Silence of the lambs

Silence of the lambs

Today I watched ''Silence of the lambs'' movie. I will analyse main points of the movie through five questions.

1. Discuss three points within the film that semiotics were being used. How did these relate to the genre and narrative?

•     Red light on Clarise’s face - connotates blood, which could be the symbol of death.

•     FBI agent badge - it is an icon and iconical at the same moment, because FBI protects and serves for people.

•     Police officer body - in the end, when Lector escapes, he leaves the guard's corpse in the shape of a cross. Cross would be a symbol, representing Christianity. Lector connotates himself as a god and guards death could be connotated as demon purge.

2. Discuss in detail how genre was communicated in the opening scene of the silence of the lambs using genre analysis.

     Surroundings - scene starts by view of the forest covered into fog, which could connotate mystery. Forest - in the opening scene I could see main character, which is running through the forest, but trees in the forest are without leaves. That look connotates withering, decay or death. Producer could choose other time of the year, but he chose autumn, when trees drop their leaves and only naked branches stay.

    Title - title made only from main colours, which always connotates good and evil. Title like I mentioned made from colours which connotates good and evil, those colours are black and white. Most of the time the black colour in titles shows shadow, but not in this one. In this title black colour is the main colour and white colour is a shadow. Producer uses that to show, that it is horror movie and mostly in all horror movies I could see dark colours. Black colour signifies death, fear and pain. However, I could see a white shadow, which connotates 'hope'. No matter how bad is the situation we always hope, that we will find escape from it and will sort it out everything eventually.

    Sign - when Clarise runs to the FBI headquarter, she runs through sign' Hurt, Agony, Pain, Love it'. Sign simply signifies Psychopath's and his victim's feelings. He likes when his victims feel pain and agony, because he loves that.

3. How is the main female character portrayed in this film? How does it relate to the feminist film theory?

Mostly in a horror film women are portrayed to be weak, most of the time can't even defend themselves and always get saved by men. However in this horror movie Clarise shows as a strong and independent woman, who trying to get a career in a man’s world. However, no matter how strong Clarise is, in front of men she always loses her strength and independence. While I watched this movie I saw many male gaze scenes of Clarise. First scene would be in the elevator, when she is the only one in group of men. Later, in the movie I could see how Lector admires her, without covering that. He always looks directly at Clarise. For conclusion no matter how Clarise got portrayed as an independent person she always ended up being objectified as a 'thing', which men like to see.

4. How is the queer theory relatable to some of the characters in this film?

Buffalo Bill - main killer got portrayed as a drag queen, because he wears much jewellery. Furthermore, he makes a suite from women's skin to create his own woman body, which he can't have.

Plus there is a scene in the movie, how he portraits himself as a woman, while he is dancing and in the end of the dance he shows his 'vagina'.

Clarise - for me Clarise creates a lipstick lesbian portrait, because in the whole movie I could see how she feels uncomfortable when she gets attention from men or even when she stays with them in one room. However, when she is in one room with a girl, she acts differently. She is more confident of her skills, she knows what she does, feels calmer than being with men, because she feels that every moment she could be criticized by them, because of her mistakes. But when she is with a woman, she is more confident of her intuition.

5. What was the most memorable scene for you from this film and why?

For me the most memorable scene was when Clarise meets Lector for the first time in his cell. At the end of their conversation when all patients around Lector's cell get insane and make noise. How Clarise got annoyed, confused, I could see fear in her body language. Furthermore, from that scene I could see how Lector already has control of Clarise. He needs only to call her name and she will run back to him.