Opening Sequence Analysis - 'Silence of the Lambs'

Opening Sequence Analysis - 'Silence of the Lambs'

At the beginning of the opening sequence we first notice the mysterious setting, it looks very dull and the trees look very dead. This could give us an indication of the genre of the film. The opening sequence of Silence of the Lambs uses a lot of enigma and action codes throughout. Enigma codes are the questions that are being asked whilst watching the film, such as in this film, we ask, why is she running and why is she in the woods? The immediate high angle shot of the woman running shows the audience that she looks weak in this shot and that she is small in her figure, right from the beginning of the opening scene she is made to look small and weak. Later on, there is a close-up shot of her face, this connotes she is very determined, by her facial expressions, and tells the audience more about her personality and we know that she isn't someone who is willing to give up. This presents some of her character to the audience as it signifies that she is a hard worker. This is reinforced again, later on in the sequence. 

 The opening credits are black, with a white boarder, this indicates that something is nice, pure and simple on the outside but may have something darker to reveal from the inside. This could represent Hannibal and shows a hint to characters that will feature a big part in the film. The writing resembles the font of a newspaper headline, this gives a hint about the genre of the headline. The writing is very simplistic, which juxtaposes with the plot of the story. This may cloud the audience's perceptions of the film, and challenges the stereotype of a psychiatrists mind.

Expositional dialogue and props were used in the opening sequence. This is when a piece of dialogue or prop is said or used to expose a piece of information to the audience that they need to know. This happens when a man also out of breath shouts "Starling!" we are introduced to this female character by her second name, Starling. This makes the film seem more realistic for the audience. He is also out of breath, which hints the woman is very fit as the man was struggling to catch up with her. The man tells her, "Crawford wants to see you in his office." To which she thanks him and without hesitation starts running back the way she came. The man looks at her incredulously. This signifies that she is something special, or there is something about her that he admires Also, an expositional prop is used to show who these characters work for. The colleague of Starling wears an FBI hat, therefore this presents to the audience that they both work for the FBI, and this piece of information did not need to be verbalised. This moves the narrative along quickly and easily. 

The mise-en-scene starts in a thick woodland are, clouded with fog. There is orchestral non-digetic music, a mellow but panic-sounding symphony of strings, which goes well with the mise-en-scene of the mysterious woodland. Nearly straight away we see a woman running through the woodland, sweating and panting for breath. The audience assume the woman is running away from something in panic or fear. It is quickly revealed that this is not the case, when a climbing net comes into view and the woman proceeds to climb over it, performing a forward roll on the way down. She is running on an assault course. In such a quick space of time, the audience has gone from thinking the woman is venerable and scared, to her being not at all a stereotypical female but a tough independent woman, just from what they have seen, with no dialogue at all. Whilst this is happening credits are being shown on the screen. 

The next shot is the woman running out of the woodland and past a sing that reads, 'HURT, AGONY, PAIN, LOVE IT.' This resembles the effort that she was previously putting into her training, which enforces her strength and power. She runs past other officers, also training, and into what must be the police compound. By now the music has slowed to a more calm tune, which is empathetic to how she is surrounded by other people and in a safer environment. Whilst in the compound, she is still running through corridors, almost as if she is trying to make up for her training that she was previously cut short of. Once again this enforces how seriously she takes her job. All of this time the credits are still rolling.

Within this opening sequence it is unclear to see who the hero and the villain is. Vladimir Propp states that all stories feature very similar character types who all play specific roles in developing the narrative. The fact that it is unclear signifies that the film is very distorted and causes the audience to feel very insecure and uncertain as the film follows a different structure. This keeps the audience guessing of what's going to happen next. This follows onto Neales genre theory that audiences enjoy a film especially because it avoids the usual conventions of the genre and does something a bit different. This is due to the fact that it is very ambiguous who the hero and the villain are.