The Silence of the Lambs Analysis

The silence of the lambs

The narrative of this film is, chronological. There are four main enigmas; which keeps the audience 'hooked', as it makes them ask questions as to what is happening in that scene. At the start of the opening the setting it very dull and mysterious. It  begins with a long shot of a woman running, consequently straight away we have the enigma code  ‘why is she running?’ and ‘who is she?’ it isn’t till shortly after until the action codes reveals information about her. 

 Expositional dialogue and props were used in the opening sequence; this is when a piece of dialogue or prop is said or used to expose a piece of information to the audience that they need to know. This happens when an assumed colleague shouts “Starling!” we are introduced to this female character by her second name, Starling. This makes the film seem more realistic for the audience. Also, an expositional prop is used to show who these characters work for. Consequently a mid-shot is used when the female is first introduced; which shows the small writing on her jumper that says 'FBI', also the colleague of Starling is wearing an FBI hat, we now know that they both work for the FBI. This piece of information did not need to be verbalised.  This moves the narrative along quickly and easily.

There is a shot of the FBI’s motto on signs in the police training ground; this just reinforces the location of the characters and the main starting point for the narrative of the story.On the way in, Starling is high-fived by a female character, and she greets her with her first name, Clarice; this piece of expositional dialogue shows that she is accepted by others. Although, a following shot shows that maybe she doesn't fit the success criteria as she is a lot shorter than the other characters in the shot, it may suggest that she is less able or at a disadvantage compared to the others due to all the characters being male may also suggest that it may be unusual for a woman to work in that occupation. The proximity of the characters may suggest that even though they're psychically close, they're worlds apart in ability. Clarice is placed in the middle of the shot to show that she is the main character and that full attention should be completely be on her.  She is also wearing a different colour which makes her stand out even more.

Clarice's facial expression is very scared when she gets to the entrance; a close up is used to show this. You can see that she looks very pale, this could be due to being scared of what she's about to unravel within her encounter with Hannibal. The lack of make-up shows that she doesn't really care too much about her appearance and she is purely there for work purposes, despite the male attention she gets.

When Clarice goes to see Hannibal, she enters the safety precaution  of the extra gate, we then she a shot of one of the police officers on the outside looking in on her. This emphasises she is alone and vulnerable, however she is protected. As the camera tracks her going down the cell block, we meet an eyeline match; where the first cell mate is pushed against the bars trying to grab Clarice, this shows an old fashioned 'traditional' cell. It is almost dungeon like, very empty and dark. As Clarice walks to the chair, we can see that the main focal point is on the chair, a spotlight is used to emphasise the end of her  journey down the cells. This also juxtaposes with the normality, as we usually associate a spotlighted chair with being the interviewee, however in this case Clarice is in control, although she doesn't feel it.