Mystery · Drama
American
1941 · Directed by Orson Welles · 119 min
A powerful newspaper publisher dies alone in a vast mansion, leaving a single word on his lips. A reporter is sent to learn what it meant, and pieces together the man from the people who knew him, each telling a different story.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining film of the Hollywood studio era at its most ambitious, and the work that modern cinema most often treats as the point where American film showed how formally daring it could be.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a trial of a man's character in which no witness is fully reliable, and notice how the visuals comment on each one.
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