Archive: Citizen Kane, the film that changed cinema

Orson Welles was only 25 when his film Citizen Kane was released in 1941. It is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, films yet made.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Welles' film, in which he plays the lead role of Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper magnate. It was his first acting role. He also directed, produced and co-wrote this story of loneliness at the heart of a megalomaniac.

The production was influenced by Welles’ experience in radio and theatre, and expressed the potential of cinema as an artistic medium with its use of deep focus, long takes and other techniques.

The plot was partly inspired by the life of William Randolph Hearst, who then used the power of his own newspapers to try to suppress the film’s release. It was to take some years before Citizen Kane reached a fuller audience and, from that point, become so celebrated.

With

Stella Bruzzi

Professor of Film and Dean of Arts and Humanities at University College London

Ian Christie

Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London

John David Rhodes

Professor of Film Studies and Visual Culture at the University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson

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