This was originally posted on June 22, 2008:
The Internet never ceases to amaze me. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Orson Welles. I've never seen it before today, never even knew of its existence until I started bumping around the web. Two things about the interview. First, Welles reveals that the idea of 'home' is very important to him because as a child, his family moved multiple times, so he never really had what he would call a home. Second, he confesses that his least favorite thing about Citizen Kane was Rosebud -- he calls it a "rather tawdry device."
May I humbly disagree. First, Rosebud serves numerous narrative functions: framing device for the narrative, source of a mystery as well as eventually the key to solving it, the sled and the snow globe powerful visual devices, taking on talismanic significance.
But beyond that, I wonder if Welles is doing a bit of deflection here. In response to the interviewer's question, "Is there anything that came out of that [i.e., Welles' family moving around so much] in the movie," Welles offers a definitive no. But isn't 'home' what Rosebud -- the sled / snow globe -- represents to Kane, that one time and one place where he was truly happy, his youthful winter wonderland, he and his friends, sledding in the snow, only to be yanked out of there by life's sudden turn? And so isn't it fair to think that Welles' desire to have a single place he could call home (he says so point blank in the interview) is reflected in the experience of young Charles Foster Kane? Therefore, Rosebud can be seen to be much more than a "tawdry device," it is precisely the whole point of Kane's existence, constantly attempting in all his life endeavors to find some thing, some place he could call 'home.' Yet he could never satisfy that almost infantile need, which is why it's so riveting to see him wandering the halls of Xanadu on the night of his death, clutching the snow globe, then offering up his final word, "Rosebud."
Watch this fascinating interview and see what you think.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I think you are right, Scott, about Welles having some fun here. The first thing I thought of when I read your comment about home being important was "Rosebud!" That's the whole theme of Citizen Kane.
I find Welles fascinating. He would definitely be invited to my 3-people-living-or-dead dinner.
What a voice. They don't make voices like that anymore.
My understanding is that the Kane script was almost entirely the work of Herman Mankiewicz ... and there was bad blood between Welles and Mankiewicz, especially as regards the writing credits on the movie. So perhaps Welles' brushing off of the Rosebud device is his way of diminishing Mankiewicz? Though I don't know who came up with the Rosebud idea.
In any case, Welles' place in film history would be solid even without Citizen Kane -- Touch of Evil is undeniable genius which helped launch the French New Wave, among other things.
Scott,
Great find on the video. Welles is of course noted for referring to Rosebud as "dollar-book Freud." I think he obviously saw the dramatic and structural importance of the device. I just think he found it too simplisitc an explanation and regreted the widely accepted interpretation that Rosebud explains EVERYTHING in Kane's life.
Say hello to my friend Marianne Gingher there are UNC.
Eddie Bowen
Post a Comment