Welles' masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (2 September 2005)

Citizen Kane is wunderkind Orson Welle's first film and has been considered by critics and directors for the past 50 years as the best film ever made. It's #1 on the American Film Institute's top 100 best films. Charles Foster Kane is a publisher of a yellow journalism newspaper. He becomes rich and powerful and establishes a publishing empire. He builds a costly mansion for his wife, Xanadu. Citizen Kane is the story of his rise and fall. Joseph Cotten is Kane's friend and partner but their relationship deteriorates over the years. The structure of the movie is told in flashbacks which keeps the film moving. The movie was a box office flop. But for decades it's been discussed and dissected in film classes. It's a great character study filled with interesting characters and great dialogue and the movie deserves to be at the top of the list.