FILM IN FOCUS: Citizen Kane

Towards the conclusion of Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), Kane and his wife, Susan Alexander, have isolated themselves in the palatial Xanadu, surrounded by magnificent spaces and cut off from the world.

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Discussion Questions

After watching this clip from Citizen Kane, consider the questions below. Then submit your response.

Question 1.

Focusing on this sequence, consider how its details and actions might be seen (and perhaps understood) differently in different exhibition contexts, such as on a large screen versus a computer monitor. Which details might look similar across different exhibitions? Which might look different?

Question 2.

How might the exhibition history of Citizen Kane inflect or alter how this sequence is perceived? How might audiences in 1941 have understood it differently than audiences today?

FILM IN FOCUS: Citizen Kane

Instructions

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Discussion Questions

Question 1.

Question 2.