Silence Of The Lambs opening, detailed analysis!!

The Silence of the lambs opening analysis

As a class we watched the opening of 'The Silence of the lambs' and took notes, I decided to use this opening clip to analyse in depth to pick out codes and conventions that I know fit with the thriller genre. I've added some print screens to show certain parts I thought were really effective or used a code or convention well! This is the clip we watched.. but not mirrored :D

The sound in the opening of SOTL is stereotypical of a thriller film, it begins with slow, tense, non diegetic sound which sets the mood and atmosphere as mysterious and tense. When Clarice first comes on screen we can hear her breathing heavily which makes the audience wonder if she’s running due to being followed, however we gather from the assault course she is not – but her heavy breathing makes the audience feel uneasy as we’re not sure exactly why she is running and out of breathe. The fact that she makes struggling noises introduces Clarice as a hardworking, strong woman who wants to get things done as she is not giving up on the course. As the opening goes on, the music becomes louder and faster and eventually quite erratic, this causes suspense and makes the audience think something bad is about to happen to Clarice. The music then becomes light hearted and soft after Clarice has a conversation – this anticlimax causes the audience to feel nothing bad is going to happen, the contrast between how the audience felt 10 seconds earlier is like an emotional rollercoaster, which is how thrillers are supposed to make their audience to feel! Throughout the clip there is not much music when conversations are happening, this makes the scene more realistic. Whenever there is a tense moment, for example when Clarice see’s the pictures of the killings, the tense music starts again which makes the atmosphere mysterious and sets the scene up for something bad to happen.

Camerawork is used in the opening to introduce characters and give an impression of what they are like or how they’re feeling. The first shot on Clarice is a high angle shot, which immediately makes her look small and belittled – this is conventional of a thriller as women are often seen as damsels. However as Clarice carries on the course, there’s a tracking shot from behind here making the audience feel as if we are in her shoes and also showing she is a main character as the shots of her only. The tracking shot could also foreshadow situations later in the film where someone is following her. Contrasting to the high shot of Clarice, when she is climbing over the net (which is stereotypically a masculine thing to do) there is a low shot of her, which all of a sudden gives the impression that she is powerful and strong – therefore the audiences view changes and they see perhaps she is not weak as we first expected. The mid shot where Clarice is in the elevator surrounded by tall men suggests she is out of place in her society, and isolated a lot, it foreshadows that she is singled out and treated differently due to being a woman through the film. The close up on Clarice’s face when she see’s a picture of the woman Hannibal attacked highlights her facial expression, concluding in the audience understanding how bad the situation is, which makes Hannibal seem like a terrifying character.

The mise-en-scene sets the film atmosphere and suggests things about certain characters; Clarice has her hair tied back and is extremely sweaty, also she is in a grey hoodie which connotes masculinity due to the colour grey and the lack of stereotypical fashion sense Clarice has. In the opening clip, any man that Clarice talks to is taller than her, therefore suggesting she is belittled in the world and society she lives in for being female – due to this we get the idea that Clarice is trying to succeed in a male dominated society. Throughout the clip all the colours are very dull, and dull colours connote sadness, dreariness and sombreness, showing this is how the world and storyline is portrayed throughout the film. In each scene, the males take up the majority of the frame, insinuating that males are higher in the hierarchy and have more power over women; this is typical of a thriller film where men are usually seen as the powerful strong characters.

The lighting starts as quite dark which immediately sets a dark mysterious atmosphere, which is continued throughout the whole film. The fog in the forest connotes mystery and evil which accompanies Clarice being alone and isolated in the forest. In the beginning the lighting is all realistic, creating a realistic atmosphere therefore the audience is more likely to believe and be intrigued by the opening. In contrast, the lighting inside the FBI building is realistic and extremely bright suggesting that at this moment in time Clarice is safe from danger, it also connotes happiness and safety which makes us feel that when Clarice is surrounded by people she is safe, as opposed to her being in danger when on her own. Chiaroscuro lighting is used on ‘mysterious’ or ‘dangerous’ characters for example the man who shows Clarice round where Hannibal is kept has chiaroscuro lighting which makes him come across as slightly strange, also Hannibal has chiaroscuro lighting on his face, therefore making him seem mysterious. Another time lighting is used to set the mood and atmosphere is when Clarice is about to meet Hannibal there is a red light which fills the shot, red connotes blood and danger, concluding in the audience feeling that something bad is going to happen, and foreshadowing the fact that Hannibal is linked with danger and blood.

The credits are extremely simple and in black and white, they flash onto the screen and then go off with no transition just a simple cut. They are large on the screen meaning people will easily see them and be able to read them quickly

The opening of SOTL is extremely effective and achieves what a thriller opening should; it draws the audience in, there are red herrings and enigma codes already. There is narrative retardation so the audience want to watch on to find out what happens, there are conflicts that are not resolved for example we want to see if Clarice succeeds in her task and if she becomes successful, and there are relationships between people that the audience want to see develop. SOTL opening fits with a number of different codes and conventions of thrillers, such as the woman being isolated, the use of camera shot types are all conventional of thrillers. Red herrings and narrative retardation are used which are conventional and the use of lighting!

Studying SOTL opening in depth really helped me understand exactly how many different conventions and codes are actually used in just the opening, I think it gave me a better idea of certain aspects I could use that I didn’t think of before and I got some ideas for lighting, colour and mise-en-scene that we could use in our thriller opening.. yaaaay :D