“Rosebud”
Citizen Kane (1941)
‘Can’t buy me love, love,
Can’t buy me love.’
— The Beatles, ‘Can't Buy Me Love’
BBC Four is showing a seminal six-part series The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood presented by Edward Asner made some time ago I believe, about RKO the film production company, which is followed straight after by a film that connects to the content of that particular episode. Last night it was Citizen Kane (1941). This was the directorial (film) debut of Orson Welles who starred in it as Citizen Kane. The screenplay was by the great Herman L. Mankiewicz with a little help from Welles.
David Fincher recently made Mank which tells the story of the creation of the screenplay and the pressure from Randolph Hearst to suppress and bury both screenplay and film and destroy the reputation of the wunderkind, Orson Welles. Citizen Kane is undoubtedly based on Randolph Hearst. That is no mystery. But the real mystery in the film is what the last word uttered by Charles Foster Kane — ‘Rosebud’ — refers to. This attempt to find the meaning of this seemingly odd, yet enigmatic word, also seems to define the man himself as we move through different stages in his rise and fall. This word is so idiosyncratic and as idiosyncratic as is the man.
