Citizen Kane

Although it was 1962 when Bob Dylan posed the question “How many roads must a man walk down…?” in song form, it has obsessed people for centuries, numerous books and plays having been written in an attempt to answer it. Movies are no exceptions, with films such as “Forrest Gump” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” telling the story of a man’s journey through life, the people he meets, the things he learns and what sticks with him in the end. But the first major film to tackle this subject is Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”.
This black-and-white film from 1941 has revolutionized the film industry; Welles’ creative vision has introduced brand new ways of looking at the way a story can be built, at editing and even the technology itself which was employed.
The story starts with the death of billionaire Charles Foster Kane, and retells the story of his rise as an ambitious young man, and his later demise, alienating the people around him. His story is told in a set of flashbacks, recalled by his former associates, stories collected by a news reporter who tries to find out the meaning of Kane’s last word: “Rosebud”, one of the most intelligent and famous plot-generators in movie history.
Many might argue that over the years the film has become overrated, the story lacking emotion, the acting being over- or underdone, yet for its achievements and its place in cinema history, this movie should not be missed by any true movie-lover.