Silence of the Lambs Questions Jagz

Silence of the Lambs Questions

 

Discuss three points within the film that semiotics were being used. How did these relate to the genre and narrative?

The iconic scene in this movie is properly when Clarice is telling Dr. Lecter her story of when she ran away. She explains that she heard screaming and when she finally got to her barn she found out that the lambs where screaming. Hannibal then staes that "If you save Catherine then you can stop the awful screaming of the lambs" which connects to the movies titles "The Silence of the Lambs".

There arev many symbols in this movie that could represent different things, one of the main symbols that is seen often in the movie is the F.B.I logo. This represents control and safety.

Discuss in detail how the genre was communicated in the opening scene of "Silence of the Lambs" using genre analysis. Make sure you embed terminology.
In the opening scene Clarice is running on a track in a foggy forest. This could represent mystery and expectation. On the tree there is writing that says “Agony, Pain Love-It”, this could the director uses lots of close ups of the face to give the impression that the characters are talking about something serious. This also happens with scenes involving one of the main characters, Hannibal Lecter.

How is the main female chracter portrayed in this film? How does it relate to femminist theory.

The main female character is portrayed as a tough but also fragile character because she wants to catch the main killer. There are many things that she does to suggest this such as telling a room full of male officers to leave the autopsy, politely.

At the beggining of the film where she takes an elevator that's filled with men, the men are wearing and red and she is wearing white, this could suggest that the men in the film are evil people I.E Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill and the hero is a woman. Clarice does reveal that when she was younger that she ran away from her cousins house because the lambs were screaming. She says that she carried on of the lambs and that it was so heavy. This is the first time in the movie where we find out that she was vunrable and weak.

How is the queer theory relatable to some of the characters in this film? Make sure you give examples and embed terminology.

The queer theory is relatable in the Silence of the Lambs because of many different scenarios in the film. One of the main scenarios is that the main killer, Jame Gumb a.k.a. Buffalo Bill, is a transvestite. A lot of questions were asked in the film to why he kills and skins only women and to find out exactly what he wants, Dr. Lecter also says that he wanted to be socially accepted.

Another theory is that when Clarice seeks help when she finds a clue, the cocoon in one of the victim’s mouths. She goes to what seems to be a gay couple who are represented as being happy and accepting who there are. This is because it looks like Claurice are good friends with both of them and jokes when one of them attempts to “hit” on her, which doesn’t work out. If the couple are represented as being angry and mad then it wouldn't balance out the main villian who is a transvestite.