The Silence of the Lambs (Dir. Jonathan Demme) 1991 Coursework Draft Two

Sebastian Black                                    Film Studies A Level                      Tuesday 20th October 2015

The Silence of the Lambs (Dir. Jonathan Demme) 1991

My scene ends 1:10 into the second clip.

The Silence of the Lambs is a Crime, Drama & Thriller film. It covers the themes of crime & sexism. 

I am going to analyse the mise-en-scene & the performance of a scene from the Silence of the Lambs & explain how these two micro features are important in this scene. The scene I am going to analyse is when the officers discover that Hannibal is missing. I believe that the two micro features that I am going to analyse are very important in this scene as it makes up the whole of the scene & the audience’s responses are affected due to these two micro features. This scene is 1:18:23 into the film & it ends at 1:23:32.

During the beginning we see a lift dial. The lift dial shows that somebody is using the lift & we as the audience assume that it shouldn’t be used because Lecter is supposed to be secure on a higher floor. The use of the lift dial is effective because it gives the audience a visual of what’s actually happening & at the moment, they currently do not know what is going on, nor to do the officers at this current time. The lift dial with the moving arrow hand is more effective than if a different dial was used because the audience can see the other floor numbers, & they can see what floor the elevator was on & they have a visual of it going back & forth & this gives the audience a feeling of uncertainty. After hearing someone say, “what is this shit?” we see the officers in the lobby. The officers are wearing their uniform (black shirt, black trouser, & black shoes). We see that one of the officers has 3 stripes on the arm of his shirt; this indicates to the audience that he is a Sergeant. The sergeant was the only one to notice the lift dial moving whilst others were drinking a beverage &/or reading a newspaper, this indicates the audience that the Sergeant is more observant than the other officers. The facial expressions we see on the officers imply their concern & fear they have due to this disruption & this is portrayed to the audience through the use of facial expression.

There are 8 officers in the lobby & a man who’s wearing army uniform & he has a rifle in his hand & he is ready to load it. This gives the audience the impression of how serious & dangerous Hannibal Lecter is. There has to be a number amount of officers around, even then it’s not enough. After hearing the gunshot on floor 5, everybody gets their guns out, gets into position. Currently the officers do not know if it is actually Lecter who has used the gun to shoot on the 5^th floor, so this makes the audience feel on edge, they don’t know what’s going on, who’s on the 5^th floor, why did they use a gun & why are they going back down again? After Bobby alerting Sergeant Tate that the lift is going back down again, everybody starts talking, they don’t know what’s going on & Sergeant Tate orders them to shut up & he orders Bobby to get the vests. The vest is the bulletproof vest & it is used to protect the officers from the gunmen. The female officer then alerts Sergeant Tate that the elevator has stopped on the 3^rd floor & Sergeant Tate uses his radio to tell the other officers & ask them for a SWAT Team & the ambulance. The SWAT Team indicated to the audience that Hannibal Lecter is so skilled that ordinary officers cannot take him down, in order for him to be taken down, you need to call the elite police officers who a specialised in high risks.

54 seconds into the first clip, you can see Sergeant Tate takes a few seconds to pause before making the next move, this tells us that Sergeant Tate is worried. If he had just jumped straight in without taking a pause, this would tell the audience that Sergeant Tate is confident & he’s not worried but that isn’t the reality of what officers have to deal with. The reality is that it’s very stressful & can be very horrible to see the things that they see & this is portrayed well within the performance of this scene. 

As the officers are going up, they all have their guns out & moving into different positions, you can see the sweat on their face; this implies that they are nervous & worried. This makes the situation look more realistic as the officers aren’t glammed up, instead they are sweating & this shows the reality of how police officers would be in this sort of situation. If you look at the facial expressions on the officers, you can see the fear in their eyes & this affects the audience by making them have fear too. As Sergeant Tate is getting ready to look into the lift, he looks over first to see if there’s anything there & then he just jerks his head forward to get a clearer view. This makes the audience feel uncertain of what’s there because the audience doesn’t see what’s there until Tate jerks his head forward. Once Tate jerks his head forward, we see that the lift is empty, this give the audience relief because nothing has happened yet, & the anticipation becomes less. The use of low key lighting &high contrast represents the fear the officers are currently feeling. We can’t see Sergeant Tate’s full facial expression because of the lighting; this could also tell us that he doesn’t want the lower rank officers to feel like they need to be afraid.

Sergeant Tate calls Pembry & Boyle however there’s no reply. We see a figure through the door but we can’t make out what it is just yet. This makes the anticipation for the audience to heighten because the audience can’t see through the door window properly as it isn’t transparent. The use of the translucent window on the door is very effective; it is the reason why the anticipation goes up with the audience. If a transparent window was used, the scene would not be as effective because it gives away the surprise element of what Lecter is capable of & up until now; this scene is the only scene that shows the audience what Lecter can do. Danny Darst (Sergeant Tate) use of tone in this scene represents his leadership. Although the situation is terrible to be in, he can’t forget that he is the leader so he has to be assertive. As Sergeant Tate enters the room, he says “oh God” he says this in a deep tone. He doesn’t show the other officers that he’s panicking or shocked but him say “oh God” tells the audience he is shocked. Danny Darst represents a real life officer & he has to act as if he were in that profession.

As the officers enter the room & assume their positions, none of them notice Boyle hanging up at the top of the cell & this is because as officers, in these kinds of situations, you have to look around you & keep cover in case of any danger, in this case it’s Hannibal Lecter & it is vital that the officers do not get harmed. The audience would feel surprised because the officers didn’t notice Boyle hanging up first, but it just goes to show that the officers want to protect themselves, make sure the room is safe before they do anything further. The lighting in this room is fairly low key & this gives the scene a scarier feel. The lighting effects the audience by making them think that Lecter may be somewhere in the dark hiding, ready to attack the officers.

You can see that in this scene that Sergeant Tate is panicking, he’s talking though his radio to let the other officers know that Lecter is missing & armed. He becomes stern when Bobby asks, “what should I say to him? (Sgt Jim Pembry)” When Bobby starts talking to Pembry, he smiles, this shows the audience the relief that Bobby has knowing that he’s still pulling through his injuries & this makes the audience feel relieved that Pembry is still making it through. Sergeant Tate informs the other officers to look at the windows just in case Hannibal is making a rope to escape through the windows; this is mentioned because Lecter stripped his bed. This tells us that Lecter is smart & he has thought his escape through. This also gives the audience the feeling of uncertainty (again) because they’re wondering if they’ll know how he’s getting out & where is he going to go. The performance here convinces the audience that the officers are in distress. If the performance changed even in the slightest the

audience’s reaction to the predicament would change. You see a medium shot of one officer who slowly takes a seat in Boyle’s chair & he is looking down at Jim Pembry’s body on the floor. This tells the audience that this officer is in a shocked state & he doesn’t know what to do & the audience feels sorry for him.

We then see the outside location; the ambulance & SWAT team have arrived at the location. The SWAT team are wearing black jumpers, black trousers, black boots, a black cap & a black bulletproof vest. They are also armed with rifles. The use of the rifle indicates that they need a bigger weapon to capture Hannibal since the other officers only have pistols. The main SWAT team member asks the other two “you ready?” & they reply, “let’s do this”, this indicates to the audience that the SWAT team members are very prepared & excited to catch Hannibal. As one of them is saying, “let’s do this” he smiles as if it’s going to be fun for him.

As Sergeant Tate, the paramedics & the other officers are in the lift with Sergeant Jim Pembry on the stretcher, the audience can tell that there’s tension in the air. Bobby has stopped talking to Pembry, everybody is looking at the floor, they just want to avoid seeing Pembry because it’s horrible to see him in that state & this again gives us a realistic view of what it would be like if somebody is injured & you’re with them. 

 

 Sergeant Tate talks into is radio saying that Lecter is somewhere on the second floor, we then see spots of blood coming from the ceiling on to white sheet that is covering Pembry. As they stop on the second floor, Pembry is taken out of the lift; the SWAT team surrounds the other officers. The sea of SWAT team surprises

the audience because there are so many armed men & women surrounding this lift just for one man who has managed to

somehow get away. The amount of security used in this scene tells the audience how dangerous Lecter is for the members of the public, the officers want to make sure he doesn’t get lose into the outside world because that would then cause a lot of deaths.

My scene ends right before the SWAT team shoot Lecter who is on the roof of the elevator. The Swat team use a mirror to see on the top of the room of the elevator just in case they could have any harm done to them. This tells us that the swat team have to take precaution because the officers state that Lecter is armed.

In conclusion, I believe that the mise-en-scene & the performance have greatly affected this scene in a positive way. This scene relied on the mise-en-scene & performance, even if it was the smallest thing, these two micro features have helped made this film successful & watched by many people. These two micro features have created a particular response from the audience; these two micro features have kept the audience on their toes. If these two micro features where not tailored differently to how it currently is, the meaning & response would change greatly.