Right so time to get on to part 2 of my trilogy of looking at the Anthony Hopkins Hannibal Lecter films, and this post is on Hannibal, the follow up to Silence of the lambs, which was directed by Ridley Scott. So let's the get the wine, the figs, and fava beans out have a look....
The film is set 10 years later after the events of Silence and Agent Clarice Starling (Julienne Moore) is involved in a drug raid that goes badly wrong for which she get's the unjustly put on her. In the meantime, a former patient of Lecter and the only surviving victim of Lecter's mascinations, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman) a wealthy child molester, who was left horribly disfigured and paralyzed by Lecter, uses his wealth and power to get Clarice reassigned to the Lecter case. Verge intends on drawing Lecter out of hiding so he can capture him so he can take revenge on him for what he has done to him. Lecter (Hopkins) meanwhile lives incognito in Florence where he has taken over as the caretaker of a library, of which the curator has gone missing. The missing curator is being investigated by police chief inspector Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) who meets with Lecter who is posing under the guise of Dr Fell. Lecter also sends a letter to Clarice after he hears about her public disgrace, and on receiving the letter Clarice tries to track down where it came from, as while there is no address on the letter there is a fragrance in the letter. Clarice finds out from a perfume expert that that is a skin cream of which there are only a handful of stores in the world that do such a cream. Clarice then contacts the police departments of the cities in the world where the perfume is sold, requesting surveillance tapes.
Pazzi meanwhile recognises Lecter from the surveillance tapes they have of him in the perfume store, which Clarice had requested. Pazzi access the the ViCAP database (the FBI database which keeps records of serious violent crimes) of wanted fugitive where he finds Lecter and Verger's $3 million reward to anyone that who will turn him in, rather than to the FBI. Pazzi then decides to try and turn in Lecter to Verger and claim the money, but as part of the process he must gain a fingerprint from Lecter, for which Pazzi uses a pickpocket to obtain a fingerprint from Lecter, but Lecter fatally stabs the pickpocket in the process, but despite that he manges to get the print Pazzi needs. Pazzi then on the evening of one of Lecter's lectures in the library (a nice ryhming sound to that one!) is poised to apprehend him, but Lecter later on captures Pazzi and hangs him from the library, having disembowelled the policeman as well. After this Lecter escapes back to the US where he intends to face Clarice, but he must also try and avoid the authorities as well as try and survive Verger's wrath.
While it isn't quite as gripping and engrossing as Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal still has alot going for it, and Ridley Scott does a fine job in bringing Thomas Harris's macabre book to the screen. The shift in time to 10 years later also allows us to see how Clarice's career has progressed and we see that she has been publicly disgraced in her job after a bungled drug bust and her career becomes the victim of the system, especially at the hands of corrupt justice department official, Paul Krendler (played by Ray Liotta). Lecter also remains a fascinating character especially as he now lives in the disguise of another man (well he would have to wouldn't he!) but as the film progresses and he learns of Clarice's disgrace it intruiges him into as he puts it "coming out of retirement". The book however is far more gruesome and macabre then the film is and when Ridley Scott came on board he insisted on making certain changes to the story, particularly toward the end where in the book (PLOT SPOILER) Lecter and Clarice fest on Krendler's brain and they run off together as a couple. And in the context of the film I think Ridley made the right choices as he decided to not have Clarice and Lecter as a couple, or to have Clarice indulge in cannibalism, which in itself seems pretty daft and illogical.
Anyway getting onto the performance section of the review, the cast are all mostly excellent, although to be honest I felt the weak link in the chain actually was Julianne Moore as Clarice Starling. Moore's take on Clarice is a rather wooden one as her rather bland southern accent doesn't really lend well to the character and despite being a terrific actress, Moore's portrayal is nowhere near as good as Jodie Foster's was. The other cast members however are impressive, particularly Gary Oldman as Mason Verger, the twisted and wealthy child molester, who was once a patient of Lecter and he was left horribly disfigured after Lecter persuaded (under the influence of a popper drug) him to peel off his face with a shard of broken glass and feed it to the dogs. Oldman has some great lines and one in particular is to the scene where he reflects on the incident where he cut his face up and he says "it seemed like a good idea at the time". Oldman's scene with Lecter while brief is also great as Verger enters the room in his wheelchair and he describes the teeth of a wild boar and in graphic detail how he intends to have Lecter eaten, and he says "I'd imagine you wish you had now fed me to the dogs!" and Lecter calmly says "No, Mason. I much prefer you the way you are now." Oldman himself decided that he wanted to be left unbilled on the cast list and his superbly grotesque make-up (created by make-up artist, Greg Cannom) allowed him to be unrecognisible to an audience.
In other parts Giancarlo Giannini is really good in his role as Chief inspector Pazzi, who learns of Lecter's real identity and tries to capture him himself and grab Verger's reward money, only to end up a victim of Lecter himself. Ray Liotta is also excellent as the sleazy and corrupt justice department official, Paul Krendler with whom its implied that he had a past relationship or a fling with Starling. Ray's best scenes come when he speaks with Clarice at the FBI office where he says to her abotut their past involvement that "don't flatter yourself, why would you think I'd hold that against you? Besides there is plenty of cornpone country pussy in this town!". Liotta also plays his part in the film's most gruesome sequence where Lecter performs a little surgery on Krendler by removing the top of his skull and cutting out a piece of his brain and feeding to him! Which prompts an amsuing line after Krendler eats the piece of his own brain he says "it doesn't taste very good, buddy!". Frankie Faison also puts in a neat performance in a brief reprise of his role as Barney, one of the orderlies at Lecter's former prison in Baltimore, who says he managed to survive all those years with Dr Lecter purely by being nice to him.
But the best performance of the film of course belongs to Anthony Hopkins once again Lecter, and once again he plays him with a sense of evil glee, although this time he isn't quite as chilling as he was in Silence and in a way the effectiveness of his character is a litte diluted once Lecter is out in the open. Regardless of that Hopkins get's the film's best dialogue and he delivers it brilliantly throughout, with one of his classic lines being when he says to Pazzi "I'm giving serious thought... to eating your wife". And also slightly later when he stands by Pazzi whom he has tied up and strapped to a manual lifting device with a knife in his hand, he says "What's it to be? Bowels in or bowerls out? Like Judas!". And his final scene on the plane where a young boy enquiries about what Lecter has in his lunchbox and he looks at what is leftovers of Krendler's brain, the boys asks for some and Lecter says "well its is important as my mother use to say to me, to try new things!". His most effective scene in the film is however when Pazzi visits Lecter's apartment and Pazzi, having sussed out who he is eager to try and get a fingerprint, that Lecter slowly and menacingly approaches Pazzi and says I too don't always say what I'm thinking" before he goes to get his suitcases as he packs to leave (with Lecter putting on gloves before he picks them up) but it suggests that he could attack Pazzi there and then. The scene where Lecter opens Krendler's skull remains the most gruesome in the film but in its own sick way it is strangely amusing especially after Krendler having eaten a piece of his own brain, starts to mentally regress fast and he starts muttering and Lecter says "now now Paul, if you can't be nice to our guest, then you'll have to sit at the kiddies table!". And the moment where he rescues Clarice from being eaten by wild boards (another PLOT SPOILER HERE!) he has a line as Verger arrives in the pen where the boars are, he angrily demands his assistant, Cordell, shoot Lecter, and Lecter says "hey Cordell, why don't you push him in. You can always say it was me!".
As for Ridley Scott as director, he does a solid job here with Hannibal and while he doesn't quite succeed in ratching up the intensity and suspense that Jonathan Demme brought to Silence of the lambs, he still keeps the action moving along well, and he makes a sensible decision with the climax of the story unlike the over the top conclusion for Harris's novel. Getting quickly onto Hans Zimmer's score which is quite good although its not one of his best ones, although I did like his musically askew version of the Blue danube in the scene where Verger meets with Lecter to tell him about how he will be the main course later for the boars.
So flaws, does Hannibal have any???? Well yes its fair to say it does as again one of the problems I have with the film is it lacks overall intensity and dread that Silence had. Hannibal Lecter's character is also no longer quite as menacing as he once was, as mentioned, now that he is out and about living as citizen in public he has to live incognito. Hopkins portrayal while always great to watch in this film, is also at times that bit more hammy as Lecter he keeps saying things like "okay dokey", "goody goody" and "ta ta!" which undercuts the creepiness and chilling effectiveness of his character. Also in regards to Lecter's fleeing from Florence back to America, once again you have to wonder just how did he manage to get back to the country so fast without being detected or arrested by the authorities???? Lecter again must have had to use another form of transport as you can hardly imagine him flying back and getting through customs, a known wanted serial killer! But again these are always questions that remain unanswered and you only have to imagine how he managed to get back.
Anyways that's it for my look at Hannibal, which is an entertaining thriller, and while it isn't quite as effective or as good as SOTL its still worth a watch.
And with that I shall leave it there for now and cue Part 3.....
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