The Overseer of HELL finds reason to climb MT. PURGATORY

Rating: 10/10 (3 September 2001)

My comment (may contain spoilers, if that is still possible) is focused on a particular reading of "The Dantean Mind of Hannibal Lecter"; that is, based on the three novels by Thomas Harris and the three film adaptations, to date.
Demme's excellent portrayal of the entrance, into Hannibal's labyrinthine Limbo, of our new "Special Agent, Clarice Starling" -- who is so unlike the permanently damaged "Will Graham" who'd originally captured Lecter ["Red Dragon" ends on some disturbing evidence of corrupting influences by "Dr. Lecter" and his "mindset" (psychologically, a 'to the dark side' partial conversion is alluded to in the novel; not Michael Mann's flawed 'happy Hollywod ending' to his 1986 MANHUNTER !)] -- is simply, hauntingly stunning.
My critical point about how 'the Jodie Foster character' conveys exactly that un-cynical combination of highly moral, ethically-beyond-reproach, innocence and 'purity' so very attractive to our Florentine aesthete and "monster" / for Anthony Hopkins' "Lecter," will find it's fullest pay-off with Julianne Moore's street-wiser "Clarice" in Ridley Scott's HANNIBAL, of course. But, already in the 1991 SILENCE, the "people will say we're in love" trope of a COURTLY ("dark," to-be-sure !) LOVE affair between the politically naive "well-scrubbed hustling rube with a little taste" and a Nietzschean Uebermensch (taken to one logical conclusion Hollywood has never quite succeeded at before !), our "psychiatrist" of "Chaos," is intriguingly presented for the very first time.
The heroics of this sincere "Special Agent," in that corrupt "stale bureaucracy" our consummate cynic, "Dr. Lecter," contemptuously holds such institutions as the FBI to be, quite obviously resonates with Dante's view of the "Donna Gentile," "Beatrice" -- too pure and noble for this ignoble world. Is it any wonder that the question is raised : "Do you know Florence ? That's the Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere." Indeed, "a trainee" with "Such sweet decorum" (Dante) and her special relationship with "everyone's favorite, gentleman, genius, cannibal," might have made his quick capture in Florence quite a simple matter. If it were not for the 'functional illiteracy' one must suppose also the FBI-like institutions suffer under today.
The manipulations of "Clarice" by "that awful Jack Crawford," to bring "Lecter" out of his "memory palace" -- "Memory, Officer Starling, is what I have instead of a view." -- are clearly cynical attempts to get him to assist in their hunt for "Buffalo Bill." And if he'd condescend to do so, it would be because "he did it to amuse himself." Such is the understanding between this "Behavioral Science Dept. Section Chief" and "Hannibal the Cannibal." If he had noticed the Dantean "contrapasso" of 'poetic justice' Lecter's making "multiple Miggs" swallow "that offensive tongue" displays, there is no evidence of it.
What is so impressive in both the novel and the film's (closest of the three) cinematic adaptation(s), is that there is a deeper, closer and more intimate, 'understanding' between Starling and Lecter at work. And it is the very "straight arrow" nature of Clarice's idealistic 'purity' which will forever spare her the unpleasant fatal visitations of Hannibal, after his genial escape : (although) "I think it would be quite something to know you in private life." "I have no plans to call on you, Clarice, the world being more interesting with you in it."
He knows that, despite his enigmatic clues and help in getting "Jame Gumb," Clarice judges herself "with all the mercy of the dungeon at Threave" (novel; Scottish "Dungeon of the Supernatural" with no escape), and her temporary respite, within the contemporary corrupt City-State of some Washingtonian Intelligence & Law Enforcement community, sleeping "deeply, sweetly, in the silence of the lambs," will never long endure !
She IS "the honet in the lion," after all ! SEE: "HANNIBAL" (2001)