Susan's departure & Kane's death?

[Colmena]

I've been assuming that when Kane departs Susan's bedroom, stunned, holding her snowglobe, that he's on his way to his bedroom, where he will then die-- as we see in the opening scene. That is, that the day that Susan leaves is the same day that Kane dies. My reason for viewing it that way is because Kane is so stunned, when we see him walking past the retinue of servants, the mirrors... He's lost the spirit of life... and he's holding the globe... so it makes sense (to me) that he would then go and die, looking into the globe... Do I have this wrong?

Against this:

In the screenplay, Susan's departure is in 1932, and Kane dies in 1940-- eight years later. (But this dating in not retained in the cutting continuity of the finished movie.)

In _Despite the System_, the bio of OW by Clinton Heylin, he claims that "we pass immediately from Susan's departure to Kane's death, eleven years later." (p54)

Also, in "News on the March" it is said, twice, that Susan's divorces Kane, which implies that he is alive after she's left him.

One relevant piece of evidence which I have note looked into yet, is whether Kane is made up to be older on his deathbed, than the day of Susan's departure.

[tonyw]

Literally, there is a problem but symbolically he is metaphorically dead when he leaves her bedroom carrying the snow globe with the mirrors splitting up his image. In Lacanian terms, he has no coherent ego and is now a split subject intuitively recognizing that fact. Maybe finding the globe returns him to the realm of the imaginary in view of the associations the globe has with his missing mother symbolized also as a sledge. There are so many ways one can read this powerful scene.

[GlennandersFraser]

Dear sierra: I must agree with tonyw. Symbolically, Charles Foster Kane's life is over on that afternoon, but his actual death comes some time later. A piece of evidence to support tonyw's interpretation may be found in "The Newsreel." Kane is shown, decrepit and all wrapped up, partly screened by an iron fence, being moved in a wheelchair by a servant.

[It is said that the shot was inspired by a similar surreptitious documentary shot of Sir Basil Zaharoff by a 1930's paparazzi. Zaharoff, " international Man of Mystery," arms and currency millionaire, was a favorite subject of Welles' about whom he often spoke (and a partial model for Gregorie Arkadin) early and late.]

Your idea is certainly a feasible one, sierra, but given the amount of analysis CITIZEN KANE has been given over the last 70 years, Wellles' critics would have long ago brought it up as a dramatic weakness in a film generally regarded as his almost perfect masterpiece.

But keep digging, sierra. There's more gold in the Treasures of Orson Welles!

Glenn Anders

[sierra]

Dear sierra: I must agree with tonyw. Symbolically, Charles Foster Kane's life is over on that afternoon, but his actual death comes some time later. A piece of evidence to support tonyw's interpretation may be found in "The Newsreel." Kane is shown, decrepit and all wrapped up, partly screened by an iron fence, being moved in a wheelchair by a servant.

[It is said that the shot was inspired by a similar surreptitious documentary shot of Sir Basil Zaharoff by a 1930's paparazzi. Zaharoff, " international Man of Mystery," arms and currency millionaire, was a favorite subject of Welles' about whom he often spoke (and a partial model for Gregorie Arkadin) early and late.]

Your idea is certainly a feasible one, sierra, but given the amount of analysis CITIZEN KANE has been given over the last 70 years, Wellles' critics would have long ago brought it up as a dramatic weakness in a film generally regarded as his almost perfect masterpiece.

But keep digging, sierra. There's more gold in the Treasures of Orson Welles!

Glenn Anders

Sierra? I didn't write this post

[Roger Ryan]

I'd also point to the fact that Comingore is made up to look older during the interview scenes with Thompson (only a few days after Kane's death) than she is during the scene where she leaves Xanadu.

After Susan's departure, there are no more witnesses to Kane's final years other than Raymond who only relates the story of Kane destroying Susan's bedroom after she leaves. Even though Raymond supposedly knows "where all the bodies are buried", Thompson doesn't have much time to hear about the final years of Kane's life...probably because the movie is closing in on the two-hour mark and Welles needs it to end!

[GlennandersFraser]

And TIME always must march on, tonyw! Deadlines must be met!

Dear sierra, I apologize for the gaffe. Why I confused you with Colmena, I don't know. My brain has been playing tricks on me lately. The doctors suggest that I've suffered a mild stroke.

Anyway, we are digging out a lot more of the evidence.

Glenn

[Colmena]

Well, our names here are both Spanish: mountain vs. beehive.

Thanks for the replies. My mistake.

But I still believe that the "Rosebud..." that Kane whispers, while crying, in Susan's bedroom, has much of the same meaning as the "Rosebud" that he intones, so portentously, before dying in his own bedroom. Even if it is 8 years later.