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Kane is a rather trenchant amalgamation of prior cinematic innovations and movements and enough innovation within itself to have some objective merit as "the greatest."
My vote, however, usually goes to 2001. I've always been blown away by sheer chutzpah of this film. Coming out in an age of Paint Your Wagon, Kubrick's film was a massive financial undertaking and risk. It was pure art house really. To tell the story of man's evolution, basically without much words or sound. Brazen. Also the fact that the narrative structure is way advanced. From bone to space ship, (dramatic cut in time), to Dave and the "next evolutionary stage," (which is essentially spoken as an 'unknown,' letting the audience decide ambiguously.) It also took influence from radical film makers like my idol Stan Brakhage, but took his concepts and made them more applicable to the mainstream tastes, (speaking of the Stargate Sequence.) And, (arguably), no real "key" narrative players. The film is a friggen beast when it comes to impact for me. I don't think anything like it was made for a mass audience of it's scale before, (and going on a limb here), but I'd say even after too. It's really a powerhouse work.
My vote, however, usually goes to 2001. I've always been blown away by sheer chutzpah of this film. Coming out in an age of Paint Your Wagon, Kubrick's film was a massive financial undertaking and risk. It was pure art house really. To tell the story of man's evolution, basically without much words or sound. Brazen. Also the fact that the narrative structure is way advanced. From bone to space ship, (dramatic cut in time), to Dave and the "next evolutionary stage," (which is essentially spoken as an 'unknown,' letting the audience decide ambiguously.) It also took influence from radical film makers like my idol Stan Brakhage, but took his concepts and made them more applicable to the mainstream tastes, (speaking of the Stargate Sequence.) And, (arguably), no real "key" narrative players. The film is a friggen beast when it comes to impact for me. I don't think anything like it was made for a mass audience of it's scale before, (and going on a limb here), but I'd say even after too. It's really a powerhouse work.
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Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?
-Stan Brakhage
Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?
-Stan Brakhage
