Kane's encounter with the snowglobe

[Colmena]

So the next time you watch Citizen Kane, for the nth time, and get to the scene when Kane, after smashing up Susan's Xanadu bedroom, comes upon her snowglobe.... please ask yourself:
Does it seem that, given his reaction, he is encountering this item for the very first time?
Or does it appear to be a recognized item?

-- thanks,

Colmena

[Colmena]

If it happens that anyone here is attending next week's film studies conference, "Stars & Screen," in Glassboro NJ,
I will be answering this question in a paper on "Welles' Alteration of the Climax of Citizen Kane."

[jbrooks]

Does it seem that, given his reaction, he is encountering this item for the very first time?
Or does it appear to be a recognized item?

The film seems to me to be ambiguous on that point. One reason for this ambiguity is that we can't see Kane's face when he first spots the snow globe on the desk (or the table or whatever it's on). Does he pause because (a) he remembers the snow globe and it's special to him or (b) because he is seeing it for the first time and its scene reminds him of something. The scene could be read either way. But I think the second reading is the stronger one. We know from the ending that "Rosebud" is his childhood sled left behind when he was taken away from his childhood home and that the snowglobe's snow scene reminds him of the sled (and his lost childhood, etc.) I think the more obvious reading then of the tantrum scene is that Kane has seen the snow globe for the first time and is struck by how it evokes his childhood home. Then when he has perhaps inadvertently shaken it while crossing the room, he oberves the globe's scene with the snow flurrying and he is then even more struck with nostalgia -- so much so that he says his sled's name outloud. One might imagine that Kane first came upon the globe in some shop years earlier and, struck by its likeness to his childhood home, bought it as a gift for Susan. Then, years later, when smashing the room, he sees it again and is again reminded of his lost childhood. But I don't think there's anything in the film that suggests a more elaborate backstory of that sort and it seems unncessary. Also, sharp-eyed repeat viewers will note that the globe is present in Susan's apartment when Kane first meets her. So the globe was not a gift from Kane. One, of course, could still imagine that Kane had seen it in Susan's apartment (or later at Xanadu) and had been struck by it before coming upon it again in the tantrum scene. But again, such imaginings seem unnecessary. The globe doesn't need a backstory.

Was this story of Kane's history with the globe explored in the script? (or drafts of the script?)

[tonyw]

But do we not see the globe on Susan's dressing table, the first time he visits her?

[jbrooks]

tonyw » Sun Sep 23, 2018 6:21 pm

But do we not see the globe on Susan's dressing table, the first time he visits her?

Yes, we do. That's why I wrote:

Also, sharp-eyed repeat viewers will note that the globe is present in Susan's apartment when Kane first meets her. So the globe was not a gift from Kane. One, of course, could still imagine that Kane had seen it in Susan's apartment (or later at Xanadu) and had been struck by it before coming upon it again in the tantrum scene.

But it isn't clear that Kane notices it in Susan's apartment. So I don't think its mere presence there resolves Colmena's original question.

[Colmena]

Thanks for your extensive reply, jbrooks.

You asked: Was this story of Kane's history with the globe explored in the script? (or drafts of the script?)

The only prior draft that I've read is #4 (using Carringer's enumeration) which is readily available online, and here the snowglobe is present on Susan's chiffonier, as it is in the last screenplay and the movie. There is no indication that Kane sees it at that point, during the evening of their first meeting.

I've arrived at my own extensive answer to this question, which I take to be important to the meaning of Rosebud as well as to the structure of Citizen Kane: why Kane's life and the movie wrap up the way that they do. But for now and here, I'm curious about how others view this scene. Particularly when they revisit the scene with this question in mind, i.e. foregrounded.

One conjecture is that Welles, qua director and co-screenwriter, was certainly aware of the great import of the snowglobe and qua actor was reacting to it on that basis, without asking himself: Has Kane seen this item before, at some point that we don't witness?

[jbrooks]

One conjecture is that Welles, qua director and co-screenwriter, was certainly aware of the great import of the snowglobe and qua actor was reacting to it on that basis, without asking himself: Has Kane seen this item before, at some point that we don't witness?

I think that Welles was the kind of actor and the kind of director who would have considered the question and had an answer to it -- even if only an internal one.