1. Citizen Kane
News Flash! Citizen Kane Tops Another List! The movie that's at the top of every film critic's list; the pinnacle of every film institute's filmographic retrospective; every director's greatest influence, Citizen Kane takes the top spot on 10 Classic Movies Only Pretentious People Like because, well, only pretentious people like it. Orson Welles starred, directed, and produced the film that may or may not have changed film forever, depending on which chairman of which academy you talk to. He's the director that every director wants to be - the man with the controls firmly in his (what I imagine to be) sweaty palms. The fact of the matter is Citizen Kane isn't an unenjoyable movie on the whole. The beginning bang is an accessible newsreel of Kane's life story before we see it play out over the course of the film. And the movie is fast-paced--something anyone in the Information/Attention Deficit Age can appreciate. But it (d)evolves into a noir mystery--and what's that mystery? Why Kane said "rosebud" on his deathbed. The film drags on and on while we sit on the shoulders of reporters in search of the significance of a dying man's final word. And what do we get in return? A burning sleigh. This is the greatest film of all time?
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