Silence of The Lambs Scene Analysis - Baltimore Hospital

For my essay on ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’, I have decided to choose the first scene in which we meet ‘Dr Hannibal Lecter’ and ‘Dr Chilton’. This scene includes the disruptive moment in the film, so therefore this scene affects the narrative in a large way. This scene, where ‘Lecter’ and ‘Starling’ meet for the first time sets off the chain of events that is the plot of the film.

The genre of the film as a whole would be a psychological thriller. This is because thrillers are usually hybrids; in this case it is a psychological thriller. I think this is because thrillers are known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension while at the same time using mind-games to twist the plot and make you think about what could happen and wha

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As ‘Lecter’ gives the clue, the music gets louder until he shouts at her to ‘Go, Now, Go’, when the music continues but at a lower pitch and lower volume. The actors (Anthony Hopkins – ‘Hannibal Lecter’ and Jodie Foster – ‘Clarice Starling’) helped influence this feeling by the way they used their facial expressions. Uncertain because we don’t know what to expect when we meet ‘Lecter’ for the first time, we don’t realise why ‘Lecter’ is giving clues to ‘Starling’ and also because we don’t know what is going to happen next. I felt a high feeling of excitement and yet a disturbing amount of uncertainty. The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. The extract I have chosen is not typical of the genre because although it is a pursuit of a murderer, it shows a previous psychological killer working with an F. Excited also because we want to know what will happens next after ‘Lecter’ has given the first clue. This helps create a sense of uncertainty and tension (not knowing what to expect and fear of ‘Lecter’). Characters in thrillers include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, two-faced individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women and psycho fiends (People that kill for the fun; this is our ‘Hannibal Lecter’ character). Here the music (soundtrack) seems to pace with the tension and excitement. Whereas Foster looked like she was trying to keep a straight face but her emotions were too strong. Hopkins kept a straight face all the time, this helped to try and show that ‘Lecter’ wasn’t really affected by anything, as if he had no emotions.

Common topics in this essay:
Lecter Starling, Hannibal Lecter, Clarice Starling, Ted Tally, Whereas Foster, Dr Chilton, Silence Lambs, Jonathan Demme, hannibal lecter, Scene Essay, Anthony Hopkins, psychological thriller thrillers, moment film, scene lecter, psychological thriller, thriller thrillers, excited uncertain, lecter clue, clarice starling, music soundtrack, lecter calls,

Approximate Word count = 605
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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