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The Silence
of the Lambs (1991)
In Jonathan Demme's Best Picture winning film:
- the tense scene of FBI trainee agent Clarice Starling's
(Oscar-winning Jodie Foster) walk along a row of underground Baltimore
prison cells (and her abuse by prisoner Miggs (Stuart Rudin))
- her first meeting with the chilling, repellent, super-intelligent,
cold-eyed and intriguing Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter
(Oscar-winning Anthony Hopkins) - who stood there with his head tilted
and then requested that she come "Clos-er" to show her
credentials
- the serial killer Lecter's famous lines: "Memory,
Agent Starling, is what I have, instead of a view" - "You
use Evian skin cream and sometimes you wear L'air du Temps - but
not today" - "You're so-o ambitious, aren't you? You know
what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes?
You look like a rube..."
- the infamous description given by Lecter about his
refined taste in cruelty - with the sound effect of sifting through
his teeth: "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his
liver with some fava beans and a nice Chi-an-ti"
- fpt-fpt-fpt''
- the many scenes of their intense, seductive discussions-interrogations
at his jail cell - including her confession about failing to rescue
a lamb from the slaughter - as the camera moved in for intense close-ups
- the image of Lecter's muzzled restraint with a face
mask
- the scene in which Lecter lunged at Sgt. Pembry (Alex
Coleman) with bloody, face-eating cannibalism
Sgt. Jim Pembry's Cannibalistic Demise by Hannibal
Lecter
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- Lecter also savagely beat Sgt. Boyle (Charles Napier)
to death with a police riot baton, and relaxed afterwards to Bach's Goldberg
Variations; later, officers found the bloody and savaged body of
Sgt. Boyle strung up high on the cell bars like Christ, with a carved-away
abdomen. "Sgt.
Pembry," with an unrecognizable, gory face, lay bloodied on the
floor, and Lecter appeared to be missing.
- Clarice's entry into the home of the serial killer
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb (Ted Levine) and stalking from
Bill's POV with night-goggles
Killing of Serial Murderer Jamie Gumb
(Buffalo Bill) in the Dark
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The real curtain-closing climax of the film came
after Clarice graduated from the FBI Academy. She received a long
distance phone call from Hannibal Lecter at-large, disguised and
calling from a phone at an open-air cafe at a tropical airport
terminal (in the Bahamas?). He assured her that he wouldn't pursue
her: "I have no plans to call on you,
Clarice. The world's more interesting with you in it. Say, you
take care now to extend me the same courtesy." She
responded: "You know I can't make that
promise."
Lecter ended their short phone call with a famous farewell line -
his final words were about literally dining 'with' Dr. Chilton: "I
do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner.
Bye."
Lecter noticed that his arch-nemesis, the despicable
Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald) was deplaning - Chilton was
Lecter's next victim. Lecter put on a Panama hat and with his disguise,
he slowly walked into the crowded, narrow street of the Caribbean
village and disappeared while following Chilton.
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The First Meeting Between
Lecter and Clarice
Sgt. Boyle Beaten and 'Crucified'
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