This is one of the first films in which it really began to dawn on me just how much more interesting [fascinating] the “bad guys” can be portrayed up there on the silver screen. And I’m sure the reactions of many were more than just a little discomfitting.
We don’t want to be this person. And we sure as shit don’t want to meet this person. But there is something about him that makes us probe a litte deeper into human reality. There seems to be so much more than what we can capture wholly in an “analysis”.
After all, wouldn’t it be rather interesting to engage someone like him in discussions here?
And almost like another character in the film is Gumb’s basement. It’s one of the creepiest goddamn places ever filmed.
IMDb
[b]Buffalo Bill is the combination of three real life serial killers: Ed Gein, who skinned his victims; Ted Bundy, who used the cast on his hand as bait to make women get into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement.
One of only three films (the others being It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) to win the top five Oscars - Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Adapted).
Jodie Foster claims that during the first meeting between Lecter and Starling, Anthony Hopkins’s mocking of her southern accent was not rehearsed and that Hopkins improvised it on the spot. Foster’s reaction of horror was totally genuine, as she felt personally attacked, though she later thanked Hopkins for generating such an honest reaction.[/b]
wiki
[b]Upon its release, The Silence of the Lambs was criticized by members of the LGBT community for its portrayal of Buffalo Bill as bisexual and transsexual. In response to the critiques, Demme replied that Buffalo Bill “wasn’t a gay character. He was a tormented man who hated himself and wished he was a woman because that would have made him as far away from himself as he possibly could be.” Demme added that he “came to realize that there is a tremendous absence of positive gay characters in movies.”
In a 1992 interview with Playboy magazine, notable feminist and women’s rights advocate Betty Friedan stated, “I thought it was absolutely outrageous that The Silence of the Lambs won four [sic] Oscars. […] I’m not saying that the movie shouldn’t have been shown. I’m not denying the movie was an artistic triumph, but it was about the evisceration, the skinning alive of women. That is what I find offensive. Not the Playboy centerfold.”[/b]
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS [1991]
Directed by Jonathan Demme
[b]Crawford: And you’re to tell him nothing personal, Starling. Believe me, you don’t want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.
…
Crawford: Just do your job, but never forget what he is.
Starling: And what is that?
[cut to Clarice’s first trip to the psychiatric prison]
Chilton: Oh, he’s a monster. Pure psychopath. So rare to capture one alive. From a research point of view, Lecter is our most prized asset.
…
Lecter: Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling?
[sarcastically]
Lecter: Enthrall me with your acumen.
Starling: It excites him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.
Lecter: I didn’t.
Starling: No. No, you ate yours.
…
Lecter: You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition’s given you some length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you…all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars while you could only dream of getting out…getting anywhere…getting all the way to the FBI.
Starling: You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don’t you - why don’t you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you’re afraid to.
…
Starling: If you didn’t kill him, then who did, sir?
Lecter: Who can say. Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.
…
Starling: If the beetle moves one of your men, does that still count?
Pilcher: Course it counts. How do you play?
…
Roden [Upon learning where the Death’s-Head Moth came from]: You mean this is like a clue from a real murder case? Coolo!
Pilcher [to Clarice]: Just ignore him, he’s not a PhD.
…
Roden: Sphingid ceratonia, maybe.
[cuts open cocoon]
Roden: Agent Starling, meet Mr. Acherontia styx.
Pilcher: Weird.
Roden: Better known to his friends as the Death’s-head moth.
Starling: Where does it come from?
Roden: It’s strange. They only live in Asia.
Pilcher: Here they’d have to be raised from imported eggs.
Roden: Somebody grew this guy. Fed him honey and nightshade, kept him warm. Somebody loved him.
…
Starling: Why does he place the moths there, Doctor?
Lector: The significance of the moth is change. Caterpillar into chrysalis, or pupa, and from thence into beauty. Our Billy wants to change, too.
Starling: There’s no correlation between transsexualism and violence. Transsexuals are very passive.
Lector: Clever girl.
…
Lecter: Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn’t born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse. Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying.
…
Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it’s told.
…
Gumb: Now it places the lotion in the basket. Put the lotion in the basket…PUT THE FUCKING LOTION IN THE BASKET!
…
Chilton: You still think you’re going to walk on some beach and see the birdies? I don’t think so. They scammed you, Hannibal.
…
Lecter: Tell me, Senator: did you nurse Catherine yourself?
Senator Martin: What?
Lecter: Did you breast-feed her?
Krendler: Now wait a minute…
Senator Martin: Yes, I did.
Lecter: Toughened your nipples, didn’t it?
Krendler: You son of a bitch!
Lecter: Amputate a man’s leg and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, mum, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?
Senator Martin: Take this…[i]thing]/i] back to Baltimore!
Lecter: Five foot ten, strongly built, about a hundred and eighty pounds; hair blonde, eyes pale blue. He’d be about thirty-five now. He said he lived in Philadelphia, but he may have lied. That’s all I can remember, mum, but if I think of any more, I will let you know…Oh, and Senator, just one more thing: love your suit!
…
Murray: Is it true what they’re sayin’, he’s some kinda vampire?
Starling: They don’t have a name for what he is.
…
Lector: Anthrax lsland. That was an especially nice touch, Clarice. Yours?
Starling: Yes.
Lector: Yeah. That was good. Pity about poor Catherine, though. Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock.
…
Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Starling: He kills women…
Lecter: No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?
Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir…
Lecter: No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.
Starling: No. We just…
Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don’t you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don’t your eyes seek out the things you want?
…
Lector: What became of your lamb, Clarice?
Starling: They killed him.
Lector: You still wake up sometimes, don’t you? Wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs?
Starling: Yes.
Lector: And you think, if you save poor Catherine, you could make them stop, don’t you? You think if Catherine lives, you won’t wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.
…
Starling [after learning Lecter has escaped]: He won’t come after me.
Mapp: Oh really?
Starling: He won’t. I can’t explain it…He - he would consider that rude.
…
Starling: What did Lecter say about First principles"?
Mapp: Simplicity…
Starling: What does this guy do, he “covets”. How do we first start to covet?
Mapp: “We covet what we see -”
Starling: " - every day."
Mapp: Hot damn, Clarice.
Starling: He knew her.
…
Gumb: YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!
…
Martin: I’m down here!
Starling: Catherine Martin?
Martin: Yes!
Starling: FBl. You’re safe.
Martin: Safe, shit! Get me outta here!
…
Lector [on telephone]: Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?
Starling [on telephone]: Where are you, Dr Lecter?
Lector: I have no plans to call on you, Clarice. The world’s more interesting with you in it. So you take care now to extend me the same courtesy.
Starling: You know I can’t make that promise.
Lector: I do wish we could chat longer, but I’m having an old friend for dinner.[/b]