Citizen Kane (1941)

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

Citizen Kane (1941) dir. by Orson Welles

Known as one of the greatest films ever made and a film that has topped lists of greatest films ever made for decades upon decades, “Citizen Kane” (1941) turns eighty years’ old in 2021 and is being celebrated with the release of another film called “Mank” starring Gary Oldman about the man who wrote the legendary script for the movie and never received the accolades that went with it, instead Welles taking the credit for being, as biographer Simon Callow puts it, a “One Man Band”. The mind behind the writing was someone great and filled with incredible talent and he should be recognised. As much as I adore Orson Welles, I do not like the idea of someone taking credit for someone else’s hard work. (If you want to learn more about Orson Welles and his characteristics that inspired him to work his ass off in most of the crew roles for “Citizen Kane” then please proceed to Simon Callow’s “One Man Band” - it is pure excellence in writing).

On the 1st of May, 1941, “Citizen Kane” (1941) was premiered in the RKO Palace Theatre in New York City. RKO Pictures was the distribution company that signed Welles and gave him creative control of the project. Be that as it may, Welles went on to make two more films on the company before they terminated his contract. Both of the films did not do as well as “Citizen Kane” (1941) but “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942) did win the Best Picture Academy Award upon its release, something “Citizen Kane” (1941) did not do.

As the war was going on, “Citizen Kane” (1941) was not shown in many European countries except for when it was shown in France for the first time a year after the war. This would also be when the legendary André Bazin would comment on the film stating that the mise-en-scene "forces the spectator to participate in the meaning of the film" and creates "a psychological realism which brings the spectator back to the real conditions of perception.” Later on, the film theorist Dudley Andrews would write that

“…the world of Citizen Kane, that mysterious, dark, and infinitely deep world of space and memory where voices trail off into distant echoes and where meaning dissolves into interpretation, seemed to Bazin to mark the starting point from which all of us try to construct provisionally the sense of our lives.”

Films that got their influence from “Citizen Kane” (1941) include thrillers like “Mildred Pierce” starring Joan Crawford and one of my personal favourite films of all time, “Gaslight” (1944) starring Ingrid Bergman in which she gives an absolutely stellar performance as a victim of a cruel and selfish man seeking his own advantages in a relationship.

“Citizen Kane” (1941) continues to harbour influence over the world of film and is one of the greatest films this world has ever seen…