Daily Dialogue — May 12, 2015

“Rosebud.”

— Citizen Kane (1941), original screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz & Orson Welles

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Famous Last Words. Today’s suggestion by Paul Graunke.

Trivia: The movie’s line “Rosebud.” was voted as the #17 greatest movie quote by the American Film Institute.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Later in his life, Orson Welles came to think of “Rosebud” as a “tawdry device,” but at the risk of picking an argument with a dead man, I beg to differ:

* The line has a direct connection his home in Colorado, a place he was happiest. Once yanked away, he never recovers psychologically, filled with a rage at what was done to him against his will on the one hand and an active antipathy toward the wealth he inherited on the other.

* The line establishes the great mystery which lies at the heart of the story: Who is Charles Foster Kane? We are privy to a word meaningful to him, but do not know what it means until the movie’s very last image.

* The snow globe and sled are two of the most iconic movie talisman’s of all time.

To me, “Rosebud” is one of the greatest lines of dialogue in movie history. What are your thoughts?

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