8. Citizen Kane
What can be said about this film that hasn't already been said? At the young age of 26, Orson Welles released what is now considered the greatest film of all time and it deservedly so. Not only for its contribution to cinematic history with its innovative camera techniques and non-linear story line but because it was the first modern film. Too long had Hollywood been stuck in a derivative form and it took an outsider and iconoclast like Orson Welles to do it. Here, his film is told in reverse, detailing the rise and fall of a very powerful man that many people thought to be based on media mogul William Randolph Hearst but has since been proved to be a conglomerate of different personalities. The life of Kane is recounted through witness testimony and serves as a mystery to finding out what "Rosebud" could possibly mean to a very powerful man. And this film practically ruined Welles career. Never again did he have the complete freedom of writing, editing and studio money but, once he had that freedom he was hooked to the film making business. Other than its innovations, Welles also provides one of the most underrated performances of all time, convincingly playing a role whose age ranged from 20 to 80. It is a film so rich that with each subsequent viewing I see and feel something new.