which is very true, concidering that it is one of the most beautiful films ever made. The first time I saw it, which was not in film class, I felt like it was a moving painting, every cell was so skillfully made.

However the story is just painfully dull. There is no exitement whatsoever, and you know that in the end it will be revealed to you what “Rosebud“ really is, although the characters don‘t see the revelation. This is frankly not so much of a problem, because the characters are not at all that interresting and you never get the feeling that you really want them to find out what “Rosebud“ is. The only interresting character is of course Charles F. Kane, but all the others are merely mediocre. The character of Mr. Bernstein is especially poorly acted. It is not a surprise that Everett Sloane, who played Bernstein, became a television actor. His part in the scene where Kane comes back from his journey to Europe is just amateurish and when he says that Kane was in an awful hurry it seems Sloane is playing in a Marx borthers film. This particular scene is by far the worst one. Someone actually shouts “Hey, lookie out here“ and another one shouts “Lets go to the window“! It seems Welles knew it was a bad scene. At least he does his best to rush out of it.

Watching the film you are therefore never particualarly interrested in Kane or the meaning of “Rosebud”, you are more intersted in “how the hell did Orson Welles pull off that shot?” Also, Orson Welles is an amazing director, but not as amazing as an actor. When he is playing an old man you can always see the young man behind the makeup. This is especially noteable in the scene where Kane thrashes his room, an old man would never have the fatigue to pull such a stunt. If Citizen Kane were a novel, it would rank among the most boring ever written. The dialouge seems forced at times. For example, when Mr. Bernstein is accusing Kane of not having bought all statues in Europe. The scene where Kane meets Susan is also very forced. I could mention the fact that no one was in the room with Kane when he said „Rosebud“ but his butler claims to have heard it. The film was not popular at all, when released, probably because it was one of the first art films, it had no interrsting story, and it had to endure time before appreciated.