Narrative structure in Citizen Kane

The narrative structure of Citizen Kane is largely nonlinear, which was revolutionary at the time the film was released. The narrative defies Classical Hollywood Cinema, in that it is not told as a chronological story with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, the narrative begins with the end of the story – the death of the main character, Charles Foster Kane. The life story of Kane is then summarized in a newsreel, which actually gives away the whole movie. The entire plot is summarized in those few minutes, doing away with the suspense that would build up throughout a movie. Through this, the audience is asked to analyze and explore the character of Kane rather than being immersed in the plot and wondering …show more content…
Once again, this can be shown in the scene where we are introduced to young Kane. As the adults speak in the foreground, the audience continues to both see and hear Kane playing in the snow. The sound is used in conjunction with the use of deep focus to drive home the point that Kane is present in the scene and is not in control of the direction of his life. The sound is also used to stitch the narrative together. For example, right after we see young Kane leave with Thatcher, we hear Christmas bells before the next scene even fades in. This gives the audience a sense of the timeframe without exposition. In the same scene, young Kane says, “Merry Christmas…” then we cut to Thatcher saying, “…and a happy new year.” This sequence of dialogue joins the two scenes together, even though the narrative has jumped ahead in time by almost 20 years. The dialogue in this film is also used as a tool to paint the environment. There are numerous scenes where sounds and dialogue overlap to create a feeling of crowds and to place objects in the scene without showing the audience. In the scene of Kane’s candidacy speech, the sound of the crowd’s clapping and his echoing voice is used to show Kane’s power and popularity as a candidate. Furthermore, once again the use of dialogue to join two scenes together can be seen between this scene and the scene before; Kane’s speech is started by another person in the scene before, and we enter this scene in the middle of Kane’s