Hannibal

Ridley Scott’s 2001 film lost the previous one’s director and its Clarice before it began. Jonathan Demme said the book took the Starling and Lecter relationship somewhere that did not work for him; Jodie Foster gave scheduling as her official reason but said neither of them could trample on Clarice. Julianne Moore took the role, Anthony Hopkins returned. David Mamet wrote first, Steven Zaillian rewrote. Scott dropped the novel’s ending because he could not accept that emotional leap on Starling’s behalf, and Thomas Harris allowed it. In the book the two become lovers and vanish together; the film refuses that. For twenty minutes readers and non readers watch different films. The ending is vaguer than its retellings. The camera cuts as the cleaver falls, Starling meets the police with both hands intact, Lecter appears next scene with his arm in a sling, and the film never says whose hand went. Gary Oldman took no credit as Mason Verger, saying they liked the idea that the man with no face should have no name. Florence was shot at the Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Capponi. It opened to 58 million dollars and finished at 351.7 million worldwide. A good fit if you want Lecter hunted rather than caged. Not for you if you want the novel’s ending, which the film discards.