What did The Silence of the Lambs say? How to evaluate?

Stella is not a simple woman, only an ignorant person can be really simple. Stella has a complicated personality. She is rational, intelligent and ambitious, which Hannibal himself said. She also knows how to handle interpersonal relationships smoothly. These qualities are one of the reasons why Hannibal likes her. Hannibal said that he hates rude people. "Etiquette" and "restraint" are just things that human anti-animal instincts suppress and domesticate. Most simple people follow their own nature without thinking clearly. Stella is definitely not that kind of person. On the contrary, she seems to be a little too self-denying, which leads to the fragility under the strong appearance of this cold beauty and adds a little lovely beauty to her, but in addition, you can strongly feel a cold heart and a belief that weakness will not shake.

Hannibal has always been a man with excellent mental control, which seems to transcend all the limitations of human inferiority. He advocates rationality and wisdom, and appreciates classical literature and music (remember the variations when Gothenburg was locked in a cage in the background, and Bach's music is recognized as the most rational). It is speculated that he loves the grandeur of classical tragedy more than the pleasant beauty of secular life. Therefore, Stella is undoubtedly his favorite typical image: rational, strong, neat, self-respecting, sensitive. Because of the shadow of childhood or her strong melancholy temperament and isolated loneliness in our nature, she can also please the psychologist a little nervously. So Hannibal should have fallen in love with her at first sight.

However, what finally made Hannibal fall in love with Stella was undoubtedly the story of Screaming Lamb. The story is so idealized and symbolic that it has some fable color. That kind of compassion for others and great love for human suffering made Stella exude a kind of beauty of holiness and martyrdom, and also made Hannibal explore her story repeatedly, which was deeply shocked. Hannibal has always been confident in analyzing people's minds, and Stella is an exception. He had speculated that she might have been sexually abused by relatives or wanted to escape from a poor and barren childhood, and whatever kind of trauma was ultimately confined to her specific unfortunate fate. It is a common phenomenon that people hurt themselves because of bad luck. Even if it is reasonable, it will appear superficial, because it still cannot escape from the category of personal sadness and loss, and the resulting tragedy is branded with specific experiences. A truly profound tragedy should be a more universal trembling based on the origin of life, rather than relying on this appearance. It needs to abandon the self-catharsis of promiscuity and sing with a rational and simple soul.

Therefore, Stellen's story surprised Hannibal. She saw the suffering of other creatures, mourned for them and gave up everything to save them. This realm is rarely achieved. To exaggerate, there is a sense that Christ bears the cross. So Hannibal will sigh with infinite tenderness, "Thank you, myna". I think the last sentence he didn't say should be "thank you, myna, you have restored my confidence in mankind a little bit." So "the world is more interesting because of you". The only physical contact between them in the film is the touch of the index finger, which reminds people of Michelangelo's famous mural Genesis. God's finger touched Adam, and since then, God and human spirit have been linked together. This passage in the film may imply a subtle change in the relationship between Hannibal and Stella.

The conversation between the two of them through the iron cage is my favorite part of the whole play. Delicate performances and deep music are touching. There are many symbolic conversations. Starling said that at first she wanted to release the lambs, but they "didn't know how to escape, just stood there in confusion and didn't want to go". How similar are these lambs to the dreary world? Even if they are given physical freedom, they are still prisoners of their own souls. It is said that a strong man saves himself, and a sage helps others, but most mediocre people don't know how to escape from the tragedy of life, and even they are so sad that they don't realize that they are in a tragedy. They just wander outside the kingdom of heaven with a fragile heart and wandering souls, constantly indulging in pain and constantly screaming at death in their hearts. All these cruelties are covered by the colder silence between heaven and earth ... just like the song in "The Sound of Silence", when silence becomes sound, the world mistakenly thinks that everything is normal, but this layer of appearance is torn apart. Isn't there a burning execution ground in front of us? The pain of life, the heaviness of life, will fall squarely on everyone's head, just as Stella said, "They are too heavy."

Did Stella really hear the "scream" of a lamb when she was a child? I think the answer is probably no (movies only). It's winter night and everyone is sleeping. The butchers should not have started working yet. How can the whine of some weak lambs be loud enough to wake Stella in the house? Why can't others hear this voice? Therefore, this kind of "screaming" is probably an abstract intention, a voice that only exists in Stella's heart, and echoes again and again like a nightmare in her adulthood. This is a symbolic technique used in movies. The title of the film tells us that "lambs are always the most silent animals". Only in the eyes of myna, they are constantly asking for help and struggling because of suffering. In the final analysis, this is because she has a unique and sensitive heart to understand the world.

Several times more sensitive and sympathetic than ordinary people, Stella is doomed to be an unhappy person. In Hannibal's sketches, she is dressed in white with a lamb in her arms. Her eyes seem gentle but exude a desolate and determined power, which is quite similar to the Virgin Mary.

In fact, if we say "the strong" and "the weak", aren't we all "the weak" in the face of nature and fate? And the world itself may be Hannibal's greedy eyes. People fall into the world with the original sin named desire, and unconsciously struggle with each other, forming an invisible huge net. Everyone is both the giver and the victim of evil deeds. Greedy peeping and fear escaping; Being both a sinner and a victim, there is nowhere to escape, and there is nowhere to escape. Like poor bad boy Bill, like the man watching Stella at the airport, like those contemptuous male policemen, like you and me.

Perhaps, in Hannibal's eyes, human beings are all sad people. They fight for their own interests, but they can't escape the butcher's knife of fate. They will eventually be mercilessly swallowed up by life, like stupid and frightened lambs to be slaughtered, ignorant and numb. It can be said that Hannibal has been looking down on mankind with cold reason, just like a ruthless god. God doesn't know what benevolence is, and takes everything as straw dogs. He can't change the human tragedy, so he is indifferent. Until he met Starling, a sensitive shepherdess who cried and tried to save even a lamb, a thin girl who tried to bear all the sufferings in the world with her shoulders. Two people have similarities and differences. Therefore, Hannibal's love for Stella is not only mutual appreciation, but also the guardian of the alien's beautiful soul.

"Brave clarice, if one day your lamb stops screaming, will you tell me?" If this world can really become heaven one day, even the cold god will be a little moved, right?