Citizen Kane is often cited as the greatest film ever made due to its innovative cinematography and camera composition. When talking about Citizen Kane talks about how his ignorance and inexperience led to giving Gregg Toland complete creative freedom over the cinematographic look of the film. This led to some of the most ground-breaking shots in cinemas history that are consistently replicated in modern cinema. Wells use of shadows helps to create different feelings around characters and set a different tone for different moments in the film Furthermore Wells use of angled shots such as low, high and Dutch angle shots have influenced the stereotypes we now attach with these shots. As well as this Wells use of depth of field has influenced countless numbers of films. This is one of the key features we now associate with modern Hollywood blockbusters. As well as this no Film can be considered the best of all time without a good story, Citizen Kane focuses on the demise and downfall of a once great man. We see his materialistic nature and ambition get the best of him and ultimately lead to his fall. Wells created a lonely anti villain that we ultimately want to succeed but due to his own mistakes he cannot. The non linier plot broke the mold of film making as nowadays it is very common to have a non linear plot but back then in 1941 this was ground-breaking also has a big part to play as we first see the death of Wells and only hear about him from his close friends and relations this creates an almost interview style with each character recalling good or bad memory’s that they had with him. This was a breakthrough in story telling in film and opened the doors for new ways to tell a story. The Film has also always managed to keep cultural relevance which has allowed different generations to take the same message from the film. Finally the ending Wells left the audience without an answer and was the first to do so, Modern cinema is filed with cliff hangers and films that make you think but once again Wells created this way before it would become fashionable.
