English 299B:
Film as Narrative Art
Mr. Kelley
Citizen Kane
(Orson Welles, 1941)
Point to Consider:
• Citizen Kane makes use of multiple
narrators. How many versions of Charles
Foster Kane’s story are portrayed?
• Which version of the story is true?
• How does this narrative ambiguity reflect
the film’s theme?
• What kind of person is Charles Foster
Kane? What is important to him? What
does he want? How do you know?
• Kane’s last word, “Rosebud,” remains a
mystery to the characters in the film,
although the allusion is made clear to the
audience at the film’s end. What do you
think Kane means by this cryptic
utterance? How does this connect with the
film’s thematic concerns?
• Kane lives out a version of the “American
Dream,” and yet he dies an empty man.
Does the film seem to offer a critique of
the values of 20th century American
society? Does it compare with Chaplin’s
Modern Times?
• How is journalism portrayed in Citizen
Kane? Are there significant differences or
modifications in the portrayal journalism
between this film and Hawks’ His Girl
Friday?
• What is the visual style of the film? Is it
appropriate for the themes of the film?
• Welles makes use of light and shadow in
interesting ways. Note some examples.
How is this lighting style related to the
film’s themes?
• Consider Welles’ use of sound effects,
including music, and camera angles to
help underscore and, indeed, make his
points.
• Consider the ways in which Welles uses
editing to make his points (the breakfast
scene being one famous example).
Selected Filmography of Orson
Welles
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The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Stranger (1947)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
Macbeth (1948)
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Trial (1963)
Chimes at Midnight (1967)