This paper analyzes the artistic characteristics and social significance of The Silence of the Lambs's films.

In the scene where Chris and chilton say goodbye and prepare to walk into the prison corridor, they use warm colors-red light (cold colors are used in the foreground and background, mainly gray, white and green). But that kind of feeling is more like filtering the lens with red filter paper, and the whole picture is immersed in "blood". Red pictures have a disturbing psychological effect. At this time, "listening" to Dr. chilton's rambling talk about how Hannibal ate a female nurse's chin, eyes and nose is particularly terrible and boring. The red color of the picture is obviously to interpret Hannibal's bloody behavior and let the protagonist and audience know Hannibal from the side. I didn't see the psychological fear of my husband, and the characters were half full. This use of abnormal color and language power to shape the image has indeed achieved extraordinary results.

White has always been the representative color of God, and white light is the light of God's love and the embodiment of love. The Silence of the Lambs can't get rid of its strong religious color! This religious consciousness was well reflected when Chris met Hannibal for the second time. At the beginning of the conversation, we will notice that there is no light in Hannibal's prison (Hannibal "hides" in the dark so that we can't see clearly), and it is dark! After Chris talked with him for a while, the light suddenly lit up dramatically, with white light on it. Hannibal lecter under the white light is unusually tall and straight, giving people a sense of sacredness. In my impression, when reading the Bible, this shape is obviously a patent of God. White light is used in the second place to highlight the dark shape-the crucified "Jesus" tied to the "cross", but he is like a beautiful butterfly that has been transformed. Does it mean that Jesus was resurrected after "transformation"? (Because I understand that the "lamb" in the Bible refers to Jesus Christ, not all beings), from this perspective, Hannibal is obviously the incarnation of Satan, and he is slaughtering his "lamb"! Most people generally agree that "all beings are lambs and God is the shepherd". If so, how to explain Hannibal's godlike appearance? Maybe he is a god transformed by the devil to confuse the world. For this view, I can only understand it this way: in the Bible, God has destroyed mankind several times in order to save evil mankind. It can be seen that under certain conditions, God will also slaughter his "lamb"! If the "lamb" in the film represents all beings and the fear and crisis behind the silence of all beings, then Hannibal becomes a contradiction. On the one hand, he is mercilessly poisoning creatures (killing lambs), on the other hand, he has saved Chris and Catherine (saving lambs). If red represents Satan and white represents God, then Hannibal is the incarnation of the devil and God, and his relationship with the "lamb" will never break down.

Frequent close-ups

Close-ups are the most used lens language in this film, so the facial expressions of characters have become the most important tool for telling stories. I really have to lament the acting skills of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, who completely rely on subtle facial expressions (including muscle twitching and eyes wandering) to interpret the characters' hearts. Hopkin's evil eyes that can see through you and help you release your soul (feel the right picture) (This abnormal and dark eye was inherited and carried forward by Edward Harrison Norton in the later First Fear! How can I not let you be fascinated by him? I like it! )。 In my impression, there is a very interesting phenomenon in the lens language when Chris and Hannibal meet for four times: when Chris is a close-up, Hannibal is a close-up; Chris is a close-up, Hannibal becomes a big close-up; When Chris becomes a close-up, only Hannibal's eyes, nose and upper lip barely squeeze into the camera (at this time, every pore of Hopkins is acting). The audience and Hannibal are always so close. His sharp eyes caught everyone's heart, but there was always a distance between the audience and Chris. Is this to express the psychological distance that Chris has to protect himself (subconsciously) because of childhood trauma? But I have another understanding. With the gradual increase of close-ups, does it also indicate that Chris is approaching Hannibal step by step, and it is also a sign of her release of spiritual pace (the last time we met, the shot depicting Chris was pushed from the middle to the big close-up), until the moment when their fingertips touched ... Chris and Hannibal have completely released each other.

The art of montage collision and long shots that make people feel relieved.

At the end of the story, the application of parallel montage in which the FBI encirclement and Chris find the murderer's home and the docking of the pictures are the essence of the montage language of the whole movie. General structure: a quiet house-the murderer took out the moth pupa-the FBI surrounded the house-the murderer helped the moth pupa transform-was surrounded-the murderer was further surrounded-Catherine threatened the murderer-prepared for action-the murderer was in a hurry ... the FBI rang the doorbell of the murderer's room-it was extremely harsh-the FBI rang the doorbell again-the murderer Well, the FBI broke in with a sieve! Here, a series of short shots are used to connect two different scenes at the same time: a bright and quiet house and a cold murderer's room with dry music. Speed is like a heartbeat, and the director never wanted to give the audience a chance to breathe and think. Thinking about the joy of solving the case and the opposite result, the director played the audience well, and then what? The director unceremoniously puts the audience and Chris in the same helpless position again: they are close to death in the face of the murderer (but in my opinion, the order of "the murderer opens the door" and "the FBI opens the door" is not good. If you break the door with a sieve first, then the murderer opens the door, such a surprise and psychological collision will be even greater). Once again, I have to mention the only long shot in the film: introducing the murderer's home for the first time. This scene (always accompanied by music and a tearful female voice) begins with the theme moth pupa. After a second or two, the camera moves slowly to the right, and the butterfly that has turned into a butterfly enters the camera. Then, the camera has been pulled back, and the camera is like people's eyes, knives and female models looking around! Cold, gloomy, dark, crowded and messy are the summaries of everything we see. When the lens is pulled to the end again, the direction is forced to shift, and the back of the murderer (the snow-white body stands out in the cold tone) constitutes the visual center of the picture. What is he doing seriously? The camera continued to push forward, trying to get close to the murderer, but when we were about to see what the murderer was doing, a rich dog (the murderer's only love) diverted our attention, and then we came to a deep well (we gradually approached the sound of tearing and shouting), but the director obviously didn't want us to see the desperate figure of the girl in the well, and the camera stayed at the edge of the dry well (because the right to solve the mystery was left to the next news report)! Long shots are the best language to reproduce reality. Obviously, the director has expressed everything he wants to express: describe what kind of person the murderer is through the scene.

The killer is watching you.

At the end of the film, the director "teased" the audience again, and he turned all the audience into murderers! In the dark, the killer wearing night-vision goggles followed Chris closely, patiently and carefully observing the lamb in front of him, ready to solve her at any time. At this time, the angle of the camera is constantly changing, from the objective angle of the camera to the subjective angle of the murderer, and the audience is forced to accept their identity as the murderer. But at this time, the psychological function of the audience is strange, because although he is a "murderer", he is obviously worried about Chris. It is very strange and interesting to think that a murderer is worried about his prey. In the panic and worry, under the guidance of the director, the audience's spontaneous psychological supplement helped the director draw a perfect ending for the film.

The Silence of the Lambs conveyed the implied meaning to the audience through his superb image art, and skillfully manipulated every nerve of the audience, completely making all the "lambs" (film critics or audience) unable to keep silent!