Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures and directed by Orson Welles, his first feature film. It tells the fictional story of Charles Foster Kane, a man whose fight for power in the publishing world transformed from sheer thrill-seeking to ruthless war mongering. The story is told principally through flashbacks, following a reporter as he seeks to find what Kane meant by his dying word “Rosebud.”

Citizen Kane is often cited as being one of the most innovative works in the history of film, and in 1998 the American Film Institute placed it at number one in its list of the 100 greatest U.S. movies of all time.

The film’s main character, Kane, is said to have been based on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, though it also closely followed the rise and fall of Welles himself. Upon its release, Hearst’s newspapers viciously attacked it.