Citizen Kane: Difference between revisions

* [[Drop What You Are Doing]]: The snowglobe.

* [[Dyeing for Your Art]]: To simulate heavy drunkenness, Cotten stayed awake for 24 straight hours, resulting in some unscripted flubbery (that caused Welles to grin despite himself).

* [[The Faceless]]: Thompson, the reporter whose investigation into "Rosebud" is the backbone of the plot, is only shown from behind or with his face in shadow.

* [[Famous Last Words]]: only one actually; "Rosebud", of course

** Herman Mankiewicz, who came up with the story, was a frequent guest at San Simeon (aka Hearst Castle). As much as Welles sometimes denied it, much of the story clearly was based on Hearst's life. Hearst was a muckracking newspaper publisher who egged on the Spanish-American War, as noted above. Hearst, like Kane, was a failed candidate for Governor of New York (as well as multiple runs for other offices). Davies, like Susan Alexander, was an alcoholic who was also fond of crossword puzzles. Of course there were many differences between Kane and Hearst as well; Hearst was never abandoned by his parents and Davies stayed with Hearst until his death.

* [[Rule of Symbolism]]: Some critics think ''Kane'' stretches the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] in order to include symbolic elements. It certainly is packed with symbols.

* [[Slow Clap]]: After the disastrous operatic debut of his wife Susan, Kane stubbornly stands up and does a [[Slow Clap]]; the rest of the audience begrudgingly follows suit.

* [[Spinning Paper]]: A standard trope of early 1930s "B" movies, especially in films dealing with organized crime. It went out of style at around the time the [[Hays Code]] was adopted; any use after the mid 1930's is a deliberate invocation of the trope as tribute and parody. ''Citizen Kane'' is one of these. Making later parodies parody parodies.