"Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'." You know it and you love it. This feature literally lives on the knowledge that there are some movies that nearly everyone has seen by now, but don't wear out their welcome, ever. Indie and Hollywood cinema kind of rode in tandem in the 90's, continually influencing each other and competing against each other for dominance, and in the end, Hollywood cinema is better for it. Let us step in the wayback machine once again.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) - DIR. JONATHAN DEMME
There are so many reasons that it is imperative that this movie be brought up when discussing 90's mainstream cinema, not least of those is that it is the film that made me want to make films. To a 13-year old, this was a sensible and viable career choice; now that I am almost thirty, I shake my fists at this superlative horror film for the eccentric shambles of a life I lead now as a screenwriter and general screw-up.
Yes, you caught it: "horror." The Silence of the Lambs" is the last bona fide horror film that swept the Academy Awards in all five top categories in 1992:
Best Picture
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Anthony Hopkins)
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jodie Foster)
Best Director
Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally from Thomas Harris's novel).
I wish with a fervor that Hollywood would get back to making larger-than-life, truly scary horror like this film, "The Shining" and "Psycho." If "Saw One-Trillion" is any indication, I shouldn't hold my breath waiting. Or I should hold my breath and have someone film it, and it'll be the next horror smash that I won't be around to enjoy. Whichever comes first.
Anyway, this film is the shizz. My fave parts were, of course, the emotional heart of the film, FBI agent Clarice Starling's interrogation scenes with the convicted serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. This man's intelligence was just as frightening as his capacity to generate sympathy for not only himself, but his serial killing bethren whom Clarice is desperate to catch. I was reminded of this film because Jonathan Demme's film "Rachel Getting Married," has just come out this past October 3 to spectacular reviews, many with an emphasis on Demme's particularly humanist touch to his storytelling. I am buoyed to hear that this quality of direction is still present in Demme's work because it is so prevalent in what could have been a relentlessly violent and brutal tale:
And Jodie. Jodie. Jodie. Jodie. This lady, in my opinion, does not get enough credit for the amazing work that she did as Clarice Starling, and if you don't believe me, see Julianne Moore as Clarice in "Hannibal." Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter does tend to overshadow her character and performance, but Jodie Foster is a revelation if you watch her closely. She never falls into the tough detective lady trap that many an actress in a procedural drama has fallen into these days, sacrificing her character's womanhood in the face of a faux-masculinity. She's vulnerable, almost like a child in Lecter's eyes, and we know she feels the pain of the victims as well as she does her own pain. We want her to win. She is an excellent protagonist:
Clarice's FBI friend shown in the clip is the film director Kasi Lemmons, who directed the very fine 1997 flick, "Eve's Bayou", which is a future 'Movie You Might Have Missed'.
Then Buffalo Bill. The fact that the film so deftly and consistently leads us upon two distinct paths throughout the whole movie is quite astounding, since one story is enough for most mediocre filmmakers. Buffalo Bill, played by cool character actor Ted Levine, is the film's most quoted and referenced element at this point, or at least it seems. Have you looked at a bottle of lotion, a basket or a poodle the same since? I think not. And if you haven't danced around the room drunken and naked to Q. Lazzarus's "Goodbye Horses," yet, you haven't fully lived.
(NSFW - and you know this, man!!)
Kevin Smith's take on the film in his awesome "Clerks II" (2006):
(NSFW - for reals!!!)
"Boredom's the first step on the road to relapse." But we'll get to the Clerks saga later.
So I want to leave you with the trailer for Jonathan Demme's 2008 film Rachel Getting Married, and I urge you to please see it and review "Silence," if only to see Miggs pleasure himself at Clarice in his cell again.
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008) - DIR. JONATHAN DEMME
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