Citizen Kane was created at the peak of the film industry in Hollywood and still to this day has an influence on modern day film making. The film noir genre stemmed from Citizen Kane and its techniques, and the genre went on to become one of the most popular of that era; and even now samples of it are used in contemporary work. From this point alone it is safe to say that critics are correct to cite Citizen Kane as one of “the greatest movies ever made”, especially on an influential basis.
Orson Welles was a young director coming from the theatre world, who adapted with the times to make something for a new audience in a new style of media, and what he created was ultimately ahead of its time which is why it is still enjoyed by many people, as it is rather timeless. He experimented with extreme camera angles, obscure lighting, a new type of focus (deep focus) and brought elaborate blocking from the theatre stage onto a cinema screen. He developed new ways of storytelling and added layers and dimensions to his characters and plots which was a new concept at the time, when movies often merely used the camera as an observer, Citizen Kane introduced the ‘unreliable narrator’ into cinema by switching between contradicting accounts of Kane’s life through flashbacks.
Orson Welles was not conventional; I believe this was a huge strength for him and his film making as it was impactful in a way that no one else had tried to be before. Citizen Kane’s opening squashed any tension straight away by telling audiences the whole story right in the beginning, which at the time would have completely upturned people’s expectations. Films back then (and sometimes still nowadays) often flow in a linear sequence with events being shown in chronological order. Welles bent the rules of film making in Citizen Kane and in doing so, made his work even more entertaining and pleasurable to watch. On a technical level, and simply just the feel and look of the film, it continues to impress audiences. Therefore, this is why I believed critics still to this day cite Citizen Kane as “the greatest movie ever made”.
