Clarice is alternately (or simultaneously) lusted after and menaced. We don’t see any of Bill’s murders, but we see plenty of his naked, mutilated victims. Sex and death form a macabre dyad, the two meeting constantly in the female body. Crawford’s lingering handshake with Clarice at her graduation overlaps with a wittily ominous surprise call from Lecter to conclude the film on a note of lurking dread. Crawford himself is Lecter’s subtle double, his investment in Clarice teetering uneasily between the paternal and the sexual. Lecter is genteelly appalled when a fellow inmate flicks his semen at her, but he is not above wondering voyeuristically about her sexual history and the nature of boss Jack Crawford’s interest in her. She is so consistently hit on or leered at that it almost becomes a grim running joke. Her femininity, and in particular her sexuality, keep getting in the way of her doing her job.
#WHO PLAYED THE GIRL IN SILENCE OF THE LAMBS PROFESSIONAL#
Clarice first appears surrounded by soaring pine trees as she jogs through a symbolically weighted obstacle course, but more often than not it is male colleagues and professional contacts crowding her out, looking down on her, excluding her, dismissing her.Ĭlarice is a woman in a man’s world. Seen through the prism of post-#Me Too sexual politics, it is striking how much attention the film pays to what it means to move through the world as a woman. In certain regards, Silence possesses a prescience that makes it feel remarkably fresh. The twists still thrill, the characters still compel. Horror and the thriller, the two genres from which Silence draws its lifeblood, can be particularly susceptible to ageing as story beats become too familiar and new techniques become ubiquitous and stale. There is no flab in this film it exploits every minute of its near two-hour running time to the fullest extent. Brief twists of humour let you off the hook now and then, but the edge of your seat rarely gets a break. The relentless close-ups build intensity to occasionally unbearable heights. Suspense is built masterfully throughout the film. Anthony Hopkins’ Lecter on the other hand combines a chilling stillness with a camp flair for the theatrical to enthralling effect. Jodie Foster never lets you forget that Clarice is an FBI recruit painfully out of her depth, yet also suggests an unshakeable inner determination. The central performances remain of gold standard.
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