"it's the cane from citizen kane!"

Happy 100th post, reader(s)! On this momentous occasion, I am going to review the "greatest film ever made," because a) that seems very symbolic and b) coincidentally I have recently viewed it thanks to Netflix.

A degree in film studies and with many years of movie-watching under my belt, I had managed to get to 2008 without having ever seen Citizen Kane. I've seen sequences of it in various classes about directing and narrative, but managed to never quite know what the movie was about. As the opening credits began, I thought about how strange it was that I knew what "rosebud" was, but not even what actors were in the movie (imagine my surprise at the end credits to learn that Welles was an actor, too! They never should have given me honors in film studies... [/backdoorbragging]).


Now, it's almost impossible to review a classic film at this late stage, so all I can really say is that if you haven't yet seen Citizen Kane, make sure to do so very soon. The acting is wonderful, the makeup on aging the actors was really impressive, and the directing talent of Orson Welles is unlike anything I've seen. You can open up any book about him, or classic cinema, or directing, and read about his style from people who know more about it than I do. I was just shocked at how excellent some of the shots were that he was in, but I've always been impressed by directors who are in their films (and do it well). Also, the inspired use of special effects was definitely monumental at the time, and still impressive to this day.


Sometime in the next few days, I'll be watching Touch of Evil and also The Third Man, to get a sort of "Orson Welles' greatest hits" experience. I'll let you know how that goes.