AMERICAN PSYCHO

The purpose of this paper is to point out the stylistic details of the film American Psycho directed by Mary Harron. Yet, not only pointing out the four aspects which are Mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound is enough, but; furthermore, analyze them in order to determine their function in the selected scene. The chosen scene is the “Ax-Raincoat Scene,” this scene is the one in which Patrick Bateman, after a meal with Paul Allen, takes Allen to his apartment and chops him to death with an ax. In this scene we can see Patrick Bateman’s psychopathic behavior to its top, a composition between an extreme good taste for music and the meanings of it, good taste for the finest things and total violent savagery or more technically, in Robert D. Hare's words “a intraspecies predator who uses charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy his own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, he cold-bloodedly takes what he wants and does as he pleases, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret." With that being said, there is no need for further description of the scene since is one of the most important and noticeable in the film, there is no chance for confusion. Following to this brief clarification, it is necessary to cut to the chase and start talking about what is important for the purpose of this paper.

Mise-en-scene:

This scene is set in Patrick Bateman’s apartment in two places, the living room mainly and the bathroom. In the living room we see that everything is most black and white, the walls and the pictures on it. And also everything in the apartment is in perfect alignment; every line in the apartment is either vertical or horizontal, very sharp lines. On the living room we see that all the furniture is covered with white blankets, and in the place where Allen is seated the floor is covered with newspapers, and the articles are all in line, we can notice because all the picture on them are positioned in the same way, and apparently, they are all articles of the style or fashion section of the newspaper, the audience is able to know this because Allen’s says it. Furthermore, in every joint of the news paper sheets we see grey duck tape in a shape of a cross; announcing from the very beginning of the scene that Patrick has decided that that will be Allen’s grave. This is used to characterize Bateman as a person that is anal and thinks things in advance; he prepares for action and is very fashion oriented.
Is very important to notice that we can not se the faces of the people on the pictures in the apartment, because this is a metaphor to what is just happening and what happens everyday in Bateman’s world, a world of pretensions and style were people don’t know each other’s faces even tough they work together. The composition and design of the scene are as his apartment lines, symmetric. As a brief note, and to reaffirm Patrick’s cruelty we notice that the ax he uses to kill Allen is not sharp (and a beautiful ax by the way), very shiny with an oak wood handle, making it more painful for the victim in every strike because, it not only cuts, but hammers in every blow.
In this scene there are two types of lighting, one used on the living room and another used on bathroom. On the living room a two-point lighting is used, that is a key light and a fill light, yet the lighting used is very soft and diffused, we see very light shadows if we see any, the area is very clear and lighted. In the same way, in the bathroom the lighting remains two-point, but is darker than in the living room, we also see that when he starts to put on his raincoat, we cannot see his eyes because there is a straight horizontal shadow that covers them, this is used to make the audience feel uncertain of his feelings. Then he takes a few steps closer to the mirror and we see his face with an incredible serenity and determination, finally as he is going out of the bathroom we slightly see that his shadow precedes him, we understand that his dark side has taken the command and is about to take action. This type of lighting is used because even though he is about to murder someone, the important thing is that we see that he doesn’t break a sweat, is very relaxed and sharp looking. And in the bathroom obviously is darker because here is where he prepares himself for a dark action. Another reason for this type of lighting is to create the effect that is the apartment lighting what we see because is at night, it is used to give the scene a realistic touch.
Allen during the whole scene doesn’t move really much, he is just so drunk that he is just seated there without a clear understanding of what is really happening he is just a very naive, happy and stupid good drunk guy. On the other hand, Bateman is in constant movement, with a lot of confidence, because he is in his domain and is obviously in full knowledge of what he is going to do; he even prepared the scene for it. He moves from the back of Allen to the front to distract him with the music he just putted in (Hip to be square by Huey Lewis and The News), as he is moving he is talking about the musical group with very wise words, then he keeps going and enters the bathroom and keeps speaking to Allen about the group and then about the song that is being played, he exists the bathroom and stands behind Allen with his raincoat approaches the stereo turns the volume up gets to Allen’s back once more and after his is done with his insightful comment about the song he calls for Allen and when he turns and looks at him, Bateman axes him of and while doing it he tells him the reason why he is killing him. Then he takes the raincoat off and seats on a sofa lights a tobacco crosses his leg and stares at the dead body, during the whole process the framing of the shots is very symmetric and the attitude of Patrick Bateman is obviously psychotic, but is cynical and in some way funny. The movements of the two characters on the scene are used basically to denote that Allen is a passive actor in the scene that has no clue and Patrick is the active actor which is taking into action his conception of justice to get where he wants.
Bateman gestures are mainly facial, he expresses his emotions on his face, and the same goes for Allen. Finally, the costumes are very important in this scene and obviously in the film, they are both wearing very expensive suits and ties (Windsor knots). Bateman is wearing an Italian suit and his appearance describes his personality, is a black suit with very thin vertical white lines. He is always looking very sharp from the hair to the shoes, and he wears a transparent raincoat for two things one is because he does not want to get his suit splashed with blood and the other is that we wants people to see his suit. Obviously the gestures and acting of the characters are for us to feel bad for Paul Allen, a happy drunk who is about to be killed and to commence to feel really scared or creped out by Patrick Bateman’s psychopathic behavior.
All these stylistic choices have been made because they reinforce the plot story and the character personality, they all come together to strengthen the mood of the film as a whole and of this scene in particular. They are used to convey that touch of perfect balance and symmetry, which frightens us with the brutality of the basic impulses of Patrick Bateman.

Cinematography:

The film stock used for this motion picture was a very sober range color one produced by DeLuxe, probably Technicolor, with an aspect ratio of 16:9. This scene has a total length of two minutes and twenty seven seconds, and twenty two shots. The duration of the shots is from one second or two second the shorter and forty three seconds the longer. The whole scene was shot with a variable focal length lens, probably 28mm to 80mm zoom lens, this is because this is the most practical lens to use for a scene in which the distance of the objects to the camera is no longer than six to eight meters and no shorter than 20 to 30 centimeters.
Shot # 1: Cut in from previous shot. Duration of 4 seconds. Deep focus with a high camera angle, no camera movement. Long shot of Paul Allen seated in a couch, framed in the center of the shot.
Shot # 2: Cut in. Duration of 2 seconds. Shallow focus in eye-line level angle, short panning from right to left to reframe. Extreme Close Up emphasizing Huey Lewis and The News CD on Patrick Bateman’s right hand. CD is framed in the center of the shot.
Shot # 3: Cut in. Duration of 2 seconds. Deep focus with a high angle, no camera movement. Medium Long Shot of Allen seated in the coach, Allen covers the lower half of the frame to the bottom right corner of the frame.
Shot # 4: Cut in. Duration of 13 seconds. Deep focus with a slight low camera angle. Medium Long Shot, following shot of Patrick Bateman from the stereo, across the living room and to the other side of the living room where he stops facing Allen. Bateman is always in center in the framing and when he stops after crossing the living room he is also in the center of the back door frame.
Shot # 5: Cut. Duration of 4 seconds. Deep focus with an eye-line level angle, no camera movements. Long Shot of the whole living room, Paul Allen is still seated on the couch he is in the center of the frame; Bateman is on right of the frame and walks to the right of Allen across the living room to the bathroom.
Shot # 6: Cut. Duration of 9 seconds. Shallow focus with eye-line level, a short tilt up to reframe on Bateman. Medium Long Shot of Bateman’s lower part of the body entering from the left of the frame and showing that he takes the raincoat and raveling that there is an ax under it, then a short tilt up to reframe on him as he is on the center of the frame looking at himself in the mirror while we is putting the raincoat on.
Shot # 7: Cut. Duration of 3 seconds. Very shallow focus with an eye-line level angle, rack focus from Bateman’s hand to glass of water and pills case. Extreme Close Up of Bateman’s hand taking a pill from a table, then slight rack focus to the glass of water behind the pill and the pills case, emphasizing Bateman’s sickness with the fact he takes pills. Then Bateman takes the glass of water. The pill is hard to see, but is in the center of the frame in the lower third of it, the glass is to the right and the pills case is to the left of the frame.
Shot # 8: Cut. Duration of 6 seconds. Shallow focus with an eye-line level angle, no camera movement. Medium Long Shot of Bateman staring at himself in the mirror and taking his pill, Bateman puts the glass down and stares at himself in the mirror a few seconds more with an estrange look that reveals his obvious intentions, then he walks out of the bathroom and he grabs the ax on his way out, and does a fancy turn on the door to enter the living room walking backwards.
Shot # 9: Cut. Duration of 5 seconds. Deep focus with an eye-line level angle, no camera movements. Long Shot of the living room in which Allen is still seating on the couch but this time leaning a little forward and he is in the center of the shot, Bateman enters the shot from the left and walking backwards crosses the whole room stopping at the left of the frame standing next to a wall and standing behind Allen’s right on the back of him.
Shot # 10: Cut. Duration of 2 seconds. Shallow focus with a high camera angle, no camera movements. Extreme Close Up of Bateman’s legs from below the knee down, his legs are to the left of the frame and the ax that he places on the floor and against the wall is on the right of the frame, the Bateman takes two really short steps forward, this shot is done with a canted framing.
Shot # 11: Cut. Duration of 3 seconds. Deep focus, with an eye-line level camera angle, no camera movements. Long Shot of the living room in which Allen is seated on the couch trying to see at Patrick that is behind him and Patrick starts to button up his raincoat. Allen is in the center of the frame and Bateman is to the left of the frame.
Shot # 12: Cut. Duration of 7 seconds. Deep focus with an eye-line level camera angle, no camera movements. Medium Long Shot of Allen seated in the couch the shot is taken from his back while he is with his head turned to try to see backwards while he is talking to Bateman. Allen is in the center of the frame, very slightly to the left.
Shot # 13: Cut. Duration of 1 second. Shallow focus with an eye-line level camera angle, no camera movements. Extreme Close Up of Bateman’s face with a gesture that denotes a funny sick cynicism.
Shot # 14: Cut. Duration of 5 seconds. Shallow focus with an eye-line level camera angle taking Allen as reference, no camera movements. Medium Long Shot of Allen seated on the couch and talking to Bateman which is on the back finishing buttoning up his raincoat and walks towards the camera passing trough Allen right. Allen is to the right of the frame and Bateman is to the left of the frame and exits the shots trough the left or the frame too.
Shot # 15: Cut. Duration of 4 seconds. Deep focus with an eye-line level camera angle, no camera movements. Medium Long Shot of Patrick coming into the shot from the right of the frame, then turning to face the camera after having putted the CD of Huey Lewis and The News, the one he is being talking about and keeps doing so. Bateman is slightly to the right of the center of the frame.
Shot # 16: Cut. Duration of 7 seconds. Soft shallow focus with an eye-line level camera angle, a very short and slow pan from right to left to reframe the shot after Bateman makes a very comical hip movement to the beat of the song and starts walking. Long Shot of the living room facing Allen’s back and Bateman’s front, in the shot Allen is still seating on the couch and to the left of the frame, Bateman is to the right of the frame, then he makes the fancy hip movement, passes across the frame and walks out of it, a short pan is done to reframe Allen in the center.
Shot # 17: Cut. Duration of 10 seconds. Deep focus with a low camera angle, a short tilt is done to reframe Bateman. Medium Close Up of Bateman grabbing the ax and standing totally straight, a short tilt is done to reframe him; he keeps in the center of the frame. After finishing his speech on the CD he calls Paul.
Shot # 18: Cut. Duration of 2 seconds. Shallow focus with a slight high camera angle, really, really small tilt and pan are done to keep the framing. Medium Close Up of Allen from the back, then he turns to Patrick and makes a face of terror when he sees that Patrick is swinging the first blow. Allen covers almost the whole frame.
Shot # 19: Cut. Duration of 2 seconds. Soft shallow depth of field with an eye-line level camera angle, no camera movements. Medium Close Up of Bateman’s face after striking the first blow, he lifts his face and we see the blood covering his face and the anger on his face, then he moves out from the shot trough the left of the frame where he mostly is in the shot.
Shot # 20: Cut. Duration of 3 seconds. Shallow focus with a high camera angle, no camera movements. Extreme Close Up on Allen’s body that falls on the floor and spills some blood on the floor, the shot is from below the shoulders up to the beginning of the belt, we see Allen’s body to the upper side of the frame and the blood coming out it, on the lower part of the frame.
Shot # 21: Cut. Duration of 43 seconds. Deep focus a eye-line level camera angle, there are some short and fast tilts to keep Bateman in frame while he is striking Allen’s body repeatedly, Bateman is in the center of the frame, then he stops the ax strikes and moves from side to side a little and he is kept in frame with short pans, after that he is standing to the left of the frame and takes the raincoat off and drops it, he crosses the frame from left to right but a following shot is done till he turns around this time facing the left side of the frame, he sits down and to keep with him in the frame a tilt is done. He fixes his hair and the focus is now shallow, while looking at the body he takes a tobacco out and puts it on his mouth and searches for his Zippo lighter.
Shot # 22: Cut. Duration of 9 seconds. Deep focal length with a low camera angle, no camera movements. Long Shot of the living room where the body of Paul Allen is laying on the floor while Patrick Bateman is seated on a sofa looking at it, Bateman lights his tobacco and looks at the body, gets comfortable and crosses his right leg over the left and extends his left arm to smoke passively while he stares at the corpse. The body of Allen occupies the lower half of the frame and we can see from above his belt down to his shoes all across the frame, and Bateman occupies the upper half of the frame and he is in the center of the frame.
The stylistic choices made in this scene are in order to give an insight to the world and mind of both Paul Allen and Patrick Bateman, but especially to Bateman’s distort vision. When deep focus is used is in order to show the background or set which was already explained, this set with straight lines describes Bateman’s personality and also when the both of the characters of the scene are needed to be involved in the actual action, and when shallow focus is used is in order to show that Bateman and his mind are blurry and one doesn’t know what to expect to come out from that fog, one can see him sharply, but not his mind. The extreme close ups are used obviously to emphasize on specific details that the directors wants us to see like Bateman’s face and expressions opening a window to his mind or Allen’s body to shows that he is for sure dead, or the pills case shot to let the audience know that Patrick is under a pill treatment. The other shot are used depending on the importance of Allen to appear on the shot or not, because when Bateman is making the most insightful pint of his speech is not necessary to see Allen. An finally the angles used are very obvious, mostly high angles for Paul to make the audience feel that he is weak and fragile and low angles for Bateman to show his authority and power.

Editing:

The rhythm of the scene has a yuppie beat, reinforced by the lyrics of the song “Hip to be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News, the stress generates anxiety and inflicts agony to the audience, since they know what is going to happen to Paul Allen but they are unable to warn him, yet the audience is drawn to stupidly reaffirm in interrogation to themselves “is he really going to kill him?” there is no reason, then the audience waits in pain for the inevitable, and finally the pace of the scene goes along with the music is fast and jumpy, and the scene is over in a blink leaving the audience with a sour taste on their mouths. The editing style used in this scene is the Hollywood classical Continuity Editing, because the author doesn’t want to draw the attention to the editing, but instead make it invisible so that the audience connects in a deeper way with the event that is happening. There are some establishing and reestablishing shot done to show the spatial distance of the important characters and set in the scene. Because of the use of the Continuity Editing style, the duration of every shot is very short, even shorter, as a matter of fact the longer take lasts forty three seconds. We also see the use of shot-reverse shots in this scene because is the best way to portray a conversation situation like this in an invisible editing style; and because of the same reason in the whole scene when passing from a shot to another, a simple cut is used, but even more important is the fact that the 180° rules is not broken, and that there is a constant use of eyeline match and match on action in order to keep that sense of continuity. The thematic content of this editing in this scene resides on the duration of the shot, which underpin the characterization of Bateman and his world, a very fast one where time is the least people has, at least apparently.

Sound:

The sound in this scene is totally external diegetic, because everything that sounds within the scene makes part of the world they are in, from their voices and conversation to the song. And it is external because none of them happens inside the mind of a character in the scene. Even though the song that is being sounding in the CD player passes almost instantly to be an off-screen sound, it is always, as every other sound in the scene, simultaneous. The sound perspective is always kept in the scene. The dialogues of the scene are recorded from direct sound, yet, the author of this paper states, that the song we listen is synchronous sound. The only sound effects on this scene are synchronous too, and those are the sound of the ax blows cutting through the flesh of Paul Allen. The dialogue is the scene is practically a monologue sustained by Patrick Bateman in which he talks about the music that we will hear in the scene. What Bateman says and the lyrics of the song are very important, because they contextualize and are the clearest characterization of Bateman and the film as a whole.

Every single stylistic choice as well as narrative and/or plot and character development on this sequence is very important, because it is used to reinforce the thematic content of the film as a whole; each chosen style from the Mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound is used to strengthen the characterization of the psychology of Patrick Bateman, a psychopath that has a extremely fashionable killer looks.

view trailer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/trailers-screenplay-E13322-10-2

JUNGLE FEVER

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the relationship between Flipper and Angie in the film Jungle Fever directed by Spike Lee. In order to do so, is necessary to try to respond what attracts them to each other; how do they interact with one another; and, by contrasting the relations between Flipper and his wife and Angie and her ex-boyfriend, what does the relationship between Flipper and Angie offers to each other of them that their other relationships don’t, and what do their other relationships offer that this one lacks?
Apart from the curiosity that each other has for their racial differences, what attracts Flipper to Angie is that he thinks that he might be more accepted or will fit in better in his corporative world if he is with a white woman, also Flipper is attracted to Angie because she is very beautiful, and because she is a hard worker and is a family oriented woman that knows how to take care of the males. He also is attracted to her, because he finds in her an escape to the routine, she represents freedom and passion. On the other hand, Angie is attracted to Flipper because he is also a hard worker and bright man; she is tempted by his successfulness and the fact that he is a happily married man, he represents stability to her.
At first, the interaction between Flipper and Angie is very rusty, but once they pass over the trauma of the skin color and become realized and aware of the individuals they are, they start to flirt around and pretending to work until very late at night as an excuse to spend time together. After they decide to establish an affair, their relationships becomes childish and teenage like, they play around all the time trying to evade the reality surrounding them and having sex like passionate teenager who just discovered the art. But then, when all gets complex, they just give up and realize that it all was an illusion, a nice adventure that cost them their apparently “they live happily ever after” life.
As the author of this paper just stated before, what the relations between Flipper and his wife and Angie and her ex-boyfriend offer to them that the others relations don’t is a peaceful life, a very passive and continuous relationship with no apparent disturbance. But even tough these relationships are very well accepted by the communities they come from, they become boring and monotonous, almost as if they had no other choices. In other words, in these relationships they are absorbed by Jean-Paul Sartre’s definition of “Bad Faith”, which is taking for necessary, something that in fact is voluntary.
On the other hand, the relationship between Flipper and Angie offers them passion; it smells lie teen spirit, is totally supportive, and moreover, it’s a labor partnership also. This relationship offers them liberty and autonomy, but is a very frustrating relationship for both of them, because of the external social factors that fall upon them. All in all, what this relationship offers Flipper and Angie is an opportunity, a window to a new world and a passage to acknowledge how hard it is to sustain an interracial relationship in a society dulled by its prejudices, that blocks them from seeing the human being under the skins.
To complete and conclude this idea, the author of this paper will assist himself with Peter L. Berger’s definition of a role: “A role may be defined as a typified response to a typified expectation; […] role theory could be summarized by saying that, in a sociological perspective, identity is socially bestowed, socially sustained and socially transformed. […] In other words, identity is nor something “given” but is bestowed in acts of social recognition. We become that as which we are addressed. […] Sociology makes us understand that a “Negro” is a person so designated by society, that this designation releases pressures that will tend to make him into the designated image, but also that these pressures are arbitrary, incomplete and, most importantly, reversible.”
Then, the real thing is that the kind of Skin that “keeps it real”, is the most accepted, recognized, socially sustained and played role of how being a Skin among North American society is supposed to be; leaving Flipper and Angie as deviants from the stereotypes. Nevertheless, even though this is true, it certainly does not mean that there is only one way of being a Skin; at the end the author of this paper states that black or white are just a colors, as it is yellow, pink, brown, red, green, purple and blue.

view trailer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102175/trailers-screenplay-E21060-10-2

HANNAH AND HER SISTERS

The objective of this paper is to discuss the basic personality characteristics of Hannah, Holly and Lee, what each sister seems to need in her life, and how these characteristics and desires influence the way they relate to one another, in the film Hannah and Her Sisters, from 1986 directed by the insightful Woody Allen.
Hannah is a very talented person; she is very good with human relations and is always willing to help her sisters emotionally and economically, she is a very helpful person and is always playing the role of the peace maker within the family. Hannah is also a family oriented woman, who planes things in advanced and is very concerned with the fact that she won’t hurt anyone feelings. Hannah is very realistic, supportive and apparently very sure of herself; she loves much more than she realizes, and this becomes her problem because by doing this, she also takes the role of a strong person and won’t let herself to show any of her debilities, and this makes her a very fragile person inside. Because she is so successful and always willing to help people and, actually does it, she feels that people is dependent on her, and this gives her an attitude that even thought she tries not to show, she has, and that is the fact that she looks at her sisters over the shoulders and seems to believe that they are a failure especially Holly. Hannah tries to play it humble, but inside she is kind of cocky about the fact that she is the most successful of the three sisters. And this creates a dense air in their relations, also Hannah doesn’t like people to judge her and take opinions on her life if they are bad, this shows that she is an egocentric person that believes that she is better than her sisters, and even though she helps her sisters, with an apparent attitude that she wants nothing in return, she actually does it, because she feels better or superior to her sisters when she does. All that Hannah wants for her life is for it to be a perfect nuclear family, in coordinate and functional way.
On the other hand, Holly who is an actress, because of her failure as such, is very insecure of herself, she perceives herself as a stupid and inept person incapable of insightful dissertations or success. Because of these problems, she tries to evade them by doing drugs and listening to laud music which blocks clear thoughts. Therefore, Holly takes on a role of being a really crazy and outgoing person, she plays to be a different artistic person; nevertheless, she speaks her mind out and is always trying to find success trough different ways, which is a good things, because it proves that she is a recursive person that doesn’t laid back because of failure, but instead she tries even harder. Holly is a very frustrated woman because of her being rejected as an an actress and in love too, therefore, she is a depressive woman. Because of these and the fact that her sisters are apparently more flourishing, she is always in a defensive stance. Not much with Lee, but with Hannah, because she thinks that she is inferior to Hannah and thinks that Hannah is always looking at her as if she was a looser, a real failure. Because of this, and the fact that Holly is always lending money from Hannah, Holly is grateful, but resentful at the same time. All that Holly wants is to be successful, both in love and professionally.
Then is Lee, the younger sister is a dependent person that likes to be taken care of, but instead is putted in a situation in which she is the one in which someone else is dependent. Lee is a woman that is knowledge oriented, she loves to learn as much as she can, and she is very sensitive and passionate, yet she deceives herself by wanting to believe things that are not true. Lee is a person interested in arts and society, as she is planning to study sociology of psychology. Lee tries not to rush into things; she tries to be very thoughtful all the time. Yet, maybe because of this, she has a blurry vision upon what is the right thing to do. Lee is always, trying to defend Hannah from Holly’s attacks, maybe because she sees Hannah as a role model, even more, she has an affair with her husband, for love, for passion or maybe because she wants to be like her older successful sister. Her relation with her sisters is not too problematic because, she is the youngest and is on her way to success. And all Lee wants is to be a loved person that is taken care of and that is very prepared as a professional, she wants to be a wise and knowledgeable person. All these personal characteristics of the three sisters and the dynamics that move their relationships make the film Hannah and Her Sisters, one that makes us questions about family relations, what is the right thing to do, and the complexities that life presets before us.

view trailer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091167/trailers-screenplay-E17277-10-2

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

In the film The Silence of the Lambs directed by Jonathan Demme, there are two characters that are of mayor concern because of their characteristics as a person, which obviously are related to the way in which each of their minds or psychologies work. These two characters are Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter, they both have in different degrees what can be called “Abnormal Psychologies” that when are crossed pull out a perfect psychological thriller.
Clarice Starling, for her dominant characteristics in personality is portrayed to us as a person that pushes herself to the limits, which in a further future might cause her to break instead of bend. Starling is an athletic person, strong and very determined person with a fragile and small physical appearance, this is shown to us every time that she is set on a shot in which she is surrounded by big men, so she looks even more delicate; yet this might be the reason why she pushes herself to be strong in the flesh, but more important is the fact that she becomes mentally strong, making a balance for her facade. Trough elements of the plot and dialogue, especially when she is opposed to Dr. Chilton a caricaturesque womanizer, we learn that Clarice is a respectful, extremely professional and very intelligent and smart person; because when she is opposed to Dr. Chilton we see the big difference between them, and we are pulled to sympathize with her for her superior ways, a very persuasive way of action used by the director to bring her up to a pedestal. Clarice Starling is also a very resourceful and thoughtful person, she thinks in the possible outcomes of her actions and so, she takes action to secure her future welt; this is clearly seen in the scene in which Clarice goes to a place referred as Myself. Even though, Clarice appears to be fearless and very determined to be the best, which is introduced to us at the beginning of the film when in her training we see some white signs with black letters that say: Hurt, Agony, Pain > Love-It, she is up to the point when she meats with Dr. Lecter, when she is with him she has a naked soul and reveals to Hannibal that inside, she is insecure and scared. Nonetheless, is obvious that Clarice Staling will stand up for whatever she belief is right.
On the other hand, there is Dr. Hannibal Lecter a brilliant and cunning person, devoted to the act of anthropophagic ways, delighted with the taste of human blood and flesh, yet very sensible to the most sublime feelings. Dr. Lecter is the mixture of savage basic instincts and a bright and lucid mind. He is a very perceptive person with an almost supernatural sense of smell. Lecter notices very small details as we see in the scene in which Clarice shows him her credentials, and after looking at them for a few seconds he says that the credentials have one week before they expire. His looks are not very threatening, but he indeed is a very dangerous person, as is implied when we see him at the end of the cells containing very mad individuals. Dr. Lecter has a piercing look, as if he could see through your soul without any problem, he likes to tease people and make them feel bad for his own amusement. Dr. Lecter is a madman with incredible abilities of mind manipulation; he is an extremely knowledgeable and cultured man, yet with a twisted mind and interestingly enough, with a moral and ethic code, very strong, but weird. Lecter makes reference to the bright Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius saying some of his words “What are things in itself?” knowing this, is clear that the reason because Lecter kills is because in itself, he is a person that likes the taste of the better things in life, in this paper opinion his trend of though is very similar to the samurai warriors, who find extreme beauty in death. Hannibal Lecter is the perfect dichotomy; a mixture between violence, brute, savagery and death and a strong sensitivity for music, poetry, painting, (the high arts in general) and outstanding devotion for beauty. For the author of this paper, along with Jack Torrance (The Shining), Alexander the Large (A Clockwork Orange), Patrick Bateman (American Psycho), Annie Wilkes (Misery) and Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega (Reservoir Dogs) among others; Dr. Hannibal Lecter is my favorite psychotic person.
Aside from this, it is important to note the dynamics that are present in the relation ships between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter in the film. Their relationship dynamic is actually very simple, they are both trying to manipulate each other’s minds, Clarice does it in a very humble and submissive way and Lecter does it so openly that it seems as if he is not doing it. Clarice admires Dr. Lecter and Lecter respects Clarice, because he sees some potential in her, also he likes her. They have what can be called a morbid-affective relationship, which might become sadistic-masochistic. Clarice enjoys spending time with Lecter and Lecter knows it, so he seduces her in his own perverse way. The reasons why they keep up with their relationship is because at first Clarice needs to gain Lecter’s confidence in order to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath and finally catching “Buffalo Bill”, but then she is just seduced by Lecter and I dare to say she might fall for him, the same goes for Hannibal, but with the difference that at the beginning Dr. Lecter enjoys her company because he likes to make a psychological analysis of her, and because he loves to say nasty things about her and her past in order to make her feel and, by this he is amused with the mental pain of another. All of these facts: the dynamics of their relationship, the cinematography, acting, plot construction and dialogue, and the reasons the do things for make The Silence of the Lambs a very terrifying movie with an incredible suspense based on the fact that generally we don’t quite understand and are interested to know the ways in which a mind with an “Abnormal Psychology” works. We never know what going to happen next.

view trailer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/trailers-screenplay-E10885-10-2