hi, my name is tony and this is a quickepisode of every frame a painting. --dr. lecter my name is clarice starlingmay i speak with you? today’s topic is winning the scene. indrama, two characters walk into a room. each wants something from the other.--may i see your credentials? the question of the scene is:who gets what they want?
How To Adopt A Baby Lamb, --closer. first you’ll notice they both look rightinto the lens, examining each other. even though lecters in jail this framingshows him and clarice as equals but, once he lands the first blow:
--that expires in one week.you’re not real fbi, are you? we move over-the-shoulder,with each person building up a defense.and who has the power here? --sit, please.he does. >from here on out, we’re always lookingslightly down on her, slightly up on him --now then, tell me,what did miggs say to you? while he looks us right in the eye,she looks off camera. right now we're inside her head.jonathan demme will reinforce this by having the camera lookwhere clarice is looking
only to bring us back to lecter.--you know florence? remember shes here to get him to look ata survey. every time she's too obvious --i’m only asking you to look at this.either you will or you won’t. we go back to this standoffish angle.but hannibal lecter is curious about one thing…--you know why he’s called buffalo bill? so we shift. now she looks usin the eye, he looks off. we’ve moved inside his point of viewbecause he’s genuinely interested. and the relationship is starting to thawyou can actually tell the exact moment it happens.
--most serial killers keep some trophy.--i didn’t. --no, no you ate yours. we think clarice is winning. she’s gotten him to look at the survey,and we get a close-up emphasizing its importance. but then lecter decidesto turn the tables. --you know what you look like to me withyour good bag and your cheap shoes you look like a rube. this is the first time the cameradollies during the entire scene,
and it ends by framing lecter normally,while clarice is short-sided off-balance just when she thought she was winning… she lost. if you’re paying attention you’ll noticethat lecter is no longer looking directly into the lens,but ever so slightly off. because they’re not seeingeye to eye anymore. --you fly back to school little starling he walks away from the camera, mirroredin the next shot when she does the same. after miggs does his thing,we get the second camera move
and the very firsttwo-shot in the entire scene. finally, they’re togetherin the same frame, the camera looking up,and we understand that this is the beginning of a relationship. --i don't think miggs can manage againso soon, even though he's crazy, go now. what makes the dynamic interesting ishannibal lecter wins the scene and then gives up his win for his ownreasons. clarice gets what she wanted but it feels like a humiliation. if youenjoyed this little exercise, i highly recommend watching other interactionsbetween these two characters,
each of which has a slightly differentanswer to the question of “who wins the scene?" my name is tony and this was a quickepisode of every frame a painting. subtitles by the amara.org community
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