citizen kane

Never has the fine art of cinematography been so perfectly executed than by Orson Welles in his perennial film, Citizen Kane. Whether a fan of the story or not, every true admirer of movies can appreciate the cinematic techniques utilized by Welles to capture the life of his enigmatic main character. Many aspects of the movie have been analyzed thoroughly, but what I would like to examine is an idea that is often overlooked. As the movie fades in, an eerie chain link fence and a sign reading NO TRESPASSING greet us. Although seemingly unimportant when watching, these two words hold just as much value to the content of the film as does Charles Kane himself. For, if we realize, the characters are attempting to trespass into Kane's life. In fact, the mansion can be seen as a metaphor for Kane, while the fence is the demeanor he puts up to block others from his true thoughts. The importance of this idea is reiterated in the final scene; our last shot is of the sign and a view from outside Kane's manor. The story has come full circle.
The movie provides the viewer with a series of flashbacks and flashforwards that, as a result, contributes to the story's non-linearity. Compounding the difficulty of the mystery is that we have several different viewpoints on Kane, each which are somewhat unreliable. Susan is drunk and uncooperative, and Jedediah is old and preoccupied with nurses and cigars. Although Mr. Bernstein is willing to talk, his suggestion is that Rosebud was a girl. However, this thought is based on part of Bernstein's life, and doesn't seem to fit Kane's story. These three people were those who were closest to Kane, so presumably one would think they could provide some useful insight. That isn't the case, though. These characters don't know much more about Kane's mind than we do. It is interesting to note that Susan enjoyed jigsaw puzzles. She herself was likely trying to figure out Kane when he was alive, so clearly she doesn't hold the answers now that he