💾 Archived View for sbg.one › gemlog › 2013 › 06-12-Citizen-Kane.gmi captured on 2022-06-11 at 20:35:07. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
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12 June 2013
I watched Citizen Kane (1941) the other day which I had never seen it, nor really knew what it was about. I do like those older black & white films where one has to actually pay attention to the story line in order to follow and understand the film. Though there is a place for the no-brain needed, all action flicks too - but I don't watch too many of those anymore. I enjoy a little mind stimulation with thought and concentration a bit more as I begin to age.
Citizen Kane was an excellent film and I thoroughly enjoyed it's cinematography and choice of settings and use of darkness contrasted to lit rooms and stages. One thing that I certainly took notice of was the lack of technology as we know it today. What came to mind was the times when a storm would come though and knock the electricity out. At home or work when that happens, things get very, very quiet (save for the storm of course), there are no TV's, no computers, no radios and no refrigerators running which makes things a little eery sometimes. But that's mostly how it appeared to be back in the early 20th century before electricity was widely distributed.
With minimal distractions, folks were able to really communicate with each other in settings that promoted concentration. There was a scene or two where they were in an office and I noticed his desk was big and only had a lamp on it with some papers - no computer monitor, no iPhone or anything. I wish my desk was like that and I just ordered an ATI graphics card for my office computer so I can go from 2 monitors to 3 or 4 now.
I really enjoyed the overall simplicity of life of that time compared to the way it is today. It's sort of a minimalism that I crave for.
The plot line of trying to get to know and understand who Charles Kane was and how they laid the storyline out for the film was great. I liked how the reporter went to the different people in his life and heard the story as from their point of view and yet no one, not even the reporter could piece together who or what Rosebud was. My theory would be that Rosebud was just something that Kane never could possess despite all his money and power. That being the ability to love and keep a good woman with him. He was able to entice them enough to marry him, but it didn't appear he had the substance to keep them and physical belongings certainly aren't enough to keep or gain true love.