Orson Welles as an auteur

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 -