What is shown, what is taught, versus what is not shown, which is not taught.
We will not speak of eroticism, but the comparison is most relevant, and yes the narrative language of cinema in general.
Experience tells us that always proved more effective at the time of narration, not giving the viewer all the data.
We have said on occasion, the film viewer and is-by its very nature, one of the more passive when the assimilation of what he is seeing (compared with a reader of novels, comic or the kinds of is clear), so whatever is activating its relationship with what you see is always more appropriate.
But it is not just that.
Many times, if we provoke, if we are to fear, if we move, frighten or thrill, it is better not to give any data to the viewer, not to be seduced by the obvious, and use it not shown, the space outside field, to only what is sensed, to what turns out to be imagined by looking.
are many examples, but I can not think of any better to exemplify that the dichotomy is between " The Silence of the Lambs " and its sequel "Hannibal " and how both films face the same fact completely different way.
The fact of the matter is the attack performed by Dr. Hannibal Lecter to a nurse at the jail where he is being held. Let
analyzed separately:
In "Silence of the Lambs," directed by Jonathan Demme in 1991, this attack is used by Dr. Chilton to scare the agent Clarice Sterling, who has just arrive at the institution where he is imprisoned Lecter to meet him.
order to intimidate, Chilton tells verbal-only mode, the attack violated a nurse Lecter and shows him a picture of what was the girl's face.
The complete sequence is in this video:
There are several striking things in this sequence, but what actually interests us is at the end.
Before we can appreciate how the director wants to create unease in the viewer through the intricate spaces Chilton and Sterling must cross to get to where Lecter.
The first is a staircase railing as we expected and the bars of the prison where they are.
The next space is shown with a camera movement that literally engulfs us and conditions us, which brings us to a claustrophobic spiral where there just to be clear where we are, who is on which side of the fence.
In fact, the plane begins to approach a door, and at first we feel that we are Chilton and Sterling and we are going deeper into the prison.
But soon appreciate that no, the two protagonists are at the bottom of the plane and come to us, that in fact we who are trapped on the other side of the door.
then that door opens and Clarice passed and the doctor.
And then, if the scene were not confusing enough already, ambiguous and claustrophobic, the camera follows the two subjects (turn from where they started the movement) and we find that the bottom is another door, another fence, another fence.
The feeling of isolation can not be higher.
As if the viewer had not prepared enough in the network of corridors and bars, the director plunges the characters into a tour de force last and makes them go down the steps leading up to the last gate, which is illuminated by a red light.
The metaphor of the descent into hell is obvious.
And it's in that moment when Shilton tell the story of Lecter attack the nurse, and show you the picture of how he was the face, disfigured and unrecognizable.
a single plane.
Let's see Clarice's face when he sees the picture.
do not see the picture, we see the face of the nurse, we see the atrocities of Lecter. We
gesture when he sees Clarice all that.
contrapicado In a wonderful, appreciate all the horror, all the fear in the eyes of Clarice Sterling.
And no need to show more.
In fact, what most encourages our imaginations, the most restless and disturbs us, is precisely the fact that we do not see, that can be anything. And that makes it unattainable.
In contrast, the sequel to Ridley Scott directed in 2001 will face the same fact a completely different way.
This time we will see a Clarice Sterling played by the great Julianne Moore, reviewing the record of Lecter, is a video tape that record the attack of Hannibal famous nurse.
The sequence only lasts 38 seconds, and although it has been inserted, the you can see by clicking this link .
are several issues that draw attention in this case:
one hand, the chosen medium for dissemination.
In "Silence of the Lambs" was a picture (a simple picture) while here is the video, with a load even more iconic.
And for another, and clearer, is the fact that once it is shown in the previous film had as much concern to conceal it.
What was fear, now stays in disgust, what was really afraid, now converted into disgust.
The TV screen displays unabashed attack.
Here we also point out several issues.
one hand, the similarity Jodie Foster plane looking at the picture in "The Silence of the Lambs", but this similarity is also the differences.
contrapicado No, no red (which replaces a cold blue filter) and the very expression of Clarice, the less impacted, curiously like us, for what it is witnessing.
So Hannibal's bloody face after being bitten by the nurse, on this occasion as a "double-example of bad taste.
Let
as far as possible the imagination of the viewer in a movie theater. Let's teach
all, show everything, giving the scarf and explicit narrative information.
That which is not that which is not shown, will always be more suggestive.
And yes, another day we speak of eroticism ...
