Life at Xanadu
After Susan Alexander's failed suicide attempt, Kane builds her a grandiose palace dedicated towards improving her mental health, however the vast building only leaves a hollow feeling. Kane's footsteps echo through the dimly lit hallways as he walks towards Susan, who sits near the fire playing with jigsaw puzzles. These puzzles are often nature scenes, which contrasts the feeling of being locked in Xanadu. Nature is free and wild while Susan is isolated and stuck. The puzzle also represents life, because she is constantly trying to put together the pieces. Eventually, after she completes several puzzles, she decides to leave Kane. We know this took a long period of consideration because the montage included several dissolves, which often represent passages of time. Perhaps to Susan, leaving Kane was just like finishing a puzzle.
This idea of a person's life as a jigsaw puzzle comes back up later on in the movie, when Thompson says, "I don't think any word can explain a man's life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a piece in a jigsaw puzzle- a missing piece". I think that this sums up the whole film- we can never fully understand someone's life. We watched Charles grow up, but these memories were from outside sources which could have been tainted. Bernstein, for example, thought very highly of Kane so his memories were fonder than those of Leland's. Because of this, there will always be missing "puzzle pieces" and unanswerable questions about Kane's life. What other factors, besides faded or tainted memories do you think altered our perception of Kane?
This idea of a person's life as a jigsaw puzzle comes back up later on in the movie, when Thompson says, "I don't think any word can explain a man's life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a piece in a jigsaw puzzle- a missing piece". I think that this sums up the whole film- we can never fully understand someone's life. We watched Charles grow up, but these memories were from outside sources which could have been tainted. Bernstein, for example, thought very highly of Kane so his memories were fonder than those of Leland's. Because of this, there will always be missing "puzzle pieces" and unanswerable questions about Kane's life. What other factors, besides faded or tainted memories do you think altered our perception of Kane?
I love the part where you tie in how nature is free and full of life. When Kane first met Susan she was full of life and joyful. She had the energy to keep him going and feel young again, but once we see her and him inside of Xanadu that feeling seems to disappear. Susan isn't the girl she used to be and she's bored of her life. Also another comment I picked up on is you said that she completed several puzzles, but actually we never see her complete one. However I do agree with you and how it represents her life because she can't ever find the missing piece to make her happy and the missing piece in her life. I personally think that although these are other peoples flashbacks and not Kane's own flash backs I think that information is valid and has truth to it because when we find out about who heard "Rosebud" was the butler and when Thompson interviewed him he had the flashback to when he heard Kane say "Rosebud".
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that Kane didn't experience an abundance of parental figures growing up, this left a void in him and is what possibly drove his angry role towards his adulthood. He was drawn to Susan because of her innocence and youthful presence, which is something that he lacked in his life. The relationship between Susan and Kane is an interesting one because Susan is almost painted out to be a little girl who is whining and needs direction in her life and looks to Kane for answers, as would a little girl to her father. The puzzle is a symbol for something that is almost endless and can never yet be completed, just like Susan's life alongside and underneath Kane, even when she was the star of the opera, I don't think she enjoyed it simply because it wasn't something that she wanted for herself but something that Kane wanted for her.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you really analyzed the puzzle with so much depth, particularly the part where you say that a jigsaw puzzle is a big part of understanding one of the main themes of the film which is that you can never truly understand someones life, and how you relate this back to Kane as a character. You also brought up a good point about how Susan is so isolated in Xanadu, but that makes me wonder is Susan almost brings this boredom and loneliness upon herself a little bit. I am referring to the scene where you see Kane ask Susan why she is so lonely when she just had fifty of her closest friends over. Although it is clear the Kane often suppresses her in order for him to maintain his youth, it makes me wonder if the plot/Kane and Susan would have been different if Susan had tried harder to make peace with Xanadu.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of tainted memory reminds me off the bias narrator in literature. I really think that this "tainted memory" makes the story of Citizen Kane so incredible. Especially because of the film's background and the fact the characters are based off of real people, makes these different views so interesting. What it also shows is Kane might have been viewed as villain to some and a hero to others. Also the symbolism of a jigsaw puzzle/piece is crucial to this film. You can even compare the jigsaw pieces to the scrambled order that Welles used to direct/edit this film in. It was like we were picking up a piece and entering a story, connecting it and then picking up a brand new random piece.I feel like it gave off the a feeling of incompleteness to Kane's life.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the puzzle piece idea, and the incapability to put all pieces of Kanes life together, especially when told from many different perspectives. The puzzle montage represents time, unhappiness, boredom, and most importantly loneliness. Aside from the flashbacks of Kane, the ways in which the shots were filmed displayed his character as well. For example, when we saw him and his Susan together, we would usually get a high angle looking down on susan from Kane's view and visa versa with Susan looking up at Kane. Everything was always about Kane and the audience knows this by the different angles of the shots.
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