Certainly ONE of the best

Rating: 10/10 (27 August 1999)

`Citizen Kane' would be more widely loved, perhaps, if it did not begin with a lengthy newsreel account of Kane's life. (Actually, it begins with the death scene, and I know there are some who find THIS bizarre and off-putting. But I doubt that's what turns people off.) While this is the only part of the film that could be described as dull, I suspect that some viewers don't bother to watch any further, expecting more of the same dated vulgarity. But a newsreel is a newsreel. Everyone knew they were vulgar and intolerably pompous, even when they were being made - ESPECIALLY when they were being made - and it's just this vulgarity and pomposity that the rest of the film undermines, in the lively account that follows of what Kane's life was REALLY like. After the newsreel it's one great scene after another. `Citizen Kane' is anything but worthy stodge.
But presenting us with the newsreel, mind you, was a good tactic. Forget the `Rosebud' thing. The real story is that of the reporter who researches above and beyond the call of duty, cross-examining witness after witness, in search of enough `human interest' detail to make more sense of Kane's life than the newsreel did - and he can never find quite enough. The amazing thing is that Welles plays perfectly fair. He hides from us the identity of `Rosebud', but nothing else; and in playing Kane he makes no effort to conceal what Kane is thinks or feels. Yet we share the reporter's perplexity at the end. Welles performed one of the world's great conjuring tricks when he told us every important detail EXCEPT the identity of `Rosebud', and then sprung that information on us, as well, to see if it made a difference. See for yourself if it does.