Citizen Cane Review

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2013)

www.TheMovieFrog.com Classic Cinema Series #2 - Citizen Kane #2
Starting a review for Citizen Kane feels a lot like starting a review for Casablanca did. What am I going to say about the film Roger Ebert has dubbed "the greatest of all time" that hasn't been said before? EVERYONE knows that this is one of the most innovative and masterfully constructed movies ever told. It was drastically ahead of its time in terms of cinematography, editing, sound design, you name it. But we all knew these things long before I started this article.
I could certainly write a whole review about the acting, so naturalistic and understated for a picture of the time period. Welles is a revelation as Kane, with this marvelously smug yet confidential line delivery like he's talking down to you and honoring you with a secret wisdom at the same time. Agnes Moorehead is positively creepy as the loving mother who has completely turned her emotions off in order to do what's best for her son. Dorothy Comingore absolutely blows me away as Susan Alexander Kane, probably the most fully realized character not featured in the title. Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein, George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher, the movie is full of great performances. Again...we knew this going in.
I could speak at great length about the film's groundbreaking narrative structure. We begin with the end of the story, then we get a brief overview that lays the ground work for the sub plot that creates the structure for the rest of the movie. Then we see different, shifting periods in Kane's life through the eyes of several different characters who all have their own take on who the man was. This may not seem so significant in an age where film makers like Nolan and Tarantino regularly turn chronology on its head, but these men owe a huge debt to Welles for showing them how it is done long before they were born. But...we knew this.
I could write a piece in which the central point is that Citizen Kane is one of the most quietly busy films ever made, rife with symbolism. In the opening scene alone, we are treated to images of snow super-imposed over Kane's face symbolic of both an ending, and the story's beginning (which we don't know yet). We see the snow globe shatter, as Kane lets go of his... (continued at www.TheMovieFrog.com)