"The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)
Basic information
Screenplay: Ted Tally
Director: Jonathan Demi (Jonathan Demme)
Photography: Tak Fujimoto (Tak Fujimoto) ¼br /> Genre: Crime/Thriller
Country/Region: United States
Length: 118 minutes
Dialogue Language: English
Color: Color
Awards: Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1992 , Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Editing Nomination, Best Sound Effects. In 1992, he won the Best Actor and Best Actress Award at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards, and was nominated for Best Photography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Original Music, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Effects Award .
Director's brief introduction
In 1994, Jonathan Demi was born in New York in 1994, and then moved to Florida with his family, where he studied at university, but studied veterinary medicine. When he was in college, he liked to watch movies and write film reviews. After retiring from the Air Force, he joined UnitedArtists. Since 1974, he has been a director and first made B-level films for Roger Coman. Although they are all sexual and violent plot films, they have added a more personal style of humor.
This person with a different view of Hollywood movies is considered to be the most glamorous director in the United States with extremely sharp images and quirky plots. In 1980, Jonathan won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for "Melvin and Hallward". The film is considered one of the best films of the 1980s. And what really makes Jonathan Demi's name resound in Hollywood is his film "The Silent Lambs".
Screenwriter Introduction
Ted Tully studied drama at Yale University in college, and then worked as a playwright in New York for 10 years before switching to writing TV and film scripts. His first film was "Love Picks the June Flower", and later won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for "The Silent Lamb". In the film industry, he is known for his ability to complete difficult adaptations.
The film outlines the
United States, modern. Young FBI agent Clarice Starling was tasked to help find a missing woman. It is reported that she has fallen into the hands of the infamous serial killer "Buffalo Bill" for skinning. In order to better understand the twisted mentality of this perverted killer, Clarice consulted with the "ogre" Professor Hannibal Lecter who was in prison. This perverted madman was an excellent psychologist before being imprisoned. Clarice's mentor also believed that Hannibal might be able to help them find "Buffalo Bill." As a result, Clarice and Hannibal had a strange and twisted relationship, which not only helped her finally get the chance to face the "Buffalo Bill", but also forced her to face the long hidden darkness in her heart. zone.
Analysis
of the long shots Location of the film: 48'47'' to 49'43''
Duration: 1 minute 4 seconds
There is no iconic long shot in this film, and the composition of the suspense is mainly shown through montages. However, the passage introducing the home of the murderer "Buffalo Bill" in the film was completed with a one-minute long shot, which showed the murderer's home while increasing the audience's sense of curiosity about him. Since the time represented by the long shot is the same as the actual viewing time of the audience, the audience seems to be in it when the camera walks around the murderer's home.
This scene has been accompanied by music and a screaming female voice, starting with the subject moth pupa. After the camera stays for a second or two, it slowly moves to the right, and the transformed butterfly enters the camera. Then, the camera was pulled back all the way, and the camera looked around like human eyes, swords, female models! Cold, gloomy, dark, crowded, and messy are the generalizations of everything we see. When the lens was pulled to the end again, the direction was forced to shift, the murderer's back constituted the visual center of the picture, and his snow-white body was exceptionally conspicuous in the cold tones. He is doing something seriously. The camera continued to move forward, trying to get closer to the murderer, but when we were about to see what the murderer was doing, a wealthy dog diverted our attention, following it we came to a deep well, and we were gradually approaching the screaming sound . But the director obviously didn't want us to see the desperate figure of the girl in the well. The camera stayed on the edge of the dry well, because the right to reveal the mystery was left to the subsequent news reports.
When the lens was pulled to the end again, the direction was forced to shift, the murderer's back constituted the visual center of the picture, and his snow-white body was exceptionally conspicuous in the cold tones. He is doing something seriously. The camera continued to move forward, trying to get closer to the murderer, but when we were about to see what the murderer was doing, a wealthy dog diverted our attention, following it we came to a deep well, and we were gradually approaching the screaming sound . But the director obviously didn't want us to see the desperate figure of the girl in the well. The camera stayed on the edge of the dry well, because the right to reveal the mystery was left to the subsequent news reports.
Character appearance analysis
Hannibal is the most talked-about character in this film. First of all, many other characters in the film describe Hannibal as a character. His impressions of cannibalism, blood, cold blood, strange and elegant violence, etc. have gradually formed in the visitor Clarie through the dialogue within the first five minutes of the film. In the minds of Silk and the audience, these dialogues were completed through the close-up of the characters, which greatly increased the pressure on Clarice and the audience. These words even appear repeatedly, but from different speakers, their meaning has changed. For example, when these warning words came from the mouth of Clarice’s boss, they were full of love and compassion for Clarice. However, from the later point of view, the boss still has reservations about Clarice’s purpose of visiting Hannibal; When the warden Chilton spoke, he was full of sexual provocation, and even a little bit of a tone, proud of imprisoning Hannibal; when he came from the prison guard Barney, the message was pure protection and reminder. The words of the three people shaped their own personalities, and at the same time deepened the pivotal and symbolic status of Clarice, a female character in the film, and increased the audience's suspense for Hannibal who is about to appear.
The film's creator cleverly arranged Hannibal in the innermost cell of the deep dungeon. Before finally seeing Hannibal, he had to pass through the cells of other executed prisoners. As Clarice moved slowly and her sight, we saw three other prisoners on death row. The first condemned prisoner clung to the railing and looked at Clarice greedily; the second condemned prisoner sat quietly in the faintness of the cell. The third condemned prisoner's hair was scattered, he was jumping up and down in the cell, and his mouth was full of filthy language. The first three cells were dim and messy, but when Hannibal was in the cell, it was completely different: bright lights, without iron railings, replaced by thicker glass, like an exhibition cabinet. Hannibal combed his hair neatly, dressed in clean and neat prison clothes (more like pajamas), smiled, and stood motionless in the center of the cell, like a wax figure, a robot. He looked at the camera slowly approaching her-looking at Clarice's eyes, looking at the audience's eyes. When the camera stopped, he said: Good morning.
Everything is contrary to the audience's preconceived expectations. They didn't see a demon, but an extremely civilized and elegant person, but the previous description of him was so true and conclusive, which made people shiver in their hearts. The audience held their breaths like Clarice, fearing that Hannibal might pounce on him at some point. The reverse treatment prompted the audience to frighten themselves with their own imagination. The use of glass not only solves the problem of iron railings concealing the actors’ faces, but also adds two effects: one is that it looks newer and may be stronger than the old iron railings, and the other is that it can make Clarice and Hannibal was able to get close enough, as if he could be touched, to establish a smooth channel for the dialogue that touched Clarice's psychological shadow many times.
Detailed analysis
Hannibal is an extremely dangerous figure, so any sharp and small hard objects may be transformed into a murderous weapon by him. This point is repeatedly reminded and emphasized in the film. This may be a rule set by the warden Chilton, but he himself did not comply. While talking with Hannibal, he dropped his pen on Hannibal's bed. This paragraph gives enough montage shots to explain Hannibal's attention to that pen.
The signed paragraph in the following paragraph confessed that Hannibal had successfully stolen the pen. As for how Hannibal stole this pen, the film does not explain at all. Does the film need to explain this issue? After discussion, the director and screenwriter reached a consensus: this is a "refrigerator problem", which means that the audience will be impressed by the film after watching this film, and then they will think when they come home and open the refrigerator, hey , How did he steal that pen? But at this time these meanings are no longer important and will not affect the audience's evaluation of the film. Here, how Hannibal stole the pen is not the main point of the story. The audience is concerned that Hannibal is likely to start killing people again. The fear of this is far greater than the exploration of the logical possibility of stealing the pen.
Therefore, in the following paragraphs, the audience sees how Hannibal used a part of this pen to unlock the handcuffs and gracefully kill two prison guards. We can expect this result, but we still love to watch it. This may also touch on the deep distortion of the audience's psychology. On the one hand, we were worried about the two prison guards who were about to die miserably, and on the other hand, we were secretly happy about the "out of the mountain" of Hannibal, who was finally bloodthirsty again.
One of the successes of the suspense analysis film in suspense is that it did not create an extremely tense and dangerous atmosphere for the audience by showing violence and bloody scenes from the front. Except for the sporadic scenes showing the corpse, the film prevents violence and gore, and allows the audience's imagination to fill this gap through character reaction shots, panoramic shots, and so on.
On the other hand, in the middle part of the film, the identity of "Buffalo Bill" is explained, and the film has entered an omniscient perspective. The suspense of the film fell on the audience to worry about Clarice's danger. This paragraph also became the climax of the whole film.
First of all, through a staggered editing passage, the heavily armed superior police force broke into the suspect’s room but was emptied, while the lonely Clarice came to the real "Buffalo Bill" by accident. Hiding place. Before Clarice doubted the man in front of her, she had always thought that she had nothing to do with the case, just doing some auxiliary investigations, and her psychological defense must be very low. The audience also thinks that Clarice must think so at this time. However, the audience knows that the murderous "Buffalo Bill" is in front of them, so it is natural to sweat for Clarice.
After Clarice discovered Bill's identity, she pulled out her gun and started chasing, and the buffalo quickly fled into her basement. Although Clarice is a well-trained federal agent, Judy Foster has an excellent portrayal of a strange and nervous agent who draws a gun for the first time. Clarice's step-by-step exploration in the basement is like leading the audience into a haunted house. The biggest fear is that he doesn't know when Bill will suddenly jump out. However, the audience may know more than Clarice, because the structure of Bill's house has been introduced in the previous long shot. The director used several fixed shots in this passage, as if waiting for Clarice to appear in the room, showing Clarice's exploration from a peeping angle. From the lens point of view of the entire paragraph, the focus is more on Clarice’s reaction to this space, with her mid-range and close-up shots being numerous, with only a very small number of subjective perspective shots interspersed.
Later, Clarice entered a room, the door was closed, the lights were all off, and she couldn't see her fingers. The film became the perspective of night vision goggles, that is, Bill's perspective. This is the highlight of the whole film. First of all, the second appearance of night vision goggles echoes the previous article, and it also indicates that Clarice will become Bill's next prey. In the night vision goggles, Clarice's panic and helplessness grabbed the audience's hearts, and Bill still stretched out his hand to touch Clarice at this time, and the fear of being close at hand made it almost impossible to breathe. At this time, on the one hand, Bill's morbid love for the female body was visually sublimated, but the moment he took out the gun, the alert Clarice found it and shot it back. This paragraph uses the least language, the simplest lens language (basically a coherent long shot), and even the simplest color (green in the night vision goggles). With the actor’s outstanding acting skills and the foreword of the previous story, the whole The film reached an emotional and plot climax, and it was resolved happily in the gunshots of Clarice's self-defense and relief.
The structural analysis of the
whole film mainly adopts the sequential structure. At the beginning, the storyline of the film was single, that is, federal police investigating the murder of Buffalo Bill. However, as the story progressed, the story line also branched from one to three, namely Clarice investigating the case, Buffalo Bill continuing to commit the crime, and Hannibal fleeing.
The film begins when the FBI assigns Clarice to seek help from Hannibal to provide clues to the investigation of the Buffalo Bill case. After two verbal visits, Hannibal reminded Bill that he might have begun to look for his next target. At this time, the film turned to Buffalo Bill peeping at the congressman's daughter home and then kidnapping her. In the following story, the FBI investigation has never touched the scope of Buffalo Bill's activities. It can be said that he let him do whatever he wants and show his perverted and terrifying side to his fullest, which made a very deep impression on the audience. The unexpected encounter between Clarice and Buffalo Bill in the end increased the sense of tension. The audience's grasp of the overall situation transformed into Clarice's worry about the unknown. This is a typical Hitchcock suspense.
Hannibal's escape plan began when Clarice made a promise to Hannibal under the guise of a member of Parliament. This lie was used by Warden Chilton to satisfy personal vanity. During the transfer of Hannibal, he was able to escape. Since then, the relationship between Hannibal's story line and Clarice's detection of the Buffalo Bill case has gone further and further. The relationship between Hannibal and Clarice has also changed from a working relationship with a case to an ambiguous and vague spiritual connection. After Hannibal fled, Clarice thought that Hannibal would not come to hurt Clarice, because she thought that Hannibal would not do such "insolent" things. Therefore, in the later detection plot, although Hannibal did not appear, Clarice has always been equipped with what he learned from Hannibal in the first half of the story: Bill’s psychological analysis, his own psychological analysis, and the human psychology. analyze. After Clarice was commended for successfully solving the case, Hannibal reappeared on the other end of the phone, as if he had already laid the groundwork for the sequel.
There is also a hidden story line running through the film: Clarice’s childhood memories. Although this story line only appears twice through the screen, and the verbal dialogue mentions it once, it is true that the core theme of the entire film is the origin of the film's name. Clarice lost her father in childhood, lived on the ranch, and ran away after witnessing the silence of the slaughter of lambs. These memories accompanied her growth and affected her life, leading to her wanting to become a federal agent, and inspiring her to be a male-dominant. Unwilling to lose to men in the realm of the world, Bill Buffalo, who wants to play tricks on gender and slaughter women for pleasure, has a strong desire to bring him to justice. And all this was seen by Hannibal, portrayed in detail, and unfolded before Clarice's eyes. This story line is presented not by a large number of flashbacks, but by a comprehensively constructed atmosphere and the visual actions of the characters. On this basis, only a slight mention of Clarice’s history can be convincing. The climax of this story line: Clarice and Hannibal have a conversation about the Silent Lamb. The creators once thought about going to a ranch to film this flashback. However, at the moment after the filming of the dialogue, due to the superb acting skills of the actors, the director and the screenwriter discussed that we don't need to shoot flashbacks. Considering the location of the film where this dialogue is located, Clarice's inner world can be constructed only by the audience's imagination. This not only saved nearly a million in filming costs, but also made Judy Foster and Hopkins a queen and actor.
summary
1. Long shots show outstanding environmental effects, because the movie time and viewing time are the same, which increases the sense of reality.
2. One of the tricks for the characters to appear on the stage is to be unexpected, to reverse the previous foreshadowing and the real situation, or to only explain part of it, so that the audience feels surprised can make them impressed.
3. Pay attention to the dramatic effect of details rather than logic, and small objects have the best effect in promoting large plots.
4. Let the audience’s favorite role be out of danger, let the audience know that there is danger, and worry more about the role.
5. The story line cannot be evenly exerted on the screen, but the content should be pushed to the core of the theme together.
View more about The Silence of the Lambs reviews
