Citizen Kane****

This is my third or fourth view, and difficult as it may be to be objective about so lauded a movie, what came out clear was that it is a simple and enjoyable film, brimming with energy and the joy of life, it's tragi-comic and somewhat philosophical conclusion notwithstanding. 'Rosebud' is a mere ploy of narration, a prankish device of story telling by a young director. One may say it is the aspect of life, "if only I'd chosen a different path", a regret filled feeling as the curtain lowers. The film lunges through time with momentum and speed, managing to compress a dense biography within two hours. There is not a dull moment, starting from the obituarial newsreel which opens the movie.The film is visually poetic, not least the "no trespassing" which opens and closes the film, or the billows of sooty smoke which seem to symbolize the net worth of Kane. No less than the cinematic element, is the continuous verbal creativity of the script, and one could pullout any number of quotes. In essence, it is more funny than sad. It is unpretentious. Welles is too much the genius to draw conclusions.
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