Virtual Seminar: Citizen Kane

Orson Welles’ masterwork remains grand entertainment, sharply acted (starring many of Welles’ Mercury Players on the road to thriving film careers) and directed with inspired visual flair. Chronicling the stormy life of an influential publishing tycoon, this Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winner is rooted in themes of power, corruption, vanity—the American Dream lost in the mystery of a dying man’s last word: “Rosebud.” A classic to this day, Citizen Kane has only grown in stature since its release, although it wasn’t exactly ignored at the time of its 1941 premiere, garnering nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Sam Adams is a Senior Editor at Slate, and a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, The Dissolve, IndieWire, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.