
I had never heard of Citizen Kane until I took a filler course in college called "The History of the Movies." It was an enormous, lecture-style class where we would watch films, then break into smaller groups in the next class to discuss them. I figured that it would be an easy A (and I was right), but I didn't know that it would rip apart my opinion of films and open my eyes to an entire world of movies that I'd glossed over.
Chief amongst them was Orson Welle's seminal Citizen Kane. At that point, I only knew Welles as the chubby guy from a commercial for Milton Bradley's Dark Tower board game. I had no idea that he'd been a hugely influential writer/director/actor in both radio and film. So when we screened Kane, I was blown away. Welles was larger than life, vibrant, and a man of many faces as he plays titular antihero Charles Foster Kane throughout the film. I was lucky enough to see this first on a big screen, but it was on a jittery projector, with plenty of flaws. Finally, you can now watch this film in more pristine condition than when it first appeared on screens back in 1941.
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