Today we switch to the number one film to structurally analyse it according to Aristole's three basic act structure. The 3-Basic-Act Structure is the foundation for all Hollywood movies. An idea propounded be Aristole, and reinforced by Willian Shakespare.
Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the enormously wealthy media proprietor, has lost his power and been abandoned by his loved ones, and has been living alone in his vast palatial estate Xanadu for the last years of his life, with a "No trespassing" sign on the gate. He dies in a bed while holding a snow globe, and utters "Rosebud..."; the globe smashes.
Kane's death then becomes sensational news around the world. Newsreel reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) tries to find out about Kane's private life and, in particular, to discover the meaning behind his last word. The reporter interviews the great man's friends and associates, and Kane's story unfolds as a series of flashbacks. Thompson approaches Kane's second wife, Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), now an alcoholic who runs her own club, but she refuses to tell him anything. Thompson then goes to the private archive of Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris), a deceased banker who served as Kane's guardian during his childhood and adolescence. It is through Thatcher's written memoirs that Thompson learns about Kane's childhood. Thompson then interviews Kane's personal business manager Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloane), best friend Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten), Susan for a second time, and Kane's butler Raymond (Paul Stewart) at Xanadu.
In several flashbacks, it is told that Kane's childhood was spent in poverty (his parents ran a boarding house), then changed when the "world's third largest gold mine" was discovered on an apparently worthless property his mother had acquired (the title deeds left to her by a lodger unable to pay his bill). He is forced to leave his mother (Agnes Moorehead) when she sends him away to live with Thatcher, to be educated. After gaining full control over his possessions at the age of 25, Kane enters the newspaper business with sensationalized yellow journalism. He takes control of the newspaper, the New York Inquirer, and hires all the best journalists (he hires them away from the Chronicle, the main rival of the Inquirer). His attempted rise to power is documented, including his manipulation of public opinion for the Spanish American War of 1898; his first marriage to Emily Monroe Norton (Ruth Warrick), a President's niece; and his campaign for the office of governor of New York State, for which alternative newspaper headlines are created depending on the result.
The relationship between him and his wife disintegrates over the years. A "love nest" scandal with Susan Alexander ends both his first marriage and his political aspirations, though their relationship appeared to be innocent. Kane marries his mistress, but as a result of his domineering personality, he forces Susan into an operatic career for which she has no talent or ambition, destroys his relationships and pushes away his loved ones. Leland was writing what seemed to be a bad review of his wife's singing, and Kane finishes it just as it was intended to be after firing Leland. Leland says that Kane had always tried to be happy and honest, but somehow could never accomplish that. Susan had become sick of singing, so much so that she had drugged herself to get out of it. Kane spends his last years building his vast estate and lives alone after Susan leaves him (saying "You never gave me anything in your whole life!") interacting only with his staff. The butler accounts that Kane had said "Rosebud" after Susan left him, right after seeing a snowball.
At Xanadu, where Thompson is, Kane's belongings are being cataloged, most of which are practically worth nothing. During this time, Thompson finds that he is unable to solve the mystery and concludes that "Rosebud" will forever remain an enigma. He theorizes that "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." In the ending of the film, it is revealed to the audience that Rosebud was the name of the sled from Kane's childhood, from the time before he was taken from his parents and gained his wealth - an allusion to the only time in his life when he was really happy. The sled, thought to be junk, is destroyed by Xanadu's departing staff in a basement furnace. The film ends as it began, with a view of the "No Trespassing" sign posted on the fence of Xanadu.
