still the Great American Movie

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2010)

If Orson Welles' debut feature isn't the best American film ever made it certainly remains one of the most impressive, combining narrative and technical dexterity in a stunning display of talent unmatched before or since. Every scene is a minor masterpiece of style and invention, and the elliptical story of newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, who squandered a wealth he never earned on a woman he couldn't love, is as much a catalogue of camera techniques as it is a compelling drama. It's hard to believe the film flopped at the Box Office when first released in 1941, but perhaps it was simply too sophisticated for widespread audience appeal. Today of course it remains a model of creative entertainment, and a sad reminder of Hollywood's disdain for rogue talent. Welles never equaled the achievement, but even if the film itself could never be repeated the joy of watching it certainly can, and after half a century the rise and fall of Charles Foster Kane is as fresh and compelling as ever. In all likelihood the only viewer left unimpressed by the film was its inspiration, William Randolph Hearst, but what angered him more: Welles' reckless re-creation of San Simeon (Kane's Xanadu), or the true identity of 'Rosebud'?