Review of Citizen Kane (1941) by Josh Larsen for LarsenOnFilm — 16 Nov 1979

There is hardly a shot in Orson Welles’ towering achivement that doesn’t employ some sort of ingenious trick involving the camera, editing, sound, staging or production design. Kane didn’t invent all of its techniques, but it’s one of the few pictures I can think of that uses almost every one in the movie playbook.

The film is like a dictionary of the cinematic language.