Sight and Sound – Citizen Kane

Shows:
Sun, 2/19, 1:00 pm
Mon, 2/20, 7:00 pm

Orson Welles’s legendary first feature as director and actor is an undisputed classic and one of the most influential films in history. (Look at the long history it has with the critics’ poll.)

Working with co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, cinematographer Gregg Toland and composer Bernard Herrmann, Welles crafted a quasi-biographical film about a fictional newspaper magnate by using many innovative techniques that he had employed in his theater and radio work.

(US 1941) 119 min.

For 50 years (1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002) Citizen Kane sat in the number-one position on Sight and Sound’s critics’ poll. (In 1972 and 1982 it was joined in the top ten by Welles’s second feature, The Magnificent Ambersons.) Also, the 1962 and 1972 polls reflected the shake-up provided by international film movements, such as the French New Wave and the West’s growing recognition of Asian and Latin American cinema. In 2002 the growth of home video had become a major factor in people’s access to films.

Sight and Sound – Greatest Films of All Time

‘Tis the season for “10-Best” lists, as virtually every critic and pundit in the country has assembled an annual honor roll of film releases from 2022. But the “top-ten” list that has captured the imagination of the international film community this particular year is one that appears only once a decade, assembled by Sight and Sound, the venerable periodical of film criticism published by the British Film Institute.

In 1952 Sight and Sound published their first poll of film critics, and these polls have continued every ten years since. Each invited participant submits a personal top-ten list of “The Greatest Films of All Time,” and over the years the list of participants has expanded dramatically. Each list can stand as a bellwether of trends and fashions in criticism. This short series highlights the number one film polled from every decade: Bicycle Thieves, Citizen Kane (multiple years), Vertigo, Jeanne Dielman.

Visit the BFI website to see the ranking of 250 films in the latest poll.

While it’s difficult to say what these results may ultimately prove, the ranking of film classics can present an irresistible exercise for cinephiles. If nothing else, film lists provide meaty topics for discussion and debate.