Ding, Ding, Ding! Give Rob a cigar. Rosebud is, in fact, a reference to the enigmatic line from Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane is considered one of the greatest movies ever made, although I didn't get that impression of it the first time I saw it. However, I later saw another film about the movie called RKO 281 - The Battle over Citizen Kane and then began to understand the significance of the film, which was a thinly-veiled movie about the life of William Randolph Hearst. Citizen Kane and its director, Orson Welles, also figure prominently in a movie called 'Ed Wood'. Ed Wood is a film about a Hollywood film maker who is considered to be the worst in movie-making history. Imagine being so bad at something that they make a film about it !