Citizen Kane (1941)

It is difficult to add my opinion to such a well-worn film - who am I to decree whether it's the greatest film to be made? (And as one of the most consistently critically lauded films, it's a question you have to consider.)

The story is told cleverly non-linearly, with us piecing events together the same as the journalistic, putting together a picture of  Charles Foster Kane built from the opinions of those around him. It's always a very interesting way of looking at a character, contrasting the public, professional and personal views of him. It works that the journalist fails in his search for the meaning of "Rosebud": in the end, the point is that one word can never encapsulate a life, and what he learnt in the process was more revealing. Still the reveal to audience was important - how annoying would it have been if we never found out what "rosebud" meant?

The visual inventiveness is legendary, from the use of deep focus and mobile cameras and what struck me powerfully was that it still manages not to look dated. Stylistically, it's incredibly modern, with the only thing marking it out being the film stock. Welles uses every trick in the book, a few of which he wrote himself, to create the maximum meaning in shots. I particularly love the way Xanadu is shot, its imposing size only rivalled by its larger than life owner thanks to the expressionistic angles and sets. I also love the way the black and white is used - it's crisp and atmospheric. I even like that you can see pterodactyls flying in the background for one scene.

Orson Welles is inarguably the star - his direction, his acting, his vision makes Citizen Kane what it is. Among all its strengths, I think the brilliance of his performance is often overlooked; it's a very physically demanding performance with the transition from a young man into a blustering dinosaur. The contrast between his youthful fluidity and his stiffness in old age is just perfect, and perfectly complementary to the aging make-up, which is also top-notch.

I still don't think it can categorically be called the best film of all time; for one, I haven't seen every film ever made (and nor has anyone else) and also, it's a depressing thought that the bar was set 60 years ago and never matched. I do, however, believe that it's a brilliant film decades ahead of its time.