The debate over Casablanca and Citizen Kane has been a classic argument among film critics and historians, and that's because both of these films are timeless images that have managed to captivate the public well after their time. On a broad spectrum analysis this is an apples and oranges debate as the two films both have great cinematic value but for different reasons. However, the real question is: which movie is better? Which film transformed the future of American cinema? These are the questions that I, like many others, will try to answer in the following essay in which I explain why I believe Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made. Citizen Kane was produced, co-written, directed and starring Orson. Welles in 1941 at the young age of twenty-five. The story is based on the real life of publisher and tycoon William Randolph Hearst, although Welles was hesitant to admit it. Nonetheless, this didn't stop Hearst from stopping all mention of Citizen Kane in his documents and attempting to stop RKO from releasing it. Fortunately this did not happen, although the film had difficulty being shown in major theaters. The film opens with the camera panning to Kane's deserted Florida estate called Xanadu. The images have a dark feel, the camera focuses on the old man's mouth as he utters the mysterious word "Rosebud". He then drops the orb, which rolls across the floor and shatters. You can see the nurse in the reflection of the broken glass as she covers it with a sheet. This entire scene is an important plot point of the film, the meaning of the snow globe and his dying words connect to the rest of the story in a very intricate and underlined way. I also think it demonstrates the creative use of lighting… in the center of the paper… throughout the film; Kane, for example, ranges in age from 25 to 78. Makeup artist Maurice Seiderman invented many techniques to age the film's characters. Welles made a full body cast and used it to create custom-made body pads and facial appliances that show Kane gradually aging through 27 different stages of his life. The level of detail is astonishing: Welles wore special bloodshot milky contact lenses to make his eyes look old, and 72 different facial appliances, including hairlines, jowls, jowls, bags under his eyes, and 16 different chins. Some pieces even had artificial pores that matched those of Welles' skin. Many other technical innovations stem from this film, a technique known as "wipe" where one image is wiped off the screen by another, as well as other innovations that resulted from Greg Toland's experimental camera angles.