Silence Of The Lambs Details

This multi-Oscar-winning classic, adapted from Thomas Harris's bestseller, was responsible for giving cinematic serial killers a better image, thanks to Anthony Hopkins's enthralling portrayal of Hannibal Lecter. So what if Lecter was an incarcerated cannibal? It was unprecedented that an actor playing a crazed killer should mount the podium to collect an Oscar (the ceremony host that year, Billy Crystal, was wheeled on dressed as Lecter), while Hopkins's “Fava beans and a nice chianti” line became legendary. Jodie Foster also won an Oscar for her role as fledgeling FBI agent Clarice Starling, who is drawn into a disturbingly close relationship with Lecter as she hunts for serial killer “Buffalo Bill”, and it's a testament to her abilities that she holds her own against her scene-stealing co-star. With a track record for directing quirky comedies (Something Wild, Married to the Mob), director Jonathan Demme made a seemingly effortless switch to terror, summoning up a magnificent air of gothic gloom. The hunt for the killer is genuinely suspenseful, but Demme generates the real chill with the probing mind games between his two marvellous leads. Spare a thought, too, for the talented supporting players: stoical Scott Glenn as Foster's boss, Ted Levine as the tormented killer and Anthony Heald as the ill-fated hospital head, the butt of the movie's flip end gag.

Tense, exciting and sometimes gruesome thriller, suspenseful enough to make you overlook its essential absurdities. Hopkins plays the role of the devious Lecter with lip-smacking relish.