Citizen Kane Study Questions

General Questions for the Film as a Whole

1. Comment on the film’s cinematography. What are some of the more notable techniques? Pick out several scenes that strike you, for whatever reason, and try to make note of the prominent visual features (see our mise en scène resources).

2. What is your assessment of the plot gimmick regarding Rosebud? One, does it work as a narrative device? Two, does its revelation at the conclusion of the film get us anywhere?

3. Describe and comment on the narrative structure of the film’s plot as a whole. What do you notice about the techniques and plot progression? How do they affect our understanding and interpretation of Kane?

4. I haven’t yet assigned any film editing readings, but I think you should still be able to comment on the film’s editing in general. What do you notice about the editing in the major scene changes throughout the film (such as when the film shifts to the past or back to the present)?

5. What are some of the notable metaphors/motifs/symbols in the film?

6. What would you say are the most prominent themes of the film?

7. What do you think about the fact that Orson Welles was 25 years old when he acted in, directed, and helped to write this film?

8. It may take a trained eye (in either theater or film studies), but do you see signs that Welles’ background was in theater and radio? He was completely new to film making Kane.

Specific Questions

1. What do you notice about the film’s very opening shots? What do those suggest?

2. After Kane's death, why does the film start with a newsreel? What do we learn from it? What kind of synopsis of Kane’s life does it provide?

3. Whom does Thompson first try to interview? What happens? What is the significance of this encounter?

4. In Thatcher’s memoirs, we learn a little about Kane’s early life. What specifically?

5. While signing over his empire following the stock market crash of 1929, what does Kane say to Thatcher about what his life might have been like?

6. What do you notice about the décor of Bernstein’s office?

7. What kind of newspaper does Kane run early in his career?

8. At the end of his interview with Thompson, what does Bernstein say about Emily? About Rosebud?

9. How does the film capture the progression of Kane’s marriage to Emily?

10. What comments does Jedediah make about Kane at the beginning of his interview with Thompson? How might this affect the scene we are about to see?

11. What was Kane on his way to do when he meets Susan?

12. Describe the interior of Susan’s apartment. What do they talk about during this first meeting?

13. Why do you think Kane chooses Susan over his political career?

14. Why do you think that Kane completes Leland’s negative review of Susan's opera performance?

15. Describe the filming as we move from Leland at the hospital to Susan at the night club.

16. How is Susan’s opera career encapsulated by the film?

17. What do you notice about the cinematography as the Xanadu portions of the film begin?

18. Comment on the filming of Susan and Kane’s final scene together and her departure.
    What object does he pick up at the end? Where had we seen this before? What does it lead Kane to utter?

19. What does Thompson say he had learned about Kane at the end of the film?

20. Discuss the cinematography of the very end of the film. Where have we seen similar images?