Citizen Kane is an American motion picture that has often been voted the greatest film ever made. The movie was released in 1941. Orson Welles produced, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane at the age of 25. It was his first feature film. The movie is the fictional biography of an American newspaper tycoon named Charles Foster Kane, who closely resembles the real-life American publisher William Randolph Hearst.
Citizen Kane has been internationally acclaimed for its brilliant cinematic techniques, which influenced many later films. Welles used the film’s sound track in new and imaginative ways. The photography, supervised by Gregg Toland, was revolutionary in its dramatic lighting and its handling of focus and camera angles. The narrative moves back and forth in time and is told from different points of view, techniques that broke new ground in motion-picture storytelling. Welles and writer Herman J. Mankiewicz received an Academy Award for their screenplay.
The supporting cast included many actors who had worked with Welles in the Mercury Theatre in New York City, which he co-founded with John Houseman in 1937 to stage experimental dramatic works. The movie featured performances by Ray Collins, Dorothy Comingore, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloane, and Ruth Warrick.
Citizen Kane was a financial failure. It received generally good reviews from critics but never caught on at the box office, perhaps because of its innovative style. The film also suffered from attacks by William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers.
