It's Good

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2004)

I recently got a chance to see Citizen Kane again in my film class. I watched it for the first many years before but didn't really appreciate it so I was looking forward to see what became of it now.

The opening scene sticks in my mind first off because it's very dark and gives you an uneasy feeling in the same way Hitchcock did with Psycho. Orson Welles was the kind of person who would break the rules when it came to filmmaking as he made films different to others, but keep in mind he was a theatre director so he knew how to trick audiences and I suppose he does the same with Citizen Kane which leaves you wondering what the word `Rosebud' meant. Welles did create a whole new genre I think but there are a few negative points about Citizen Kane which I feel I must share with you. I didn't think it was long enough to get a real feeling for Charles Foster Kane because there was hardly much to see about him growing up. It shot through different generations of his life to fast to even care about what he was about. But that doesn't make it a bad film, just not a great one. It may have been something huge and inventive in it's day but I wouldn't go as far as saying it was the greatest film of all time as the critics say. I could honestly name 20 other films which are just as good, Citizen Kane sticks in everyone's mind because it was fresh but when you look at it now it offers nothing new.
Nevertheless the camera work in this was just fantastic when his father and mother are talking to Thatcher in their house but through the window you could see Charles Foster Kane as a small boy sledging through the snow and then it cut to a scene where his mother was looking outside at him and then kept with her and the other two characters till they got outside which must have been very hard to do back then and the lighting in Citizen Kane is probably the best I have ever seen.