Dance with a Stranger
Silence of the Lambs, the 1991 Oscar Winner, ended with a lasting, haunting image: Hannibal Lecter disappearing into a crowd, on his way, most certainly, to eating his tormentor, the criminally rude Dr. Chilton. The sure violence to come would happen off-screen, away from our sentitive eyeballs and natures ... while privately we were all cheering him on, glad the monster would "not come after us" and savoring our secret knowledge of his surely terrible crime.
Now ten years later comes Hannibal. And in this movie, he is not strolling alone down that busy thoroughfare in the Caribbean. We are with him. He's leading us by the hand into his world.
Two years ago Harris surprised the world with his announcement that Hannibal had arrived -- a book that flouted every convention, pissed off every fan, inspired passionate debate and vitriol. News of the movie became the most savored word on everyone's lips: Hannibal! On the loose now.
As readers of this site know, I have been, ok, maybe a little obsessed with this movie, following every development, scrambling for every new photo or quote. Now, having seen the movie last night, I almost wish I knew nothing of it except that final image from Silence of the Lambs ... Hannibal walking away from us but not away from our minds.
I don't think I need to recap the plot except to make some of the points I hope I can communicate about this movie. Hannibal -- the SAME Hannibal from SotL -- is now out in the open, committing his crimes in broad daylight. Every barrier has been removed and we stand at ground zero watching helplessly without a net while he does his grim work -- as trapped as Clarice is at that table near the end. Evil isn't as pretty when you see it close up, is it?
When I first saw Silence of the Lambs, it stuck with me. It haunted me. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I used to be obsessed with serial killers and committed my life to learning everything I could about them. Hannibal was like none of them. In fact, he was the distillation of what I wanted the evil out there to be -- not a stupid, cow-like, blunt instrument, but a refined, precise, brilliant Harpy knife. I saw it many more times to resolve my guilt about loving the movie with what I thought to be my encyclopaedic knowledge of what killers were like in real life. Because the thing about Silence of the Lambs is that it was a fairy tale and Hannibal was the dark prince, the Beast.
In Hannibal -- both the book and the movie -- he is not a distant vision, separated from us by a slab of plexiglas and a not-quite-human mask. He is right there in the room with us, living out his life in the feast of Florence, fully flesh and blood. There is a sensuality to this Hannibal that his imprisonment never allowed us to see. His world is a rich world of fine wines (chianti?), powerful art and enduring beauty.
And yet he craves his savage former life in a strange way. Or does he crave something else?
Clarice.
And she, like us, still dreams of that presence in her life: the darkness held at bay, the lambs silent at last. Taming Hannibal gave her a momentary peace that has never returned. But this Clarice, older, broken, spit out by the FBI, has seen him up close. She has been touched by him. She knows what he is.
When their paths collide, fireworks literally ensue. He has brought his sensual world to her and her reaction to it speaks volumes about who she has become since he last saw her. In SotL she was led around by him, pushed from clue to clue until she unwittingly stumbles into the most dangerous situation of her life. Now, in the rich light of her most formidable opponent, Clarice does not shrink. She does not take his word for anything. Even broken and abandoned by all she held true, she turns and fights.
What I love about this movie, and what I think makes it one of the best to come out in the last ten years, is not only the sumptuous cinematography or the amazing acting, with the great Giancarlo Giannini turning in the most breathtaking performance in ages, is that it does not present a Hannibal behind the plexiglas. He is right in our face. He is the same person from Silence, the same brilliant mind and devious killer, but we are not acquitted for our love of him. We are shown the tremendous price we would surely pay for a life with him. A life where barbarism and refinement go hand-in-hand, where prince Charming is Beezlebub, where the maiden-in-distress faces not a dastardly villain, but the most hypnotic man alive.
This is Hannibal.
Anyway, I'm sure my stilted stumbling has put most everyone to sleep by now. I don't think the movie is without flaws, but for me they were easy to overlook. There are a million points I didn't, or couldn't make, that have been expressed in other reviews. A review I liked in usenet had this line in it:
"All these baroque characters so comfortable while their insanity spills off of them like a cold, dark fog engulfing those around them. No one in Hannibal doesn’t have a demon or two riding shotgun. Death follows all these people like a hungry dog. It is a very tense flick." This really expresses the atmosphere of Hannibal better than I could.
As to the violent reaction some reviewers have had to this movie, I can only say that some of those might reflect the idea that to admit to yourself that you enjoyed the experience of Hannibal is to somehow align yourself with cannibalism and cold-blooded murder. It's Blue Velvet turned on its ear. It's shocking and confrontational, but it's also wonderfully exhilirating ... just like Silence of the Lambs. But with this movie we're not let off the hook.
Two last things: One, Anthony Hopkins gives a miraculous performance and Julianne Moore brings Clarice alive. Gary Oldman is hilarious and totally takes on Mason Verger with gusto. Giannini is sad and desperate and achieves a level of pathos that few actors can. Every aspect of this movie is first rate, the score (soon to be reviewed here), the cinematography, design, writing, everything. And words can't describe what I think Ridley Scott has achieved. This is the man who invented strange new worlds with Alien and Blade Runner and he creates another one here. It's a wonder to behold.
Thing 2: Enjoy Hannibal while it's on the big screen because as soon as it goes away gone will be your chance to see one of the most amazing movies ever made -- certainly among the top five horror movies of all time -- as it was meant to be seen. Hannibal on the small screen just will not cut it after this. Savor it like a nice chianti.
