68 The Best Movie of All

Assemble a group of film critics, famous or otherwise, and ask them to identify the greatest movie of all time. The vast majority will select Orson Welles’s 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane. What is it that makes this movie so great? Not necessarily just the subject mat- ter—an account of the rise and fall of business tycoon Charles Foster Kane that was inspired in many ways by the life of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.

The film owes used to the heighten of the story is told the camera and film techniques that are impressive because of how they the single word “Rosebud.” By interview- ing the figure that induces a curious reporter to unravel is meaning, Kane’s associates all of whom convey their versions of his life in flash- backs, the reporter/narrator ultimately pieces together an unforgettable portrait of Kane’s rapid rise and tragic decline.

Flashbacks had been used in earlier films, but never in such an out-of-sequence style. And never were other of the camera shoosage—the shadowed the faces of the background objects were heightened. One famous scene that certified they created, the Kane’s staggering drunkenness. Welles even planned the exact distance between a characters in most scenes, always seeking the strongest effect. It is the combination of these techniques, along with a compelling story, that makes Citizen Kane great. And what is the significance of “Rosebud”? See the movie to find out.

68 史上最佳电影

召集一群影评人（无论知名与否），让他们选出史上最伟大的电影，绝大多数人会选择奥逊·威尔斯1941年的杰作《公民凯恩》。这部电影为何如此出色？不一定只是因为主题——它讲述了商业大亨查尔斯·福斯特·凯恩的兴衰，在很多方面灵感来自出版巨头威廉·伦道夫·赫斯特的生平。

这部电影的出色之处在于叙事方式、镜头和电影技巧，这些都令人印象深刻，比如“玫瑰花蕾”这个词的运用。通过采访那些促使好奇记者去解开其含义的人物，凯恩的 associates 都以闪回的方式讲述了他们眼中的凯恩生平，记者/叙述者最终拼凑出凯恩迅速崛起又悲惨衰落的难忘画像。

闪回手法在早期电影中就被使用过，但从未以这种无序的风格呈现。镜头的其他运用也前所未见——背景物体的阴影和人物面部的光影被强化。有一个著名场景展现了凯恩的酩酊大醉，证明了这些技巧的效果。威尔斯甚至在大多数场景中都规划了角色之间的精确距离，始终追求最强的效果。正是这些技巧与引人入胜的故事相结合，让《公民凯恩》如此出色。而“玫瑰花蕾”的意义是什么？去看电影就知道了。