A true Hollywood masterpiece - Review of Citizen Kane

by Ádám Buza

“Everybody’s talking about it! It’s Terrific!” –  states the promotional poster of Citizen Kane, first movie on the screen by the notorious actor, producer and director, Orson Welles.
After the latest weeks scandal based on the resemblance of the main character, Kane to the publisher William Randolph Hearst, of the poster’s first statement – that everybody’s talking about it – there would be hardly any doubt. However, after watching the premier at the Palace I am assured that there isn’t any doubt in the second sentence either.

After the notorious 1938 broadcast of „The War of the Worlds” radio play, Orson Welles has already proven that he is highly familiar with the modern media industry as an expert.
But this time - with Citizen Kane -, he has shown the audience that he can also adapt these progressive thoughts to the celluloid as well, only like the greatest directors of our times could do.

The Great American Dream. Charles Foster Kane, a kid from an unprivileged family gains an almost unlimited fortune and starts to make his dreams come true: he becomes the editor of a daily newspaper, then starts to build up his own media empire fueled by his humanistic world view.

Although, after a few steps, the dream starts to collapse. Kane’s lust for power is making him megalomaniac and paranoid. Thanks to that, his human relations start to degrade, his friends, colleagues and loved ones starts to leave him, the remaining ones who are on his side are mainly from material interests.

This is a quite unique narrative that we rarely see from a Hollywood production, as it shows the “B-side” of the story as well: the story after “the happy end”. On the contrary, Citizen Kane not only delivers that but starts with the fall of the main character: Kane, dying in solitude, with his last words, “Rosebud”. This word, “Rosebud” then becoming the main mystery of the story and a tool for advancing the plot thus introducing the audience to the life of Charles Foster Kane.

I must confess, this might be only from the viewpoint of a movie critic, but besides the unconventional plot and the brilliant acting, the technical marvel of Mr. Welles’ work is quite unquestionable as well. Changing between the genres of a newsreel, drama and even musical is almost undetectable thankful to the smart and progressive cut and editing of the movie. There was not a single minute that I felt that would not in the right position throughout the whole movie.

All together, there could be something destined in that Orson Welles started his career as a Shakespearean actor. Since - only time could tell - but it could easily happen that in a few years, we will think about him as a true prodigy of this quite young form of art, just as we do with the master of the theather, Shakespeare.