The Silence of the Lambs (film)

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Movie
German title The silence of the Lambs
Original title The Silence of the Lambs
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1991
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jonathan Demme
script Ted Tally
production Edward Saxon
Kenneth Utt
Ron Bozman
music Howard Shore
camera Tak Fujimoto
cut Craig McKay
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Hannibal

The Silence of the Lambs is an American film from 1991. The thriller tells how the FBI agent candidate Clarice Starling brings down the serial killer Buffalo Bill, but only with the help of another serial killer, the cannibalistic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter .

It was directed by Jonathan Demme , with Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in the lead roles . The plot closely follows the presentation of the novel of the same by Thomas Harris from 1988. The Silence of the Lambs in 1992 was the third and until now last film in the top five categories of the Oscar won.

After Blutmond from 1986, the film is the second film adaptation in the series of novels that focuses on the psychopathic serial killer Hannibal Lecter. 2001 appeared the sequel Hannibal , a year later the prequel Red Dragon , a remake of the first part of the novel series, also with Anthony Hopkins. In 2007 Hannibal Rising - How it all began was published .

action

Young FBI trainee Clarice Starling is still in training when she is allowed to work on a particularly difficult case. The FBI is on the hunt for a serial killer who has been dubbed " Buffalo Bill " by the tabloid media . He has already murdered several young women and removed segments of the victims' skin. Since the investigators under the direction of Jack Crawford do not get a step further, they decide on an unusual tactic. The incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter , of all people , who loved to eat the innards of his victims, is supposed to help them solve the current case. On the one hand, the psychopath is highly dangerous, but as an experienced psychiatrist he has a decisive advantage over the police: He can empathize with the thoughts of the perpetrator and anticipate his next steps.

Clarice visits Hannibal in the Dr. Frederick Chilton-run institution, the Baltimore Forensic State Hospital. There Lecter is held in a windowless cell under the highest security precautions.

The cannibalistic killer shows up after some hesitation cooperative, but is a condition: Quid pro quo . For every piece of information he gives Starling, he wants her to share an experience in her private life. In the course of the conversations held at longer intervals with Lecter, it becomes clear that Clarice is suffering from a psychological trauma . As a child, she lost her father, who was killed while working as a police officer. After that she lived for a short time on her uncle's farm, but fled. Because there was a slaughterhouse there, and she couldn't bear the fact that she couldn't even save the lives of the lambs she heard screaming. Sometimes when Clarice goes to sleep she still hears the lambs screaming. Hannibal recognizes her predicament and provokes her with it. He insinuates that she dreams of overcoming her trauma with the arrest of "Buffalo Bill", and that the lambs will then be silent. In the course of the conversations it becomes clear that Lecter feels something like sympathy for the ambitious and strong-willed FBI agent who comes from a small background.

A high-level psychological duel develops between the two protagonists. When Clarice finds a rare pupated butterfly ( Acherontia ) during the autopsy of a murder victim , which has obviously been placed there by the perpetrator, Lecter points out that the perpetrator hates his own identity, longs to be transformed into something beautiful and probably one Want to become a woman.

After a senator's daughter is kidnapped, Lecter claims to know the perpetrator. He's demanding better conditions and a transfer from Forensic State Hospital. The senator has him taken to Memphis and offers to improve the conditions of his detention if he helps catch the perpetrator. Lecter is being held under tight security in the Tennessee Courthouse . Nevertheless, he manages a daring escape that two police officers, an ambulance worker and a tourist have to pay with their lives. Lecter disappears undetected.

Clarice tries to solve the case with the help of the memory of the conversations with Lecter and some of his notes. Lecter had told her that the killer would lust . She then concludes that the killer has begun to desire something he has seen daily and goes to Belvedere , Ohio . When she visits the family of the first murder victim, she understands the motive for the murder: the murderer kidnaps corpulent women, starves them for a while, murders them and removes their skin. From this skin he sews a dress that he can wear because he longs to be a woman. During her further investigation, Clarice comes across a man named Jack Gordon from the circle of acquaintances of the first murder victim. This introverted butterfly friend is really called Jame Gumb and turns out to be the killer "Buffalo Bill". A showdown takes place in his house, in which he uses night vision goggles that he used to kidnap the senator's daughter to find his bearings after a deliberately caused power failure . Starling shoots him in self-defense and frees the senator's daughter who is being held captive in Gumb's basement.

Starling later graduates from the FBI Academy and receives a surprising call during the graduation ceremony: Lecter calls from the airport on the Caribbean island of Bimini , where his former prison director Dr. Frederick Chilton has arrived. He asks Clarice if the lambs are silent now, and while he is talking to the nervous and harried looking Dr. Watching Chilton from afar, he says goodbye to Clarice, saying that he is having dinner with an old friend.

synchronization

The Rondo-Film in Berlin took on the German dubbing based on a dialogue book and directed by Horst Balzer.

role actor Voice actor
FBI rookie agent Clarice Starling Jodie Foster Hansi Jochmann
Dr. Hannibal Lecter Anthony Hopkins Rolf Schult
Jame Gumb / Buffalo Bill Ted Levine Udo Schenk
Catherine Martin Brooke Smith Evelyn Marron
Jack Crawford Scott Glenn Peter Matic
Ardelia Mapp Kasi Lemmons Katja Nottke
Senator Ruth Martin Diane Baker Eva Katharina Schultz
Barney Matthews Frankie Faison Gerd Blahuschek
Burke Roger Corman Manfred Wagner
Dr. Frederick Chilton Anthony Heald Jürgen Thormann
Lamar Tracey Walter Jürgen Heinrich
Lt. Boyle Charles Napier Klaus Sunshine
Miggs Stuart Rudin Andreas Mannkopff
Mr. Bimmel Harry Northup Jürgen Kluckert
Mr. Lang Leib Lensky Friedrich W. Building School
Officer Jacobs Cynthia Ettinger Ulrike Möckel
Officer Murray Brent Hinkley Hans Nitschke
Pilcher Paul Lazar Michael Pan
Clearing Dan Butler Lutz Mackensy
Sgt. Pembry Alex Coleman Wolfgang Condrus
Sgt. Tate Danny Darst Peter Neusser
Sheriff Perkins Pat McNamara Lothar Blumhagen

Film music

(in chronological order)

  • Opening and closing credits: Composer Howard Shore with the Munich Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Kurt Graunke
  • Tom Petty: American Girl (1976), interpreter: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
  • Colin Newman and Graham Lewis: Alone (1980), interpreters: Colin Newman and Graham Lewis
  • Sunny Day , Theodore Ottaviano (1991), interpreter: Book of Love
  • Bruce Licher, Mark Erskine and Jeff Long: Real Men (1981), interpreter: Savage Republic
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: A Goldberg Variation (1741), interpreter: Jerry Zimmerman
  • William Garvey: Goodbye Horses (1988), interpreter: Q Lazzarus (in the video version about 1:29 to 1:32; scene: Buffalo Bill at the well)
  • Mark E. Smith, Marc Riley, Steve Hanley: Hip Priest (1981), interpreter: The Fall
  • Les Freres Parent: Lanmò Nan Zile A

reception

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote in his review published on ReelViews in 2000 that although the film was "brilliantly constructed" and well played, it was still not the best film of 1991, not even the best thriller of the year. The thriller Shadows of the Past by and with Kenneth Branagh , also published in 1991, was rated higher by Berardinelli. He praised the “incomparable” performance of Anthony Hopkins and, somewhat less, of Jodie Foster.

“A perfectly staged horrific story that is less based on bloody effects than on an atmosphere of oppressive fear. The focus is on a resolute woman, whose courage and strength are juxtaposed with an extremist male world. Captivating suspense entertainment; played excellently. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Lecter's not an Ed Gein or Ted Bundy who kills people indiscriminately. John McNaughton underlined in 1986 in his disturbing Henry that this murder can also be elevated to a calculating system . However, it was the more subtle literary character Lecter that brought the serial killer genre to mass audiences four years later. With his eloquence he manipulates the people around him and fascinates the audience. "

- Critic.de

“Based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, director Jonathan Demme staged a perfect, dark thriller that doesn't have to hide from the best works of Alfred Hitchcock . The viewer is lured into the trap by precisely placed allusions, skillful camera work and cuts. The film received five Oscars at the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony: best film, best director, best female and male lead, and best adapted screenplay. The many symbolisms, such as the name Hannibal Lecter [...]. "

- Prisma.de

Gross profit

With a budget of around 19 million US dollars, the film was able to gross around 273 million US dollars worldwide, 131 million of which in North America alone.

Awards

The film won five Academy Awards at the 1992 Academy Awards :

Oscar nominations:

  • best cut
  • best sound

This is The Silence of the Lambs after It Happened in One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is only the third film to win the Oscar in the five most important categories - the so-called Big Five .

In addition to the Oscar, Jodie Foster also won the 1992 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. The film was also nominated for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor ( Anthony Hopkins ).

The film took part in the competition at the Berlinale in 1991 , and Jonathan Demme received a Silver Bear for best director.

In addition to BAFTA Awards in two categories and Saturn Awards in four categories, the film also won numerous other film awards. On December 28, 2011, the film was entered into the National Film Registry .

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating "valuable".

The motif of the skull hawk

One of the movie posters shows a skull hawk with a skull on his back. Only when you take a closer look you can see that the skull is composed of seven women's bodies. Numerous book editions, audio books, VHS and DVDs have adopted the motif. It is based on a drawing by Salvador Dalí . The same template was used to create a poster for the film The Descent .

Trivia

  • Lecter's farewell remark to Clarice "I'd love to chat with you, but I have a dinner with an old friend." (In the English-language original "[...] have an old friend for dinner ") is a play on words as both of these mean can that he has dinner with his supposed friend (Dr. Chilton), but also that he will eat it.
  • At the suggestion of the director of a charity that Anthony Hopkins volunteered for in 2002, he sat between the audience during a screening of the film in the organization's house and terrified several people by hitting them from behind during the screening tapped the shoulder and in the same tone as on the silver screen in his role as Lecter Hello said.
  • Singer Chris Isaak was cast as head of the SWAT team without much previous acting experience and only found out during the shoot that all of his "colleagues" were actually real police officers from the special unit. When intrusive curious people threatened to disrupt the shoot, he went out of the house in police uniform and chased them away with his fake shotgun.
  • In the video clip for the song Independent Love Song , a cover version of the piece by Scarlet , the German punk rock band The Bates from 1997, the band members reenact some scenes from The Silence of the Lambs .

literature

  • Thomas Harris : The Silence of the Lambs. St. Martin's Press, New York 1988, ISBN 0-312-02282-4 .
    German: The silence of the lambs. From the American by Marion Dill. Heyne-Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-453-03781-2 (the novel)
  • Udo Rauchfleisch: Cruel - ruthless - self-centered - the silence of the lambs . In: Stephan Doering, Heidi Möller (eds.): Frankenstein and Belle de Jour - 30 film characters and their mental disorders. Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-76879-1 , pp. 260-267
  • Janet Staiger: Taboos and Totems. Cultural Meaning of The Silence of the Lambs. In: Sue Thornham (Ed.): Feminist Film Theory. A reader. New York University Press, New York 1999, pp. 220-223 (a brief analysis)
  • Dominik Schrey: "If I die, you can eat me" - cannibalism as a motif in the feature film. In: Christian Hoffstadt et al. (Ed.): The foreign body. Bochum / Freiburg im Breisgau 2008, pp. 551-570. (Analysis of the cannibalism motive)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Silence of the Lambs . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2004 (PDF; test number: 65 500 V / DVD).
  2. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | The silence of the Lambs. Retrieved April 4, 2018 .
  3. ↑ IMDb Das Schweigen der Lämmer (1991), details.
  4. ↑ Information about the soundtrack on IMDB.com
  5. ^ Review by James Berardinelli
  6. ↑ The Silence of the Lambs. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Short review on Critic.de
  8. ↑ Brief review on Prisma.de
  9. ^ The Silence of the Lambs. In: Box Office Mojo . Retrieved May 7, 2020 .
  10. ^ Two More Horror Classics Added to The National Film Registry: War of the Worlds and The Silence of the Lambs
  11. ↑ The Silence of the Lambs on fbw-filmbassy.com
  12. ↑ Sir Anthony Hopkins helps the homeless . walesonline.co.uk. December 30, 2008. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  13. ↑ Hopkins Played Hanibal Joke On Homeless Man . cinemablend.com. 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  14. ↑ https://americansongwriter.com/horror-movies-with-rocker-cameos/samuel-sporich/
Hannibal Lecter
Novels

Red Dragon (1981) • The Silence of the Lambs (1988) • Hannibal (1999) • Hannibal Rising (2006)

Film adaptations

Blood Moon (1986) • The Silence of the Lambs (1991) • Hannibal (2001) • Red Dragon (2002) • Hannibal Rising - How It All Began (2007)

watch TV

Hannibal (2013-2015)