MIRRORS OF KANE (complete video essay):
The entire series is published as one video on Vimeo, alongside individual chapters which I've embedded below:
And all of the chapters are featured in a YouTube playlist.
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:
Writing film columns (& more) at The Laker - Ken Burns & The American Revolution
Earlier this year, I began writing articles on random subjects for a group of free local publications in New Hampshire, and in July this transitioned into a regular column for The Laker, titled "Granite State Scene & Heard". The subjects usually, if not always, are related to the state (accompanied by listings of retro screenings for upcoming weeks). Each month on Lost in the Movies, I'll share a round-up of cross-posts to the digital versions of these issues, including the page numbers where the columns can be found.
First up, in July - just in time for the quarter-millennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence - I wrote about Ken Burns, who has worked out of Walpole, New Hampshire for forty years. In particular, I focused on his most recent documentary The American Revolution which I was in the midst of watching at the time; I've since finished it and moved on to re-watching The Civil War (one of my favorite films of all time - and also discussed in this column). Part of what fascinates me in these two projects, and Burns' work in general, is the different approach depending on what firsthand material the given historical period does or doesn't offer to the filmmakers. Incidentally, among the most eye-catching illustrations Burns deploys are those from the William Blake-esque memoirs of Sergeant Roger Lamb, which I'm using above and below in this cross-post.
The Laker on July 27 - page 20
w/ a blurb on Parasite as the highlight of the listings
Prior to this first "Scene & Heard" column, I wrote the following non-film-related articles: "Building Community, One Brick at a Time: The Lakes Region's Growing LEGO Scene" (p. 30 of The Laker's July 6 issue); "Twilight Baseball with The Sunset League" (p. 34 of The Laker's June 29 issue); "Gluten-Free at the Pattee Hill Farm Stand: A Conversation with Courtley Gomez Terrasi" (p. 20 of The Laker's June 22 issue); "Laconia Motorcycle Week Spans a Century" (p. 3 of The Laker's June 8 issue); and "Conserving Water Inside and Outside Your Home" (p. 27 of Home's Spring issue).
Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Raymond" chapter (video)
Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 6 on YouTube:
Raymond the butler's flashback is brief and to the point, a single scene offering a key to Kane's dying words. Nonetheless, the sequence contains riches worth exploring in this chapter devoted to the final narrator, contrasting with earlier Thatcher and Susan material and suggesting a Xanadu similar to the "human zoo" in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Raymond's constant obsession with what everything is worth pays off in the end when he casually and cluelessly orders the destruction of the clue to the mystery he and everyone else have been pondering.
This chapter is also available on Vimeo:
Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, Bernstein, Leland, and Susan. The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist (the series is based on this essay).
Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Susan" chapter (video)
Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 5 on YouTube:
My summer of Kane continues with the only female narrator of Kane's story - although at one point in pre-production, the screenwriters considered having his first wife share her perspective before deciding to kill her off earlier in life. Susan was in many ways the closest person to Kane, yet she also feels among the furthest away: very much his victim and too busy struggling for survival in his shadow to remember him as much else than a fairy tale monster keeping her locked up. (Though these details don't make it into the video, when we approach the Rosebud sled atop a pile of possessions in the film's finale, a nearby box contains a toy monkey holding tightly to the doll we already saw in Susan's room; indeed, when Kane seems most like Kong terrorizing Fay Wray - during the tropical picnic before Susan decides to leave him - the background "jungle" projection happens to include footage from fellow RKO feature Son of Kong, complete with pterodactyls.)
This chapter is also available on Vimeo:
Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, Bernstein, and Leland (the series is based on this essay). The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist.
Summer 2026 Project Update: Journey Through Twin Peaks "Americana" chapter & Lost in Twin Peaks Season 2 Premiere episode complete
Every turn-of-the-season (this one is publishing at the exact minute of the summer solstice), I'm offering readers of this website an update on my three major unfinished projects: the Journey Through Twin Peaks video series (begun in 2014), the written TWIN PEAKS Character Series (begun in 2016), and the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (begun in 2018). Work on a fourth project, the Mirrors of Kane video series (begun in 2016 but based on an essay written in 2011), concluded this past winter and release is currently underway.
Since pausing my exclusive Patreon content in December, I've been focusing my personal online work time almost entirely on my long-term projects. There was, however, an interruption in June when I shared a round-up of the late critic Allan Fish's reviews for Wonders in the Dark. I'm also looking forward to a conversation on Twin Peaks and The Shining with Cameron Cloutier and John Thorne, hopefully in the near future. Other than responding to guest invitations like these, any public work I share in the coming year and a half or so should be limited to the publication of these four projects.
This past season (following my previous update on the first day of spring), I finished a chapter of Journey Through Twin Peaks that I'd begun during the winter. Then I moved onto Lost in Twin Peaks, completing one episode recently before shifting my approach to re-editing that podcast. More details on that, and each project, follow below - along with reminders of what's been published or finished behind-the-scenes (more specific daily progress can be tracked on this constantly updated page):
Beyond the Countdowns: Allan Fish's Film & TV Reviews
Some titles were entries in the multiauthor genre countdown series, some were part of his own exclusive endeavors like "the Fish Obscuro" (which led me to many wonderful cinematic experiences I never would have discovered otherwise). Many were entries in a "Top 100 British TV" countdown entirely authored by him, the only such exercise after his decades countdowns concluded. And almost all of these selections were part of his ongoing process, cultivated for an eventual book: simple, straightforward but deeply evocative prose limited to one page but containing volumes.
Rest in peace, Allan; your legacy lives on.
Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Leland" chapter (video)
Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 4 on YouTube:
Jedediah Leland is Kane's close friend and eventually his bitter enemy. Writing about the narrators of Kane's life in an essay fifteen years ago, I had a very jaundiced view of Leland's own jaundiced view; at this point, for whatever reason, I am a bit more sympathetic even as I still think his sense of betrayal says as much about him as Kane. Leland's section of the movie is one of the most unusual and fascinating. These flashbacks, which hardly feature Leland at all, contain much of the most essential material, extend far longer than other flashbacks, and offer an ambivalent view of the protagonist in which the narrator's own open hostility in his spoken dialogue contrasts with a surprisingly nuanced portrait of the subject onscreen.
This chapter is also available on Vimeo:
Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, and Bernstein (the series is based on this essay). The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist.
Citizen Kane at 85 (video): Returning to conclude Mirrors of Kane this summer, beginning w/ "Bernstein" chapter (+ announcements on YouTube & podcasts including Lost in Twin Peaks)
Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 3 on YouTube:
This chapter is also available on Vimeo:
And last week I offered a YouTube announcement of this series which included some other updates on my work:
Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane and Thatcher. The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist (the series is based on this essay).
Finally, although unrelated, this is the first opportunity to share an announcement I published on the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast feed about resuming work on that project:
Spring 2026 Project Update: Mirrors of Kane complete, Journey Through Twin Peaks "Americana" chapter underway (+ new Patreon welcome video)
Every turn-of-the-season (this one is publishing at the exact minute of the vernal equinox), I'm offering readers of this website an update on my four major unfinished projects: the Journey Through Twin Peaks video series (begun in 2014), the written TWIN PEAKS Character Series (begun in 2016), the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (begun in 2018), and the Mirrors of Kane video series (begun in 2016 but based on an essay written in 2011). In December, I stopped offering exclusive podcasts and reviews on Patreon so that I could focus as much attention as possible as these long-term goals, and I'm pleased to announce that progress has been made. I've entirely concluded my work on the Mirrors of Kane series; new chapters will be published on YouTube and Vimeo on Citizen Kane's eighty-fifth anniversary, May 1. I'm also chipping away at a particularly complex Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter on Twin Peaks' connections to American history and iconography. This should be finished within a week or two.
After that, I will focus on completing the public presentation of Lost in Twin Peaks' second season, followed by the top nine entries (based on screentime) for the TWIN PEAKS Character Series. I hope to wait until after those two projects are complete to focus exclusively on Journey Through Twin Peaks, but depending how bogged down I get on Lost in Twin Peaks this summer I may pause that work to research, outline, and write the narration for remaining Journey chapters. We'll see how it goes.
Here is a status update with more details, as well as a reminder of what's been published or finished behind-the-scenes, for each project (more specific daily progress can be tracked on this constantly updated page):