Long considered one of the masterpieces of cinema, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane also offers a masterclass in the use of the filmic flashback, structuring its entire narrative through memory. The reporter Thompson’s quest to discover the meaning of Kane’s enigmatic final word, “Rosebud,” leads him and the viewer through the various interviewee’s memories of Kane, foregrounding their subjective and often conflicting experiences of the man. Ultimately Kane asks us to consider our own mortality, the memories of us that will live on, and the extent to which someone can know us through those memories.
—Anders Bergstrom
Arts & Faith Lists:
2015 Top 25 Films on Memory — #10