"Citizen Kane"

Essay by Gary StevensUniversity, Master'sA+, February 1997

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Gary Stevens

English 52/ Film as Lit.

P. Jeffrey Clark

3-3-97

Citizen Kane

There are many movies that could be considered to be the

greatest movies of all time. The movie Citizen Kane is

considered by many to be the greatest movie of all time. What

makes it one of the greatest movies of all time. Can it be

how well Orson Wells uses Mise- en- scene; can it be the way

that the film was structured and organized. Maybe it is the

way that Orson Wells tells the confusing and interesting life

story of Charles Foster Kane. These are the questions that I

will take a look at, and hopefully possibly add a few details

of my own.

From the opening scene of the movie we are given great

detail on the purpose that the movie is supposed to serve.

The first thing that we are shown is a no trespassing sign

that is posted to a barbed wired fence.

I donÕt know how

others interpreted that sign and that fence; but I kind of

got the feeling that somebody didnÕtÕ want to be bothered. I

also immediately felt like I wasnÕt invited into the secluded

life of the person living in the house. The house is on a

great big hill completely secluded from the rest of human

life. In the opening scene we are also told that the person

living in the house is very well traveled. We know this

because in the yard there are Gondolas; Gondolas are boats

that come from Madrid. That also told me that he is pretty

wealthy if he can afford to have a secluded house and travel

a lot. The story of Charles Foster Kane begins when he is a

young child; the journey of the hero starts with...