The appearance of "Citizen Kane" in 1941 is regarded as an important symbol of modern movies. In a hundred years of light and shadow, this work of Orson Wells has been honoured countless times. It is an allegory about the Americans, an elegy for the last generation, and it is also a warning light, passing through the fog of history and politics, and radiating a gloomy light in the ups and downs.
After repeatedly reading Laura Mulvey's essay on "Citizen Kane" written in 2011, I felt it necessary to briefly sort out some of the topics.
Laura Mulvey does not focus on analyzing the film from the perspective of authorship or specific creation. For example, the deep-focus photography of Torreguet Tolan or the creative experience after the Welsh Mercury Troupe, this book The highlight is the introduction of psychoanalytic techniques to analyze the political, cultural, and historical significance of the characters and themes in this film, step by step in this complex labyrinth.
William Randolph Hirst
People are always asking how much Hirst's shadow is on Kane and how similar the two off-screen newspaper giants are. This undoubtedly gives the film a great mystery.
In the mid 1890s, Hirst broke into the New York press with a small circulation of the "Daily" to compete with Pulitzer's large circulation of the "Le Monde". The story of "Chronicle" in the film is based on this historical fact. In the ensuing competition for sales, Hirst first imitated the report format of the "Le Monde" pornographic newspaper, and then recruited all the employees of the "Le Monde" Sunday newspaper. Hirst began to publish false news about aggression in the "Daily", and almost triggered the Spanish-American War on his own.
Kane and Hirst are very similar in their fortunes. They both greatly increased the circulation of newspapers by satisfying the needs of ordinary laborers and established their influence in society and even in politics. But as the book says, both Kane and Hirst are extremely contradictory characters. The book describes Kane as "hybrids." On the one hand, they are in the press, representing the interests of the general public and trade unions, and are committed to attacking the upper class. On the other hand, their desire for personal power makes them constantly trying Incorporate into these powerful groups.
"Citizen Kane" seems to want to show that the success of "Inquirer" and primitive fascist politics is actually just the pros and cons of the same coin. The closer Kane is to the center of power, the further away he is from the remaining idealism.
The shadow of failure has always loomed over them. The failure of Kane and Emily's marriage in the film marked the second half of the film. After the end of his political career, he began to lose his mind and become obsessed with Susan, a woman with no characteristics. In reality, because of the split between Hirst and his political partners and the exposure of his private life (Susan's prototype: Marion Davis ), public prestige has taken a turn for the worse.
In addition, according to the unpublished script excerpts provided in the book, both of them revealed their closeness to fascism and Hitler and their opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal, which Orson Wells gave a looming portrayal. In addition, Hirst’s residence, St. Simon’s Manor, is largely a realistic version of Xianledu Manor, and not surprisingly, he is also a well-known collector.
Although, in the statement issued by Orson Wells to the press on whether the film is based on Hirst as a prototype, he explained several reasons for this phenomenon:
- The image of ordinary Americans cannot meet the needs of shaping a complex and changeable character. Under the social background at that time, only newspaper distributors had strong financial resources and influence in politics. The image of a pornographic newspaper practitioner fits the historical process at that time.
- How to explain and reveal the design of the "rose bud" in the last words in the play is very important. It is necessary to emphasize logic while ensuring drama. It wasn't until the last moment of the film, when the sledge was burning in the fire, that the mystery was really revealed. As Wells said, how can a sledge made in 1880 be preserved to the present? The protagonist must therefore be a collector.
- The existence of the palace Xanadu represents a substantive ivory tower. At the physical level, it provides space for the host’s public collections, while at the spiritual level, it is shaped like a womb/grave , providing a reasonable escape for the host’s failure. .
Wells believes that the absolute laws of drama and psychology determine the way Kane responds to these events. In other words, what Kane did was not based on Hirst's copy. It was more like a character interpreting the demise of a tycoon like a puppet under the unconscious, historical environment and creative laws. Of course, although Wilson strongly denies this claim, the match between the real world and the plot of the film makes people have to think-at least to some extent-that this is the case.
As a beneficiary of Roosevelt’s New Deal and a leftist who admired European civilization, Wells could not bear Hirst’s hostile attitude and slanderous behavior towards the Roosevelt administration, and tried his best to oppose the isolationism advocated by Hirst , that is, that the United States should not participate in World War II. , Allowing fascism to wreak havoc on the European continent. Before the end of the cooperation with Raidenhua, Orson Wells filmed "Citizen Kane", which clearly heralded the final outcome of the United States under isolationism: trapped in a claustrophobic cage, all betrayed and even died. Unforgettable happiness lost in childhood.
"Rose Bud"
Hirst’s personality features serve as a springboard to reflect American politics and lies more widely, and "Citizen Kane" strives to show the pure unconsciousness of an American tycoon, thus reflecting American capitalist society and history. There are symptoms of mental depression.
"Rosebud" is the embodiment of Kane’s repressed emotions. It is undoubtedly Kane’s babble about childhood and missing maternal love. It connects with the original sights and emotions in his memory, like fragments of "Pompeii." Hidden by the white snow. The scene where I separated from my parents in the snow:
This scene brings together all the dramatic elements and forms the basis of the film’s dual structure: the close relationship between the child and the mother, the child’s instinctive hostility towards the stand-in father, and the Oedipus triangle relationship between the little sleigh and him. The missing link.
During the period of pre-Oedipus and post-Oedipus, the young Kane was forced to leave his mother and biological father, and failed to fully complete his empathy with his mother, and also failed to confirm the authority of the birth father and recognize the taboos. The danger of the two marriages ended because Kane could not balance his ambition (order) and emotions.
The three episodes of Kane and the bank representative Thatcher fully illustrate Kane's hostility to the image of his father and the challenge to the social system and symbolic system:
When we first met, Kane reacted fiercely to Thatcher; The Inquirer’s confrontation against the bourgeoisie represented by Thatcher... Economic recession, etc., was forced to sell some of his assets to Thatcher.
As an individual and a representative of the newspaper group, Kane constantly challenged the traditional bank capital of his surrogate father, whether he had just left a remote cabin and entered the civilized world, or he opposed the Protestant ethics of banks that value capital and money. Unfortunately, after ending his first marriage with Emily, Kane, who should have gone to the White House, fell into the quagmire of individualism.
During this period, the audience constantly tried to find the answer through the lens, to find the missing key link, constantly hesitating in subjective comments and memories, but when the mystery was finally revealed, it was so bleak.
I want to do something different. I hope to make a film that can be called a "failure story".
Orson Wells explained his motives in this way in his creative statement. He obviously did this. "Rosebud" is a subconscious that has not been shown in the Hollywood mythology. Wells put it on the table and used similar things. This kind of plot and structure design of Rashomon allows the audience to interpret it.
And Kane didn't get what he really wanted in his life. This failure story is so simple and powerful, it provides insight into the emptiness of people's hearts at that time and the fascination with things that followed.
Susan
In the book, Mulvey discusses Freud’s essay "Fetishism":
In Freud's view, fetishism is a symptom of unconscious denial, and it is also closely related to the mother. Worship items can protect oneself from the infringement of unrecognized things. Freud believes that this is a kind of traumatic consciousness... Fetish is the legacy of a traumatic moment left by time. It was later sealed in the unconscious mind, and the trauma was transformed into a certain object. Obsession.
Susan and the crystal ball in the room obviously evoke some memories of maternal love and childhood in Kane's heart, so he imprisoned Susan in Chicago's Opera House and Xianledu Manor as a crop.
To a certain extent, Susan and Rosebud bear two aspects of Kane's fetish symptoms, the unconscious level of reluctance to rosebuds, and the unconscious level of strong control and irrational obsession with Susan extending from the unconscious level to the superficial level. . This is all due to Thatcher's interruption of Kane's identity with his mother. Although Wells calls this "cheap Freud", he does not deny this interpretation.
And Susan's form has gone through three special stages in the process of interacting with Kane:
First, when I met Kane on the rainy street, the two people fell in love because of their predicament. In front of Susan's room, the diffused soft light and the front and back shots reflect the film's photographic style. At the same time, the ambiguous dialogue is very different from the previous image of Kane's wife, which is obviously erotic.
Second, after getting married, Susan was forced to participate in opera performances. On the stage, Susan "wore this complicated and gorgeous costume all over her head with two huge golden braids", Mulvey called it It is "European style", which is obviously different from the image of Xiaojiabiyu, who was quiet and gentle before. At this stage, Susan is trapped in the Opera House and Xianle Capital, and is experiencing Kane's materialization.
Third, after Susan left Kane, when Thompson was investigating "Rose Petals", Susan was in the ranch bar as a showgirl. The neon sign outside the bar marked Susan's name impressively, and she was sitting there. At the table, facing the wine glass, between the chaotic lights.
From the time the two met Kane’s death, Susan’s original brilliance seemed to be distorted by a black hole and then swallowed, turning into a hollow, not even a prying image. The eroticism and Kay she carried En's childhood was cut off as well.
It is obvious from Susan’s changes that Kane’s behavioral logic was affected by his unconscious trauma in the process of re-searching for maternal love. He tried to materialize Susan to maintain emotional needs and avoid self. Get hurt again.
A symptom caused by a repressed traumatic absence.
If we look at Kane’s fetishism due to lack of maternal love from a broader perspective, Laura Mulvey will focus on the cultural identity changes of the large number of immigrants who came to the United States from Europe.
The two powerful images in "Citizen Kane" seem to be metaphors for the relationship between Europe and the United States. The first picture, the poor and shabby wooden house that represents the old world, is at the same time forgotten and enclosed in a landscape of ice and snow, watching the children leave their homes and embark on the road to wealth. In the second picture, the huge body of Kane in contemplation, an icon of American capitalism, lives in seclusion in a gorgeous castle built by plundering European treasures.
When the immigrants embraced the world of freedom in the New World, they were forced to sever ties with Europe because of the distance between the two places. However, the old civilization was not completely forgotten by them but hidden in their unconsciousness, causing their behavior and consciousness to fall into In an anxious contradiction.
Therefore, a complex emotion of "liberation" and "homesickness" is intertwined. Forgetting the past can conceal the sense of lack, but the past experience will not disappear. It can only be compensated by the freedom brought about by the "American Dream" and the "goods" promised by the democratic nature of consumer goods.
As mentioned above Hirst’s isolationism, this interpretation also echoes the background of the time. German fascists blitzed Poland, defeated France, and wars raged on the European continent. If the United States stood on the sidelines, the spiritual home would be destroyed. The new world Will be in long-term chaos.
Rereading Laura Mulvey's essay on "Citizen Kane" is as obscure and cheerful as the interpretation of "Young Lincoln" in the first reading of the Film Critics Manual, and the incomprehensible theoretical height is amazing. "Citizen Kane" was originally intended to be called "The Americans", which showed Orson Wells' ambition when he was writing. Whether it is the "Rose Bud" mystery or the plight of Kane's life, whether it is for the individual or the nation, the meaning of this film is profound.
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