Movie Posters

The Silence of the Lambs

One can quickly tell that this poster is of a thriller or of another movie which genre relates to suspense. Its dominating colours are white and black; they both associate with death and create a sensation of the sinister presence. The title is in red, which relates to violence, more specifically blood. And of course there is an insect with a mark looking like a human skull in the centre of the picture.

These signs make the first impression on the audience to clarify that the plot will be dark and frightening. However, there are some less obvious factors of the poster which complete its mise-en-scene. The combination of dark brown colours creates feelings of depression and despair. There is a bit of yellow right in the centre which helps to grasp the visual focus of an observer; yellow colour is the most noticeable. The girl’s white skin aligns with the paleness of a corpse. Her eyes are widely open, still and emotionless. The presence of a large, fury mole on her lips arises disturbance and disgust, which she doesn’t express as a normal person would; her facial expression is absolutely flat. The light divides the image into the visible part and the area covered by the girl’s shadow; such sharp, bright lighting is similar to those used in morgues. Together these details persuade that the picture is of a dead body. Because girls are generally more fragile and kind than men, the audience considers her to be an innocent victim and is thrilled by the injustice of her death. The darkness which surrounds her head makes her character mysterious.

The face used for the shot, which I assume belongs to Jodie Foster, is very pretty despite that not all of it can be seen. After observing the actress’s sharp chin and cheek bones, narrow eyebrows and neat nose, one gets the desire to see her in motion. Beauty always attracts attention and causes interest, especially when put in such contrasting contexts as death and hostility.  Her eyes are red, this confuses since she was assumed to be a victim, but the red eyes are associated with villains, so it creates another small intrigue and a reason to watch the movie.

Since it is the most popular Jonathan Demme’s thriller and worldly approved classic, the poster’s effects on the modern public will be limited by increasing its excitement before the review (because generally the spectators will already be familiar with the characters and the storyline). Back in 1991 however, when nobody yet heard of Dr. Hannibal Lecter and people knew only that the movie is about psychos and cannibalism, such an unusual design of the announcement poster should have caused appearance of many questions related to the plot, intrigued the viewers and attracted a lot of attention, which is the main purpose of the first poster. It is a perfect example of how the mise-en-scene is used to interest the public before the product’s release, so the sales are higher when it enters the market. The title “from the terrifying best seller” suggests that it is a high budget and a high quality movie if it was permitted to use a successful novel for its storyline. This increases the public’s expectations and improves the ratings of a film. Clearly written names of the popular actors prove the same point; Hollywood stars would not agree to participate in something that could worsen their reputation. They also attract fans and help to win the competition for consumers against films with less promoted casts.