Fun to Analyze, Hard to Watch

Rating: 5/10 (11 May 2019)

Citizen Kane is a film that I like to describe as fun to analyze but hard to watch. For a filmmaking buff, Citizen Kane is an all you can eat buffet. Welles' cinematography was revolutionary and his usage of lighting is incredible. There are so many things in this film that make it a technical masterpiece, and stills from the film are the perfect thing to include in a textbook on great movie making. That being said, the actual plot of the film is fun at times, but dreadfully boring at others. The take on storytelling of starting with the death of the character and then following a reporter as he pieces the man's life together was a clever one, but that life takes too long to get through when the journey isn't even the most enjoyable thing to experience. Kane's life was by no means boring, but there were times throughout the movie where it feels like the pacing goes to a halt for good reason. There are a variety of time jumps to get a nice sense of Kane's life, but more could have been done with the characters that knew Kane in the present, as without a more unique reaction to his death (which implies growth or change of those characters) it feels like these sections are mere detours that pull us out of the actual movie.