GREAT CINEMAMASTER LIST
Menu

Master Rank #200

Citizen Kane

1941

GCML Total8.9640% Greatness · 40% Engagement · 20% Ease

Directed by Orson Welles

CastOrson Welles · Joseph Cotten · Dorothy Comingore

USAEnglishMystery / Drama119 minNot Rated
Sight & Sound; IMDb Top 250; AFI 100Narrative FeatureModerate pace
Find Where to Watch
Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List
Oscar · 1

Spoiler-free premise

A reporter investigates newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane's final word by interviewing people who knew him across his public and private life.

Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free

After newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane dies at Xanadu saying 'Rosebud,' reporter Jerry Thompson is assigned to discover the word's meaning. Interviews with Kane's associates reconstruct conflicting chapters of his childhood, media empire, political ambition, marriages, and isolation.

Why it belongs

In Citizen Kane, Welles and Toland reinvent screen space and narrative biography through deep focus, low angles, layered sound, and irreconcilable viewpoints.

Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case

Deep-focus rooms, ceilings, extreme scale changes, newsreel montage, overlapping dialogue, and time-spanning transitions make Kane's life formally immense, while the interview structure refuses to let technical mastery collapse a person into one explanation.

Major award record

Metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Academy Awards1 win1942 · official ceremony record ↗
Writing (Original Screenplay)1942 · Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Wellesofficial ceremony record ↗

Totals include every recorded competitive win. Only Picture or top-film honors, Direction, Screenplay, and lead or supporting performances are named.

Good for
Film Club
Descriptive guidance derived from rating, genre, runtime, mood, and GCML scores.

Continue the conversation

Double Feature