Citizen Kane film review

Review

Cast & crew

Citizen Kane

(1941)

Acclaimed by critics and film-makers alike, Citizen Kane has topped Sight and Sound's decennial “all-time top ten” since 1962. Not bad for the feature film debut of a 25-year-old, whose experience lay in theatre and radio (most of the actors in Kane were colleagues from his Mercury Theatre company), and who claimed his sole preparation was to watch John Ford's Stagecoach 40 times. In fact, Orson Welles considered a movie studio (his contract at the time was with RKO) to be the biggest train set a boy ever had. Unhindered by preconceptions, he proceeded to experiment with sound, camera angles and movement, and deep focus in a way few had even conceived of. Aided by cinematographer Gregg Toland, he brought visual drama to every shot, brilliantly disguising the picture's shoestring budget (it required a record 116 sets). In addition, Welles turned in a magnificent performance as Charles Foster Kane, the press baron whose torrid life was so similar to that of real-life press baron William Randolph Hearst that the latter broke the film at the box office through negative publicity. Utterly unmissable. DP

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Running time

114min

Country of origin

Genre

Classic Drama

Alternate title

American, John Citizen, USA

Original language

English

Screenplay

Herman J Mankiewicz, Orson Welles

Theatrical distributor

BFI

UK cinema certificate

UK cinema release date

October 2009




awards information


	Award	Category	Name	Nominee/Winner

	Academy 1941	Actor	Orson Welles	Nominee
	Academy 1941	Directing	Orson Welles	Nominee
	Academy 1941	Outstanding Motion Picture		Nominee
	Academy 1941	Writing (Original Screenplay)	Herman J Mankiewicz	Winner
	Academy 1941	Writing (Original Screenplay)	Orson Welles	Winner