Citizen Kane doesn't come close


All you hear is how Citizen Kane is the embodiment of a great film. I never got the hype. All Quiet on the Western Front should be at the top of the heap. This movie is a trailblazer and so well done and the best film at depicting the true hell that war really is without all the gore and blood.

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after finally seeing Citizen Kane I asked a film maker friend what the heck all the fuss was about, he said he didn’t think it was that great a movie but there was something - which I’ve forgotten - innovative about the actual filming that made it groundbreaking.

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Citizen Kane was groundbreaking in a number of ways. One of the first films to show the ceiling in a scene, the first to use deep focus, also innovative use of chiaroscuro lighting. Also the way the story is structured around the mystery of a man who we never really meet, so in some ways the movie is very meta in that it’s all about the style of the story and not the actual substance.

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Show the ceiling ?

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yes, if you pay attention most movies shoot characters as if you are looking at them in a straight visual angle. Welles and his cinematographer placed the camera below.

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Technically speakin, the only impressive thing about Quiet are the battle scenes. CK is in another level. Also better script.

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