Synopsis
From Thomas Harris’s novel, director Jonathan Demme explodes and reconstructs a classic genre, laying a foundation of emotional and political commitment beneath a perfectly constructed psychological thriller. Fourteen years after her controversial role in Taxi Driver, Jodie Foster finally makes the transformation from helpless victim to rescuing hero in this dark, gender-bending fairy tale of an American obsession: serial murder. As Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter, Anthony Hopkins is the archetypal antihero—cultured, quick-witted, uncontainable—a portrait of all the sharpest human faculties gone diabolically wrong. Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay Adaptation for Ted Tally.
Cast
| Clarice Starling | Jodie Foster |
| Dr. Hannibal Lecter | Anthony Hopkins |
| Jack Crawford | Scott Glenn |
| Jame Gumb | Ted Levine |
| Dr. Frederick Chilton | Anthony Heald |
| Catherine Martin | Brooke Smith |
| Senator Ruth Martin | Diane Baker |
| Ardelia Mapp | Kasi Lemmons |
| Lt. Boyle | Charles Napier |
| Lamar | Tracy Walter |
| FBI Director | Roger Corman |
Credits
| Director | Jonathan Demme |
| Producer | Kenneth Utt, Edward Saxon and Ron Bozman |
| Screenplay | Ted Tally |
| Editing | Craig McKay |
| Cinematography | Tak Fujimoto |
| Production Design | Kristi Zea |
| Music | Howard Shore |
Disc Features
- Commentary by Jonathan Demme, stars Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, screenwriter Ted Tally, and FBI agent John Douglas
- Seven deleted scenes
- Film-to-storyboard comparison
- Storyboards
- FBI crime classification manual
- Voices of Death: word-for-word statements of convicted serial killers
From the Current
The Silence of the Lambs
by Jul 14, 1998A director who knows his genres, Jonathan Demme has never been able to resist turning them inside out. Starting in the film industry as a publicist, Demme was soon hired by Roger Corman as a scriptwriter and then as a director. Corman’s rules for filmmaking—which mandate either the revelation of...
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