Firstly, the genre is communicated instantly as a horror film. This can be communicated just from watching the opening scene of Silence Of The Lambs. In the opening scene it could represent a chase scene because the main character Clarice known as 'Starling' is running through a wooded area and sounding out of breathe but carries on running. This could be signified someone is chasing her as she doesn't stop running even though she is out of breath and keeps looking back time to time. The lighting while she is running through the wooded area is all dark, dull and foggy which automatically categorises this films genre as a horror. This is because you wouldn't have someone running through the woods when the lighting is all dark in a comedy film. Also all the credits overlaying the opening scene are all in bold black letters with a white outline. They may have used these colours because they can signify that something bad might happen because of the chase scene in the opening scene. As the scene goes on you find out that she is running on a training course because she is in training for the F.B.I. The audience finds this out when her trainer runs into the scene and tells Starling the boss wants to speak to her. You can also tell this from the F.B.I logo on her jumper which you see once her trainer arrives.
There are many semiotics used throughout this film but I am going to discuss a couple of them which mainly stood out while I was watching the film. The first semiotic that I noticed was the deaths head moth which was found in a women's throat when Starling was looking for clues from the women's death. When she found this moth and look at it in more detail a close up shot was used of the moth. While she was looking at it she found a skull on the back of the moths head. Once the audience sees that their is a skull on the back of the moths head they instantly know it represents death and this can be known as a connotation semiotic. The second semiotic I am going to discuss is the scene when Hannibal gets transferred to another prison and has a muzzle mask over his face stopping him from attacking or trying to biting any of the police officers as he was sent to prison after murdering people and eating his victims. He makes a weird and disturbing noise when he is talking about eating people. This can be known as an iconic scene because the muzzle mask he is wearing is a recognisable scene because it makes the character look a lot scarier. Another example of this scene being iconic is when Starling is trying to get information about 'Buffalo Bill' off of Hannibal. When she is asking about him, he makes that weird noise as she is mentioning his past about eating people. This noise is recognisable because he makes it every time someone asks him about his past in previous scenes.
The feminism film theory is used in this film as the main female character Clarice Starling is portrayed as an object. This is because everyone treats her unfairly and not equally. For example; when Starling and her boss went to investigate a body, the police officer said I will talk to the man in charge in the next room. This results in her being portrayed as a pretty face and won't know anything but the only character that treats her with respect is Hannibal. Her boss only gave her the job to visit Hannibal because he knew he would listen to a pretty face. All the other males in this film see Clarice as a sexual object, because they all stop what they are doing and stare at her when she walks past. For example; when Clarice went to the bug nerds to look at the deaths head moth in better detail and the bug nerd asked her out on a date. Clarice Starling is known as a strong female character which will succeed and won't fail where as most females are stereotyped as a weak, pretty faced and can't do nothing. For example; when Clairce gets information from Hannibal about Buffaloo Bill, she goes to an a banded lockup to investigate it on her own. Baring in mind it is quite late in the evening but stills goes alone. When she can't open the lockup door and the male character there doesn't help her, Clarice decides to get her car jack from her car and opens the door herself. This shows that she isn't afraid of anything and is a strong character because she is doing jobs that males are stereotyped to do. When she is investigating the lockup she finds a humans head cut off in a jar. As she sees this head she acts really calm which also shows her characters strongest where as most girls in films are stereotyped to scream at things like that.
The queer theory is also used in this film because there are two stereotyped characters used in this film which are; the drag queen and butch lesbian. Firstly the stereotype of the butch lesbian can be known as Clarice Starling because she doesn't wear all girly clothing, instead she wears baggy trousers and her hair is always up and messy. She only wears smart clothing such as a skirt, blouse, blazer and heels, hair done nicely and makeup on is when she helps investigate murders with her boss and interviews Hannibal. She probably dresses like this to look professional and she's not someone to mess around with. Clarice also can be stereotyped as a butch lesbian because she has a deeper voice compared to other women in this film, as they have more feminine voices. The other stereotyped character in this film is the drag queen which is known as Buffalo Bill because he dresses up as a women. This is proven in the scene when he is dancing around his room, wearing a wig, makeup, and wearing a silk dressing gown. After this scene the audience finds out why he kidnaps women that are size 14 and then kills them because he wants to use their skin to make him look like a women.
The most memorable scene to me in Silence Of The Lambs is when Hannibal escapes the caged area in the hotel while he is being transferred to another hospital/prison. This is because he killed two police officers and swaps clothing with one of them to get out of the hotel without being noticed. He then moves that body and drops it on top of the lift in his clothing making out that he killed himself and they won't try finding him. As he does this he cuts the police officers skin on his face and wears it on his face to disguise himself. I remember this scene quite well because he hung the other police officer by is arms on the cell/cage which represents him on a crucifixion cross.
Good work this along with your previous posts has put you at a merit for GC1 so well done Jack.
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