Martin Scorsese says ‘Citizen Kane’ “changed my life”
Killers of the Flower Moon director Martin Scorsese has revealed the Orson Welles classic film Citizen Kane “changed my life”.
The remarks were made in a new video interview with Time and followed Scorsese discussing his issue with ranking his favourite films. The legendary director explained how movies can touch him on various levels which are incomparable, therefore bundling them all together as part of a ranking system is impossible.
“I’ve tried to make lists over the years of films I personally feel are my favourites, whatever that means,” Scorsese told the publication. “And then you find out that the word ‘favourite’ has different levels: Films that have impressed you the most, as opposed to films you just like to keep watching, as opposed to those you keep watching and learning from, or experiencing anew. So, they’re varied. And I’m always sort of against ’10 best’ lists.”
However, for Scorsese, Citizen Kane is different because it “broke all of the rules”. He previously included the movie in his list of 15 favourite films for Sight & Sound.
“Well yes, there’s Citizen Kane,” Scorsese told Time. “That changed my life. He broke all of the rules. One of the things that [Orson] Welles said was one of the best things you can bring to filmmaking is ignorance. When they say you can’t do this, why not?”
Meanwhile, the latest trailer for the new Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon was released earlier this week by Apple TV+.
Set to hit cinemas on October 20th, Scorsese’s latest follows the story of the Osage tribe of the United States who mysteriously begin to be picked off one by one, prompting an F.B.I. investigation. Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann, the epic uncovers the brutal murders of countless Osage tribe members all in the name of money and profitable oil wells.
Watch Scorsese’s new interview with Time below.
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