F-0183

Title:

The Silence of the Lambs

Category:

S

Produced:

1991

Country:

USA

Released:

Film: Feb 1991 (USA)
DVD: Oct 1997; Jul 1998; Aug 2001, Aug 2002 (2-DVD); Aug 2004; Jan 2007 (2-DVD, 3-DVD)
VHS: Dec 1992; Oct 1996; Aug 1997; Jan 2001
Soundtrack: Feb 1991 (CD)

Director:

Jonathan Demme

Writer:

Thomas Harris (novel); Ted Tally (screenplay)

Actors:

Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling); Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Hannibal Lecter); Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford); Anthony Heald (Dr. Frederick Chilton); Ted Levine (Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb); Frankie Faison (Barney Matthews); Kasi Lemmons (Ardelia Mapp); Brooke Smith (Catherine Martin); Paul Lazar (Pilcher); Dan Butler (Roden); Lawrence T. Wrentz (Agent Burroughs); Don Brockett (Friendly Psychopath in Cell); Frank Seals Jr. (Brooding Psychopath in Cell); Stuart Rudin (Miggs); Masha Skorobogatov (Young Clarice Starling)

Description:

Young FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. FBI agent Jack Crawford believes that Lecter who is also a very powerful and clever mind manipulator have the answers to their questions to help locate the killer. Clarice must first try and gain Lecter's confidence before he is to give away any information. (Sami Al-Taher)

Clarice Starling, a young intelligent FBI trainee, has been sent to the Batlimore state hospital for the Criminally insane to interview an inmate Dr. Hannibal-the cannibal- Lecter. A Brilliant renowned psychiatrist turned infamous Psychopathic Serial killer. She must match wits with Lecter -who has the darkest of all minds- and trust him to give her clues in the search for "Buffalo Bill". a nick name for a loose,unknown, unstoppable Pyschopathic Serial killer... (Sam Krainak)

A psychopath known as Buffalo Bill is kidnapping and murdering young women across the midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the F.B.I. sends Agent Clarice Starling (Foster) to interview a demented prisoner who may provide psychological insight and clues to the killer's actions. The prisoner is psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lector (Hopkins), a brilliant, murderous cannibal who will only help Starling if she feeds his morbid curiosity with details about her own complicated life. This twisted relationship forces Starling not only to confront her psychological demons, but leads her to face with a demented, heinous killer, an incarceration of evil so powerful, that she may not have the courage -- or strength -- to stop him! (Robert Lynch)

Based on Thomas Harris's novel, this terrifying film by Jonathan Demme really only contains a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat), and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere, and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. (Tom Keogh, Amazon.com)

As Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, Anthony Hopkins is the archetypical antihero--cultured, quick-witted, uncontainable--a portrait of the sharpest human faculties gone diabolically wrong. His performance marked him as a major star in America, and the movie swept the 1991 Academy Awards--Best Picture, Director (Jonathan Demme), Actor (Hopkins), Actress (Foster), and Screenplay Adaptation (Ted Tally, from the novel by Thomas Harris). (Amazon.com)

Adapted from a novel by Thomas Harris, Jonathan Demme's thriller is artful pulp-tabloid material treated with intelligence and care and a weird kind of sensitivity. The heroine, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), is an earnest F.B.I. trainee who is selected to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a psychiatrist who is also a famous mass murderer; her superiors hope that Lecter's twisted expertise can somehow be used to help them catch a serial killer known as Buffalo Bill, who flays his victims. In the course of the movie, these conversations between the trainee and the psychiatrist turn into edgy, complex transactions in which she reveals pieces of her inner life in return for his hints on how to find the killer. Hopkins plays the monster with a fine, cold relish: he gives the character a mesmeric animal stillness, the terrifying opacity of a cobra. And the impact of his performance is heightened by its contrast with everything surrounding it: the scrupulous realism of Demme's style, the mundane details of police procedure, and, in particular, the emotional transparence of the heroine. Demme keeps our attention on Starling and her shifting reactions to the world, and his most striking achievement in this picture is his direction of Jodie Foster. The suspense of this manhunt isn't of the straight-ahead kind we're used to: it's reflective, oscillating between approach and avoidance-it has an unnerving intimacy. Also with Scott Glenn, Ted Levine (as Buffalo Bill), Anthony Heald, and Brooke Smith. The screenplay, which is extremely faithful to the novel, is by Ted Tally. (Terrence Rafferty, Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker)

Language:

English

TT:

118 min / 249 min (2-DVD) / 369 min (3-DVD)

J.S. Bach's Music:

Goldberg Variations BWV 988
Jerry Zimmerman

Format:

Film: Color (Eastmancolor)
DVD: (# C-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC, All Regions) | (AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC, Region 1) | (Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, Special Edition, NTSC, Region 1) | (AC-3, Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (2-DVD, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (NSTC) | (PAL, Region 2) | (Anamorphic, Full Screen, NTSC, Region 2)
2-DVD: (Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1)
3-DVD: (Box set, Black & White, Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1)
VHS: (PAL) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC) | (Color, NTSC) | (PAL, German) | (NSTC, French) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, NTSC)
Soundtrack: CD

Company:

Film: Orion Pictures Corporation; Strong Heart/Demme Production
DVD: MGM (Video & DVD); Image Entertainment; Criterion
VHS: MGM (Video & DVD); Orion
Soundtrack: MCA (CD)

Comments:

2-DVD Set includes: The Hannibal Lecter Anthology (Hannibal / The Silence of the Lambs)
3-DVD Set includes: The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal)

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [2-DVD] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com (Region 2) | Amazon.com [Region 2] | Amazon.com [Region 2] | Amazon.com [Region 2] | Amazon.com [Region 2]
2-DVD: Amazon.com
3-DVD: Amazon.com
VHS: Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [German] | Amazon.com [French] | Amazon.com [German] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [German] | Amazon.com
Soundtrack: Amazon.com [CD]

Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)