Citizen Kane – The Best Film of All Time?

Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 3:24 pm

Many critics place Citizen Kane at the top of their list of best films of all time. I think it would be best described as the most influential film of all time.

Personally, I have no great love for the film. I find it hard to have empathy for the central characters and it leaves me rather cold. But I do have tons of admiration for it. Orson Welles’ film was ground-breaking in many senses of the word. Its greatest gift was that of a new grammar for film-makers.

There are so many technical and stylistic innovations in the film that any audience at the time of its release would have been wowed by the “special effects”. Do you remember seeing Star Wars orÂ The MatrixÂ for the first time? Something like that!

Just to list a few of the innovations (mainly cinematography):

Camera Angles – upward and downward camera angles to help create moods and points of view
Depth of field – camera shots that show the back and the foreground in focus to create space and depth between the characters
Tracking shots – camera movement over buildings, through windows to follow the action
Use of flashbacks – creative use to dramatise the narrative
Editing – different types of editing to convey pace and time and place

I am sure that there are many more if you analyse the film in detail but the point to be made was that it provided film makers who followed a broader range of techniques to call on to enhance their story telling and set the mood of their films. Welles was pronounced a genius after the opening of the film but it is Greg Toland’s photography that sets it apart from the films of that time. Was it Welles or Toland that was the genius?

Citizen Kane has its rightful place in history because it moved the film community forward and lit the fire of imagination for many generations to come. And in that respect it is by far the most influential film of all time.

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