A Great American Work of Art

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2010)

Citizen Kane {dir Orson Welles, 1941}
****/****
Orson Welles's Citizen Kane has been heralded far and wide as the greatest film ever made. It tops lists released by such reputable establishments as Sight and Sound Magazine and the American Film Institute. Are these showers of praise justified? Who is to say really. The power of Kane lies not with it stature as "best" anything. It is simply a great American work of art, a cornerstone of popular culture and cinematic craft, a landmark and a classic film.
Do not allow those highfalutin descriptions in anyway discourage you from seeing the film. Contrary to what some believe, the film is more than an exercise of style over substance. It is a groundbreaking technical exercise and a sparkling entertainment. That delicate balance between art can best be attributed to producer/writer/director/star Orson Welles, who in his first film uses every visual trick he and cinematographer Gregg Toland can muster (at one point Welles even resorts to making shadow puppets).
All the craftsmanship in the world would never be able to take the place of an intriguing story. Welles and his co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz constructed a doozy, a fascinating portrait of a man of almost mythical power. This is the rare film to explore the personality of a tycoon like Kane. Both the performance and the character are wonderfully fleshed out. Charles Foster Kane is charming, tyrannical, lovable, loathsome, yet always distant and enigmatic. That last trait, Kane as an enigma, is a stroke of genius on the film's part. For all the details the film gives us regarding Kane's life, it never supposes that we can draw any final conclusions about the man and his motives. In his portrait of an American dream gone wrong, Welles leaves us with a startling fact: No one man's life can be reduced and crystallized into two hours worth of celluloid. Welles is at once seems to capture a wide breadth of human experience, while also acknowledging that the scenes before as a merely a small part of the whole. But what a joy these small parts are. We are treated to watching Kane's rise and fall beginning as a dashing young turk signing his well-intentioned Declaration of Principles, to a megalomaniacal recluse, living alone in his castle full of useless treasures. Kane's descent is brilliantly visualized. He is consistently shot from a low angle, yet this seemingly dominating stature is increasingly put into a more ironic context. We watch his power wither into desperation.
Yet, even in the end, the film never loses Welles's winking sense of humor. With the final reveal of the origin of the term "Rosebud" (the film's central MacGuffin, as Hitchcock would call it) one can imagine Welles (the consummate magician) exclaiming "Taa-daa!" with a grand theatrical gesture of the hand. For with this film, Welles establishes himself as the masterful magician of light and shadow. Yet despite all of the light Welles brings, Kane remains a figure of mystery, and a fascinating character. It is that central element of fascination that keeps so many film goers returning to Citizen Kane again and again. That may not be "best", but its not far off.