Orson Welles
Quarto Potere (Citizen Kane)

There are people who wonder their entire lives why they were born in a certain place, at a precise historical moment, and what their purpose in life is. Come to think of it, sooner or later everyone asks themselves this type of question, and without a strong moral constitution, one risks a slow mental decline that can lead to madness or suicide. I too, despite my "tender" age (one is never mature these days, mature like a fruit of course), constantly think about what use it serves me to love the arts if one day I end up in a random alleyway in Piazza XI Settembre asking for money with the excuse of needing a bus to Spezzano Sila, when in fact it's spent on crack, but "money is easily made if one always wants more," as recited in the film, and we also know that for Charles Kane, these problems are far from his business.

So, how does all this relate to the film? Excluding the great innovations that the director brought to cinema on a technical level, given my limited preparation on the subject, many will think that the film can be reviewed up to this point and conclude with a beautiful and concise "great film." I believe a more in-depth analysis of the protagonist is necessary.

I've always heard a myriad of people say that this film criticizes the power of journalism over the masses. I am not entirely convinced of this because, having watched the film, I've noticed that it's just a theme that appears as a corollary compared to another much more complex and still relevant theme in the film: the 20th-century man seen from an American capitalist perspective. By examining the protagonist of the film, I can validate this thesis of mine: Kane is not a man, but rather a product, the American economic dream made flesh and blood, a Machiavellian Prince of capitalism that evokes different opinions for his objectives (for his sole objective, money). Communist for the rich, Nazi for the poor. Life is described very simply but extremely effectively: sent away from home very young at his mother's will, placed in the care of the capitalist Thatcher who teaches him all the business strategies, even refining them, he manages to buy a failing small newspaper, turning it into one of the most important in the U.S.A in just 5 years thanks to the intuition of mass information. His international authority is also strengthened with a marriage to the niece of the President of the United States, a marriage that will end in divorce due to Kane's affair with a singer, which will cause the failure of Kane's attempt to pursue a political career. Moving away from this, he helps his second wife, the singer with whom he had the affair during his first marriage, to become an opera singer by building a theater specifically for her. When her career fails miserably, Kane then decides to build a huge mansion to live in with her, but she, tired of her husband, decides to leave him.

The decline of Kane's empire is paralleled by his human decline and the American Depression: now an old man, he does not want to have contact with people anymore, and the only word he will speak before dying is "Rosebud." This is the mystery that accompanies the entire film, who is Rosebud? Rosebud is Kane the man, the boy who was lost in 1871 on a winter afternoon with his sled, when his mother had already decided to send him away. Rosebud is his sled, that only fragment of his human sensitivity left to him and emerged through a snow globe representing a tiny house in the snow. Because of a system too devoid of emotion, the capitalist one, which allows any means (even journalism) to increase money resources, Kane was only able to have people love him at his command but never capable of loving. It is for this reason that he evoked in me a good dose of anger and one of pity towards this man. There is a return to childhood in him, a backward journey to start all over and find a bit of serenity, but death is near and nothing is possible anymore.

As Jorge Luis Borges said in a 1941 review, "Citizen Kane" is a metaphysical detective story that investigates the nature of man, but it still leaves great questions. I believe that as a question it leaves the paradox around which the entire film seems to revolve: how is it possible that Kane's last words were heard if there was no one in his room (the butler claimed to have heard them, but in the scene, he does not appear) with him? What will Welles have intended with this cinematic "ploy"? I tried to give an answer, I tormented myself throughout the film, but finally, I followed the advice that the director gives at the end of the film: "No Trespassing."