There were a lot of beautiful shots that made this movie spectacular. The editing was precise and portrayed a lot of meaning behind it. I screened this movie online through my laptop.
In one scene, Hannibal is being held captive in a human size cage while Clarice is quickly trying to get him to reveal the name of the current murderer. Hannibal then interrogates Clarice about the story of her childhood, and he reveals her true intention for desperately trying to identify the murderer. The filming used during this scene is incredible. The most obvious thing that stands out is the close up shots between Hannibal and Clarice. Both are expressing extreme intensity in their emotion, especially through their eyes and faces. These close shots let the audience cleanly view nothing but the intense emotions driving the scene. Also, something quite interesting is the camera angle. Hannibal’s cage is raised slightly so he is taller than Clarice. When the shot is of Clarice the camera is pointed down, and when the shot is of Hannibal the camera is sometimes tilted upward. This is slightly symbolic of the fact that he knows information that she needs, and he is keeping it from her. In this way he is above her, or holding knowledge over her, which the height or direction of the camera shows.
The point-of-view shots were very important framing aspects throughout the whole movie. They were used quite often and played a vital role in capturing the viewer’s attention by virtually placing them in a character’s position. This took place during the conversation scenes between Hannibal and Clarice. The camera would stay on Hannibal’s face whenever he would talk, and then it would switch to Clarice’s whenever she spoke. It was noticeable that whenever the camera was on Hannibal’s face, he was centered most of the time and it was a close-up shot. However, whenever the camera was on Clarice during the conversation, she was off center and it was more of a medium close-up. This was done to intensify Hannibal’s presence and Clarice’s fear that she felt while talking to him. When Hopkins and Foster both look and speak directly into the camera, it causes the viewer to feel as if they are being addressed which makes it even more emotionally gripping. Besides conversations, point-of-view shots were used at other times. For example, when Hannibal was