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When we talked about stupid things like Are the Beatles the best band in the world?
[my dad] would say, Well, here are certain perspectives on that.
But when it got down to Whats the greatest movie ever made?
it was without pauseCitizen Kane, Fincherrecalled to Vultures Mark Harrisearlier this year.
One could have favorites, butCitizen Kanewas always number one.
It was practically a piece of data like the name of the president, or the location of Florida.
But how didCitizen Kanebecome so firmly established at the top of the canon in the first place?
Who put it there?
The films advance notoriety was both a blessing and a curse.
By the timeKanebegan screening for the press, its theatrical fate was in jeopardy.
Oddly, all these efforts may have helped build additional hype aroundKane.
The posters tagline Its Terrific!
ButKanewasnt a financial success.
But what America dismissed, Europe embraced.
After World War II,Kanebegan to make its way across the formerly war-torn corners of the continent.
Along the way, it became a phenomenon.
This film, I believe, consecrated a great many of us to vocation of cineaste.
(Indeed, Truffaut noted how poorly it had been subtitled in French.)
Still, it took some time forKaneto become a consensus favorite.
There was barely any mention ofKanethere, either on the final list or among the runners-up.
May 1956 finally saw the first major re-release ofKaneacross theaters in the U.S.
But perhaps more importantly, it also began airing on television that year.
But its not just thatKanewas suddenly available.
It was also the right movie at the right time.
Maybe it had been ahead of the curve back in 1941, but now, the curve had arrived.
Its a movie about spiritual corruption that lets you nevertheless enjoy the journey towards spiritual corruption.
There,Kanecame in ninth place, one of only three sound films to place in the Top 12.
It would go on to dominate theSight & Soundpoll in 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2002.
(Along the way, it would top lots of other surveys as well.)
In some senses, the debate over who actually wroteCitizen Kaneslips in between these two extremes.
Kaels real quarry were auteurist critics like Andrew Sarris, with whom she tussled throughout the 1960s and 70s.
(Of course, auteurism never actually claimed this, but thats a heated conversation for another time.)
He was a regular presence on radio, and later, on TV.
And the films he released over the years, whatever their issues, werent exactly disasters.
(Hell, Sarris himself never putCitizen Kaneon any of hisSight & Soundlists; he preferredAmbersons.)
Welless post-Kaneefforts were brilliant, sometimes astoundingly so … but they were decidedly imperfect.
Thus, the more films Welles made, the more the legend ofCitizen Kanegrew.
Then, as it must to all movies, death came toCitizen Kanes top spot on theSight & Soundlist.
But one thing seems sure.
