Influences of Citizen Kane in Velvet Goldmine

In a structural sense, Velvet Goldmine borrows from Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane in many ways. Velvet Goldmine is the story of a journalist who is sent to uncover the secret of what happened to a rock star named Brian Slade as Kane was about a journalist trying to uncover the life of a newspaper magnate. 

There are scenes in the film which copy Citizen Kane almost directly, such as the journalist visiting his subject’s worn down, chain-smoking ex-wife in a club for an interview. There are also parallel scenes in both films where the journalist goes to a hospital to visit a man in a wheelchair. Both films have mysteries to uncover about their main subjects and use the same methods in trying to uncover the mystery. 

However, there are very strong intrinsic differences between the two movies. Citizen Kane is mainly about Charles Foster Kane and he is the only character in the film that is given very much depth, background or focus. The journalist in Kane is given very little thought at all and is in fact rarely ever shown facing the camera or in full lighting. In Velvet Goldmine there are several different characters that the audience can understand and empathize with. The journalist in Velvet Goldmine is not only a very important character in the film, but he has a direct link to his subject Brian Slade. 

Both films deal with the mystery of an enigmatic man. But the two men in each film are dealt with differently. Citizen Kane is about the unhappiness and emptiness in the lives of one of the richest men in the world. Velvet Goldmine is about the unhappiness and emptiness in the life of a man whose generation couldn’t survive.