In addition to the upcoming Welles books by Callow and McBride, 2006 will see another Welles title, this time a look at six of Welles’ films from a “scene by scene” viewpoint. I have to admit I’ve been working on something like this for the site, so I’m curious to see how this compares. The book is titled Orson Welles: Six Films Analyzed, Scene By Scene, authored by Randy Rasmussen. Published by McFarland, the book features McFarland’s library pricing ($45 for a paperback), so it won’t be an impulse purchase for most. Pub date is given as spring/summer 2006. McFarland’s description of the book on their web site reads thusly:

“Orson Welles is a self-conscious storyteller who often invites his audience to question the methods and veracity of what they see and hear. He is that rare magician who both pulls the wool over our eyes, for our delight, and unravels the wool before our eyes, encouraging us to ponder the nature of the magic itself. Many of the characters in Welles’s movies can also be seen as magicians of a sort, creating impressions intended to manipulate other characters, or even themselves, in one direction or another. But unlike Welles, few of them voluntarily expose their tricks to the scrutiny of their victims.

Six major Welles films-Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil, The Trial, and Chimes at Midnight-receive a scene by scene analysis in this critical study. From a viewer’s perspective it illuminates the dramatic rhythms of each film as they unfold on screen and from the soundtrack. Frequent analogies to other movies and pertinent quotations from the impressions of other commentators broaden the text, always within the scene by scene progression dictated by the principal film under discussion.”