- Character Analysis of Hannibal in "The Silence of the Lambs"
Preface: Before watching "The Silence of the Lambs" for the fourth time, I was chasing an American drama - "Hannibal". In the United States, the "Silence of the Lambs" series of books is widely circulated as a well-known reading similar to "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai". Therefore, the resulting film and television works all tacitly assume that the audience at least knows the general story, which makes the film version of "Silence of the Lambs", "Red Dragon", "Young Hannibal" or the American TV version of "Hannibal". It is difficult for ordinary audiences (referring to audiences who have not read the original work extensively) to enter the play. But even so, this did not affect the fierce reaction at home and abroad in the slightest. Whether it is overseas ordinary audiences or senior filmmakers in the United States, their attitude towards the work "Silence of the Lambs" is almost the same, and they all give thumbs up.
As a result, "Silence of the Lambs", as the representative work of Hannibal's series, has been extensively studied and interpreted. Another success of The Silence of the Lambs, as with most thrillers and suspense films, is its near-perfect coverage - its interlocking suspense reveal, gripping storyline, and superb character interpretation are all unique. Charm capital.
I am a fanatic of suspense films. After a lot of suspense films, I feel a little painless about the (suspense) techniques in them. However, the portrayal of "Hannibal" in "Silence of the Lambs" is refreshing to me.
There is a saying that goes like this: Stupidity is not scary at all, what is scary is a criminal with a high IQ. Hannibal's former occupation was a psychiatrist, an expert in psychology, behavior, and sociology. Anyone who has watched the prequel "Red Dragon" or the American TV version of "Hannibal" will know that Hannibal was a veritable genius before he was forced to wear a mask: his precise grasp of human psychology and logic The meticulous thinking and academic attainments are impeccable. So when the audience learns that Hannibal has become a high-risk criminal who kills without blinking an eye, it feels like the Secretary of Defense has suddenly turned into a terrorist - this guy not only knows the rules, but is also extremely smart. Niu Ren, how to play fair game with him?
However, "Silence of the Lambs" does not reproduce any of Hannibal's past through images. Throughout the two hours of the whole play, Hannibal's role is only a short twenty minutes (Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar for the best actor of the year for these twenty minutes, and has always been a fan of his and "Silent". Lamb fans), but audiences will have all kinds of imaginings of this gentleman-looking fiend: when he unashamedly bites off a nurse's jaw, when he devours a census taker's liver with fava beans , what exactly is the scene? In this way, the clever director uses hunger marketing to force the audience to imagine its terrifying past, so that in just a very short scene, the image of a man and a demon with extraordinary charm is shaped so vividly and full.
Hannibal's first appearance is full of energy.
Compared with the dirty and dark rooms of several high-risk prisoners next door, Hannibal's room was clean and tidy, with plenty of light. He dressed neatly and generously, waiting quietly for Starling's arrival, showing the courtesy of a gentleman. Later, during the conversation, we found that this kind-hearted old man who seemed to be humble and respectful, even though he was imprisoned in the dungeon, exuded a sense of unease that made him know all about him—in the conversation with Starling Among them, he has always enjoyed the highest dominance, and easily played Starling, a top student in criminology.
He doesn't have too much body language, but every tiny movement makes the audience shudder, and in order to magnify this detail, the director deliberately created an extremely quiet environment - the entire scene is only the dialogue between the two, without any other The superfluous sound and unnecessary soundtrack make the already dark and terrifying atmosphere even more compelling. However, the director stopped at this point, and the image of Hannibal created so far is closer to an approachable and polite old man.
It wasn't until three-fifths of the story, a small climax that took place in Hannibal's second cell, that the audience saw the real ogre.
In the cell, he is as dignified and elegant as always, but hides the murderous intention of a jackal. After a long period of forbearance, he opened the handcuffs with the hidden pen buckle, and at the same time, Hannibal's bestiality was finally released. In the process of killing the two guards without changing his face, it was Beethoven's Ode to Joy (I don't remember who the music is, it's classical music anyway~), and the director skillfully used the contradiction between sound and picture to highlight Hannibal In Hannibal's eyes, the greatest evil - skinning and eating people, is more like an art, a noble act that only he can accomplish.
And clever use of the guard's face to escape the pursuit of the special police in broad daylight also highlights the characteristics of Hannibal's "shuangxiu" - not only a ruthless murderer, but also a smart prisoner with high IQ.
Objectively speaking, "Silence of the Lambs" is not a story about Hannibal, but after watching the movie, the audience is always most impressed by this elegant demon gentleman. His charisma is twisted, and no normal person would appreciate a cannibal criminal in the real world. However, after the director's superb character shaping, many audiences extremely worship Hannibal. What he yearns for is, of course, not how cruel and terrifying he is, but his elegance and dignity after the latent murderous intention - at least, half of him are gentlemen. This is a success for the director, and it takes far more skill to get the audience to like a heinous villain than to get the audience to appreciate a peerless good guy.
In my opinion, the most successful work of art is to directly affect the real world with its illusory ideology. In the United States, someone did imitate Hannibal's behavior and committed the crime of cannibalism in 2008. This was a joke for the filmmaker, and as a result, some people accused the producer and once again doubted the moral guiding role of the film.
But I think after watching "Silence of the Lambs", there will be a lot more guys who learn good manners than bad guys who try to eat people.
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