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I'd never knock CK. It is great but I've never quite seen why it's considered so great. In a way, despite Sight and Sound being a British magazine, CK is a very 'American' choice, Welles being something of a maverick against the Hollywood system. It fits America's fascination with rebel 'outlaw' figures. So I suppose in that sense it could be considered Hollywood's first anti-Hollywood film. In terms of Welles inventing new techniques, though, wasn't he really just applying methods already in circulation in Europe? It's difficult to think of a technique used in CK not already present in the films of say Renoir, etc? Being the first to import those ideas into Hollywood may be reason enough to qualify CK as the greatest Hollywood film ever but no more than that, I'd say.
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