"Citizen Kane" is a documentary film made by Orson Wells in 1940, this film has now become a classic, for people at that time this movie is just full of temptations, because the character prototype in the film is william Randolph Hirst, the newspaper tycoon at that time, so there will be some expectations, will associate the plot of the film with reality, may once again go too far ahead of the times, the result of the box office is dismal, after the line and hurried offline.
However, the reason why the classic is a classic is that it has original characteristics and can stand the test of time, and eventually this movie has become a classic, and it is also one of the must-see movies for choreographers.
At the beginning of the film, The so-called newspaper Kublai Khan Kane left alone on a dark night, and the next day the media began to cover the air, because there were too many mysteries in this legendary figure to write a big book, march news integrated a Kane documentary, back to Kane's life, and then everyone found that Kane's life was clear, but did not say anything, because he was too contradictory and diverse, but there was no label or keyword to explain Kane.
The director of the March News wants to tell people who Kane really is. Finally everyone said the four words that Kane said before he died: rose bud.
At this point in the last words and trying to understand what kind of person Kane really is, the motivation of a story arises, and the cause-effect relationship in it allows us to follow the journalist Lauston from the perspective of God to pursue Kane's life: the tragedy of life that wants to grasp everything, but ultimately has no goal.
Entanglement of motivation and causality
The film was only originally based on causality, because Kane's death made some reporters want to make a review of his life, after all, this is a former newspaper tycoon, the topic is worth fully exploring, but when the documentary ended, the director found a question, who is Kane?
The classic causal relationship can be explained by the folk proverb circulating in Europe: one less iron nail loses a horse's paw; one horse's paw is lost, a war horse is lost; a war horse is lost, a king is lost; a king is lost; a war is lost, a country is lost.
And what was the motivation for the war? It could be an honor, it could be wealth, and of course it could be the Ten Years' Trojan War for Helen, the queen of Menelaus.
The four words for the rose bud have led to another pursuit of the investigation of Kane, which is a typical motivational drive.
In psychology, motivation is explained by the mental tendencies or internal drive that motivate and sustain the action of an organism and direct the action to a certain goal. The causes of motivation can be divided into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The former is caused by the internal motives of the organism itself (such as hormones, central nervous system arousal states, ideals, wishes, etc.); the latter is caused by the external triggers of the organism (such as the opposite sex, food, money, rewards and punishments, etc.).
Because of this documentary, the March news director wanted to understand what kind of personality would make Kane say these four words before he died, and the external incentive was that ordinary people would also be interested in Kane's topic, which was also a good promotion for newspaper sales, so driven by internal and external motivations, Thompson had a goal and began to launch an investigation into Kane's past.
The failure of the dual narrative structure in the times
The 40s belonged to the golden age of Hollywood, and the eight major pictures slowly took shape during this period, such as 20th Century Fox, MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., Raiden Hua Company and the time when the Sunshine Company was still in the sky, and "Citizen Kane" was filmed by Orson Wells, the director of Raiden Hua. There are also three small points such as Universal, Columbia and United Arts.
And this period of genre films actually occupy the trend, such as Westerns, comedies, horror films, song and dance films, is to tell the story in the classic Hollywood narrative mode, basically with the prologue - establishment - confrontation - solution - the structure of the end of the film to organize the story content, can also be said to belong to the three-paragraph structural narrative method, the beginning is the beginning of the story, this is the prologue and the establishment of the story structure, the middle of the second part is conflict, confrontation, which has a small climax embodiment, the third part is the end of the story, The final climax is reached in solving the problem, so in the cartoon it is the prince and princess who have lived happily ever since, or tragically failed to achieve their goals.
So when Citizen Kane boldly abandons the classic Hollywood routine, with a dual narrative structure, coupled with a strong causal relationship to tell the story, you can understand that the audience at that time did not buy it, because at the end of the movie, it did not give a clear answer, nor did it explain what rosebud meant, and Thompson traced to the end and thought that these four words were meaningless.
As for what kind of person Kane is, this goal does not seem to be achieved, but the movie actually tells us a possible answer, that is, Kane's life may be a tragedy without a goal.
But Thompson didn't know this, so he took the task and began to investigate, which is the main line in the movie, we follow him to see some of the characters in Kane's life provide causal material and fragments, and these materials and fragments for everyone familiar with Kane's fragments, not enough to explain Kane as a person, but with the patchwork can see a little panorama.
The other line is Kane's own life, which is both independent of and attached to the main line, some of which Thompson knows through visits, and some of which is hidden outside his cognition, such as he did not know that Kane was a banker with a ski when he was a child, and perhaps knowing this may not assert that "rose bud" cannot explain a person's life.
The success of motivation and cause and effect in a dual narrative structure
Defeat is also a narrative structure, because it was not understood by many people at the time, and it is too different from the movies that are regularly watched. Modern people think that this film is a classic of film history, and in this narrative process, motivation and causality are everywhere, showing us the tragicomedy of Kane's life.
With Thompson's investigation, we see that Kane's life is very strange, no one can accompany him through the whole field, all fragments, and these fragments of life are slowly strung together with the investigation.
Many years ago, Kane's mother accidentally got a silver mine contract book as rent from a poor boarder, which is the origin of everything, because the silver mine brought great wealth, so that his mother had the motivation to change Kane's life, and no amount of opposition from his father could stop a mother's infinite love.
In the end, Thatcher was made Kane's guardian, so Thatcher knew Kane's childhood, but to what extent did he discipline him, and was it because of neglect that Kane became a doted on and rebellious young man?
After returning from school, Kane decided to start his own career, Bernstein became his close career partner, Bernstein knew Kane's career, he did not understand Kane's childhood life, nor did he know the meaning of rose buds, thinking that maybe it was just a girl's code name.
Because he was only a partner in Kane's career, he did not know kane's past and private life, and in Bernstein's eyes, Kane did not build a newspaper empire for money, but for some reason, whether the cause was something else, he did not see it, in his eyes Kane was also a mystery. Here we begin to understand a little, it seems that Kane's goal is not money nor newspapers, so what is it?
Bernstein began to recommend another person, that is, Reeland, a talented critic who had attended school with Kane and spent many good times together, and knew Kane's first marriage very well, so that Thompson began to find Reeland through this line.
Reeland thinks he knows Kane, saying that Kane will never wronged himself or give up anything. But to know that life is a way, there are gains and losses, with A goal can not be determined to give up the B goal, otherwise may not be able to reach the other side of the two goals, maybe this is Kane's tragedy, when not giving up anything, may give up is another.
Kane has a successful newspaper career, and married emily, the niece of the president of the United States, and began to embark on the path of politics, it can be said that this is the path of many American politicians, including many American politicians now, wealth is already available, then it is necessary to find another way to realize themselves, and politics may not make much money, but fame and self-actualization desire is no problem.
But Kane's will not give up anything, the goallessness is once again reflected, both want to play politics, but also want to keep the lover, the result of what? Divorced from his wife, married Susan, and has never achieved anything politically since, and because Susan broke with Reylan, it can be said that a good hand of cards was played badly in Kane's hand.
Susan, as Kane's second wife (the first one had died in a car accident, so there was no way to interview), she knew Kane's middle-aged life. Thompson was the first to look for her, her life was sloppy, her singing career had not improved, the first time was to scare Thompson away, and when she came to the door again, Susan recalled the love life with Kane who once seemed wonderful.
Kane wants to prove that his vision is okay because Susan has lost a lot, which is the starting point of Kane's motivation to prove it to others.
However, Susan is not a genius singer, even if she has built a luxurious opera house and constantly trumpeted Susan's skills in newspapers, but the ears of the masses are not deaf and know what a genius is, and Kane does not allow Susan to fail the so-called embodiment of love and almost makes the other party commit suicide.
Because Kane's love is too strong and domineering, eventually Susan leaves the lonely, empty Castle of Sinadu, Susan witnesses Kane's middle age, but does not witness his past and later life, so Kane's puzzle is not complete, when another character appears, that is, the maid Raymond.
Although Raymond witnessed the scene of Kane wreaking havoc in the other room after Susan left, he did not really go deep into Kane's heart to understand this person, he just took the money to do things, knew how to do things according to Kane's wishes, so he did not know much more about the meaning of the four words "rose bud" than Thompson.
When we reminisce with the various characters in these fragments of Kane's life, the puzzle in Susan's hand seems to be able to be stitched together to see Kane's life, but those four words cannot be queried and concluded.
As moviegoers, we are lucky again, because we can also see another clue presented in the film, so as the puzzle continues to improve, we can get a glimpse of what kind of person Kane is, from the moment he left his mother and left the family, he has lost the motivation to pursue other goals, the only goal may be the emptiness of unsatisfied love.
So we see that in the castle, things as small as a few dollars, as large as thousands of things worth thousands of dollars are irregularly collected by Kane, who wants to grasp everything, but finally can't catch a crystal ball when he says "rose bud".
Isn't that what can be explained by love, perhaps not necessarily, as in the opening documentary: it doesn't reveal anything about Kane's inner life at all.
What does it mean for Kane to hold the glass ball in his hand before he dies? No one can really understand, and perhaps in one sentence it is as if he has everything, but he is poor and has nothing.
Perhaps equally puzzling is the treatment of the film, which cost Raiden Hua $150,000, and now Citizen Kane is considered "a great film in any era" by the industry. And the great director Robert Wise said: "Orson Wells is the closest person I have ever met to God." ”
Perhaps, as a master, it is enough to make a "Citizen Kane" in one lifetime!