In 1942, at the 14th Academy Awards, Green Hills and Green Valley beat Citizen Kane to win the Best Picture Award.
Years later, time has shown that this was a "historical error."
At a time when the Oscars didn't realize that movies could be more varied, Orson Wells refreshed the world's perception of movies with unprecedented shooting methods.
The main innovations can be boiled down to three points.
First, a multi-perspective non-linear narrative structure.
Second, use light and dark light to convey the emotions of the characters.
Third, use a deep-focus lens to reveal more picture information.
In addition, there are sound montages, moving long shots, upward looking shots and other methods that have been imitated and learned by latecomers, and now the movies we see have become what they are now.
It is no exaggeration to say that it was Citizen Kane who defined modern cinema.
As a "film textbook," Citizen Kane is impeccable. Only the first line at the beginning, "Rosebud," is full of controversy.
Some people think that it is the central word of the whole movie, and the whole story is to explain the profound meaning hidden in it;
Some people think that it is just an introduction, just to make the movie more suspenseful, and it doesn't really matter what it means.
Some even say it was just a joke by Orson Wells.
The true meaning of "RoseBud" is an unsolved mystery in the history of cinema, and like "Memories of Killing", who is the murderer, if the answer can be revealed outside the scene, it will be shocking for fans. Unfortunately, Orson Wells did not leave a definitive answer before he died.
The audience, like the reporter in the film, can only solve the "mystery of the rose" through the narration of the family and friends of the male protagonist Charles Foster Kane.
It's a clever way of storytelling, where Kane's story is dismantled and the audience needs to use their brains to reconstruct his real life.
Fortunately than the reporter, the audience from the "God perspective" finally learned the true origin of the "rose bud". It turns out that in the classic scene of the mother signing an agreement with the banker, the "rose bud" has already appeared.
Before Citizen Kane, most of the film footage focused on the characters, and the background was simply to explain the environment. The rebellious Orson Wells didn't do that, constructing the front, middle, and rear levels with a deep-focus lens and connecting the three levels with a long lens.
The last party is the childhood kane, in the middle is his father, and in front of him is the mother and banker who signed the agreement. This setting is to imply the division of the whole family, the discord between father and mother, Kane being sent far away for a better education, and his fate being completely rewritten.
Then the audience can see the "rose bud" more clearly, but the director deliberately set a foreshadowing, and the thick snow buried Kane's childhood.
According to the butler's account, Kane once held a crystal ball and said "rose bud" after falling out with his second wife.
When he died, he was also holding the crystal ball.
The true origin of the crystal ball and the "rose bud" has one thing in common – both can symbolize childhood.
The opening crystal ball is full of strange scenes, a naïve imagination, which means that Kane still has a childlike innocence when she dies.
Then it is certain that the "rose bud" is related to Kane's childhood.
To explore further, it can only be speculation.
Maybe it's the old kane who remembers her childhood and misses her parents;
Perhaps it is the regret of losing one's ideals, nostalgic for one's own declaration of principles;
Maybe it was just before his death that he remembered the relevant things and said it casually, all of which was just an over-interpretation caused by the media wanting to hype.
In fact, in the ending part, journalist Jerry Thompson has summed it up very well. His lines can be seen as the official answer to Orson Wells.
"He got everything he wanted, and then he lost it. Maybe the rose bud was something he hadn't been able to get, or something he had lost. None of this says anything. ”
Kane's life experience is too legendary to completely dismantle his life.
"I don't think four words can explain a person's life, I guess the rose bud is just a piece of cardboard in a jigsaw puzzle game, a missing piece."
"Rose bud" is even the central word of the whole film, but it does not fully reflect the complex character of Kane. Thompson's guess is that it is intertwined with the final mystery, the rose bud is related to Kane's childhood, and the beautiful childhood is indeed one of the missing pieces of Kane's life puzzle.
Probably Thompson realized that he had been unable to find the truth.
Manager mr. Bernstein adored Kane, and he didn't feel that "rose bud" had any special meaning.
One-time best friend Leland believes that Kane has lost his original self and that self-aggrandizement has led to his decline.
The second wife, Susan, thinks Kane is a macho and very painful to get along with this overly egotistical man.
Raymond, the housekeeper, felt that Kane was just a poor employer.
Everyone's kane is different, and these subjective opinions are difficult to call accurate descriptions.
The legend is dead, and the American citizen kane has left a wealth but took away his lonely secret.
It seems that during the course of the investigation Kane lost his conscience, Thompson abandoned the investigation because he had found the answer - unless Kane was officially announced, it would never be answered.
No one could really understand him, he was a lonely giant.
In Citizen Kane, Kane's real body appears only once at the beginning, followed by descriptions from others. This has a completely different look and feel than Michael Corleone, another equally controversial second-generation godfather of the classic character.
Combining all the clues from everyone, it's safe to say that Kane is a very egotistical person.
With a gold mine legacy, he did not continue to expand his wealth, but resolutely decided to run a newspaper, which shows that he has a strong opinion, and has his own ideals and ambitions.
The success of The Inquirer is a testament to his remarkable abilities and, of course, his financial strength. His fearless exposure of the ugly side of society shows that he has enough courage to sustain his actions.
He also wanted to expand his influence by entering politics, but the cruelty of reality defeated him mercilessly.
He stuck to his ideals, continued to be self-centered, and wanted to prove himself again in front of the whole world, so much so that he ignored the feelings of his friends and family around him.
Charles foster kane, an extreme idealist.
He spent his life trying to change the world. But when he turned into a puff of black smoke and the smoke dissipated, no one knew why he was doing that.
No matter how perfect and proud a person is in his own eyes, in the eyes of others, he will look different.
Kane is both a winner and a loser. He gained fame and fortune while also losing his innocence and joy.
I think of a Hong Kong music "Young and Ignorant", Lin Ruoning's lyrics wrote.
"How good it is to be young, how good it is to be poor, how much to be happy with a mosquito, and a cheap guitar to express my irritability."
"Rose bud" is not a "cheap guitar" that can bring happiness to people.
In fact, we are both lonely, and you know very few people, but I know a lot of people. - "Citizen Kane"