Citizen Kane

                                                                     Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a movie made in 1941 that was directed by, produced by, and starring Orson Welles. Many people have made the claim that Citizen Kane is the greatest movie of all time. In order to agree or refute this claim you have to look deeper than if you enjoyed the movie or not and instead look at why the people made this claim.

This claim was made because they used many things in the film that had never been seen in films before it. One thing Citizen Kane did that no other film before it had used was the circular narrative. A circular narrative is a story that starts and ends in the same spot. The movie starts with Charles Kane on his deathbed and right before he dies, he says the word “rosebud”. A newspaper is working on his obituary and an employee is put in charge of learning what he meant by the word rosebud. He goes around interviewing all of Kane's friends and family and after interviewing everyone he can think of he comes to the conclusion that he will never know the meaning behind the word. Then the end of the movie cuts to Charles Kane's mansion being cleaned out and as they were burning his sled from his childhood the word rosebud is shown on it. This circular narrative was used in many films after the release of Citizen Kane.

Another reason it is named the best film of all time is the acting and direction of Orson Welles. He was given complete creative control to all aspects of production. There was, understandably, a great deal of professional jealousy and cynicism regarding his first production, which turned out to be Citizen Kane. What ended up on screen proved nearly all the doubters and critics wrong. At the age of 25, as an absolute film novice, Welles wrote, directed, and acted in a film with the most complex, demanding and challenging script ever yet written. As an actor, he played a character from the age of 22 to 78, portraying the transformation from a rebel to a powerful man to a sad, lonely, defeated, and misunderstood man yearning for his lost youth. As a director, he invented photographic techniques, camera angles and movements that had never been seen in film before, experimented with screen transitions and editing techniques never seen before, and introduced a group of actors who would have a major place in American film for the next quarter-century.

The final reason why Citizen Kane could be seen as the greatest movie of all time is because of the film technology and innovations used. Before working with Welles, Gregg Toland, the director of photography, was a highly respected Cinematographer, having been nominated for Academy Awards in 1935, 1937, 1939, and 1940 and was known for making many technological and stylistic breakthroughs in his work with director John Ford. But when Welles’ vision was matched with Toland’s expertise and professionalism, the pair made many breakthroughs. Citizen Kane used new and emerging technologies and techniques such as the optical printer, deep focus lighting and lenses, in-camera composites, low-key lighting, extreme low-angle perspectives, and radical close-ups. Groundbreaking l techniques such as heavy use of matte drawings, jump-cut edits, animation, hand-held camera shots, wide-open camera apertures, arc lighting, and distressing the film to achieve an aged look were also used.

Although the movie was not my personal favorite, due to all of the breakthroughs and innovations made, I agree that it can be considered the best movie of all time. Orson Welles was very talented and made many great advancements with this movie.

Why Is "Citizen Kane" (1941) the Best Movie Ever Made? https://reelrundown.com/movies/Why-is-Citizen-Kane-the-Best-Movie-Ever-Made.