Theme Of Manipulation In Silence Of The Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 thriller film that follows a young FBI agent who uses clues from a psychotic killer named Hannibal Lector to catch a killer known as Buffalo Bill, while also being exploits by Lector to recount memories from her past. While watching the movie, one theme that pops up is manipulation. We can see this occur in multiple scenes throughout the movie from Clarice promising a new prison for Lector if he helped her, to Buffalo Bill manipulating Catherine into getting into the van by helping move the furniture into the van. But these are not the only ones that help show the difference between good and bad manipulation. This movie does a good job in showing the different areas when it came to manipulation. We can even

Throughout the movie they use different camera movements, and angles that highlight the different mood this cinematic piece gives. There were various camera angles/movements that were used throughout the movie that would make the scenes very intense and extreme. One example is the first meeting between Clarice and Hannibal Lector. As she first enters the cell we get a point of view shot showing Lector standing completely still in the middle of the cell. This implies everything Jack Crawford said how manipulative, powerful and evil he was. By having a shot like this, we as an audience start to get this uneasy feeling about him. Then this shot is followed by multiple close up shots between Hannibal Lector and Clarice. As we see in the shot, Hannibal Lector begins to show how manipulative and dominating he can be. When we see Clarice, we see the camera at a higher angle to show that she is inferior to him and vulnerable. They also made another point of view shot through Buffalo Bill. The shot through vision was very thrilling in the fact that we could see Clarice is nervously walking around not knowing where she is, while right behind her was Buffalo Bill watching her stumble and touch every wall. This shot gave the audience a tense feeling to keep watching and see what happens. This shot shows that if Jack Crawford was able to just listen to Clarice and not be so edgy by Hannibal Lector’s clue, they would have been there to help Clarice, even though she was able to save the girl and get out safely. One scene that stood out for me was where Clarice tries to manipulate Hannibal Lector into giving up who Buffalo Bill was. She makes a deal to move him to a new prison. The scene shows a low angle shot with Clarice standing up and Hannibal Lector sitting. This showed that she tries to become a dominating figure and make Hannibal Lector play by her rules, but