abigail-rising:Hannibal + symmetry Symmetry refers to visual harmony of balance and proportion, and

abigail-rising:Hannibal + symmetry Symmetry refers to visual harmony of balance and proportion, and it represents order and stability. Historically, it was associated with the workings of the divine: Aristotle ascribed mathematical symmetry to the heavenly bodies as manifestations of the natural order and perfection of the universe. Symmetry is visually appealing, yet also suggests a sterile rigidity and monotony. In cinematography, the coherence to absolute lines detracts from the humanity of the characters it portrays, positioning them as automatons in a dance rather than freely acting individuals. The viewer is positioned in a god’s eye view of the world, making us complicit in the dehumanisation of the subjects.#it *is* symmetry;#but to me what it’s actually signifying is doubling and duality#every source of light has a shadow#every action as an equal and opposite reaction#every crime has a punishment#to me this was always hannibal’s fearsome & powerful desire for order imposing itself at an aesthetic level#compounded by the crucial metaphoric force of mirrors and reflections and visions and eyes which reflect#[will graham as hannibal’s equal and opposite reaction; the guileless mirror to his calculated image]#that gif of the two silhouettes merging: that’s the defining image of season two#the dualities start to merge; the images of doubling collapse into each other#the boundary between will & hannibal breaks down#just as hannibal’s ordered regime of control & manipulation collapses in on itself#symmetry is static; hannibal is a show about dynamics and relationships and conflicts in motion#hannibal (elucipher)The one tiny disagreement I have–because the collapsing of dualities absolutely is a major aspect of the show–is about the static-ness of symmetry not applying (if I understand elucipher correctly). It doesn’t apply to the show as a whole; but it does apply, in a big way, to Hannibal himself. He is a creator of still lifes, both corpses and tables. His personal arc over the course of these two seasons is how his own stillness, his utter, fixed stability, is gradually upended by Will (primarily). In part for this reason, I actually don’t quite agree with the inclusion of Hannibal’s “crucifixion” in this set; for one thing, he’s wobbling all over the place, which I suppose is just shorthand for how the moment doesn’t reflect rigidity, fixedness, etc. as the text here (which is great) suggests. I would perhaps have gone for the moment when he looks down through the oculus of the silo at the human mural: that entire case was all about static-ness, of the victims’ bodies and Gray’s despair. (I guess that makes Will Roland Umber, poor guy.) Hannibal was deeply secure in that moment, at the center of the frame, recognizing the frozen eye below him as akin to his own compositions. Symmetry, on Hannibal, is heavily associated with the crime scenes, which makes sense, because nearly all of them call back to Hannibal in one way or another. It is also associated with food: check. And it’s then associated with other killers (see Katherine Pims’s shot above, maybe the Angelmaker). Then Hannibal’s home and office, and then the FBI classrooms. All sites of power affiliated with violence. Will, on the other hand, as a disruptive agent, has little use for symmetry; he’s about nature, which isn’t regular. Jack and Freddie, also in this camp, have little to do with symmetry either.So what I mean is: symmetry has a place on the show, an important one: it shows us the equilibrium that is slowly but surely upset over the course of two seasons, which in turn illustrates how Hannibal’s personal, interior equilibrium is taken to pieces. The show as a whole is entirely about dynamic and shifting relationships and identity, but the one person whose identity has never been in question is Hannibal. He is the sanest man we know. He is anything but unbalanced. -- source link

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