The Silence of the Lambs
To enter the mind of a killer she must challenge the mind of a madman.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Production
Budget
$19 000 000
Revenue
$272 742 922
Director
Scenario
Thomas Harris
Author
Composer
Producer
Ronald M. Bozman
Actors
Jodie Foster
Clarice Starling
Anthony Hopkins
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Scott Glenn
Jack Crawford
Ted Levine
Jame Gumb
Anthony Heald
Dr. Frederick Chilton
Brooke Smith
Catherine Martin
Diane Baker
Senator Ruth Martin
Kasi Lemmons
Ardelia Mapp
Short description
Clarice Starling is an FBI trainee assigned to interview Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist imprisoned for a series of murders and acts of cannibalism. Her instructor, Jack Crawford, hopes the doctor will help the Bureau build a profile of a killer abducting young women across the Midwest. Lecter proves willing to trade information, but only for details about Starling's own past, and the exchange draws her deeper into a case that is still unfolding. The task becomes a contest of nerve as much as an investigation.
Jonathan Demme directed the film, the eighth of fourteen features in his career, following Married to the Mob and preceding Philadelphia. Ted Tally wrote the screenplay, adapting Thomas Harris's novel, and Jodie Foster plays Starling opposite Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, with Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald and Brooke Smith among the credited cast of sixty-nine.
Made on a budget of about nineteen million dollars, the film took roughly 273 million dollars worldwide, a substantial multiple of its cost. On IMDb it holds 8.6 from 1.7 million votes, and on TMDB 8.3 from over eighteen thousand. A critics' rating of 8.9 from 159 reviews places it at least as high as the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Anthony Hopkins was given 24 minutes and 52 seconds of screen time, which did not prevent him from winning an Academy Award for Best Actor.
- In the film, Jayme is sometimes referred to as James, and sometimes by the feminine name Jamie. In the book, children teased him about his name as a child, which contributed to his transgender identity.
- During preparation for filming, Jodie Foster and Scott Glenn were provided with audio recordings made by serial killers during the murders they committed. Jodie flatly refused to listen to these chilling recordings, but Scott, unfortunately, decided to, and as a result, he was plagued by nightmares for a considerable time.
- During preparation for his role, Anthony Hopkins carefully studied files on the most famous serial killers of our time. He also visited prisons where these individuals were held and even attended a couple of high-profile trials.
- Michelle Pfeiffer turned down the lead role, citing concerns that the film would be quite bloody and violent. After that, Jonathan Demme decided to invite Jodie Foster to the project, and as it turned out, he made the right decision.
- Brooke Smith, who played the kidnapped girl Catherine, and Ted Levine, who played Buffalo Bill, were very close during the filming of the movie.
- During one of the scenes in the solitary confinement cell, Anthony Hopkins tried to look directly into the camera, justifying this action by the fact that this angle would give the audience the impression that his character “knows absolutely everything.”
- Despite all his crimes, Ted Bundy assisted in solving a whole series of murders. Ted was executed on January 24, 1989, but the killer was not found until 2001 – 12 years after Bundy's execution. He turned out to be Gary Ridgway, who confessed to 48 crimes.
- In December 2011, the film was included in the U.S. National Film Registry as having significant cultural, historical, or aesthetic value.
- Screenwriter Ted Tally, while creating the script for the film, saw only Jodie Foster in the role of Agent Starling. However, when Jonathan Demme took the director's chair, he decided to change the choice of his predecessors and invited Michelle Pfeiffer to the film.
- The maniac known as Buffalo Bill was created as a composite image of three real-life serial killers. So, let's meet these terrifying individuals, each responsible for the deaths of at least fifty people: Ed Gein, who liked to flay the skin off his victims, the handsome Ted Bundy, who used a fake arm cast to attract naive women, and Gary Heidnik, who enjoyed keeping his victims in a deep pit where they usually died of starvation.
- In addition to Hackman, Robert Duvall, Jeremy Irons and Brian Cox also auditioned for the role of Dr. Lecter.
- The main motif of the plot had parallels with real events, namely the relationship between Professor of Criminology Robert Keppel and the serial killer Ted Bundy.
- While studying video footage, Anthony noticed that the maniac Charles Manson never blinked during conversations, and immediately transferred this observation to the screen.
- If you look closely at the poster, you can see an image of a skull on the body of a butterfly. And if you look even more closely, you can make out that the skull consists of at least three nude women (there are versions of the poster where you can count up to seven women).
- Anthony Hopkins, describing the voice he gave Hannibal Lecter, called it a symbiosis of the voices of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn.
- The film is based on Thomas Harris' novel 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1988).
- During their first meeting, Dr. Lecter hinted at where to find Buffalo Bill. He described a drawing he had made on the wall of his solitary confinement cell: “It’s called the Duomo—I saw the painting in Belvedere, Italy.” Later, Starling learns that Buffalo Bill lives in Belvedere, Ohio.
- Anthony Hopkins, describing the voice given to his character Hannibal Lecter, called it a “symbiosis of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn.”
- The role of Hannibal Lecter was offered to Gene Hackman, who was also offered to direct. At the same time, Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan were considered for the role of Clarice.
- The man in the blue cap in the final scene of the film is director Jonathan Demme, who played a cameo role in his own movie.
- Initially, the plan was to release the film in the fall of 1990. However, Orion Pictures decided to hold the release until January 1991, in order not to create competition for another of their hits, "Dances with Wolves," which also participated very successfully in the Oscar race.
- Most of the footage was shot in Pittsburgh. The city was ideal for filming due to the abundance of architectural structures and other beautiful locations. This allowed the film crew to create the illusion that filming took place in different parts of the country.
- This film became the third in the history of the Academy Awards to win all 5 major awards: “Best Picture,” “Best Director,” “Best Actor,” “Best Actress,” and “Best Screenplay.” Previously, the same honors were bestowed upon “It Happened One Night” (1934) and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (1975).
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
