Citizen Kane

The investigation moves between these periods. This is a broad life sequence, rather than a shot-by-shot account.

1. ChildhoodHis mother places him in Thatcher’s care.
2. The newspaperHe takes over the Inquirer and expands it.
3. Marriage and politicsHe marries Emily; scandal later defeats his campaign.
4. Susan’s careerHe marries Susan and promotes her as an opera singer.
5. XanaduThey retreat to the estate; Susan eventually leaves.
6. Death and inquiryKane dies; Thompson begins his investigation.

Leland’s account reaches Susan’s opera debut; Susan’s takes us back into that experience. The return changes our place in the room: first beside a critical friend, then beside the performer whose life Kane is directing. The two accounts are detailed by AFI.

Rosebud is the name painted on Kane’s childhood sled. The audience sees it burn after Thompson has failed to discover its meaning. Roger P. Smith’s Criterion essay frames the film between its opening gate and that final burning sled.

The last image lets us connect an object to the child taken away from home. It gives that separation a new force when we think back through the film. The five accounts still matter: the adult Kane’s demands, generosity and injuries to other people have occupied lives beyond his own. A childhood object can illuminate those scenes without replacing everything we have heard from the people in them.