The silence of the Lambs

Original title: The Silence of the Lambs
USA, 1990, 113 min
NOTE: 2
How do you approach a movie classic? A question that is rarely asked by reviewers in the daily press. In our case, how does one approach the "silence of the lambs"? Where should a modern review start? It does not take long to discuss that this film is a classic, even if it is "only" around ten years old. "The Silence of the Lambs" has had a lasting effect on the cinema of the 1990s, both in terms of content and visual design concepts. The 90s have become a decade of psycho-thriller, which in addition to a lot of trash also produced other gems such as "Seven" or "Knight Moves" and which gave a particularly special attention, especially through crazy serial killers. Even the sombre look of the film, held in washed-out earthy tones, was intended to be a stylistic factor for the appearance of films in the coming years.

So again: how do you approach the "silence of the lambs"? An interesting aspect seems to be the question of where the deeper reasons for the success of the film lie. What made the story of the young FBI academician Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), with the help of brilliant sociopath Hannibal Lecter makes hunting for a serial killer so successful? For at first glance, the success of this psycho-thriller seems unclear: for the fact that this is supposedly about the vile murders of "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine), who kidnaps women and their skin to make a garment, The film is actually only half-heartedly concerned with the deeds of the crazy serial killer. Sure, the horrendous autopsy scene of one of the victims for the time being will be remembered for a long time and we also get to see how the culprit treats the imprisoned girls.

But in the end it is very clear: "Buffalo Bill" is really only a means to an end - apart from the spectacularly arranged showdown. At the center of the film is a completely different confrontation, that between lecturer and starling. The intensity with which Lecter dissects Starling's psyche in exchange for information about the offender remains unbroken even ten years after the film's release. The theatrical performance of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster also. And this is exactly where the recipe of success lies: "The Silence of the Lambs" is such a successful thriller because he refuses classic thriller concepts. The film is not interested in "Who is the culprit?" Games, even the otherwise so frequent search for the subject of the perpetrator plays only a very minor role - and that even though Clarice Starling is to become a profiler.

"The Silence of the Lambs" does not do everything, but much differently: Instead of the motives of the perpetrator, the film devotes itself in detail to the motives of the investigator. Among other things, the nerve-wracking dialogues between Lecter and Starling serve to fathom why Clarice does what she does. The excitement of these extremely reduced filmed scenes is enhanced by the cleverly laid out breaks in Lecters character. Although the viewer is always aware that Lecter is a brutal serial killer who eats his victims, Hopkins also presents this man as an intelligent gentleman. Even in the scene in which he beats a policeman to death with a baton, Lecter seems almost reserved - no wild eye rolling, no drooling: Here is a murderous esthete at work. It is precisely this dichotomy that gives rise to the subtle horror in "The Silence of the Lambs".

In addition there are the intelligently used fairytale elements. At the latest when Clarice Starling descends into the basement of "Buffalo Bill", the real world is abandoned. The dark shadow realm of the mass murderer has clearly surreal features. The distortion of gender relations is interesting: The Prince (Starling) has come to kill the evil witch (Gumb), who holds the princess prisoner. The princess (Senator's daughter Catherin Martin, played by Brooke Smith) is still a woman, but she is - also an interesting reflection - instead of the frog trapped in a well. This game with fairy-tale motifs gives the film a quite peculiar feeling of unreality.

And yet: Even the classic "The Silence of the Lambs" is not immune to defects: As sophisticated Hannibal Lecter is portrayed, so two-dimensional came the figure of Jame Gumb. One almost has the feeling that, as a kind of compensation for the unconventional portrayal of Lecter, all stereotypes about insane serial killers were dumped on Gumb's figure. He has (at least in the English original) a kind of speech error, he snaps