As newspaper owner Charles Foster Kane lays dead on his bed, a reporter has to try and decipher his dying words. He goes through different friends, colleagues and past relationships all to find the meaning of this one peculiar word. He starts off with speaking to Walter Parks Thatcher in whom had wrote about Charles' childhood. After this discovery, he speaks to Mr.Bernstein, in whom was Charles' personal business manager. With no success at this point, the reporter speaks to Charles' friend Jedediah Leland and his late wife Susan Alexander Kane but there is still no success in to the mystery word. Although the reporter get's an insight in to the real life of Charles Foster Kane, fear riles up as he believes he will never understand the last word from Kane, "Rosebud".
The meaning behind "rosebud" is shown to the audience by Kane wrecking Susan's previous bedroom in front of a house of guests and workers. During his outrage he sees a small snow globe in which he picks up from the desk and puts it in to his pocket before walking out of the bedroom. We also get shown the sledge from his childhood in which also has the word rosebud embroided on to the material. These two clues help the audience to understand that rosebud is a symbol of Kane's childhood and how it signifies Kane's lastmoments of innocence and happiness before he was taken away for a 'better' life.
2 facts about the film is that Steven Spielberg owns the sledge "rosebud", being bought in 1982, although it is still unclear that Spielberg's is the remaining copy. The other fact is that Orson Welles got injured twice during production due to how he was ripping things off the walls and badly cut his hand and also fell and hurt his ankle.
With the running commentary of Roger Ebert throughout the film, he made some key points about the mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and set design.
For the cinematography, Welles used a lot of deep focus shots. For scenes such as when Kane is giving his speech in front of an audience, we can see that the whole scene is in focus including the fore ground and the background. Another scene is when Kane's mother, father and Walter Parks Thatcher are all in focus in the foreground but you can also see Kane in the background in which is still in focus. Ebert also commented on the low angles used in some scenes. This was done to capture dominance in the film and also captured the image of the ceiling and how low Welles wanted them too look.
For the mise-en-scene, Ebert commented on the illusion of the ceilings. Due to how they didn't make any full sets, they decided on making a ceiling using a cloth to cover the lights and microphones in the ceiling. The ceilings allowed a lot more light in to the scene and made them more realistic. Another thing that Ebert commented on was how the actors were made to look old. This allowed them to show the audience that a lot of time has passed by and that we are reliving flashbacks. Another comment made for the flashbacks is when the narrator of the flashback is always seen in the right hand corner of the screen talking to Kane. This enables the audience to understand who is narrating and what is going on. 
For the character movement, Ebert comments on how the characters moved when they were portrayed as much older. He mentions how Welles walks in his home in Xanadu how he wore a back brace to allow him to walk more stiff down the stairs in which showed the movement of age. Another comment made is when the character is level with other characters to portray dominance in which they then walk to the back of the room becoming smaller and smaller giving the dominance back to the one who wants power. 
For the sound, Ebert comments on how in one scene, Kane is seen and heard to be the only one clapping. In this scene, the audience clap although it appears that when Kane starts to clap, the audience dies down and the only sound that vibrates throughout the hall is Kane clapping for Susan. Another is when Kane smashes the bedroom up in which you can hear the breaking of different pieces of furniture in which is the only sound that can be heard throughout this scene. Bernard Hermann was the music operator of the film. Although he was only the scorer in 'Psycho', he had composed the music throughout Citizen Kane and also wrote the opera music for the film. 
For the set design, Ebert commented on how a lot of the set wasn't made. He mentions on how most of the design was drawings due to how Welles had a set budget. A lot of the set was mainly props such as sofas, beds, pianos, chairs but the main background or buildings of the film are mainly drawings. For the special effects, Ebert commented on how a lot of the different scenes where made from matte drawings. This was to create the background of a scene without it being there such as when Kane walks in to 'The Enquirer' with the only real thing in the picture being the transport and the door, the rest of the building is a drawing. Welles made the drawings come to life by putting light behind the drawings to make them seem real. Another special effect that was commented on was the crowd scenes. These were done by having an imaginary audience with flickering lights behind the image to suggest movement by the audience. Another special effect is when furniture moves. By this, Ebert commented on how some pieces of furniture was split in half just so the camera could track backwards to capture the action on screen. Another special effect is the optical illusion of the size of the windows and the fire place. When Kane walks towards the windows, they seem 12ft of the ground, although when he walks back through the room, they seem to be the same height.
- https://www.fandango.com/citizen-kane-1439/plot-summary
- http://mentalfloss.com/article/78802/13-classic-facts-about-citizen-kane
-https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/a-viewers-companion-to-citizen-kane
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