Brilliant....# 1 move of all times

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2008)

Citizen Kane is said to be the greatest film ever made. I haven't seen all of the films ever made in the world, therefore I couldn't make a decision but if the greatest film is out there and even slightly resembles Kane, it is nothing short of sheer brilliance. The intense Orson Welles, the mastermind of the film, was a perfectionist and it showed. He did not confine his film to the limits of the period it was made in and it helped to revolutionize the film industry with Kane. The lighting, editing and cinematography were all basically new to the world. Based on this, it shocked the film industry into being the greatest film ever created.
Charles Foster Kane played by Welles himself rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most famous and powerful people in America. At a very young age, Kane's mother inherits a gold mine and becomes suddenly wealthy, sending away her son to live with Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris), his mother's banker. Proving something of a disappointment for Mr. Thatcher, Kane shows little aspirations for success until the age of twenty-six, when he decides to head the 'Inquirer,' because he "thinks it would be fun to run a newspaper." Kane eventually becomes rich and powerful through publishing "yellow journalism" which, though frowned upon by most critics, proved immensely profitable.
The most remarkable thing about 'Citizen Kane' is its narrative structure. The film opens with Kane's death. As the image fades into a large "NO TREPASSING" sign on the gate of Kane's "Xanadu" dwelling, we progressively cut to images closer and closer to his house, witnessing the vastness of Kane's wealth, and yet all his riches seem to be in disrepair. A lone lit window stands eerily amidst the snow, before the light inexplicably goes out, the figure hunched within suddenly plunged into darkness. We see Charles Foster Kane's withered hand clasping at a snow-globe, and his lips utter the mystifying words, "Rosebud." With a sudden crash, the snow-globe slips from Kane's hand and shatters on the floor. A maidservant enters the room and covers the dead man's body with a blanket. The remainder of the film is largely comprised of flashbacks.
Despite the film's pessimistic outlook, it is studded by moments of joy, beauty and emotional truth. The supporting cast of characters, most of them regulars from Wells' Mercury Theater are also superb. Joseph Cotton is memorable as Jed Leland Kane's close friend who believes in him more then he does. And Everet Slone is wonderful as Kane's would be mentor Mr. Bernstien.
There had never been a picture like "Citizen Kane." It openly satirized a wealthy and powerful living American, it deliberately antagonized Hollywood's ruling elite, and it bravely ignored conventional cinema technique Innovative, aggressive, and fascinating, "Citizen Kane" electrified a complacent industry Welles dominated Kane He had become, in a single stroke, the most admired, envied, praised and detested man in Hollywood Unhappily, the movie industry never learned to utilize Welles' quixotic genius, and his career never rescaled the heights it had reached in 1941.
Other than the acting and story part, what does it take to make a great movie, yup the cinematography and the editing. I consider the best filmmakers to be great cinematographers first. And yes Citizen Kane has it all great great photography and slick editing techniques used that too in those days. So is Citizen Kane the best film ever created? I am not the world's biggest film buff, but I do know that it is incomparable to anything that I have ever seen before. It is truly original and that is what makes it so incredibly brilliant.