Quotes
 Hannibal Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Clarice Starling: He kills women...
Hannibal Lecter: No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir...
Hannibal Lecter: No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.
Clarice Starling: No. We just...
Hannibal Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don`t you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don`t your eyes seek out the things you want? Miggs: I can smell your cunt.
Hannibal Lecter: Now then, tell me. What did Miggs say to you? Multiple Miggs in the next cell. He hissed at you. What did he say?
Clarice Starling: He said, "I can smell your cunt."
Hannibal Lecter: I see. I myself cannot. You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L`Air du Temps, but not today.
Hannibal Lecter: "Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center." Sounds charming.
Clarice Starling: That`s only a part of the island. There`s a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There`s beautiful...
Hannibal Lecter: [cuts her off] Terns? Mmh. If I help you, Clarice, it will be "turns" with us too. Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no?
[pause]
Hannibal Lecter: Yes or no, Clarice? Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice Starling: Go, doctor.
Murray: Is it true what they`re sayin`, he`s some kinda vampire?
Clarice Starling: They don`t have a name for what he is.
Ardelia Mapp: Is this Lecter`s handwriting? "Clarice, doesn`t this random scattering of sites seem desperately random - like the elaborations of a bad liar? Ta, Hannibal Lecter."
Clarice Starling: "Desperately random." What does he mean?
Ardelia Mapp: Not random at all, maybe. Like there`s some pattern here...?
Clarice Starling: But there is no pattern or the computers would`ve nailed it. They`re even found in random order.
Ardelia Mapp: Random because of the one girl. The one he weighted down.
Clarice Starling: Oh, Fredrica Bimmel, from... Belvedere, Ohio. First girl taken, third body found. Why?
Ardelia Mapp: `Cause she didn`t drift. He weighted her down.
Clarice Starling: What did Lecter say about...?First principles"?
Ardelia Mapp: Simplicity...
Clarice Starling: What does this guy do, he "covets". How do we first start to covet?
Ardelia Mapp: "We covet what we see -"
Clarice Starling: " - every day."
Ardelia Mapp: Hot damn, Clarice.
Clarice Starling: He knew her.
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.
Catherine Martin: Mister... my family will pay cash. Whatever ransom you`re askin` for, they pay it.
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
[to his dog, Precious]
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Yes, it will, Precious, won`t it? It will get the hose!
Catherine Martin: Okay... okay... okay. Mister, if you let me go, I won`t - I won`t press charges I promise. See, my mom is a real important woman... I guess you already know that.
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Now it places the lotion in the basket.
Catherine Martin: Please! Please I wanna go home! I wanna go home please!
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It places the lotion in the basket.
Catherine Martin: I wanna see my mommy! Please I wanna see my...
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Put the fucking lotion in the basket!
Clarice Starling: Your name is?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Oh, uh Jack Gordon.
Clarice Starling: Mr. Gordon, good, uh... well Frederica used to work for Mrs. Lippman. Did you know her?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: No, nuh-uh. Oh wait... was she a great big fat person?
Clarice Starling: Yeah she was a big girl, sir.
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Yeah, I may`ve... no I read about her in the newspaper. Um, Mrs. Lippman had a son though, maybe he could help you. I got his card in here someplace. Do you wanna come in while I look for it?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Are you close to catching somebody you think?
Clarice Starling: Yes. We may be. Did you... take over this place after Mrs. Lippman died, is that right?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Yeah I - I bought this house... two years ago.
Clarice Starling: [looking around] Did she leave any records? Any business records, tax forms, lists of employees?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: No, nothin` like that at all. Say, does the FBI learn somethin? The police around here don`t seem to have the first clue.
[Clarice notices a moth]
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: ... I mean have you got like a description, fingerprints, anything like that?
Clarice Starling: No. No I don`t.
[Clarice unbuttons her gun holster]
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Oh, here`s that number!
Clarice Starling: Very good Mr. Gordon. May I use your phone please?
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: [Gumb starts laughing] Sure you can use me phone.
Clarice Starling: [draws her gun] Freeze! Put your hands over your head and turn around! Spread your legs! Spread your legs! Put your hands in the back... thumbs up - FREEZE!
[Gumb runs off]
Clarice Starling: If you didn`t kill him, then who did, sir?
Hannibal Lecter: Who can say. Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.
Jack Crawford: Believe me, you don`t want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.
Hannibal Lecter: You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition`s given you some length of bone, but you`re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you`ve tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you... all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars... while you could only dream of getting out... getting anywhere... getting all the way to the FBI.
Clarice Starling: You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don`t you - why don`t you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you`re afraid to.
Jack Crawford: Look at it, Starling. Tell me what you see.
Hannibal Lecter: A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
[last lines]
Hannibal Lecter: [on telephone] I do wish we could chat longer, but... I`m having an old friend for dinner. Bye.
Clarice Starling: Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?...
Hannibal Lecter: Jack Crawford is helping your career isn`t he? Apparently he likes you and you like him too.
Clarice Starling: I never thought about it.
Hannibal Lecter: Do you think that Jack Crawford wants you sexually? True, he is much older but do you think he visualizes scenarios, exchanges, fucking you?
Clarice Starling: That doesn`t interest me Doctor and frankly, it`s, it`s the sort of thing that Miggs would say.
Hannibal Lecter: Not anymore.
Hannibal Lecter: Tell me, Senator: did you nurse Catherine yourself?
Senator Ruth Martin: What?
Hannibal Lecter: Did you breast-feed her?
Paul Krendler: Now wait a minute...
Senator Ruth Martin: Yes, I did.
Hannibal Lecter: Toughened your nipples, didn`t it?
Paul Krendler: You son of a bitch!
Hannibal Lecter: Amputate a man`s leg and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, mum, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?
Senator Ruth Martin: Take this... *thing* back to Baltimore!
Hannibal Lecter: Five foot ten, strongly built, about a hundred and eighty pounds; hair blonde, eyes pale blue. He`d be about thirty-five now. He said he lived in Philadelphia, but he may have lied. That`s all I can remember, mum, but if I think of any more, I will let you know. Oh, and Senator, just one more thing: love your suit!
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it`s told.
Catherine Martin: Please mister, let me go! My family will give you anything you want!
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: [to a mirror] Would you fuck me? I`d fuck me. I`d fuck me hard.
Hannibal Lecter: [shouts] No!
[normal voice]
Hannibal Lecter: I will listen now. After your father`s murder, you were orphaned. You were ten years old. You went to live with cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana. And...?
Clarice Starling: [tears begin forming in her eyes] And one morning, I just ran away.
Hannibal Lecter: No "just", Clarice. What set you off? You started at what time?
Clarice Starling: Early, still dark.
Hannibal Lecter: Then something woke you, didn`t it? Was it a dream? What was it?
Clarice Starling: I heard a strange noise.
Hannibal Lecter: What was it?
Clarice Starling: It was... screaming. Some kind of screaming, like a child`s voice.
Hannibal Lecter: What did you do?
Clarice Starling: I went downstairs, outside. I crept up into the barn. I was so scared to look inside, but I had to.
Hannibal Lecter: And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see?
Clarice Starling: Lambs. The lambs were screaming.
Hannibal Lecter: They were slaughtering the spring lambs?
Clarice Starling: And they were screaming.
Hannibal Lecter: And you ran away?
Clarice Starling: No. First I tried to free them. I... I opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn`t run. They just stood there, confused. They wouldn`t run.
Hannibal Lecter: But you could and you did, didn`t you?
Clarice Starling: Yes. I took one lamb, and I ran away as fast as I could.
Hannibal Lecter: Where were you going, Clarice?
Clarice Starling: I don`t know. I didn`t have any food, any water and it was very cold, very cold. I thought, I thought if I could save just one, but... he was so heavy. So heavy. I didn`t get more than a few miles when the sheriff`s car picked me up. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again.
Hannibal Lecter: What became of your lamb, Clarice?
Clarice Starling: They killed him.
Hannibal Lecter: Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?
Hannibal Lecter: You still wake up sometimes, don`t you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs.
Clarice Starling: Yes.
Hannibal Lecter: And you think if you save poor Catherine, you could make them stop, don`t you? You think if Catherine lives, you won`t wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.
Clarice Starling: I don`t know. I don`t know.
Hannibal Lecter: Thank you, Clarice. Thank you.
Clarice Starling: Tell me his name, Doctor.
Hannibal Lecter: Dr. Chilton, I presume. I think you know each other.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Okay. Let`s go.
Clarice Starling: It`s your turn, Doctor.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Out!
Clarice Starling: Tell me his name!
Boyle: I`m sorry, ma`am. We`ve got orders. We have to put you on a plane. Come on, now.
[Chilton and the guards start leading Clarice out]
Hannibal Lecter: Brave Clarice. You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won`t you?
Clarice Starling: Tell me his name, Doctor!
Hannibal Lecter: Clarice, your case file. Goodbye, Clarice.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: What you are doing, Miss Starling is coming into my hospital to conduct an interview, and refusing to share information with me, for the third time.
Clarice Starling: Sir, I told you, this is just a routine follow-up on the Raspail case.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: He is my patient. I have rights.
Clarice Starling: I understand that, Sir.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Look, I am not just some turn-key, Miss Starling.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: I am going to show you why we insist on such precautions. On the evening of July 8th, 1981, he complained of chest pains and was taken to the dispensary. His mouthpiece and restraints were removed for an EKG. When the nurse leaned over him, he did this to her.
[pulls out photo]
Dr. Frederick Chilton: The doctors managed to reset her jaw more or less. Saved one of her eyes. His pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue.
Hannibal Lecter: Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling?
[sarcastically]
Hannibal Lecter: Enthrall me with your acumen.
Clarice Starling: It excites him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.
Hannibal Lecter: I didn`t.
Clarice Starling: No. No, you ate yours.
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: YOU DON`T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!
Murray: [assessing the mutilated Sergeant Pembry] He`s alive. Sergeant Tate, he`s alive !
Sergeant Tate: Get a hold of him more and feel his hand son, talk to him.
Murray: What do I say?
Sergeant Tate: It`s Jim Pembry now talk to him dammit!
Hannibal Lecter: Good evening, Clarice.
Jack Crawford: I remember you from my seminar at UVA. You grilled me pretty hard, as I recall, on the bureau`s civil rights record in the Hoover years. I gave you an A.
Clarice Starling: A-minus, Sir.
Hannibal Lecter: All good things to those who wait.
Jack Crawford: Just do your job, but never forget what he is.
Clarice Starling: And what is that?
[cut to Clarice`s first trip to the psychiatric prison]
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Oh, he`s a monster. Pure psychopath. So rare to capture one alive. From a research point of view, Lecter is our most prized asset.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Oh my, does he hate us. Thinks I`m his nemesis.
[referring to Clarice`s deal]
Dr. Frederick Chilton: You still think you`re going to walk on some beach and see the birdies? I don`t think so. I called Senator Ruth Martin. She never heard of any deal with you. They scammed you, Hannibal.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Crawford is very clever, isn`t he, using you?
Clarice Starling: What do you mean, sir?
Dr. Frederick Chilton: A pretty young woman to turn him on. I don`t believe Lecter`s even seen a woman in eight years. And oh, are you ever his taste. So to speak.
Hannibal Lecter: People will say we`re in love.
to Clarice]
Dr. Frederick Chilton: You know, we get a lot of detectives here, but I must say I can`t ever remember one as attractive.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: We`ve tried to study him, of course, but he`s much too sophisticated for the standard tests.
Hannibal Lecter: You fly back to school, now, little Starling. Fly, fly, fly...
[Pembry can be heard moaning in the background]
Hannibal Lecter: Ready when you are, Sergeant Pembry.
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Do not touch the glass. Do not approach the glass. You pass him nothing but soft paper - no pencils or pens. No staples or paperclips in his paper. Use the sliding food carrier, no exceptions. If he attempts to pass you anything, do not accept it. Do you understand me?
Clarice Starling: Did you do all these drawings, Doctor?
Hannibal Lecter: Ah. That is the Duomo seen from the Belvedere. Do you know Florence?
Clarice Starling: All that detail just from memory, sir?
Hannibal Lecter: Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view.
Clarice Starling: But I thought the "yourself" reference was too hokey for Lecter, so I figured he`s from Baltimore, and I looked in the phone book, and there`s a "Your Self Storage" facility, right outside of downtown Baltimore, sir.
Hannibal Lecter: Advancement, of course. Listen carefully. Look deep within yourself, Clarice Starling. Go seek out Miss Mofet, an old patient of mine. M-o-f-e-t. Go now, I don`t think Miggs could manage again quite so soon, even though he is crazy.
[shouting]
Hannibal Lecter: Go now!
Clarice Starling: Hester Mofet. It`s an anagram, isn`t it, Doctor? Hester Mofet, "The rest of me". "Miss the rest of me," meaning that you rented that garage?
Roden: Sphingid ceratonia, maybe.
[cuts open cocoon]
Roden: Agent Starling, meet Mr. Acherontia styx.
Pilcher: Weird.
Roden: Better known to his friends as the Death`s-head moth.
Hannibal Lecter: There are three major centers for transsexual surgery - Johns Hopkins, University of Minnesota, and Columbus Medical Center.
Clarice Starling: [to Hannibal Lecter] Your anagrams are showing, Doctor. Louis Friend? Iron sulfide, also known as fool`s gold.
[first lines]
FBI instructor: Starling! Starling! Crawford wants to see you in his office.
Clarice Starling: Thank you, sir.
Clarice Starling: [Hannibal Lecter has escaped] He won`t come after me.
Ardelia Mapp: Oh really?
Clarice Starling: He won`t. I can`t explain it... He - he would consider that rude.
Clarice Starling: Where are you, Dr. Lecter?
Hannibal Lecter: I`ve no plans to call on you, Clarice. The world is more interesting with you in it.
Hannibal Lecter: Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn`t born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse. Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying.
Boyle: [greeting Lecter in Memphis] Welcome to Memphis Dr. Lecter, I`m Lieutenant Boyle, this is Sergeant Patrick. Now we`ll treat you as good as you treat us, you be a gentleman and you`ll get three hots and a cot.
Hannibal Lecter: Closer, please. Clo-ser...
Clarice Starling: I graduated from UVa, Captain; it`s not exactly a charm school.
Hannibal Lecter: You`re very frank, Clarice. I think it would be quite something to know you in private life.
Roden: Cool!
Pilcher: [to Clarise] Oh, please. Ignore him, he`s not a PhD.
Trivia
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Dino De Laurentiis, who had produced Manhunter (1986), passed on Silence of the Lambs because Manhunter had flopped. He gave the rights away free to Orion Pictures.
Then Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole`s, Washington, D.C. office doubled for that of the F.B.I. director`s office in the movie.
The Tobacco horn worm moths used throughout the film were given celebrity treatment by the filmmakers. They were flown first class to the set (in a special carrier), had special living quarters (rooms with controlled humidity and heat) and were dressed in carefully designed costumes (body shields bearing a painted skull and crossbones)
A large part of the shoot took place in Pittsburgh. The city was chosen for its variety of landscapes and architecture, which was necessary to portray various parts of the country. Some of the film`s interior, including the Baltimore jail scene in the beginning and the ballroom scene of Lecter in his cage, were shot in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial located on Fifth Avenue in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh.
The events in this film occur after the events in Manhunter (1986). Although there are several characters common to both films, there are only two actors who appear in both movies. Both actors play different characters in both movies. Frankie Faison plays Lt. Fisk in Manhunter and Barney in Silence of the Lambs, and Dan Butler plays an FBI fingerprint expert in Manhunter and an entomologist in Silence of the Lambs.
Like Casablanca (1942), this movie contains a famous misquoted line: most people quote Lecter`s famous "Good evening, Clarice" as "Hello, Clarice."
Both Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford) and Ted Levine (Jame Gumb) have played astronaut Alan Shepard: Glenn in the film The Right Stuff (1983) and Levine in the miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" (1998).
Anthony Hopkins described his voice for Hannibal Lecter as, "a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn."
Scott Glenn`s character of Jack Crawford was based on real-life detective John Douglas. Douglas spent time with Glenn to coach him.
The pattern on the butterfly`s back in the movie posters is not the natural pattern of the Death`s-Head Hawk Moth. It is, in fact, Salvador Dalí`s "In Voluptas Mors", a picture of seven naked women made to look like a human skull.
Buffalo Bill is the combination of three real life serial killers: Ed Gein, who skinned his victims; Ted Bundy, who used the cast on his hand as bait to make women get into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement. Gein was only positively linked to two murders and suspected of two others. He gathered most of his materials not through murder, but grave-robbing. In the popular imagination, however, he remains a serial killer with uncounted victims.
A `Bon Appetit` magazine can be seen in Hannibal Lecter`s temporary cell.
At least six directors have roles in this film: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Kasi Lemmons, Roger Corman, Dan Butler (who directed episodes of "Frasier" (1993)), and a cameo by George A. Romero.
Almost all the scenes in Hannibal`s original cell have either a reflection of Hannibal or Clarice, depending on the camera`s point of view.
The third EMS attendant treating "Sgt. Pembrie" is Jeff Busch, a paramedic in real life and owner of an emergency vehicle company in Pittsburgh that detailed all of the emergency vehicles for the film.
Cameo: [Roger Corman] The veteran filmmaker and president of New World Pictures played the FBI Director.
Director Cameo: [Jonathan Demme] wearing a blue cap at the end of the film.
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# Cameo: [George A. Romero] the bearded man who accompanies Chilton and the two guards who forcibly remove Clarice Starling after her final meeting with Lecter.
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# When Jonathan Demme filmed the scene where Lecter and Starling first meet, Anthony Hopkins said he should look directly at the camera as it panned into his line of sight. He felt Lecter should be portrayed as "knowing everything."
Jonathan Demme cast Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter based on his performance in The Elephant Man (1980).
After Lecter was moved from Baltimore, he was originally to be dressed in a yellow or orange jumpsuit, but Anthony Hopkins was able to convince director Jonathan Demme and costume designer Colleen Atwood that it would make the character seem more clinical and unsettling if he was dressed in pure white. Hopkins has since said that this idea came from his fear of dentists.
Brooke Smith gained 25 pounds for her role as Catherine Martin.
Brooke Smith (Catherine Martin) and Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill) were actually very close on the set, making Jodie Foster refer to Brooke Smith as "Patty Hearst" (meaning a woman that is actually close with her kidnapper).
Anthony Hopkins invented the fast, slurping-type sound that Hannibal Lecter does. He did it spontaneously during filming on the set, and everyone thought it was great. Director Jonathan Demme became annoyed with it after a while, but denied his irritation.
The filmmakers had completely prepared to go to Montana to shoot a flashback sequence depicting Clarice`s runaway attempt. But after filming the dialogue between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, director Jonathan Demme realized it would be pointless to cut away from their performances and announced, "I guess we aren`t going to Montana."
Jodie Foster, Jonathan Demme and Scott Glenn - and a few other cast and crew members - did a great deal of research at the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia. They studied under criminal profiling agents, learned about firearms and agent training, and sat in on a number of classes.
The first moth cocoon found in one of the victim`s throats was made from a combination of "Tootsie-Rolls" and gummy bears, so that if she swallowed it, it would be edible.
The film originally was going to be released in the fall of 1990. However, Orion pictures, which distributed the film, decided instead to delay its release until January 1991 so that it could concentrate all their efforts in promoting Dances with Wolves (1990) for Oscar consideration.
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# In preparation for his role, Anthony Hopkins studied files of serial killers. Also, he visited prisons and studied convicted murderers and was present during some court hearings concerning serial killings.
Anthony Hopkins`s performance was the shortest ever to win a leading acting Oscar.
Note Lecter`s mention of having consumed a victim`s liver with "some fava beans and nice chianti". Liver, fava beans, and wine all contain a substance called tyramine, which can actually kill you if you`re also taking a certain class of antidepressant drugs known as MAO inhibitors. MAO inhibitors were the first antidepressant drugs developed, and were used primarily on patients in mental institutions. Lecter both worked in, and was committed to, a mental institution.
Cameo: [Edward Saxon] head in jar
When Ted Tally was writing the screenplay for the film, he suggested Jodie Foster for role of Clarice Starling. Foster had been lobbying hard for the part from the start but when Jonathan Demme was hired to direct the film, he felt she was wrong for the part and wanted Michelle Pfeiffer instead. Pfeiffer turned the part down because she felt the film was too violent. Demme then agreed to meet Foster and hired her after only one meeting because he said he could see her strength and determination for the part that he felt was perfect for the character of Clarice.
Originally, the film was to open with Clarice Starling and a male FBI agent in the middle of a drug bust. They were to burst into the room and make a number of arrests, and only then would the audience be let in on the fact that it was a training exercise. However Jodie Foster was able to convince director Jonathan Demme to change this scene, as she felt it had been done so many times before. It was Foster herself who came up with the idea of opening with Starling running through the assault course.
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# Jodie Foster spent a great deal of time with FBI agent Mary Ann Krause prior to filming and it was Krause who gave Foster the idea of Starling standing by her car crying. Krause told Foster that at times, the work just became so overbearing that this was a good way to get an emotional release.
The song heard playing while "Buffalo Bill" does his little dance is "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus. A more commonly known version of this song is performed by Psyche.
The inspiration for the Silence of the Lambs was the real life relationship between University of Washington criminology professor and profiler Robert Keppel and real life serial killer Ted Bundy. Bundy helped Keppel in his investigation of the Green River Serial Killings in Washington. While Bundy was executed 24 January 1989, the Green River Killings went unsolved until 2001 when Gary Ridgway was arrested. On 5 November 2003, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder in a King County, Washington (Seattle) courtroom.
Anthony Hopkins studied videotapes of serial killers as part of his research for the film. After noticing that Charles Manson hardly ever blinked when he spoke, he did the same for Hannibal Lecter. (He did, however, blink at least once during Lecter`s conversation with Clarice in his "open-plan" cell.)
After working with John Douglas for some time Scott Glenn thanked him and said how fascinating it was to have been allowed into his world. Douglas laughed at this comment and told Glenn that if he really wanted to get into his world, he should listen to an audio tape of serial killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris torturing, raping and murdering two teenage girls. Glenn listened to less than one minute of the tape, and has since said that he feels he lost a sense of innocence in doing so and that he has never been able to forget what he heard.
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# In the second draft of Ted Tally`s screenplay, the names of three characters had to be changed from `Thomas Harris``s novel for legal reasons. "Jack Crawford" became "Ray Campbell"; "Frederick Chilton" became "Herbert Prentiss"; and, finally, "Hannibal Lecter" became "Gideon Quinn".
Despite being recently declared bankrupt, Orion still managed to stump up $200,000 for the film`s Oscar campaign.
The first film to win the Best Picture Oscar that was widely available on home video at the time of the ceremony.
After being cast as Buffalo Bill, Ted Levine had done a lot of research into developing his character by reading profiles of serial killers. Levine later said that he found the material very disturbing. He also went out and attended a few transvestite bars, where he began interviewing patrons, as Bill was also a cross-dresser.
One of only three films (the others being It Happened One Night (1934) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest (1975)) to win the top five Oscars - Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Adapted).
Thematic parallel: The tune played by the music box in Bimmel`s bedroom is from the Mozart opera "The Magic Flute." Also from a music box, the magic tune releases the heroine from the clutches of a lecherous character who `covets` her throughout the opera.
The movie`s poster was as #16 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.
Clarice Starling was chosen by the American Film Institution as the sixth greatest film hero (out of fifty), the highest ranked female on the list; Hannibal Lecter was chosen as the #1 greatest film villain (also out of fifty).
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# Jodie Foster claims that during the first meeting between Lecter and Starling, Anthony Hopkins`s mocking of her southern accent was not rehearsed and that Hopkins improvised it on the spot. Foster`s reaction of horror was totally genuine, as she felt personally attacked, though she later thanked Hopkins for generating such an honest reaction.
Entertainment Weekly voted this as the fourth scariest film of all time.
The real-life FBI`s Behavioral Science Unit assisted in the making of this film.
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# John Hurt, Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Stewart, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson, and Robert De Niro were all considered for the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Jeremy Irons turned down the offer.
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# Gene Hackman bought the rights to "The Silence of the Lambs" and was planning to direct the film as well as taking on the role of either Lecter or Jack Crawford, but he withdrew after watching a clip of himself in Mississippi Burning (1988) at the The 61st Annual Academy Awards (1989) (TV), which made him uneasy about taking more violent roles.
Thomas Harris, author of the novel "The Silence of the Lambs", has never watched the film because he is afraid it will influence his writing.
Michael Keaton, Mickey Rourke, and Kenneth Branagh were all considered for the role of Jack Crawford.
Cameo: [Kenneth Utt] the producer appears as the coroner.
Although when characters are talking to Starling, they often talk direct to camera, when she is talking to them, she is always looking slightly off-camera. Director Jonathan Demme has explained that this was done so as the audience would directly experience her POV, but not theirs, hence encouraged the audience to more readily identify with her.
Anthony Hopkins has stated that he saw the character of Lecter as similar to HAL in Stanley Kubrick`s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); that is to say, a highly complex, highly intelligent, highly logical killing machine who seems to know everything going on around him.
After Jodie Foster first read the Thomas Harris novel, she tried to buy the rights herself, only to find Gene Hackman had beaten her to it.
The idea to use glass in Lecter`s Baltimore cell as opposed to traditional bars came from production designer Kristi Zea. The idea came about because director Jonathan Demme was unhappy shooting the Lecter scenes through bars, as he felt they negated the sense of intimacy between Lecter and Starling which he was trying to achieve.
Dedicated to Trey Wilson.
Has several things in common with Alfred Hitchcock`s Psycho (1960). Both Norman Bates and Jame `Buffalo Bill` Gumb, the killers in both movies, are based on real-life Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Norman Bates enjoyed taxidermy as a hobby and had many stuffed birds around the Bates Motel. When Clarice Starling enters the "Your Self Storage" facility in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), there is a self-conscious nod to this with a shot of a large stuffed bird very similar to the one on Norman`s wall. Jonathan Demme uses the same tracking shot that Hitchcock used when Vera Miles is approaching the Bates house on the hill at the end of Psycho (1960) (Demme uses it twice in The Silence of the Lambs (1991); when Clarice is approaching her car outside the asylum after her first meeting with Hannibal Lecter and when she goes up to the coffin in the funeral home). The heroines in both movies share their surnames with types of birds; Marion Crane (Janet Leigh)/Lila Crane (Vera Miles) and Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster). Julianne Moore went on to play both Lila Crane in Gus Van Sant`s remake of Psycho (1998) and Clarice Starling in Hannibal (2001).
As revealed on the Blu-Ray documentaries, "Breaking The Silence" and "From Page To Screen", both the film`s beginning and ending were altered. Ted Tally`s screenplay called for the film to begin with an FBI Raid not unlike the one featured in the opening sequence of Hannibal (2001); the difference being that SOTL`s shootout would end with the revelation that it was all just a training simulation. Thomas Harris` book ends with Lecter writing a threatening letter to Dr. Chilton. Ted Tally and Jonathan Demme decided it would be necessary for Lecter to track Chilton to a tropical island; for a more dramatic and audience-pleasing closing, in addition to an all-expense studio-paid trip to shoot somewhere warm.
This is arguably the only horror movie (though SOTL could easily fall into a number of other genres) to ever win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Only 2 other horror films were ever so much as nominated for best picture (The Exorcist (1973) and Jaws (1975)). Silence Of The Lamb`s sweeping all major categories at the Oscars was not without controversy, as the Academy was heavily criticized by family-values advocates for celebrating such lurid-subject matter. Since 1991, the only horror-themed film to receive a nomination by the academy for Best Picture would be 1999`s The Sixth Sense (1999) (which lost to American Beauty (1999))
The final lines are not delivered by Clarice as she repeats, "Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?", but rather, it is Dr. Chilton who delivers the last dialogue: "Hey, what? Oh, excuse me. I`m sorry. Is the security system all set up?....Thank you. I appreciate that."
Sean Connery was director Jonathan Demme`s first choice to play Hannibal Lecter, but he turned the part down. Connery later did a similar serial-killer thriller called Just Cause (1995), where Ed Harris plays a sort of bible-bashing, redneck rip-off of Hannibal Lecter. The film was neither a critical or commercial smash like The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was.
Hannibal mentions the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius to Clarice in the asylum. Marcus Aurelius, played by Richard Harris, was a character in Ridley Scott`s Gladiator (2000). Jonathan Demme won the Best Director Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), beating out Ridley Scott who was nominated in the same category for Thelma & Louise (1991)). Ridley Scott went on to direct Hannibal (2001), the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
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# When Anthony Hopkins found out that he cast as Hannibal Lecter based on his performance as Dr. Frederick Treves in The Elephant Man (1980) he questioned Jonathan Demme and said "But Dr. Treves was a good man." To which Demme replied "So is Lecter, he is a good man too. Just trapped in an insane mind."
Anthony Hopkins has expressed regret for his involvement in this film; although his portrayal of a psychopath as seductive, intelligent and charming has basis in fact, he felt his performance might glamorize psychopaths to the impressionable.
Film screenings were attended by gay rights protesters complaining that making the serial killer Buffalo Bill a transsexual was highly clichéd and a reflection of and/or pandering to public hostilities around the issue of sexual orientation diversity.
SPOILER: After the shootout with Gumb, Starling has partially burned gunpowder buried in the skin on the side of her face, the result of a near-miss. One name for this type of injury is "coal miner`s tattoo" - a clever reference to the character`s background.
SPOILER: In his first meeting with Clarice Starling, Lecter describes the drawing on his cell wall as "the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere" in Florence, Italy. Lecter`s line, in fact, foreshadows Buffalo Bill`s location; Starling later finds Buffalo Bill living in Belvedere, Ohio.
SPOILER: In the film, Lecter tells Senator Martin that Buffalo Bill`s real name is "Louis Friend", an anagram of iron sulfide or "fool`s gold". In the novel, he gives the name "Billy Rubin". This is wordplay on bilirubin, a pigment found in feces and the color of Dr. Chilton`s hair.
SPOILER: The FBI was very impressed by the film`s accuracy in depicting criminal investigations, serial killers and their victims. However, they protested against the fact that Clarice discovers Buffalo Bill on her own, since inexperienced agents are never sent out alone on dangerous assignments. When Jonathan Demme explained to them that he wouldn`t change it because it would be the psychological climax of the movie, they agreed, saying that it would be the most improbable course of action of all time, never to be repeated again.
SPOILER: In an early version of Ted Tally`s screenplay, Lecter`s ingenious and horrific ruse to escape from captivity in the courthouse is given away by the head of SWAT team (when the top half of the body on the top of the elevator swings down), by recognizing the body. In the final edit we cut straight to the ambulance and Lecter`s unmasking.
SPOILER: The position of Boyle`s (Charles Napier`s) body after Lecter has disemboweled and hung him from the cell was specifically based on the work of painter Francis Bacon.
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