Key Facts
full title · Citizen Kane
director · Orson Welles
leading actor/actresses · Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane
supporting actors/actresses · George Coulouris, Ruth Warrick, Agnes Moorehead, Harry Shannon,
William Alland, Ray Collins
type of work · Full-length feature film
genre · Drama
language · English
time and place produced · 1940–1941,
Hollywood
awards · Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, New York
Critics Award fo Best Picture
date of release · May 1, 1941
producer · Orson Welles
setting (time) · Approximately 1860 to 1950
setting (place) · America
protagonist · Charles Foster Kane
major conflict · Kane tries to control press coverage of his political
career and suppress his affair with Susan Alexander.
rising action · Kane's political rival, Jim “Boss” Gettys, forces a
showdown between Kane, Kane's wife, and Susan Alexander in an attempt to
force Kane from the governor's race.
climax · Kane chooses to stay with Susan and sends his wife
away while daring Gettys to expose him by threatening impotently
that he'll make sure Gettys goes to prison.
falling action · The papers are filled with the news of Kane's “love
nest,” and he loses the election.
themes · The difficulty of interpreting a life; the myth of
the American Dream; the unreliability of memory
motifs · Isolation; old age; materialism
symbols · Sleds; snow globe; statues
foreshadowing · The snow globe. Also known as the glass ball, the snow
globe first appears in the dying Welles's hand at the beginning
of the movie and foreshadows the later flashback to his abandonment as
a child. Chronologically, it first makes its appearance in Kane's life
the night he meets Susan. The snow globe belongs to her and is sitting
on her dressing table. We see it next when Susan leaves Kane and
he destroys her room. After this episode, Kane is left only with
the snow globe, which foreshadows his lonely death.
· Rosebud, the sled. We don't know its name when we see
it at the scene of young Kane's abandonment by his mother, but it foreshadows
the film's final scene, when we finally learn the meaning of Kane's
last word.
· Crusader, the sled. Given to young Charles Kane by
Thatcher, this sled foreshadows Charles's later crusading work against Thatcher
and his business enterprises.
· Kane's statement to Thatcher that if his paper lost
$1 million a year he could still run it for
sixty years. This cocky comment foreshadows Kane's bankruptcy and
the selling of his assets to Thatcher.
· The scene in which Leland, in conversation with Bernstein, questions
the new staff's loyalty to Kane. Kane has just stolen them from
the rival paper by offering them more money. Leland wonders if this
is enough to make them loyal to Kane. Leland's doubts foreshadow
the departures of Leland and Susan from Kane's life.
