Silence Of The Lambs
Enigma Codes
The Whole film is one big enigma code. Almost everything that Hannibal Lecter says is enigma, we want to know if he is going to manipulate Clarice, if he is going to escape and if he is going to spare the protagonist. Buffalo Bill also has a lot of scenes with enigma codes embedded. We do not know if he is going to kill again, if he will get away and If Clarice will finally take Him down.
Mise En Scene
The Mise en scene in this film is usually very dark and mysterious. For example, Hannibal's cell is at the end of a long corridor. The cell itself is completely in order, there are paintings and books neatly placed around the cell, this suggests to us that Hannibal is a sophisticated killer. This is the complete opposite to Buffalo Bill's house.Everything is dirty, there are skinned bodies laying around the place and the lighting is usually very dim.
This scene is a great example of the deceptive editing in Silence of the Lambs.
The graphic match of the doorbell and school bell really deceives you and makes you believe the FBI have the correct house. What comes next really shocks the audience.
Silence Of The Lambs presents both a horror of personality and a crime thriller, towards the end of the film there is also a sense of Innocent on the run, due to the protagonist, Clarice, being hunted down by the freed Hannibal Lecter. In silence of the lambs we see a lot of iconic scenes, there is a great example of deceptive cutting where we see the FBI breaking into a house. We also see Clarice ringing the bell of another house to inquire about a murder. The cross cutting makes us believe that the FBI are going to break in, take the killer down and save the day, when really it is Clarice who is at the killers house unintentionally.
Clarice, our protagonist is also burdened with problems, she is a woman, in what seems to be a mans world. We often see her being dwarfed by both her own colleagues and her enemies. A famous example which is often used in films is the lift scene, she is the smallest in the lift but is one of the most important characters in the film.
It seems that in the film the two main characters, Buffalo Bill and Hannibal Lecter, are not binary opposites. Both are psychologically disturbed serial killers who have strange reasons as to why they are killing. These similarities give the film a unique edge, as Hannibal Lecter is a likable character, you could even say Buffalo Bill has this strange innocence which reflects in his almost childish antics.
I personally like the lighting used in the scene where Clarice is on the run from Bill, we see point of view shots from bills night vision, two shots with both Clarice and Bill and the lighting is very low key until Bill is shot multiple times, a few of which miss and smash a window, allow sunlight to come in and the lights flick on. The film contains a lot of enigma coding, most of Hannibal's dialogue, Buffalo Bills motives and Clarice's quest for clues and knowledge on the killers motives and morals are all enigma codes used in the film. What I thought was clever was that the film never really has a solid state of equilibrium it begins and ends with a serial killer on the loose and when one problem is averted another rises from the dirt.