A ‘Citizen Kane’ Without Rosebud? It’s Unthinkable

Some movies tell you stories. And some movies tell you they’re going to tell you a story before they tell it.

It’s called framing a story, or in movie terms, a wraparound--a plot device that bookends the body of a movie story with what seems to be another story entirely. It’s been around as long as movies have, and yet it remains a popular storytelling tool, particularly in movie biographies and mysteries.

Some of the most recent examples, “Saving Private Ryan” and “Ever After” and of course “Titanic,” offer the same kind of story-within-a-story structure as “Citizen Kane” or “Sunset Boulevard.”

But the framing device is just as often a writer’s crutch as it is a source of cinematic inspiration, as a quick study of some famous examples shows.

RECENT FILMS

“Saving Private Ryan” (1998)

Plot: An Army patrol goes behind enemy lines in France after D-day looking for a soldier who is about to be sent home.

The frame: One of the soldiers, now an old man, walks through the American military cemetery at Normandy and collapses near the grave of one of his fallen comrades.

What it adds: Two bracketing moments of forced emotion in a movie otherwise surprisingly free of that kind of sentimentality.

Would the movie work without it?: Easily. It would be an even better movie.

“Ever After” (1998)

Plot: A young woman’s chances at happiness are nearly spoiled by an abusive stepparent. But the heroine prevails in this post-feminist version of the “Cinderella” story.

The frame: An elderly Frenchwoman (Jeanne Moreau) deconstructs “Cinderella” for its authors, the Brothers Grimm.

What it adds: About six minutes to the running time.

Would the movie work without it?: Only by being six minutes shorter.

“Titanic” (1997)

Plot: Boy meets girl on doomed ocean liner. She survives doom; he doesn’t.

The frame: Deep-sea recovery specialists, looking for treasure on sunken Titanic, instead uncover unknown survivor who may have knowledge about missing jewelry.

What it adds: The wraparound creates echoes and resonance between the past and the present, inextricably binding the bookends to the main story.

Would the movie work without it?: Are you kidding? The coda contains the film’s most emotional moment.

CLASSICS

“Citizen Kane” (1941)

Plot: Orson Welles examines the life of Charles Foster Kane, a kind of fin de siecle Rupert Murdoch, and the people he trampled on his way to the top.

The frame: A team of reporters is assigned to find the secret behind the last word Kane ever uttered: “Rosebud.”

What it adds: Plenty. It not only drives the movie but provides the most famous payoff shot in movie history.

Would the movie work without it?: No way.

“Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942)

Plot: A film biography of Broadway performer-writer-producer George M. Cohan, from child stardom to post-retirement comeback.

The frame: Cohan is called to the White House in the middle of the night by FDR himself and proceeds to spend the whole late-night meeting telling the president the story of his life.

What it adds: A greater understanding of what the world was like before photo ops. Cohan is handed the Medal of Honor by FDR, minus any ceremony or onlookers, then walks out of the White House alone, the medal in his pocket, and joins a passing military parade, which happens to be singing one of his songs.

Would the movie work without it?: Yes and no; drop the opening and save the conclusion.

“Sunset Boulevard” (1950)

Plot: Hack Hollywood writer Joe Gillis (William Holden), on the run from debts, winds up in an affair with reclusive, over-the-hill silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson).

The frame: The film opens with Gillis’ corpse floating in Desmond’s pool and then is recounted in flashback--by the dead man.

What it adds: This legendary framing lends an element of mystery about how Gillis wound up dead (not to mention how he can tell his own story from beyond the grave).

Would the movie work without it?: Its inventiveness adds to what is already a great story.

OTHER FILMS

“Forrest Gump” (1994)

Plot: The life of a man of below-average intelligence and above-average luck who crosses paths with most of the world leaders of his time.

The frame: Forrest (Tom Hanks) sits on a bus bench and tells the story of his life to whoever will listen. Life, it turns out, is like a box of chocolates, with way too many pieces filled with nougat.

What it adds: A quick and direct introduction to Forrest’s inner life, which is blessedly opaque to the horrors that often confront him.

Would the movie work without it?: Forrest’s idiot-savant life wouldn’t be the same if it were recounted in anything other than Forrest’s affectless drawl.

“The Bridges of Madison County”

(1995)

Plot: A National Geographic photographer on assignment in Iowa plunges into an unexpected affair with a farm wife that lasts a weekend and leaves him shattered.

The frame: After the woman’s death, her son and daughter uncover a journal she left of the affair and find the photographic proof, thus changing the way they think of their late mother and themselves.

What it adds: Separate perspectives on the woman in question, both from the man who loved her briefly and the children who thought they knew her their whole lives.

Would the movie work without it?: Yes. It’s an interesting device to get into the story, but the story is told well enough not to need it.

“The Usual Suspects” (1996)

Plot: A group of robbers gets involved in a series of heists, only to discover that they are pawns in the plans of legendary, ruthless crime genius Keyser Soze.

The frame: A ship explodes at a San Jose dock and the police begin to investigate what happened. The one man they have to question seems to be the gang’s weakest link, a petty thief and snitch.

What it adds: A terrific layer of wholly credible dissembling.

Would the movie work without it?: No--and certainly not without the final twisteroo that makes you question everything you’ve seen in the whole movie.

“The Man Who Would Be King”

(1975)

Plot: Two British soldiers of fortune in India (Sean Connery and Michael Caine) head into the Himalayas in hopes of becoming rulers of their own kingdom--and nearly succeed.

The frame: The horribly disfigured survivor of the duo (Caine) shows up in the newspaper office of Rudyard Kipling, who had been involved with the pair at the inception of this quest for riches, and begins to tell his story.

What it adds: A nice literary/historical frisson, reimagining how Kipling, an old India hand, might have been inspired to write his great adventure tale. Also, a suitably grisly (yet noble) parting shot.

Would the movie work without it?: No. It starts with an image of horror, then tells an ironic adventure story that brings us full circle.

“Stand by Me” (1987)

Plot: Four pre-adolescents, outcasts all in one way or another, go on a quest to find the missing body of a kid who has been hit by a train. In the process, they come of age.

The frame: One of the four, now an adult writer (Richard Dreyfuss), recounts the memory of the juvenile adventure after being reminded of it by a newspaper account of the death of one of his friends.

What it adds: A voice of wisdom, remembering childhood fears and triumphs, as well as an emotional kicker to the whole tale.

Would the movie work without it?: Maybe. Still, the climax wouldn’t have the power without the narration that precedes it.