Citizen Kane is like the poster film of the motif. Artistically this gave the movie a really strong sense of value and importance. The most important parts of the films were presented again and again, either for the artistic value of doing so or simply to etch them deeply into the memories of the audience. The frequency of the same scenes from different perspectives allow the audience an exceptionally long time to view the different information presented about the story and the plot and make interpretations. Though the motif seems like a typical part of most films, a convention really, Orson Wells uses it in a unique way that gives the movie an exceptionally original and singularly eerie overtone.
There were other techniques used that made the movie seem original and different. Several times in the film a loud noise that is completely non-diegetic, almost painful noise grates the ears of the viewer, calling attention to something in the film and also giving the scene a sense of dissonance or insanity. The flow of the movie is jagged, the time line not concrete but progressive. We are simultaneously following the reporter of the present time and flashbacks about the life of Charles Foster Kane. As a result this is throwing us in and out of different times and spaces, like a ride planned and created by the creators of the film. We are restricted and unrestricted in different spaces that are existing simultaneously together. We know more than Kane, but we are restricted to the reporters knowledge. The end takes a final trip into the unrestricted perspective and we get to discover that “Rosebud”, Kane’s last words, were actually his sled. A fact that only we know, aside from the now deceased Charles Kane.
Citizen Kane uses a lot of conventions but recreates them in a unique and original way. That is perhaps why it is such a memorable and timeless film.
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