Ring Around the Rosebud: Mirrors of Kane video series concludes

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 7 on YouTube:

In a sprawling eighteen-minute video essay (the longest chapter so far in any of my series save for two of Journey Through Twin Peaks' thirty-six), I wrap up my analysis by deploying a variety of visual techniques to explore many subjects. These include: different views of Kane's character provided by each narrator; the duality of Kane's life as articulated by James Naremore and Laura Mulvey; the "ring composition" nature of Citizen Kane's mirrored structure with its often accidental but deeply compelling juxtapositions (and the placement of that initial, revealing conversation with Susan as the film's dramatic center); the role of this movie - alongside It's a Wonderful Life and the Australian picture book The Window - in inspiring my own fascination with the passage of time in history and human lives; the similarities of Kane's allegorical scope to the paintings of Thomas Cole; the emotional resonance of a story often treated as a mere platform for technical flourishes; and Welles' personal connection to the material (despite his own protestations) in the eyes of his younger friends and protegees.

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, Bernstein, Leland, Susan, and Raymond. The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist (the series is based on this essay) and will be combined into a single video on Vimeo in a couple days, to be cross-posted alongside a directory for everything.