Hearing Friedkin talk about anything, is an experience. Brilliant.

simply the greatest explanation on why this is one of the greatest films period

I was president of my fraternity at Navy Pier in 1959. I tried to get Adlai Stevenson to talk at our dinner; but he crapped out on us. So at the last minute, I called Billy Friedkin--who was a tv director at WTTW in Chicago. He gave this talk on Citizen Kane--and he was twenty-two years old. Here he is today, doing that talk which made Citizen Kane my favorite movie--better than the Godfather.

Finally, this man told me why this film is a masterpiece.

The way he feels about Citizen Kane is the way I feel about The Exorcist. I could listen to Friedkin talk all day long

After all these years... Citizen Kane still remains at the top list. Wonderful.

coming from one of the greatest directors, one of the best explanations of this film ever, thank you

Freidkin was a very smart man,and a brilliant director,he is at his best here describing Citizen Kane.

RIP William Friedkin ✝️
August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023

Director of The Exorcist and The French Connection among many others 🎥

The best summary of this great film that I ever heard.

"...as we see it in relation to what came after."  Friedkin, ever honest yet also a diplomat (and under AFI auspices here no less), knows how to lay that damnation in the mellowest of words.

Orson Welles was and is the Greatest Director and Actor of ALL TIME R.I.P.

That is a great review of a great film, Ive seen it only 3 times but each time it was just a great experience. The way the story was told in flashback there had never been anything like that before. The cinematography was way ahead of it's time. The acting from Welles was incredible. It just baffles me that he was only 25 or 26 years old when he made this

Ive heard Friedkin interviewed several times and always thought he was a 90 year. Close your eyes! The look are incongruous. Watching Citizen Kane is for a film maker like a painter studying the Mona Lisa or the Cistine Chapel. For me its deep focus, the seemless use of models and split screens but most of all its the acting of Welles- a precocious 25 year old, flush with the confidence of ignorance, in an outrageous, audacious, tour d'force, subtle, over the top, brilliant! Who would have guessed it was the beginning of the end rather than the beginning

I watched this movie for the first time at the age of 30. I watched the opening news reel and just sort of made some mental comments about the subtitles and narration. Sort of didn't have any emotions, just passively watching this strange montage. The reel showed the age of the film, and transported me back to 1941.

Then something happened. When the news reel stopped and there were the group of journalist in the screening room discussing their thoughts on the man Kane. It was in that exact moment, I knew I wanted to be apart of this medium in one way or another. I've seen hundreds of movies before, some I even consider better than Citizen Kane, but no one other movie has ever made me feel like that opening scene in Kane. The lighting, the acting. It was timeless. I felt as if the actors stepped through a time machine and were hanging out with me in 2023.

Even movies made in the 2000s, 20 years ago, they show their age. You know they were filmed 20 years ago. That opening scene of Kane could've been filmed yesterday and nobody would have known the difference.

Have you ever heard a better explanation in less then 60 seconds, of how the best of the best is, and why they is in American cinema?

I have a bachelors in communications from St. John’s University and studying film history was a big part of it. I will say that I have learned more about film from watching this man’s films and his interviews on how he made them. One of my favorite directors and story tellers!

A very fitting tribute to the great film that inspired William Friedkin to become a filmmaker himself and craft classics like"The French Connection" and "The Exorcist," but I wish he hadn't given us a spoiler about the ending of "Citizen Kane" the way Lucy did to Linus in a "Peanuts" strip in which Linus was watching the movie for the first time. Still, the film's influence on Friedkin's work was clear. Thanks for posting. Rest in peace, William.

He loves it! As many of us do.

It is greatest film ever made. 🙏🏻