Well I’m sorry but I’m not
interested in gold mines,
oil wells, shipping or real estate. What would I like to have been? Everything you hate.

Last night, the NFT started off a season of Orson Wells features with unquestionably the best film of all time – Citizen Kane (1941). I’d only seen it once before on TV, so I jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen. The larger picture makes the final 20 minutes of the film, set around Xanadu, look truely awesome. Its hard to capture the sheer scale of the set in a single shot, but if I had to pick one, it would be of Kane dwarfed in front of the 7 foot high, by at least 20 foot wide, fireplace. While we talking about the camera work (even without taking its age into account) there are some fantastic scene tranisitions, such as the shot that starts off above the roof of a bar, moves through the skylight & down into the room to focus on Susan Alexander.

Superficially, the story may appear to be just another rags-to-riches tale, but the style in which it is told puts every other comparable movie plot to shame. And lets not forget that it gave us Rosebud, inspired an entire episode of The Simpsons, and The White Stripes song, “Union Forever” – hearing the lyrics on screen brought a smile to my face.