LOS ANGELES (AP) — The years have been kind to “Citizen Kane”, including the last decade.The 1941 Orson Welles classic — the story of a wealthy young idealist transformed by scandal and vice into a regretful old recluse — was again rated the best movie ever on Wednesday by the American Film Institute.

In the CBS special “AFI’s 100 Years ... 100 Movies — 10th Anniversary Edition”, “Citizen Kane” held the same number one billing it earned in the institute’s first top-100 ranking in 1998.

There were notable changes elsewhere, though, with Martin Scorsese’s 1980 masterpiece “Raging Bull” bounding upward from number 24 in 1998 to number four on the new list and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller “Vertigo” hurtling from number 61 to number nine this time.

Charles Chaplin’s 1931 silent gem “City Lights” jumped from number 76 to number 11, while the 1956 John Ford-John Wayne Western “The Searchers” took the biggest leap, from number 96 all the way to number 12.

“The ones that made the huge jumps are really, really fascinating,” said Jean Picker Firstenberg, chief executive at AFI, which has done top-ten lists every year since 1998 showcasing best comedies, thrillers, love stories and other highlights in American cinema.

“I’d like to think this entire series has had a real influence on what people think about a film like ‘City Lights’, ‘The Searchers’, ‘Vertigo’. Gotten them talking about these films and going back to watch them again, and if they’ve never seen them, to go watch them for the first time.”

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 epic “The Godfather” ranked number two, up one notch from 1998, switching places with Michael Curtiz’s 1942 favorite “Casablanca”, which dipped from second-place to third.

Both 1967’s “The Graduate” and 1954’s “On the Waterfront”, which ranked numbers seven and eight respectively in 1998, fell out of the top ten, “The Graduate” coming in at number 17 and “On the Waterfront” finishing at number 19.

The other five films in the new top ten also were among the original ten best, though they shuffled positions: 1952’s “Singin’ in the Rain” (number five now, number ten in 1998), 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” (number six now, number four in 1998), 1962’s “Lawrence of Arabia” (number seven now, number five in 1998), 1993’s “Schindler’s List” (number eight now, number nine in 1998) and 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” (number ten now, number six in 1998).

The top-100 were chosen from ballots sent to 1,500 filmmakers, actors, writers, critics and others in Hollywood from a list of 400 nominated movies, 43 of which came from the decade since the first list was compiled.

Of those newer films, only four made the top-100: 2001’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (number 50), 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan” (number 71), 1997’s “Titanic” (number 83) and 1999’s “The Sixth Sense” (number 89).

Older films that did not make the cut on the 1998 list broke into the top-100 this time, led by Buster Keaton’s 1927 silent comedy “The General” at number 18. Others included 1916’s “Intolerance” (number 49), 1975’s “Nashville” (number 59), 1960’s “Spartacus” (number 81), 1989’s “Do the Right Thing” (number 96) and 1995’s “Toy Story” (number 99). Some silent-era classics and other old films may have fared better this time because they are more readily available in good quality restorations in today’s DVD age as opposed to the VHS days.

Films that dropped out of the top-100 this time included 1965’s “Doctor Zhivago”, which had been number 39 on the 1998 list; 1984’s “Amadeus”, which had been number 53; 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, which had been number 64; 1990’s “Dances With Wolves”, which had been number 75; and 1927’s “The Jazz Singer”, which had been number 90.

“Close Encounters” director Steven Spielberg had the most films on the list with five, while Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Billy Wilder each had four. James Stewart and Robert De Niro were the most-represented actors with five films apiece.

In interviews for Wednesday’s special, filmmakers and others in Hollywood told AFI they loved the behind-the-scenes story of “Citizen Kane” as much as the film itself, said Bob Gazzale, who produced the AFI show. It was the first movie by Welles, who bucked studio and storytelling conventions to craft a landmark film about the rise and fall of a William Randolph Hearst-like newspaper publisher.

The film was ahead of its time, a dark tale whose brooding design, murky lighting, overlapping dialogue and ripped-from-true-life Hearst connection created an unnerving sense of realism.

“No one disputes it’s a great American film, but what you hear from the great artists of our day is the love they have for this ideal of a young maverick making a movie like this, that a 25-year-old Orson Welles changed the fabric of cinema, and that that ideal still holds today of this jewel everybody reaches for,” Gazzale said.

“It’s not only the movie, but the embodiment of the man who broke all the rules to tell his story.”

While AFI officials have not decided if they will continue the annual lists in coming years, Firstenberg said the institute will do a new list of all-time best American films every ten years as a guide to changing tastes in future decades.