Silence of the lambs-Horror

Silence of the lambs

In the film Silence of the lambs, the director: Jonathan Demme, used different techniques and styles to capture the audience. By using different connotations and symbols, he created images that were used to understand the story and suggest other matters within the story.

When we first meet the main character, Clarice, we straight away associate the genre of this movie through what we see. All the camera angles, music and colour straight away suggest what genre this movie is. For example the music is tense, and with a slight build as she runs through the forest. The camera angle also follows her, like that of a killer chasing its victim. But this is ironic in that she is the one later doing the chasing after the killer. The location is a woods which is also a dead give away as it is one of the most iconic location settings for a horror. The atmosphere in the woods is also chilly with a small layer of fog just off the ground, creating the very misty atmosphere.

As she runs through the woods she passes a few different signs, nailed to some trees. These are used as connotation in the movie. The signs each read: "Hate-Pain-Agony-Love it", ironic in the fact it is a horror.

As she runs she is then stopped by someone she works with, we then identify who she works for as the character turns around and his hat comes into focus, the hat reads "FBI" this then signify's who she works for.

We then see how she is seen by everyone else she works with, most of which are men. The imagery uses connotation to suggest that the men see her as less then them. For example she steps into an elevator, filled entirely with men, all of which are taller and look down on her in the centre. When some of the other male characters talk about her they talk to her like she is simply a bit of arm candy.

Later when she first goes to visit Hannibal, she descends to his cell, through many staircases, elevators and cell doors. As she gets closer the colour around her on the doors, walls and lights appears more red, this is suggesting that she is descending to hell, where Hannibal lives.

The lighting is also used often as a reveal to the mood of the situation, for example when hannibal is not giving any information away he hides in the dark of the cage, not revealing himself. The mystery of his escape also ends with a shot a prison guard hanging from the cage, creating the image of an angel of death, like the death head moth, but the light shines through it and hits a layer of myst on the floor.

The death head moth is frequently used in the story. It is a commonly known symbol of death because   of the small pattern on its back that looks like a skull. However in this story the skull on its back looks more like it is created by a mass of body's like the collection of bodies made by Hannibal and Buffalo Bill. The Moth is first found in the body of some of the victims in the story. When the moth is found, it is still in its cocoon. This could be Buffalo Bills way of saying he wants to be reborn.

Buffalo Bill in the story is seen as a Drag Queen, because of the clothes he wears and the way he is constantly trying to act more like a women. But obviously Buffalo Bill takes it a whole new level by skinning fat women to use their skin as a body suit. The movie describes that he is not a criminal because of who he is, but because of years of systematic abuse. The clothes he wears, the music he listens to and his dog are all stereotypical of a queer man.

This movie is an amazing display of cinematography, and uses a vast range of techniques, but my favourite scene from the move, is actually when Hannibal takes the homemade skin mask from his face to reveal himself. I like this scene because of the way it builds up to it, and the fact it is complete shock when it happens.

By Stuart Fuller

Mean Girls-Queer theory

Mean girls-queer theory

In the 1970's because of the increasing attention to feminist theories and the representation of women, racial and ethical minorities. The study of Gay and Lesbian cinema became a growing concern. They concentrated on relationships and issues within homosexuality and used realistic storytelling conventions to explore coming out, romance and aids.

In mean girls there are two characters that both act in a stereotypical way, one portraying a butch lesbian, the other portraying a camp guy.

Damien is the camp guy, he uses feminine hand gestures when talking, this can be seen as a queen. We are also suggested this by what he wears, for example the pink clothes that belong to him, this is used in a humorous moment when we expect the girl to have the pink clothes when it is in fact the other way around. He acts as q queen in the way that he is very flamboyant, for example the way he runs when he sees a girl and calls her Danny Devito. He is an effeminate gay man who can be considered a drama queen at times.

Janis is the supposed 'butch lesbian', acts as the dike female, speaks in an angry deep voice. She also gets rough when talking to other people and also wears clothes that cover her head to toe, this tends to be a more male trait. She acts very tom boy like, and portrays all the normal characteristics, but we find out at the end that she is not in fact a lesbian, and that this was simply a rumour started by her enemies. This movie is good in that it states that not all people should be judged for their sexuality based on their behavior, what they look like and what they wear.

By Stuart Fuller

Laura Mulvey-Feminism Theory

Feminism

Feminism theorists

Laura Mulvey created the term ‘Male Gaze’, in 1975; which means that a film audience are to ‘view’ characters, from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and the events that happen to the female character are represented from a males view to these events. The female characters are portrayed as objects, this is obviously very voyeuristic.

Mulvey theorised that the original Hollywood movies were created solely to provide men with visual pleasure and erotic impact. The typical male audience are normally aligned with the films protagonist/hero. The audience gains pleasure from identifying themselves with the films protagonist/hero. If the female character is not seen in a lower position of power or authority, a male would not feel as powerful; he may even think this unconsciously. The Unconscious idea is that a man’s power and dominance over a character is his penis. And dominance is threatened if not aroused.

Movie clip-analysis

In the movie Cabin in the Woods, the five characters, the Sportsmen, the Scholar, the idiot, the bimbo and the virgin all take part in a game of dare, the female bimbo character is dared to kiss the wolf. As she approaches it we see the camera slowly pan up her body, the camera slowly lingers over the curves of her body. We also see she is wearing tighter clothes, small hot pants.

Next we are looking at her, through the wolves’ point of view; this identifies us as a male audience. We also see her hair colour is blonde, and in many stereotypical horrors, there is always a dumb blonde. As the female character begins to kiss the wolf, she slows down and we linger on this scene. We then see some of the male characters watching her; this again identifies the audience as the male point of view.

In the story line for this movie, this character is portrayed as the stereotypical dumb blonde. And using characterization, she comes across as also quite a slut.

By Stuart Fuller

Scream-Opening Sequence

Scream Opening Sequence

During the first five minutes of the opening scene to the horror movie scream, we are set the scene for the rest of the movie.

The movie first starts with a title screen, from this we are given the immediate impression. The title is ghostly white with a blur of red for blood. The blurred red colour pulses with the tense sound in the background, giving the impression of a heart, until it comes to a dramatic close in which it ends with a 'Scream'- intended to be like the title of the movie, and a sudden bang, and swishing noise like a knife being hurled around. We then know her life comes to an end when the heart sounds stop and her scream is drowned out by the ringing of the telephone. This title uses mis en scene in that as the screaming in the title fades out it is also drowned out by the noise of the telephone ringing, giving the impression that no one will be able to hear you scream. The white colour of the title is used to represent the pale scared white face of a character,  and also the mask of the killers is also white, with a spooky expression.

As the beginning scene actually starts after the title, we are given a connotation of the fact that she is a blonde and is representing the other horror movies we have seen in which the blonde character is in trouble and does the things we would normally expect her to do, like search round her house for the 'killer'.

We are then listening to the conversation between her and the character on the phone, we cannot find anything in his voice that is recognizable, it comes off cold like that of robot, almost indexical in that we find no emotion in the character voice, like that of a robot.

As the camera then moves into the garden we are confronted by a luminous tree, it branches dark and web upwards into the night sky with small skinny branches at the end that hang over. This is also connotation in that they hangover like giant puppeteer arms controlling the swing, like the bloke is actually controlling the women inside, by the fact that the swing is moving also suggests that there has also been someone there.

Next as she picks up the phone to talk again, she is putting the popcorn on the oven, this popcorn, builds tension through this entire scene as it creates a large tense background noise, this builds and builds, until the character enters the house. While also talking to the character, she picks up one of the knives from the counter, and we see the weapon that is actually used to murder her later, but as she picks it up it creates a sound effect that resembles that of a stabbing noise, we hear a whoosh and a clunk as she places it back in the holder. This is used as foreshadowing for what is later to happen when he stabs her.

The two characters then start a conversation about horror films and this sets a very eery atmosphere, as we begin to recognize similarities between those movies and this one. For example the character on the phone even later calls her "blondie", like the blonde female character in many other horror movies.

The tense background music then starts when the character lets slip "Cause I wanna know who I am looking at", this builds with the scene as she becomes more frightened and the character on the phone becomes very angry.

After being frightened she makes a move to the doors of the house, ensuring they are locked and as she looks through the windows, we are given the suggestion that she is trapped inside the house, this created by the connotation shot of her looking through the frames of the window, this almost looks like that of prison bars.

When the door bell rings, she next asks: "Who's there, ... who's there!" and the character on the phone, again relates the similarity of her saying that, to that of other horror movies, and we relate the two to understand what is going on, and this creates fear in the viewer.

The camera angles are also used for effect in this video, in that the camera follows her almost like she is being followed by the killer. The camera also pans in for close ups when she is frightened so we see the terror in her face. But it first starts when the killer lets slip that he is watching her, the camera pans in for the close up, but the next time it happens when he releases his anger and his tone of voice completely changes, the camera then moves for even more of a close up.

The lighting in the first scene also changes with the situation, as she become for frightened, she moves through the house, and into the corridor where there is less light and there is only very dim light, from the back door, and from the small lamp  next to her. The whole situation takes place at night, this lighting all perfectly represents the darkness of the situation she is in.

By Stuart Fuller