Touch of evil and authorship

Orson Welles' 'Touch of evil' is made with his artistic authorship, as well as seeing his history background of radio plays and stage writing, through the long eventful shots and largely narrated storyline through the characters lines.
 
Authorship is something directors, producers and writers like to define, as a personal mark on their productions. Something an audience member could maybe guess at the director of the film they were watching, if they saw similar techniques occur in previous films they had seen, directed by the same director. Authorship shapes the film.

''they are auteur's who often write their dialogue and some of them themselves invent the stories they direct. '' - Truffaut.F (1954, P.8)

Orson Welles' 'Touch of Evil' puts this quote into practise, putting his authorship within it, such as the black and white film, that he used on most his films and the artistic shots he experimented with. He uses many mirrors in a shot to put his mark on the shots and also creates a deceiving/ unsure atmosphere within the scene and towards the audience. Such as in 'Lady from Shanghai', this shot shows a couple in a mirror maze, when another man approaches and a gun is shot, yet the mirrors create an illusion to who has been shot and the argument is more tense and intriguing to watch as it confuses the audience. Whereas in 'Citizen Kane', the mirror use in this next shot is used metaphorically, portraying the mans power, giving us an overwhelming amount of the man's reflections.

Lady from Shanghai

Citizen Kane

The scene that most critics recognise from 'Touch of Evil' is the very first, as it's over 3 minutes and in just one shot. I think this shows off Welles' experience and skills from his stage writing days as scenes for the stage are potentially all one long shot, just seeing the whole scene from our eyes position of the stage. He is a very experimental and artistic author, always concentrating on each visual shown, with his dark shadows and low camera angles.



first shot from 'Touch of Evil'

 Truffaut,F. (1954) 'A certain tendency of the French cinema' P.8