...rosebud...

Now, I'm no film snob or anything, but I happen to love old movies. I find such a great sense of comfort in them - I like the fuzziness of the black-and-white shots of glamourous women with lace covering their porcelain faces and of stern men in thin mustaches and bowler hats. Something about old-fashioned settings and scenarios always makes me feel better after a long day.

I have my dad to thank for most of my "tidbits of culture" - from music to movies. However, I was outraged when he failed to show me what I just recently found out was widely considered the greatest movie ever made - Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. And I was doubly outraged when I found out that we've had a copy of it for a very long time and he's neglected to even put it on.

Well, this past weekend I was bedridden and miserable with the stomach flu, and I decided to finally put on the greatest movie of all time.

And from the second I saw one of the very first shots of Kane's lips muttering the word "Rosebud" and his hand dropping a snow globe, I knew this movie would be a true work of art. I was not wrong.

For its time, the style that Citizen Kane is shot in is incredibly modern, from the long-focus shots of long corridors to the silhouetted figures against a background of light that

illuminates floating dust particles to create this airy, ethereal effect. This was the movie that truly started modern filmmaking.

Every single second of this film is a masterpiece - I was continuously blown away as each scene passed. It's very rare that I feel this strongly about a film, but I do believe that Citizen Kane deserves to be called the greatest movie ever made - not only for its beauty, but for its earthquake-like effect on the world of filmmaking.

A little past halfway into the movie, however, the DVD started breaking up and freezing - ah, the dreadful curse of disk scratches has come upon us again. I was in utter despair for the rest of the day. And alas, I have not seen all of this movie.

However, there is no doubt in my mind that Citizen Kane is not an excellent, excellent movie. But sometimes I wonder if my opinion on it would have been different if I hadn't been telling myself that it was the greatest movie ever made, before I even started it. Is that causing me to twist my ideas unknowingly into something they're not? Hm.

ps...sorry about the tiny pictures. i think something's wrong with the computer.