The final scene in Citizen Kane takes place at Xanadu. Thompson admits to his fellow reporters that he has failed in his mission to find out the identity of Rosebud. A colleague remarks: “If you could have found out what Rosebud meant, I bet that would’ve explained everything. ” Thompson replies: “No, I don’t think so. No. Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted, and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn’t get or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn’t have explained anything. I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life” (Carroll 1996, pp. 264). As the reporters go off to catch a train, the camera shoots down from above at a massive collection of crates, statues, etc. —all the objects Kane has accumulated in his lifetime—finally pausing on belongings associated with Kane’s childhood home in Colorado. A worker picks up a sled (Altman 1996, p. 97). Raymond, the butler, refers to the sled as “junk,” and directs the man to throw it into the furnace. A slow dissolve into the mouth of the furnace shows us the sled going up in flames. With just enough time to decipher the words before the flames obliterate them forever, we read the name inscribed on the sled: Rosebud. The film’s final shot is of the exterior of Kane’s castle. Smoke pours out the chimney as if Xanadu were a giant crematorium. The last words we see, before “the end,” are the first words we saw at the beginning, the sign reading, “no trespassing” (Carroll 1996, pp. 45-48).
Citizen Kane thus has two endings: one for the characters inside the film and one for us, the spectators outside the film. The characters never find out what Rosebud signifies. We are privy to the knowledge, but our sudden return to omniscience is qualified. We know what Rosebud refers to—the sled young Kane was playing with before Thatcher took him away from his home to be educated in New York—but what does it mean? Critics are still debating the significance of Rosebud. In general, there are two camps: those who believe that Rosebud does explain the solution to the mystery of why Kane, for all his advantages, failed in his political and personal life, and those who agree with Thompson, who declares at the end of the film that the life of any human being is too intricate and complex to be reduced to one explanation. The sled may explain some things, but not everything. Most critics share the latter view (Carroll 1996, pp. 254-260). To them, that “No Trespassing” sign has protected Kane’s privacy after all.
Photographic and cinematic styles of Citizen Kane
