the intense humming of evil

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2004)

With "Silence of the Lambs" (1991), Jonathan Demme achieved a masterstroke and his movie became one of the landmark movies made in the nineties. The reward of his efforts were the following ones: 5 Oscars in 1992 including Best Movie and a widely deserved blockbuster.
This is a movie that enjoys a performance of a high quality with, of course Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins who dominate the cast. The former is absolutely convincing in her role of ambitious trainee who gradually realizes that if she wants to nab "Buffalo Bill", she has to face and overcome her fears. All this with "a little help" from Hopkins who finds in this movie one of his best roles and offers a remarkable and especially unforgettable composition of his character: Hannibal Lecter. Besides, concerning this character, more than fascination, this is nearly liking that we feel for this monster. On another hand, his confrontations with Clarisse are the key-moments of the movie where we can notice a careful work on the light, the scenery and the framing.
In "Silence of the Lambs", Demme plays with the spectator's nerves, avoids as much as possible the bloody sequences and creates suspense the following way: throughout the movie, there's a constant tension that starts with the warnings given to Clarisse before her first meet with Lecter. Then, it becomes more marked with Lecter's escape and it reaches a peak with Clarisse's final dual with "Buffallo Bill". The whole is well-orchestrated by Demme thanks to a witty making. At last, even if the end reveals an inevitable happy-end, the very last sequence is here to remind us that one of the two monsters in the movie is still alive and he will keep on getting himself talked about (Hannibal, 2001).
A terrific and terrifying thriller. Highly recommended and this is one of the very few movies that will haunt you for a long time after you watched it.