After the Silence

This chapter addresses the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001). Both the colour palette and the tone of the new film were different from its predecessor, with a greater emphasis on primary colours and atmospheric chiaroscuro effects, and the material's black humour more accentuated. In keeping with the director's expertise in the realm of the epic, Hannibal was placed within a much more geographically sprawling canvas, with a great deal of the film shot in a beautifully evoked Florence, the city in which Hannibal Lecter is masquerading as the expert in Renaissance art, ‘Dr Fell’. Ridley Scott's assumption of the directorial reins proved highly successful and the film enjoyed immense popularity, breaking several box office records as it wittily opened on Valentine's Day of 2001. If the talented Julianne Moore was able to do less with the character of Clarice Starling than her predecessor, this was perhaps due to the extra level of confidence the FBI agent has acquired by this stage of her life. Professional though the actress's work was throughout, neither she nor her director could produce the kind of touching verisimilitude that was Jodie Foster's stock-in-trade in the first film. The chapter then looks at the prequels: Brett Ratner's Red Dragon (2002) and Peter Webber's Hannibal Rising (2007).