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I grew up with black and white movies of one kind or another, between my father's love of old horror films and my mother's love of Bogart and Hepburn and Stewart and the like. I remember sharing my disappointment in Bette Davis with my mother as a teen and us having an intelligent conversation about the politics of her films. When I came west I used to rent a lot of video, once we got a TV and a VCR. With Abe it was mostly action/sf/horror/fantasy, but on my own time, I watched a lot of old movies. It's how I grew up.

I have a confession to make. Despite all this watching of old movies, I have never, not even once, seen Citizen Kane. I know, I know, masterpiece of cinema, endlessly referenced in popular culture and serious discussions of cinema. I'll be forty one in a month and a half, and I've never seen it. It wasn't on TV when I was a kid, and as an adult, I was reluctant. can it really live up to the hype? It's not even a topic that appeals to me. I got it out of the library and I am planning to make myself watch i