Recurring themes.
- "Over-fondness for the Baroque" - André Bazin
- Deep focus/deep space compositions (in picture) - very difficult to do as requires a good director, a split, and perfect lighting.
- Corruption
- isolation
- the downfall of a powerful man
- low-key lighting
- extravagant mise-en-scene
- Right and wrong - use lighting and shadows that distorts or hides the faces of the immoral or “dirty.” A technique by German expressionists
- smoke and mirrors.
Recurring themes in Citizen Kane.
- Baroque & exotic styles - in Kane's mansion, Xanadu. includes statues, artwork and lavish furniture.
- Isolation - Despite his lavish life Kane tries to buy his second wife's (Susan) affection an instead ends up pushing those closest to him away, she ends up leaving him - "49,000 acres of nothing but scenery and statues."
- long takes/deep focus - adds sense of realism to sensual stories. Allows Characterisation and for the audience to see what the actors can not.
- right & wrong lighting - Susan Kane’s regrettable performance in the opera house where Kane is completing a drunken Jedediah’s scathing review of Susan’s amateurish singing.
Recurring themes in The Lady from Shanghai
- Low-key lighting/deep focus -