the movie has so much depth that you have to swim up for air

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2003)

Citizen Kane

The camera passes over a NO TRESPASSING sign into a dark landscape where it doesn't belong, full of ominous statues and iron bars. Then, up rises before the camera a dark and looming castle, and only one light is lit, until it flickers and goes out. The only life in this giant monument of man is a feeble old man holding an old snow globe. He whispers with his last breath, `Rosebud', and then dies. Out of his limp hand falls his snow globe to where it shatters on the marble floor.

With these opening shots, these pieces of art, the whole movie of Citizen Kane was laid out before the audience without them even knowing it. Orson Welles (Director, Producer, Charles Foster Kane) paints beautiful pictures with the camera that are so deep that you'll have to swim up for air. The lighting, the photography, the writing, it all comes together in this masterpiece to create so much depth and meaning. The genius of this film deserves much reflection to see a window into its full meaning. At second a glance, all of its mystery is still not seen, just like Charles Foster Kane's life in the film. Even if you fail to see most of his visual metaphors, just the taste of Welles' wonder is rewarding enough.

Each set of the movie, (the spiral stair that symbolizes Kane's destruction, the long table separating Kane and his first wife much like the growing distance in their relationship, the large rooms Kane and his second wife lived in that symbolized their boredom and hollowness inside) captures the mood that it set out to accomplish. The lighting also expresses moods with shadows swallowing up Kane while he's going through a dark time, or making a large silhouette when he was on top of the world. And Mr. Welles achieved all of this visual mastery while experimenting with new, revolutionary techniques in lighting and photography, making this film truly unique and beautiful.

And what would a film be without the actors who play in it. They were all very real in the parts that they played, but none of the acting was very show stopping. The believability in the characters was all there when they delivered lines like, `Everything was [Kane's] idea, except for my leaving him.', or, `That's why [Kane] went into politics. We weren't enough, he wanted all the voters to love him too.', but the movie didn't call for any one character to carry the movie. It didn't need to. All the aspects of the film, the lighting, photography, editing, sets, acting, they came together and worked as a team to create Orson's masterpiece. This is a true testament to Orson Welles' great direction of `Citizen Kane'.

`Citizen Kane' was original like all great creations are. It played to its strengths in technique and Orson was able to blend all aspects of the film beautifully, like an artist mixing paint. Each stroke of his brush was calculated and meaningful. My IQ raised a few points just from watching the movie. Concentration was needed to stay focused on the screen though, so I gave this film an A-, and recommend that it be hung in an art gallery rather then on a movie shelf.