Jigsaw Narrative
Multiple narrators tell he story of Charles Foster Kane's life. We see his life in a newsreel format, in Thatcher's memoirs, and as told by Bernstein, Leland, Susan Alexander, and even Raymond, the butler. What is the point of telling the story in this way? Does each narrator give a specific "spin" or have a particular bias? Does each see a distinctive aspect of Kane's personality? Is each section told in a different way, utilizing different techniques of filming (such as camera angles, deep focus, lighting, or even choice of music)? What" bang for our buck" do we get from this jigsaw narration? Is it equal to or greater than the sum of its parts?
The multiple narrator approach present many biased stories of the same man, serving to show the viewer that one never truly understands another person. Thatcher's portrays Kane as an overgrown child, as seen when he reads the letter where Kane says he wants to run a newspaper. Thatcher keeps repeating the line, "I think it would be fun to run a newspaper," trying to highlight what he views as childish fantasies. The fact that he only recalls Kane's childish tendencies is a result of Thatcher's bias against Kane. He saw him as a child, and thus remembers him as such. Bernstein, on the other hand, always looked up to and admired Kane, even hanging a massive poster of him in his office. Because of this, his stories of Kane always had Kane in charge, running the show. He tells the story of how Kane took over the newspaper business and re-made it from the ground up. He portrays Kane as a figure of intellect and authority, because that is how he saw Kane. Even Susan Alexander saw Kane in a different way. She always saw him as a dictator in her life, and so she tells the story of how he forced her to keep singing despite her decline in mental health. These biases in the accounts all stem from the opinions the characters had about Kane. Was Kane really a child who never grew up? Probably not, but because that is how Thatcher saw Kane, that is what he remembered. Was Kane always the smartest man in the room? Bernstein sure thinks he was. This many sides to the same coin story telling approach is done in an effort to show the viewer that others cannot be fully understood, because biases and opinions always cloud our memory. We never get to see the real Kane, and even if we did, we wouldn't truly understand him. We would simply have opinions of him.
ReplyDeleteHaving multiple narrators tell their stories of Kane gives us different (perhaps even contradicting) perspectives of how he lived, showing us that life isn't one dimensional, and not one person can encapsulate another's entire being. After Kane's death and last word "Rosebud" became a public sensation, Jerry Thompson goes in pursuit to uncover the true meaning of the word. Who was Citizen Kane, and could his life be encapsulated by one word? Interviewing Walter Thatcher, we are shown that Kane spends a majority of his adult life rebelling against him. After becoming Kane's legal guardian, we are told that Kane gets expelled from multiple prestigious colleges in defiance. After taking over the New York Inquirer "because it would be fun", he labels Thatcher as a Communist, and continually harasses him. Kane told Thatcher that he wanted to become "everything that you hate", showing us the rage side of Kane. In contrast, Bernstein, a huge admirer of Kane, served as his personal assistant when working on The Inquirer. Being loyal to Kane, he was a supporter of Susan's opera singing, and even had Kane's poster hung on his wall. In comparison to Kane's "everything you hate" perspective, Bernstein proved loyal to Kane. Another story was from Susan, showing us Kane's immoral and controlling side. From what was originally a happy marriage, Kane was shown to become more controlling, becoming a tyrant over Susan. Forcing Susan to singing lessons and making her perform, Kane slowly drives her to insanity. Even building an opera house for her, his controlling side drove Susan to the point of suicide (though unsuccessful), which led to their inevitable divorce. Kane was portrayed to be a man of vengeance and a dictator, but he was also someone who could be looked up to. He harassed the banker who took him in, controlled every aspect of his wife's life, but despite this he still had support from people like Bernstein. Comparing stories from each person about Kane, taken out of context, could seem like three different people. Who was Citizen Kane? This three dimensional character is the combination of each of these stories, which show us that not on person can describe to us Kane's entire life. Susan may tell you that he was a dictator, Bernstein will tell you he was a great leader, and Thatcher might see Kane as an ungrateful child. In the end, Thompson never learns of the origins of Rosebud, stating that "Kane's last word will forever remain an enigma". The story ends with Kane's sled, named "Rosebud", being thrown into a fire. The sled from which eight year old Kane was taken from his home.
ReplyDeleteThis form of telling a story is very interesting as it provides a cool way to learn the story. The beginning of the movie is like to traditional movie. The camera is an invisible entity that observers the lives of the characters. The NEWS ON THE MARCH brings viewers into the movie with a traditional news real, relaying many events that will be talked about in the movie, very quickly. As we hear stories from each person, we learn a different part of Kane’s life along with the perspective of the narrator. The Scenes we see are simply a flashback of old men and women, recanted what they remember of Charles Foster Kane. (Side note, I believe his middle name is Foster because he was a foster child). In the context of the movie, we only know the parts about Kane’s life through the stories. Therefore, “creative liberties” could have always been made. While I do not believe most of the characters would falsify their story of Kane, they are old (or dead). Memories form and change overtime. Stepping outside of the context of the movie, this “jigsaw narration” is very fun to watch as it shows the different people in Kane’s life through time. We see Kane grow older and more controlling through multiple characters. If we had never talked with Susan, we wouldn’t know about much of her perspective and problems with Kane. We as the viewer can piece together what Rosebud is because of this. We see each piece come together in the fly over scene at the end. The characters would never be able to work it out, but we are able to. I believe if the movie had been shot like a typical movie, with the camera simply following Kane everywhere, a lot of the mystery about Kane would vanish. We know what the other people in his life remember or wrote about him plus a bit more. If the jigsaw narration was removed, we would see clearly who Kane was, his thoughts and goals that he did not share to other besides himself. In some movies, this is a great thing, but here, the allure is the mystery of Charles Foster Kane.
ReplyDeleteI believe the purpose of the use of a jigsaw narrative in the film Citizen Kane is to further emphasize the fact that no one ever truly knew Kane. Everyone in his life might have thought that they knew him but they each only knew the version of himself he let them all see. By having different characters acting as the narrator at different parts of Kane’s life, the film is blatantly showing that everyone Kane interacted with had a drastically different view of who he was and what he was like, therefore proving that no one ever truly knew the real him. The majority of the movie is depicting Kane at work, showing how he is a headstrong, business first kind of guy. Everything about him and the film style is fairly regular. But, when the narration switches to Susan Alexander’s point of view both Kane’s character and the film style drastically change. Kane goes from being a typical business man to being a villain and a bully to Susan. We see him pull away from her, choose his work over her, and verbally and physically abuse her and as this occurs the camera angles become more intense and begin to switch often, providing point of view shots. In the scene where Kane is most abusive to Susan, the camera is at a low shot when filming Kane and a high shot when filming Susan demonstrating the power difference between the two through film. The drastic differences between each of the narrator’s sections- particularly Susan’s and the other’s- emphasizes the fact that now one knew Kane. They only knew the version of himself he put forwarded while he was around them.
ReplyDeleteIn Citizen Kane, the jigsaw narrative that is created by multiple narrators adds to the story significantly. The multiple stories and perspectives create many different views and depictions of Charles Foster Kane that help us view him as more than one dimensional. We get to hear stories from business partners, mentors, and lovers, who all have different experiences with Charles Kane. Susan Alexander provides one of the most powerful depictions of Kane, and provides a point of view of a lover of Kane’s. She describes him as tough on her and always pushing her to do what he wanted, and never considering what she wanted. She shares stories of her singing career and how she was pushed towards fame, when it wasn't what she wanted. Thatcher also provides insight into Kane as he grew up and took over the inquirer. Thatcher paints Kane as someone who is driven to do the right thing, someone who is always looking for the truth and believes that the press has to be honest to the people, at one point describing an article that was published in which the inquirer bashes a company Kane is a partial owner of. Overall, these stories from individual people help us gain a better sense of the person that Charles Foster Kane was, but they do not give us the entire picture, and nothing will. The stories told by the people throughout his life, are filled with bias, but it is a bias that is necessary to fully depict Kane in many parts. These stories do help, but it is never enough to fully depict a complicated character such as Charles Foster Kane.
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