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On first viewing the film, some may not even notice him. Although the film is about him and in later scenes he will loom large indeed, here he is a tiny speck. The crowning brilliance of the scene is the tiny image of Charles Kane far in the depth of the screen space. Thatcher, his diminished size somehow appropriate to his lack of power to influence his son's fate. The father's position further back in the screen space makes him seem smaller than his wife and Mr.

Or we can observe the father's angry, worried expression and wonder why he backs down. We can wonder in observing the slightly exasperated and nervous expression on Thatcher's face what kind of guardian he will make for a young boy. Kane for why she is so determined to separate herself from her son. We can look for clues in the frozen but somehow anguished expression of Mrs.

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Because of the length of the shot and the careful blocking of the action, our eye is free to focus on whichever player we choose, or our attention can wander from one player to another, as if we were spectators in the theater.Īt the same time, the camera places us sufficiently close to the actors in the foreground of the image that we can read their expressions with much greater clarity than would be possible in the theater. Throughout the scene, while all this activity takes place, we can see the boy Charles playing with his sled far in the back of the image, in extreme long shot, framed by the window pane, and totally oblivious to the momentous decision his mother has made about his life. This last bit of information, which Thatcher reads aloud, silences the father, who mutters, 'Well, let's hope it's all for the best.' Kane will receive fifty thousand dollars a year as long as they both live.

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In exchange for the bank's full assumption of the management of the gold mine (the Colorado Lode), the bank which Thatcher represents will assume full responsibility for all matters concerning the boy's education and place of residence. The mother is icily adamant in honoring the agreement she has made with Thatcher. An argument ensues in which the father, who appears in the middle ground of the image, strongly protests the mother's decision to hand his son over to a bank and threatens to take the case to court. Kane walks over to a desk in the foreground of the image and sits down to sign the papers, with Thatcher seated next to her.

Thatcher.' From frame left Kane's father appears, saying, 'You people seem to forget that I'm the boy's father.' The camera tracks backwards as Mrs. He says, 'We'll have to tell him now.' Ignoring this comment, the mother replies, 'I'll sign those papers now, Mr. Thatcher standing at the right of the window. Kane's mother appears at the window calling out to her son to 'Be careful,' and 'Put your muffler around your neck, Charles.' As the camera tracks backwards from the window into the space of the house, it reveals Mr. Just as his image is suddenly confined by a window frame, so his life will be circumscribed by a decision that is being made for him inside the house. The boy playing in the snow is not as free as he at first seems. The camera then pulls back to reveal that it has been shooting through a window. (As a point of comparison, the longest shot in The Adventurer was only 47 seconds.) It begins with young Charles Kane in long shot, playing with his sled in the snow. The mother's feelings about handing over her son, like almost everything in Citizen Kane, are left ambiguous, and the complex way this scene is photographed allows multiple interpretations of it, as well as adding dramatic resonance to this crucial moment in the film. There is something chilling in Kane's mother's willingness to send her young child off into the world in the hands of a stranger, but evidence later in the film suggests that Kane's father is abusive and that the mother gives her son away, at great personal cost, in order to protect him. Early in the film Charles Kane's mother (Agnes Moorehead) signs the papers handing over her eight-year-old son (Buddy Swan) to Mr.

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