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Start of Modern Filmmaking Before your very Eyes

So this is it,the greatest film of all time! According to pretty much every critic known to man,this is the one and only.If there has to be a film that's called the greatest and I suppose it may as well be,Orson Welles undisputed masterwork"Citizen Kane".One has to experience this film.From a technical aspect,this film is astounding! it really is.The amount of skill that is on display here boggles the mind.Almost every shot is constructed brilliantly.The use of light and focus and camera movement is simply awesome.Realize now that this was one of the first times that the camera was given the license to actually move.The camera here moves like a relentless animal,weaving and never resting long.The use of shadow reflection,sound effects,all are quite remarkable.Look for an instant at Welles's eyes in this film.He was twenty-five years old and he knew that he was making the film of the century.And I'll be damned if he doesn't look like he knew it! His cockiness,his ego shines through the entire production.This film is as much a document of what happened to Orson when he went to Hollywood as it is the fictionalized account of Charles Kane and his legacy.Welles never reaches these dizzying heights of artistry again,and it's a shame.He came close on"The Magnificent Ambersons",a film that may have surpassed Kane had it not been for the meddling of the studio heads.He did make a marvel in"Touch of Evil"also,but it never quite got the recognition that Kane got.If it had,well,to hell with Hitchcock.There are some marvelous themes under the surface of the movie.Stuff about the loss of innocence and the way that time and life can cause us to forget where we started from.

Luciano Santavicca

{22 votes}

January 12, 2006

Citizen Noir

Citizen Kane is the story of Charles Foster Kane, newspaper tycoon. It is a biopic as well as a cautionary tale. It is also firmly in the noir tradition and plays like a sequence of panels from Will Eisner's Spirit comic. It looks great and projects an atmosphere that has been much imitated and in some ways never equalled.

The story opens with death of Kane and his famous utterance of a single word, 'Rosebud'. We follow the reporter who seeks to find out the meaning of Rosebud by going back over the past of this enigmatic figure, interviewing his friends and lover, even the butler of his huge estate.

There has been so much commentary about this film it's hard to ignore it while watching. The biggest controversy is surrounding the fact that the character of Kane is based on real-life news tycoon William Randolph Hearst. However if we watch Kane expecting a picture which attacks the character of another man we are only seeing part of the picture, for the portrayal of Kane is also a sympathetic one, thanks to Orson Welles' performance.

Orson Welles is one of those actors who is always fun to watch. He has a ready laugh and projects extreme intelligence and wit, and this is apparent in the character of Kane, delivered for all time with great brio by Welles through a snappy and energetic narrative. Welles is beautifully supported by Joseph Cotten and Everett Sloane, who play Kane's two best friends. In many respects this film is about a man and his two friends, and how the man's pride and choices distanced himself from his friends, and finally from life itself.

It's a melancholy film punctuated by often brilliant humor and only slightly tainted by the bitterness of personal attack. Visually it is stunning and must really be something to see on the big screen. Many contemporary visual image styles owe it all to Citizen Kane. It tells its story in a remarkably economical fashion. It is without a doubt one of the greatest American films ever made.

Thomas Bauer

{8 votes}

June 25, 2005

Overrated film

This is a overrated film that does not make any sense at all and it was boring to watch. I do not know why they voted this film the best film of all time because it did not make any sence and the acting was real bad. This film is in black and white and it could of been better if this film was in colour. I recommend you to not watch this film because it stinks.

Carmela Sicurella

{4 votes}

July 15, 2004

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