At dawn, the silhouette of the Sannado Manor, as majestic as the Imperial Palace, stands on the top of a mountain on the beach in Florida.
The camera lens slowly approached the iron gate of the manor, and the top of the iron gate was inlaid with the huge letter "K". The camera passes through the iron gate, approaches the palace-style building, crosses the window and approaches a dying white-haired old man on the couch. I saw his lips moving and mumbling the words "Rosebud"; He held a crystal ball paperweight in his hand, and the center of the ball had the scene of a farmhouse in the midst of snowflakes-suddenly, his hand was loose, and the crystal ball fell to the ground and broke.
Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper magnate known as Kublai Khan of America, died alone at the age of 76.
A set of news documentary pictures shows Kane's legendary life, and a picture of Kane with a black frame occupies the whole screen. The death of the powerful man was reported on the front page of various newspapers. The commentary said: "Kane's empire once controlled 37 newspapers, 13 magazines and a radio broadcasting network during its prosperity. It is an empire in the empire. " The news footage traced the origin of Kane's prosperity, and later founded the Inquirer, set foot in politics and became a man of the hour. He was married twice, divorced twice, once married the president's niece Emily, and rose to the top; Once I married Susan, a "female singer", which was a sensation. It was his affair with Susan that was exposed, which led him to a crushing defeat in his political career of running for governor and never recovered from it. After the Great Depression, the "Kane Empire" quickly declined. In his later years, Kane lived in a secluded place in the Sannadu Manor until his death.
Jorston, the chief editor of a magazine, was not satisfied with this hastily edited news film, so he entrusted a young journalist Thomson with an in-depth investigation of Kane's life and asked him to find out the true meaning of Kane's last words "Rosebud" in order to reveal the true image of this "American Kublai Khan" as a human being.
The first object of Thomson's visit was Kane's second wife Susan, who is now a singer in a low-class bar in Atlanta. She is still wearing heavy makeup in her late fifties, but she flatly refused to be interviewed. The marching orders of "get out" may be hiding the life pain of this famous actress.
At the Cecil Memorial Library in Philadelphia, Thomson was allowed to enter the archives and look up the unpublished memoir manuscript of the late banker Cecil. In the snowy winter of 187, little Kane was only six years old. His mother runs a family-style boarding apartment. A few years ago, a tenant defaulted on the rent, so he used a property right contract of an abandoned mine as collateral. Unexpectedly, the abandoned mine was later confirmed to be rich, and the Kane family immediately made a fortune. When Cecil signed the power of attorney with Kane's mother, little Kane was making a snowman and throwing snowballs in the snow outside the window. Kane's mother entrusted him and his property to Cecil to send him to the metropolis for education. Little Kane didn't understand what he wanted to be as an adult, "the richest man in America". He refused to leave his mother and this rural town, so he slammed Cecil with a sled. But he was finally taken away, leaving the sled where the children played in the snow. After Kane acquired property rights as an adult, he took the initiative to buy the first newspaper and publish the Inquirer. He openly opposed Cecil, and talked about maintaining social justice when he was in the mood, pretending to protect the poor from exploitation by big companies (he owns huge shares in this company). The conclusion written in the manuscript of Cecil is that Kane is just a lucky rogue, a spoiled and irresponsible shameless person.
In the skyscraper of The Inquirer in new york, Thomson met Bernstein, the general manager who co-founded the newspaper with Kane. The old Jewish man recalled the first day Kane took over the newspaper in 189. Kane was young and arrogant. He advocates making sensational news without asking whether the truth is true or not, so as to compete with the Documentary for readers. However, Kane wrote in his "Declaration of Principles" to the public: "I want to provide a daily newspaper to the residents of this city, which will faithfully report the news ... and no special interests are allowed to interfere with the authenticity of these news." Kane believed in pragmatism, innovated, and devoted himself to politics from running a newspaper. He also dragged the whole class of his rival Documentary into his own newspaper, and even created public opinion to encourage the United States to get involved in the Spanish-American War in 1897. He also realized his marriage with Emily, the president's niece, with political ambitions. As for the question of "Rosebud", Bernstein couldn't decipher it, only saying that it might be a girl he loved or "something he lost". Finally, Bernstein suggested that Thomson go to Leland, Kane's college friend and later a drama columnist, and said that this person had first-hand information about Kane's private life.
In a hospital, Thomson finally found Leland in a wheelchair. Leland, who was down and out, told him that Kane lived by power. He was a poor newspaper operator. "He entertained his readers, but he never told them the truth." His marriage with Emily, the president's niece, is purely political, and its rupture is inevitable; Later, he met the singer Susan, fell in love at first sight, and made an affair of "a golden house hides a charming woman". When Kane joined politics and ran for governor, his political opponent Gatiss defeated him with the scandal of "both Kane's love nest and' singer' were caught". Kane built an opera house for Susan, but Susan's first performance with limited talent failed. Leland wrote an article and criticized it truthfully, saying that Susan was just "a beautiful, but inadequate, amateur". This critical article, which Leland was unable to write because of drunkenness, was written by Kane. When the article was published, Leland was immediately fired by Kane, and their friendship broke down. Kane suffered setbacks in both politics and love, and since then, he has lived in seclusion in a manor like the emperor's palace in Sana 'a.
Thomson visited Susan again, and Susan told him her secret pain. The first defeat of Chicago Grand Theatre, Susan swallowed sleeping pills in despair, and after being rescued, she vowed not to perform on stage again. In the grand manor built for her, which is extremely luxurious, Susan is accompanied by Kane all day, as if she were imprisoned in a cold grave. She often spends her time alone in the empty hall, warming herself by the fire in the fireplace and playing jigsaw puzzles. As the years passed, Susan was really unbearable and finally ran away in anger. Before leaving, she poured out her resentment to the tyrant Kane: "I'm tired of controlling my life according to your wishes." Kane was angered and gave her a heavy slap in the face. Susan walked through the locked doors and resolutely left, and Kane's evening scene became more and more lonely and sad.
The last person to be interviewed by Thomson was Ramon, Kane's old housekeeper, who described Kane's experiences in the last few years of his life. After Susan left, Kane furiously smashed all the furnishings in Susan's bedroom, except the crystal ball with the snow scene of the farmhouse. After Kane's death, all the precious things in Sannadu Manor were auctioned, and the rest of the household belongings were put into the fire and burned. When asked about the meaning of "Rosebud", the old housekeeper who followed Kane's hard work all his life could only vaguely prevaricate that Kane was "somewhat insane" in his old age.
Thomson interviewed five people in turn and got five different stories, but he still couldn't solve the mystery of "Rosebud". Thomson concluded: "Kane got everything he wanted, and then he lost it all." Rosebud may be something he didn't get or lost. However, it doesn't explain anything. I don't believe that one or two words can explain a person's life. "
When Thomson and the reporters and photographers who came to grab the news of the "Grand Auction of the Monastery Palace" left one by one, they saw a sleigh with the trademark Rosebud thrown into the fire, and the flame swallowed it up one by one, and the chimney emitted black smoke and stagnated in the sky.