Yellow Light
Yellow light is used in both of the first two Godfather films, but its meaning evolves, particularly over the course of this one. While early on it frames Michael's subtle flexes of family power, be that directly over his sister Connie when she comes asking for a loan, or indirectly as Tom handles the situation at the brothel, later in the film it increasingly signifies the stale air closing Michael into his lonely compound. More and more, when we see the yellow light it seems to insinuate something grim and noxious.
Frank Pantangeli Trying to Conduct the Band
The early moment when Frank Pantangeli shows up drunk to the communion party and tries to lead the band in playing Italian tunes, he brings an element of chaos to the party that foreshadows the chaos that his participation in the events of the film will spur. While he's laughed off the stage during that early scene, he ends up a force to be reckoned with—or at least a quantity to be dealt with—as the film goes on.
Funerals
In a rather virtuosic filmmaking move, Francis Ford Coppola uses the layout of funeral scenes to establish key family relationships and sets of important points in his drama. The funeral we see at the very beginning of the film has a ragtag band playing a dirge while walking through the desert, and ultimately ends in the murder of Vito's brother. It gives us a sense of Vito's own procession towards a life in the mob. On the other hand, at Vito's wife's—and the Corleone siblings' mother's—funeral, the waltz of family members as they play in rejection and embrace of each other offers a complex choreography of the acrimony amongst the Corleone clan.
The Compound
Michael Corleone's compound in Nevada stands as a symbol of his isolation, and both the dark, maze-like interior architecture we're shown, as well as its austere facade facing the lake, set the stage for the powerful man growing increasingly elusive. The isolated, fenced-in compound becomes a synecdoche for an isolated, fenced-in man.
