4. CITIZEN KANE (WELLES, 1941) 

After his precocious theatre triumphs and (in)famous radio broadcast of War of the Worlds- that had America scurrying for the hills-, Welles was ready to make his mark on cinema. Exploiting every conceivable aspect of his new magic toybox, his legendary screen debut, long rated the "world's greatest film", simply demands superlatives. 

Kane depicts the rise, then moral and emotional decline to alienated solitude, of a politically ambitious and once idealistic newspaper magnate, whose dying word "Rosebud" is investigated through a complex and subjective jigsaw puzzle narrative. Taken as a thinly veiled portrait of William Randolph Hearst (who tried to destroy the film and Welles' career), its baroque grandeur, ceilinged sets, overlapping dialogue, skilful editing, expressionist lighting and the overall brilliance of Gregg Toland's cinematography are as dazzling as ever. 

More than merely a stupendous cinematic exercise, Kane reveals in its final Rosebud revelation and in a passing remark about a (once seen, never forgotten) lady crossing a lake, that it also has a beating heart.  
