Mightily impressive

Rating: 7/10 (26 November 2003)

When many films from the 1960s now seem ridiculously dated, it's amazing how modern 'Citizen Kane' still feels after over 60 years. The scene composition, the lighting, the credits, the discontinuous narrative, the moral ambivalence of its 'hero', all seem to belong to a much more recent era. Even the themes - the power of the press, celebrity, ambition, etc. still all seem pertinent - and what is Xanadu if not Disneyland? Of course, some of the dialogue inevitably seems clumsy, and the final conclusion is slightly weak, but few if any films can have so expanded the cinematographic vocabulary of their time. Still much more than the greatest ever film about a man in love with a sledge!