Amy Petter - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silence of the Lambs

Director: Jonathan Demme

Year: 1991

            The Silence of the Lambs is a very well composed thriller. It consists of a story within another story with Clarice Starling working with Hannibal Lector and Buffalo Bill holding Catherine Martin captive. Director, Jonathan Demme, did a phenomenal job at portraying emotions within the film. The shots are well composed, following the rule of thirds though out the film and connecting emotions with composition.

            In the beginning of the film, FBI agent, Jack Crawford and Clarice are sitting at his desk. The scene is an over the shoulder shot. As they are scene discussing Clarice’s visit to Hannibal Lector, it demonstrates the severity of her job. The background of the scene is newspaper cut outs and pictures of Buffalo Bill’s heinous murders.

            The next scene cuts to an establishing shot of the Asylum where we meet Hannibal Lector. This is important, as this is our first opinion of Hannibal Lector. There is a very important moving shot of Clarice heading down the corridor past the other inmates. It sets an emotion for the viewers; fear. Clarice has ventured where Hannibal has eaten many others alive.

            While the scene and mood is set with Hannibal and Clarice, the director uses a jump cut to the next scene where it’s set in Tennessee. The scene starts off as an establishing shot of Catherine Martin arriving at her apartment complex. She looks excited to be home, as she looks up and talks to her kitten that is meowing in the windowsill. She looks left and sees a man in a sling trying to lift a heavy couch into the van. The music foreshadows what is about to happen, but the compositing of the lighting adds an eerie effect.

            As the film progresses, it is an ongoing shift between the first story and the second story, keeping the viewers on the edge of their seat. Towards the end of the film, the two stories begin to come together as Clarice is seen investigating the story how Hannibal has led her. The camera is often seen through her eyes, following where she looks and zooming in on clues, to help the viewers know what is coming next.

            Overall, I think that the way the film was composed was brilliant. He used many techniques that kept the viewers guessing and helped us easily follow where the film was going. The ending scenes let us know that there is going to be another one, so Jonathan Demme did a great job composing the film, The Silence of the Lambs.