1. "Citizen Kane" came out in 1941 and the movie was directed by Orson Welles. In 1998 the American Film Institute gave "Citizen Kane" the title of "The best American film of all time. But when it was first released in 1941 it was a commercial failure. The film was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles. Orson Welles also starred in the movieas the young man, the middle aged man, and the old man. The movie had nine Oscar Nominations and Welles had four Academy Awards nominations in 1941 for "Citizen Kane". After the Oscars RKO put the movie in a vault and Welles was not able to make another movie with an "auteur" approach ever again. The "auteur" approach means that only one person is in charge. In 1938 Welles was known for Mercury Theater radio dramas like "The War of the Worlds". "Citizen Kane was based off of the life of William Randolph Hearst. Hearst was born wealthy but decided to run a newspaper instead. In the beginning of the movie before Kane dies he says "Rosebud". Soon after Kane dies the segment tells Kane's life from a journalist point of view. For the journalist there is a goal and deadline for what "Rosebud" means. The journalist "Thompson" starts interviewing people that were close the Kane starting with his second wife Susan. Unfortunately, Susan did not want to talk to him in the beginning so Thompson had to start over with Kane's guardian Thatcher,Bernstein his business partner, Jed Leland his best friend and then finally his second wife Susan. Each person tells something about Kane's life but Thompson does not find out what "Rosebud" means. Instead the camera reveals what "Rosebud" was at the end of the movie.
2. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/89/Citizen-Kane/articles.html
The article was written by Roger Fristoe and the title of the article is Why Citizen Kane is Essential. In this article it gives a brief synopsis of the movie and then the article goes into the problem over the authorship for the screenplay of "Citizen Kane". Welles wanted to take all of the credit for "Citizen Kane" but was forced to acknowledge Mankiewicz by the Writers Guild. The critic Pauline Kael wrote in her book The Citizen Kane Book "that it was Mankiewicz who was primarily responsible for the screenplay, from inception of the idea through the shooting script". When Citizen Kane's subject matter was shown at previews in 1941, Hearst got angry and postponed the movie's premiere. Hearst also made "threats of libel and blocking the mention of the film in any of his newspapers". A few of the audience members at that year's Academy Awards® ceremonies booed the announcement of the award that the movie won.
3. When I read this article I could not help but compare Orson to Hearst. Orson wanted to take all of the credit from the movie even though he had help and Hearst was just as arrogant as Orson. I was also shocked because the movie was "the best American movie of all time" but was booed by people at the Academy Awards. This article relates to the movie because shows the reason why the premier of the movie was postponed and what happened behind the scenes of the movie. It also shows people the true colors of Orson Welles and how he treated the people that he worked with.
4. When I first watched the movie I was a little confused but as it got deeper into the movie I started to understand the movie a bit more. I was inpressed by the circular structure of the movie and how during the movie you see the layers of the movie and the main characters. Whenever a person told a story about Kane it would make you get to know him more and more. The camera angels were very smart also because as Kane became more corrupt and powerful the camera was looking up at him as if he was better than everyone else. It was sad how Kane did not plan on becoming corrupt in the beginning but because of the money and power he started to lose everyone that he loved.
