Silence Of The Lambs - A US Film By Jonathan Demme: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR SILENCE OF THE LAMBS...

Unless you've already been eaten up by him, it's hard not to know about Hannibal Lecter. It's harder, however, to resist another introduction.

As part of its monthly screenings of multi-lingual films for its members, the Hyderabad Film Club is screening a US film, The Silence Of The Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme, this Saturday evening.

In this multiple Oscar-winning thriller, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy whose shrewd analyses of serial killers lands her a special assignment: the FBI is investigating a vicious murderer nicknamed Buffalo Bill, who kills young women and then removes the skin from their bodies.

Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist, who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into this case, and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Lecter does indeed know something of Buffalo Bill, but his information comes with a price: in exchange for telling what he knows, he wants to be housed in a more comfortable facility. More important, he wants to speak with Clarice about her past. He skillfully digs into her psyche, forcing her to reveal her innermost traumas and putting her in a position of vulnerability when she can least afford to be weak.

The film mingles the horrors of criminal acts with the psychological horrors of Lecter's slow-motion interrogation of Clarice and of her memories that emerge from it.

The film won 6 Academy Awards during 1991 for best actor, best actress, best picture, best adapted screenplay, best director and best editing, and five British Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards in 1991. It also won the Silver Bear for best director in 1991.

For further details about the screening, please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy of the Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243.