The Silence of the Lambs analysis

Mise en scene The mise en scene of the first scene is following the thriller conventions as it is in a forest, and the establishing shot shows trees without leaves suggesting the winter season, we can infer that the absence of life in the trees will be reflected onto the narrative and foreshadows death or disruption. The setting is very rural and looks like a deserted country side, no form of civilisation. This is even more daunting for the viewer because due to media such as newspapers the most extreme are seen to occur in a an area that is unknown, this puts thoughts and images into the mind of the viewer and the case might be that this setting is not going to reflect any of their thoughts. As the camera is following this character and changing camera shots we piece these images together and make inferences according to her appearance. She is dressed very casually, with tracksuit bottoms on and what is interesting is the her jumper; it has loads of sweat on it, which is very worrying as we are not familiar with this character yet and so wonder what is wrong. It is daunting as the amount of sweat on her jumper suggests that she has been running for a long time and that she is in some kind of danger.


Sound In this first scene there is non-diegetic sound, the music connotes a unsteady and complex setting, as there are many variations in the music; it goes from high pitched, to low pitched and then quite deep. Reflecting sadness, triumph and power. The subtle diegetic bird tweeting (or animal noise) emphasises the country side setting.
Once she stops running she exchanges a couple of lines with a detective character. Her tone of voice is quite controlled and calm suggesting that she is not in any danger at all and that this was just a false clue. (typical of thriller films)



Camera Angles The director uses a medium shot to introduce the female character; we see her facial expression that is one of determination and possibly fear we infer that she is trying to get away from someone or something. The tracking from behind makes us think that she is being chased. The motion within the camera whilst she is running does a great job in conveying her urgency. And as the camera movement gets stronger we start to feel that urgency and build a connection with this character and feel scared for us.
The director uses spatial relations so we can see her in one shot running and then in the next shot we see a medium shot of a building when we see her in the building we are supposed to assume that she has entered the without actually seeing her entering.