The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Jonathan Demme

Writers: Ted Tally, Thomas Harris

Cinematographer: Tak Fujimoto

Composer: Howard Shore

Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald, Ted Levine, Brooke Smith

Hopkins’s performance hasn’t aged well at all, particularly when measured against Levine’s subtly creepy turn, but this film – once Hannibal the Cannibal’s cheesiness is put on the backburner – is an absolutely cracking thriller, with a seldom better Foster producing a magnetic performance, and Demme wowing us with his eye-catching yet refined direction. Iain.Stott