Citizen Kane (1941)

Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore

Synopsis:
A reporter visits people close to the newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane in an effort to unlock the secret of his cryptic last words.

Impressions:
This is hailed by many as the greatest film ever made. I don't know if I'd necessarily go that far, but I can certainly agree that it's a great film, one of the greatest. As an adaptation of the life of William Randolph Hearst, the movie got Orson Welles in a lot of hot water with the influential media magnate. (Welles probably should've waited until Hearst, like Kane, was safely six feet under, but I imagine his litigious estate would've done as much damage.) At its core, this is a tragedy in the classic mode of a man ruined by his hubris, desperate for love but too incurably self-centered to really understand what love means. To portray a character so much larger than life, no one but Welles could fit the bill. Even by today's standards, the makeup effects used to follow Kane throughout the years are rather impressive. Other performances I liked were those of Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore and Everett Sloane. You don't have to call it the best of all time, but you definitely need to see it and any serious cinephile needs it in their collection.

Rating:
Treasure It