Citizen Kane in film noir?

Question

Taking in consideration the genre definition of film noir, what is significant about charles foster kane? and what exactly does film noir mean?

Answer 1

Citizen Kane is not considered a film noir. Film noir is a film dealing with dark subject, like death, violence, crime, etc, and a reference to it's filming technique, which relied on it usually being in black and white and dramatic effects, ie, Sunset Blvd, Postman Rings Twice, Big Sleep,those are your classic noir films.
As to Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, it's sort of a genre of it's own, but really it's just the life of William Randolph Hearst. nothing noir about the film, just the man.

Answer 2

I would not consider Kane to be film noir. That term usually is reserved for crime dramas in which there is a lot of moral ambiguity - good guys who are almost as bad as the bad guys. Hence the "darkness" (noir).

Citzen Kane was certainly a mystery and there was some detective work on the part of the reporters. Kane had his dark side but was more like a spoiled child than an evil man. The reporter was just a device- not good or bad, just a stand in for the viewer. Certainly not anything like a hardboiled detective. So I don't see it as fitting "film noir" at all.

Other films by Orson Wells, such as "A Touch of Evil" or "The Lady from Shanghai" could be called film noir.