Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane, which has been called the best film ever made, annoyed me. This movie was about the way in which it was filmed, not about a story. In some aspects there is a significant lack of a story. A collection of first hand accounts made the story feel like a cliche detective story, but it is in how this movie is filmed where the true genius of the movie lies.

Deep focus is when the foreground, midground, and background are all in focus. The whole movie is famously shot in this way. It makes you feel like you are getting the whole story,but actually you are only getting the story through an objective perspective. However; that person who is giving us the story objectively, only knows the story through subjective accounts by people who were, at one point at least, close to him. There is no real objective insight into Kane's life in this movie, and one is almost fooled into believing we are, just by the way the movie was shot.

Brilliant by any standard.

With that being said, by the time you reach the end of the film where we retreat back to the ominous shot that looks like the backdrop to the opening of an episode of Scooby Doo, we stumble upon a realization. We were not supposed to understand Kane.

One of the very notable shots that sticks in everyone's head from the opening and closing sequences is the shot of the NO TRESPASSING sign.

Reflecting on the significance of showing that at the beginning and the end of the film made me feel taunted by Orson Wells. The giant ominous mansion is the persona of Kane and the NO TRESPASSING sign is Wells telling you. Don't worry about figuring him out. You're not supposed to, just enjoy the ride.

And I think that is exactly it. Perception is what the movie was about, even what Kane was about. He finished Jed's review of his wife's performance badly just to keep his persona as an honest individual. When his wife was leaving him, it was about what the guests would think.

I also found the episode of the
Simpsons where they make fun of the movie. Best part of it is at the end of the episode where homer asks, "Is it a happy ending or a sad ending?" Marge replies, "It's an ending, that's enough." A perfect way to sum up the end of Citizen Kane.