What does Stella Bruzzi think drives Charles Foster Kane?

Stella Bruzzi says the film never fully settles what drives Kane, but the clearest motive is a longing for the childhood he was torn from, echoing Welles's own early loss of his mother. Kane distrusts wealth yet is fascinated by what it can buy, starting with newspapers he can afford to lose a million dollars a year on for 60 years. Bruzzi reads his empire-building as an attempt to fill an inner vacuum: he is exuberant and controlling but never shown truly happy.

• Bruzzi calls Kane a deliberately two-dimensional character, matching the declamatory performance.
• The scene where Kane wrecks Susan's bedroom, she says, is a spontaneous single take in which Welles hurt his hand.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

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