Citizen Kane is widely considered to be the best American movie ever made. The movie features its story around Charles Foster Kane, who is a wealthy newspaper publisher that has been living in Florida on his estate, Xanadu. It is clear that Kane is not very welcoming when the camera zooms in on a "No Trespassing" sign on his estate gate in the opening scene of the movie. The movie starts with a very gloomy image of Kane's Xanadu palace. It is set up like a scary, spooky movie in that the music is very daunting and eerie. We finally get inside the palace where snow is falling as we enter the scene. We then see a snow globe, before Kane drops it and smashes the snow globe while muttering the words "rosebud". We then see Kane laying on his bed dead and being covered up by a nurse. .
This first opening entrance scene tells us a lot about Kane's character. The atmosphere is very lonely, dark and scary. It almost looks like a haunted house where nobody lives. Straight away the audience is thinking bad things about Kane's character. Kane's character is developed throughout the movie and as we visit each person's account of how they know him, we learn a little bit more about Charles Kane. Every person that is interviewed by the reporter gives their own version of Kane being an abandoned, lonely boy who grows up to be a very isolated and needy man. It is also clear that Kane is very arrogant, thoughtless, desperate for attention and incapable of love. As we progress through the movie, we see Kane wearing flashy suits and expensive clothes. He comes across as a powerful man who is always demanding others around him. A number of people tell the reporter than Kane gets what he wants and everything is all about Kane. We understand that Kane is all about himself and his number one priority is Kane. One quote from the movie which really explains his character is "Kane only loves Kane, and maybe his Mother.
