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Viewing guide
Film technique
Characters and content
Activities

The following questions are designed for you to consider various aspects of the film. Your responses could form the basis of valuable discussion with your class teacher and fellow students.

Film technique

1. How does Welles present the setting of Xanadu in the opening moments of the film?
2. How does the newsreel make Kane’s excesses clear?
3. Describe the montage depicting Kane’s death. Refer to the effect of the following:
   1. snow falling outside the hall
      
   2. only viewing Kane’s hand and mouth
      
   3. the whispered “rosebud”
      
   4. the nurse’s actions
      
   5. the light fading behind the exterior view of the window.
      
4. What sort of film does Citizen Kane appear to be at the end of this sequence?
5. Why are the reporters kept in shadow with very little light revealing their faces?
6. What film techniques are used to highlight the security placed on Thatcher’s memoirs? Discuss how the secretary’s actions and dialogue add to this scene.
7. What is the effect of the deep-focus framing; parents and Thatcher in foreground, window in mid-shot, Charles playing in the snow in the background?
8. What is the effect of the snow slowly covering Charles’ old sled? Why doesn’t he like the new sled?
9. Discuss how the soundtrack helps to reflect the tone of this new era for The Inquirer?
10. Why does Welles use a low-angle shot in presenting the scene where Kane takes over the office?
11. Why does the director keep Kane in shadow as he reads out “The Declaration of Principles”? Why does Kane make this declaration?
12. How is it made clear that Kane’s media empire is a success? Identify and describe the effect of the techniques employed in this montage.
13. Describe Kane’s behaviour at the party celebrating his take-over of The Chronicle. What is Bernstein saying about Kane in recounting his exuberance throughout the musical number? What is the effect of the camera panning across the drunken singing faces?
14. How is the interview between Thompson and Leland framed? Discuss the focus of foreground versus background and the final effect.
15. Why does the director fade into the tea scene with Kane and Emily, and with Leland slowly nodding?
16. How does the montage help to demonstrate the changes in their relationship as the years passed? Why did the director use the montage technique here?
17. As the montage reaches its end, the shot changes from medium to long shot. How does this add effect to the sequence?
18. Discuss the effect of the camera’s movement throughout the campaign trial scene.
19. How is the suspense developed from the moment we see the shadowed figure in the stalls, to the confrontation at Susan’s apartment?
20. Why does Geddes direct his words to the two women while Kane is kept in shadow?
21. How does the director reflect the dramatic intensity of the scene where Emily and Geddes descend the stairs and exit the building, Kane having lost this round?
22. Describe the dramatic opera house scene. Discuss use of music, camera, editing and lighting. How does Welles make it clear that Susan is not a good singer?
23. “Give me a typewriter, I’m gonna finish Mr Leland’s notice.” The film then pans to a typewriter printing out the word “weak”. What do the audience gather from this juxtaposition of dialogue and image? How does Leland, waking from his drunken stupor, add to the scene?
24. When we return to the face-to-face interview, the camera looks down on Leland. How does this emphasise his own demise?
25. Why does Welles repeat the previously used montage? As voyeurs, why do we expect to gain more from Susan this second time around?
26. Discuss the interaction between Kane and the singing teacher. How does the director emphasise Kane’s power?
27. How does the opera house montage differ this time? Why is this the case? How does the viewer feel towards Susan at this point? Explain.
28. Explain Kane’s fervent applause at the end of Susan’s performance.
29. How does the burned out flash add to the newspaper sequence?
30. In the suicide attempt: The scene is in deep focus; the glass and pills stand in foreground, Susan’s motionless body is in mid-shot, and the door is in background. How does this frame, along with the knocking sound effects, succinctly explain what Susan has done?
31. How does Kane feel about Susan’s suicide attempt? What tells you this?
32. “You don’t know what it means... when a whole audience just doesn’t want you” - How does Susan’s plight parallel Kane’s? How does the director make the parallel clear?
33. Voices have a different resonance in Xanadu. Explain the effect.
34. How is the large burning fireplace juxtaposed with the environs of the interior? Why is it more dramatic when Susan chooses to seat herself in front of the unused fireplace?
35. What is the effect of the large spacial distance between Kane and Susan as they talk at the end of the jigsaw montage?
36. “You can’t do this to me” - Why does Susan react so strongly to this plea from Kane? How does the director make her exit more powerful?
37. Explain the use of the mirrored-image of Kane walking the halls of Xanadu? What do the mirrors evoke in the mind of the viewer?
38. How does Welles emphasise the futility of the reporter’s quest?
39. Describe the dramatic climax as the sled is burned, the smoke billowing into the sky above Xanadu. How is the sequence made effective?

Characters and content

1. “Xanadu is the costliest monument a man has built to himself.” What is being inferred here?
2. Explain the phrase: “He held an empire upon an empire.”
3. We receive three views on Kane during the newsreel: that of Thatcher, the unionist and Kane himself. How does Kane’s view differ? Why do you think this is the case?
4. What do we learn about Kane through this newsreel? Is the obituary a positive or negative review of his life?
5. What instigates the challenge to uncover the relevance of “rosebud”?
6. How are we introduced to Susan Alexander? What does the camera tell us about her life since divorcing Kane?
7. “Why until he died, she’d just as soon talk about Mr Kane as anyone... Sooner.” What does the waiter suggest by this comment?
8. How did Thatcher become involved in Kane’s life?
9. Describe Mary Kane’s feelings upon giving up her son to the bank.
10. “You won’t be lonely, Charles.” Mary Kane soothes her son. How are we made to feel here?
11. “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.” Why does Kane want to run the paper? Why does he refuse to let his money or power influence what is published? (take care to quote Kane here)
12. What insight do we gain into Kane’s character through the following quote: “At the rate of losing a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in sixty years.” How does Welles play this line?
13. Explain Kane’s line, “If I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man.”
14. What does Kane mean when he says he’d like to have been everything that Thatcher hated?
15. Kane actually moved into The Inquirer building. What does this say about him?
16. Review the conversation between Bernstein and Leland at the party. What concerns do they share now that Kane owns The Chronicle?
17. Identify how Kane has changed, both physically and mentally, since he left for his holiday. What is suggested through these changes?
18. Who is Miss Emily Norton? How do The Inquirer staff react upon discovering their engagement?
19. “That first night, all she had was a toothache.” What does Leland imply here?
20. Why does Susan laugh at Kane covered in mud?
21. Describe the early interactions between Kane and Susan. What does this demonstrate in terms of his character and their relationship?
22. Explain Kane’s pause before he agrees with Susan’s statement, “You know what mothers are like.”
23. Describe Emily’s feelings upon discovering her husband’s affair. How does she react?
24. Why does Kane choose Susan over his wife and child?
25. Explain Kane’s declaration, “I’m Charles Foster Kane. I’m no cheap crooked politician trying to save himself from the consequences of his crimes!”
26. Why does Welles follow this dramatic scene with a moment of humour?
27. Discuss Leland’s reaction to Kane’s loss: “You talk about ‘the people’ as though you own them ... sail away to a desert island and lord it over the monkeys.” Note the link to the opening scene at Xanadu where the monkeys are playing in Kane’s backyard. What is Leland criticising?
28. Why does Kane build the opera house?
29. How does Welles suggest Kane’s power over the critical reviews in his newspaper?
30. Why does Kane choose to retain Leland’s negative notice yet still fire him?
31. Explain Susan’s comment, “You know, maybe I shouldn’t have sung for Charlie that first time I met him, but I did an awful lot of singing after that.”
32. How does Welles direct the argument between Susan and Kane? What makes Kane’s threat, “You will continue with your singing” more effective? What does the argument say about their relationship at this point?
33. What makes Leland send Kane the original “Declaration of Principles”? How is Kane’s moral decline made clear through his response?
34. Why does Susan become so obsessed with jigsaw puzzles?
35. Explain Susan’s statement, ‘You never give me anything I really care about.”
36. Why does Kane collect statues from around the world? How oes Susan’s account make this hobby seem more sinister?
37. As Susan leaves the marriage, the power-dynamic seems to hange. How and why?
38. Both Thompson and Susan feel sorry for Kane by the end of this account. Why?
39. Why does Raymond’s account begin with a screeching cockatoo?
40. What does Thompson infer when he calls the butler, “a sentimental fellow”?
41. The sled proves Thompson’s thesis correct: “Maybe rosebud was something he couldn’t get or maybe lost.” Why is it significant that the sled is deemed by the workmen as “junk”?
42. The film concludes with the “NO TRESPASSING” sign on the security fence of Xanadu. How does this relate to the events we have witnessed? What is the dramatic irony of this conclusion? How is the “joke” on the reporters?

Suggested activities

1. Select a character from the film. Map the character’s pivotal moments in the film, each moment supported by a quote and or a description of the director’s influence over how this character was portrayed at each moment.
2. Script a montage which portrays the main development of the character through the time which passes in the film. Attempt a role play, experimenting with the film techniques Wells had at his disposal.
3. Select a character from the film and have a friend or classmate play an ‘Oprah’ type role. Hold a forum discussing character motives, actions and feelings. Encourage the students to stay in their character throughout.

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