Jigsaw Sequence In Orson Welles Citizen Kane

An exploration of the jigsaw sequence in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

The life of the fictional newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, as depicted by Orson Welles (1941), is the larger-than-life story of a wealthy and powerful man. And yet, Kane's story is one of loneliness, loss and a desperate need to be loved. Kane is at once a powerful patriarchal figure, ruling those around him by sheer force of will, and a lost little boy in search of the mother who sent him away. This essay will seek to tease out the themes of miscommunication, isolation and subjective truth in Welles' work, with a strong focus on the relationship between Kane and Susan. It will seek to demonstrate that Kane's, and indeed Susan's, inability to to convey their true desires,
Bearing this in mind, it is possible to read the dissolve of Xanadu's exterior to a medium close up of Susan's face as presenting the sequence from her point of view. A series of shot-reverse-shots between Kane and Susan offer insight into how her personality has coloured her recollection. From Susan's vantage point, a long shot, Kane is minuscule, lost in the darkness behind him, perhaps lost in the shadow of his former greatness. Conversely, Kane's view of her is shown with a much closer shot. She occupies a larger portion of the screen, suggesting that she considered herself to be more important to Kane at that point than he was to her. When considering the location of the sequence as an extension of Susan and Kane, rather than Kane alone, the sheer enormity of the room and its contents become indicative of their marital strife. The room is exceedingly long, demonstrated by a shot which tracks the aging Kane's slow progress across it. Even his once-looming figure is overawed by the cavernous space. By placing the duo within such a space, and subsequently distancing them from each other, their emotional detachment is once again
Or, at least, a narrative which can be read as complete, despite the absence of Kane's own recollections. Unusually for a commercial film there is little use of an omniscient, god-like gaze. Instead, Kane's life is presented as a random tumble of jigsaw pieces, which the observer is required to assemble themselves. An overwhelming presence, underpinned by deep-seated insecurity, Kane's entire quest for validation results in the inevitable alienation of the very people he tried so hard to win over. In a tragic echo of his first marriage, Kane has lost his grip on Susan, just as he did his