So... why is this movie so special really? (Citizen Kane)

[InvictusCobra]

Just watched this film and did not understand what all the fuss is about. Why is it considered the best film of all time by general consensus? Now, I'm not questioning the film itself or it's contents, but I didn't think it was that special. I wasn't that hyped nor did I have any expectations regarding it, but at least for me there was no "WOW! moment" or something similar.

[Nosebleed]

I mostly hear that it's brilliant for its cinematography rather than its storytelling which, at the time, really was groundbreaking.

[Deep Blue]

for the same reason casablanca is considered one of the best movies of all times...

[Beato]

I still haven't seen the entire Citizen Kane (only parts of it) but what I have seen of it is still absolutely brilliant.

Take this shot for example:

This is a really great shot in a lot of ways. I'm stealing this analysis from antagonie.blogspot.com which explains why this shot is so great.

 

The lighting first: for all those slate-grey noir shadows, Toland manages to keep Welles and Cotten mostly well-lit. Mostly. There's that rounded wash of jet black around Welles's face, of course, which does all the work that the acting can't - won't - do to imply the cruelty and anger that's being left conspicuously, suffocatingly unexpressed. Kane's quiet calm as he fulfills his last duty as an honorable member of the press is peaceful as it gets; even his dismissal of his best friend and most important employee is casual and unforced: "Sure, we're speaking, Jedediah. You're fired". Welles glides through the moment imperturbably; only the shadows cradling his face and slashing across his arms speak to the moral decay that led these men to this pass.

The staging second: Jesus Christ, that focal depth is a miracle. We have one set arranged so that it can contain a close-up dominating a third of the frame all the way down to a little dot of a man who'd be totally invisible if the backlighting hadn't been arranged specifically to accentuate him. This is the last time that Kane, Leland, and Bernstein (Everett Sloane) all appear in the same image, the three young lions who started off so eager to change the world for the better with their revolution in journalism now fragmented into three visual components so detached from each other that it's hard to imagine that they were all there at the same time, and it's not just some kind of optical effect. The arrangement of their faces in the frame, and the lines (especially the ceiling beams) between them insist on drawing our eyes through the scene in a kind of zig-zag, unifying the characters; but there's no smoothness, no fluidity to that connection. It's harsh, jarring, moving through high-contrast black-and-white and crashing against shapes and lines within the frame that disrupt it even more. This is what three men who no longer have anything to say to each other looks like.

And then the matter of composition and lighting. Welles is by far the most noticeable thing in frame, but the lighting calls attention to Cotten, who appears too bright for the frame, being the one decent thing in Kane's life. It's almost tempting to read the image as a riff on the "shoulder angel" trope, as Leland stands over Kane's shoulder, offering him one last chance to stay a good human being. Of course he doesn't take it; this is a tragedy. And as communicated through shadowy, dense images like this one, it's a rather inevitable tragedy.

 

...Man this is such a great shot, I want to see the entire movie right now.

 

It also invented tons of narrative and filmic teqniques that are still used today such as having a non chronological narrative, low angle shots, L cuts (these are used so much today, deep focus shots (such as the shot above, try to picture modern cinema without these, you can't), it's use of light and shadow and tons of other things.

[Beato]

Invented is going a little too far. The use of light and shadow was prominent on German cinema even in the 20's and low angle shots were first used systematically in Nazi cinema in the 30's. But yeah, in America this was the first movie and also the first one to use them all at once, giving it a very particular feel. One that the film noir would use too.

Oh did I write invent? Yeah that's wrong don't know why I wrote that.

[Getsuya]

Every single shot of the movie was packed full of symbolism and stuff.