10 Best Movie Character Introductions Of All Time

Orson Welles told cinemagoers plenty about Charles Foster Kane without dedicating a single shot him. Citizen Kane opens with the camera panning over the grounds of his mansion, passing though its imposing gates that give off a sense of seclusion, bypassing the pet monkeys he keeps, and finally arriving at the property itself.

Through skillful cinematography, Welles conveyed that Kane is eccentric, wealthy and isolated. After an artful shot of the inside of a snow globe, the influential filmmaker revealed the character's final moments and his dying word "Rosebud", generating intrigue that remains high until the final credits roll.

After the snow globe shatters to the floor, Citizen Kane jumps to a newsreel summary of the eponymous character's life, charting his childhood, rise to the position of newspaper magnate, and eventually his death, but Welles said more about who he was through skillful camerawork and symbolism.

That's the brilliance of the movie's opening sequence. Back in 1941 when the movie came out, Welles was doing things that were simply unheard of with the camera, dealing out images that were each worth a thousand words.