The more I've learned about this film, the more I've enjoyed it

Rating: 9/10 (10 December 2011)

If you see this movie without any advance knowledge, it's a good story with good acting. But the more I've learned about its background and history, the more fascinating it's become.
Orson Welles (OW) was only 25, famous for his radio acting group, but with no previous movie experience when given carte blanche to make a film completely on his own with all editing at his discretion.
OW and the writer Herb Mankiewicz (HM) discussed using several notable contemporary characters (e.g., Howard Hughs) as take-offs for the main character to be portrayed in flashbacks. They settled on newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, possibly because HM had been friends with Hearst & his mistress, movie star Marion Davies, until HM's always getting drunk at their parties led to their excluding him (which ticked off HM).
The film's principal character of "Charles Foster Kane" (CFK) is an amalgam of fantasy plus some features of Hearst as well as others, (including OW's huge ego, OW's huge temper, OW's being orphaned and brought up by a non-relative). CFK's promotion of his 2nd wife, "Susan Alexander," as an opera star was based very closely on the otherwise unrelated actions of a (real life) contemporary Chicago tycoon, Harold McCormick, with his 2nd wife.
When Hearst learned of CFK's resemblance to him, he ordered his publishing empire (28 metropolitan USA newspapers + many radio stations) to make NO mention, carry NO advertising AT ALL of this film. That quashed its reception in the USA in all but a few metro areas. It was only after 1955, when RKO sold its film library to TV, that "Citizen Kane" ("CK") began being widely seen and appreciated. French "New Wave" directors were also extolling "CK's" innovative greatness.
"CK" made a number of breakthroughs. Previously:
-- film narratives had been told sequentially and from only one point of view. In "CK", CFK dies at the beginning and the rest of the film is a series of flashbacks; a reporter seeks out CFK's life and several characters give contrasting views;
-- cinematography had filmed scenes in residences horizontally, as if viewing a theater set; CK's cinematographer excavated holes in the floor to make some shots from unique levels;
-- a dining table was incrementally lengthened in repeated scenes of CFK with his 1st wife to enhance the growing distance between them;
-- plus many, many other innovations.
Probably due to Hearst's restrictive measures against the film, "CK" did not make money for RKO. Since its resurgence, many experts have called it the greatest American film ever (or, sometimes, greatest film ever).
I saw it several months ago in a KU faculty alum film series and, just again, in another monthly film series. While it was enjoyable the first time, it became more so the second time because I knew and attended to more.
For those interested in these areas, I highly commend the Wikipedia article on "Citizen Kane" (as well as theirs on "Orson Welles"). Wiki's article on "CK" (IMO) seems fairly balanced (while some books/articles on "CK" are not) -- & as a bonus, you'll learn which part of whose anatomy that "Rosebud" was a euphemism for!