Opening Scenes
The film opens with a brilliantly evocative use of thematic imagery. Clarice Starling is running her way through the obstacle course at the FBI training site in Quantico. The imagery is the film in miniature: Clarice making her way through all the obstacles set before her with little or no assistance from her fellow FBI agents.
Hannibal Lecter
The key to this film’s success in infiltrating into the consciousness of America can arguably be laid mainly at the feet of the Hannibal Lecter. If Lecter isn’t appropriate creepy, it is difficult to imagine what is otherwise a fairly mundane plot being quite so captivating. While Anthony Hopkins did win a Best Actor Oscar for his performance, at least a good fifty percent of that award should go to the director, cameraman and set designer. Lecter attains the status of iconic film character that is so integral to elevating the film from standard thriller to touchstone film due in larger to the imagery contrived around him: the ominous music, the design of his cells and cages, the extremely subtle but effective lighting and, most importantly, the direction of Jonathan Demme. Lecter is his masterpiece; the portrait drawn for through Demme’s guiding imagination nothing short of Carravagio-esque in its artistry.
Clarice and POV
Many shots of Clarice frame Clarice from a subjective point of view that stand in opposition to the general conventions of filmmaking. Consider that when the camera is pointed toward a character as if standing behind a door or from weird angle, the typical pattern is such that it will be revealed this is actually from the perspective of another character. However, throughout the film, Clarice is viewed from such strange perspectives—through the window from inside a locked door, for instance—that violates this “rule” of camera perspective. Both the scenes themselves and the violation conventions are serve to work together as imagery which enhances the feeling that Clarice’s movements are at all times being watched—observed, really—from a distance by somebody.
Animal Imagery
Of course, the most pervasive and meaningful imagery in the film is that abundance of allusion to animals. This imagery begins, obviously, with the title before immediately settling into Clarice’s last name and Bill’s nickname. The moths which are significant plot points are symbols of transformation which is equally applied to Clarice and Bill. The imagery is so pervasive that it also occurs in more subtle ways easily overlooked. Although spelled different, would-be victim Catherine Martin’s last name parallels Clarice’s as a species of bird. And, of course, it is not his victims whom Jame Gumb deems “Precious” but his poodle, despite, of course, the fact that he kills so that he can gain access to the precious quality of flesh which he skins from them like they were animals.
