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The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 film about a young FBI trainee who is hunting a serial-murderer who skins and butchers his victims. To better understand the motives of the killer, she attempts to get inside his mind with the help of an imprisoned psychopath, with whom she plays a deadly psychological game of cat-and-mouse.
Directed by Jonathan Demme. Written by Ted Tally, based on the novel by Thomas Harris.

To enter the mind of a killer she must challenge the mind of a madman. taglines

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

  • Good evening, Clarice.

  • You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed? Pure West Virginia. What's your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you … all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars … while you could only dream of getting out … getting anywhere … getting all the way to the FBI.

  • A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. [hisses]
    • Note: ranked #21 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

  • I've been in this room for eight years now, Clarice. I know they will never ever let me out while I'm alive. What I want is a view. I want a window where I can see a tree, or even water. I want to be in a federal institution, far away from Dr. Chilton.

  • And don't lie, Clarice, or I'll know.

  • Advancement, of course. Listen carefully. Look deep within yourself, Clarice Starling. Go seek out Miss Mofet, an old patient of mine. M-O-F-E-T. Go now, I don't think Miggs could manage again quite so soon, even though he is crazy. [shouting] Go now!

  • Ready when you are, Sergeant Pembry.

  • People will say we're in love.

  • All good things to those who wait.

  • Tell me, Clarice – have the lambs stopped screaming?

  • You fly back to school now, little Starling. Fly, fly, fly. Fly, fly, fly.

  • There are three major centers for transexual surgery, the University of Maryland, Columbus Medical Center and Johns Hopkins. I wouldn't be surprised if Billy had applied for sex reassignment at one or all of these, and been rejected. On what basis would they reject him? Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn't born a criminal, Clarice. Oh no, he was made one through years of systematic abuse. Our Billy hates his own identity, you see. He always has, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying. He wants to be reborn, you see. Our Billy wants to be reborn, Clarice. And he will be reborn.

  • I'm having an old friend for dinner.

  • Quid pro quo, Clarice. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, of course, but about yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no, Clarice?

Clarice Starling

  • Your anagrams are showing, Doctor. Louis Friend? Iron sulfide, also known as fool's gold?

  • Hester Mofet. It's an anagram, isn't it, Doctor? Hester Mofet, "the rest of me". "Miss the rest of me," meaning that you rented that garage?

Dr. Frederick Chilton

  • Oh my, does he hate us. Thinks I'm his nemesis.

  • You still think you're going to walk on some beach and see the birdies? I don't think so. I called Senator Ruth Martin. She never heard of any deal with you. They scammed you, Hannibal.

  • [To Clarice] You know, we get a lot of detectives here, but I must say I can't ever remember one as attractive.

  • We've tried to study him, of course, but he's much too sophisticated for the standard tests.

  • Do not touch the glass. Do not approach the glass. You pass him nothing but soft paper – no pencils, no pens. No paper clips or staples in his paper. Use the sliding food carrier only, no exceptions. If he attempts to pass you anything, do not accept it. Do you understand?

  • I am going to show you why we insist on such precautions. On the evening of July 8th, 1981, he complained of chest pains and was taken to the dispensary. His mouthpiece and restraints were removed for an EKG. When the nurse leaned over him, he did this to her. [pulls out photo] The doctors managed to reset her jaw more or less. Saved one of her eyes...his pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue.

Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb

  • [To Catherine] Are you about a size 14?

  • [To a mirror] Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me. I'd fuck me hard.

  • [Shouting] You don't know what pain is!

  • [To Clarice while dying] What's it like to be beautiful?

  • It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever It's told. It puts the lotion on Its skin or else It gets the hose again. Now it puts the lotion in the basket. PUT THE FUCKING LOTION IN THE BASKET.

Others

  • Miggs: I can smell your cunt.

  • Miggs: I bit my wrists so I can diiiiie!

  • Jack Crawford: Believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.

  • Catherine Martin: Precious! Are you up there, you little shit? Come and get it, pretty girl!

Dialogue

Jack Crawford: I remember you from my seminar at UVA. You grilled me pretty hard, as I recall, on the bureau's civil rights record in the Hoover years. I gave you an A.
Clarice: A-minus, Sir.


Murray: Is it true what they're saying, he's some kinda vampire?
Clarice: They don't have a name for what he is.


Jack: Just do your job, but never forget what he is.
Clarice: And what is that?
[Cut to Clarice's first trip to the psychiatric prison]
Dr. Chilton: Oh, he's a monster. Pure psychopath. So rare to capture one alive. From a research point of view, Lecter is our most prized asset.


Dr. Chilton: Crawford is very clever, isn't he, using you?
Clarice: What do you mean, sir?
Dr. Chilton: A pretty young woman to turn him on. I don't believe Lecter's even seen a woman in eight years. And, oh, are you ever his taste. So to speak.


Clarice: Did you do those drawings, Doctor?
Dr. Lecter: Ah. That is the Duomo seen from the Belvedere. You know Florence?
Clarice: All that detail just from memory?
Dr. Lecter: Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view.


Dr. Lecter: Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling? Enthrall me with your acumen.
Clarice: It excites him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.
Dr. Lecter: I didn't.
Clarice: No. No, you ate yours.


Dr. Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing, ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Clarice: He kills women.
Dr. Lecter: No, that is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does, what needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice: Anger, social resentment, sexual frustration …
Dr. Lecter: No, he covets. That's his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer, now.
Clarice: No. We just …
Dr. Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?


Dr. Lecter: Now then, tell me. What did Miggs say to you? Multiple Miggs in the next cell. He hissed at you. What did he say?
Clarice: He said, "I can smell your cunt."
Dr. Lecter: I see. I, myself, cannot. You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps … but not today.


Dr. Lecter: Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center. Sounds charming.
Clarice: That's only part of the island. There's a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There's beautiful …
Dr. Lecter: Terns? If I help you, Clarice, it will be "turns" for us too. Quid pro quo – I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no?
[Pause]
Dr. Lecter: Yes or no, Clarice? Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice: Go, doctor.


Ardelia: Is this Lecter's handwriting? "Clarice, doesn't this random scattering of sites seem desperately random – like the elaborations of a bad liar? Ta, Hannibal Lecter."
Clarice: "Desperately random." What does he mean?
Ardelia: Not random at all, maybe. Like there's some pattern here …?
Clarice: But there is no pattern, or the computers would've nailed it. They're even found in random order.
Ardelia: Random because of the one girl. The one he weighted down.
Clarice: Oh, Fredrica Bimmel, from … Belvedere, Ohio. First girl taken, third body found. Why?
Ardelia: 'Cause she didn't drift. He weighted her down.
Clarice: What did Lecter say about … "first principles"?
Ardelia: Simplicity …
Clarice: What does this guy do? He "covets". How do we first start to covet?
Ardelia: "We covet what we see …"
Clarice: "… every day."
Ardelia: Hot damn, Clarice.
Clarice: He knew her.


Jame: It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.
Catherine: Mister … my family will pay cash. Whatever ransom you're asking for, they pay it.
Jame: It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again. [To his dog, Precious] Yes, it will, Precious, won't it? It will get the hose!
Catherine: Okay … okay … okay. Mister, if you let me go, I won't – I won't press charges, I promise. See, my mom is a real important woman … I guess you already know that.
Jame: Now it places the lotion in the basket.
Catherine: Please! Please, I wanna go home! I wanna go home, please!
Jame: It places the lotion in the basket.
Catherine: I wanna see my mommy! Please, I wanna see my …
Jame: Put the fucking lotion in the basket!


Reporter: Buffalo Bill's real name?
Dr. Chilton: That is now a matter of record with the proper authorities. My name is Dr. Frederick Chilton. C-H-I-L-T-O-N …


Clarice: If you didn't kill him, then who did, sir?
Dr. Lecter: Who can say? Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.


Dr. Lecter: You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed? Pure West Virginia. What's your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you … all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars … while you could only dream of getting out … getting anywhere … getting all the way to the FBI.
Clarice: You see a lot, doctor. But can you point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don't you – why don't you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you're afraid to.


Dr. Lecter: Jack Crawford is helping your career, isn't he? Apparently he likes you, and you like him too.
Clarice: I never thought about it.
Dr. Lecter: Do you think that Jack Crawford wants you sexually? True, he is much older, but do you think he visualizes scenarios, exchanges, fucking you?
Clarice: That doesn't interest me, Doctor, and frankly, it's … it's the sort of thing that Miggs would say.
Dr. Lecter: Not anymore.


Dr. Lecter: Tell me, Senator, did you nurse Catherine yourself?
Senator Ruth Martin: What?
Dr. Lecter: Did you breast-feed her?
Krendler: Now, wait a minute …
Sen. Martin: Yes, I did.
Dr. Lecter: Toughened your nipples, didn't it?
Krendler: You son of a bitch!
Dr. Lecter: Amputate a man's leg, and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, ma'am, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?
Sen. Martin: Take this thing back to Baltimore!
Dr. Lecter: Five foot ten, strongly built, about a hundred and eighty pounds; hair blonde, eyes pale blue. He'd be about thirty-five now. He said he lived in Philadelphia, but may have lied. That's all I can remember, Mom, but if I think of any more, I will let you know. Oh, and Senator, just one more thing: love your suit.


Dr. Chilton: What you are doing? Miss Starling is coming into my hospital to conduct an interview, and refusing to share information with me, for the third time.
Clarice: Sir, I told you, this is just a routine follow-up on the Raspail case.
Dr. Chilton: He is my patient. I have rights.
Clarice: I understand that, Sir.
Dr. Chilton: Look, I am not just some turn-key, Miss Starling.
Clarice: This is the number for the US attorney's office. Please, either you discuss this with him or you let me do my job, understand?


Dr. Lecter: [shouts] No! I will listen now. After your father's murder, you were orphaned. You were ten years old. You went to live with cousins on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana. And …?
Clarice: [tears begin forming in her eyes] And one morning, I just ran away.
Dr. Lecter: Not "just", Clarice. What set you off? You started at what time?
Clarice: Early, still dark.
Dr. Lecter: Then something woke you, didn't it? Was it a dream? What was it?
Clarice: I heard a strange noise.
Dr. Lecter: What was it?
Clarice: It was … screaming. Some kind of screaming, like a child's voice.
Dr. Lecter: What did you do?
Clarice: I went downstairs, outside. I crept up into the barn. I was so scared to look inside, but I had to.
Dr. Lecter: And what did you see, Clarice? What did you see?
Clarice: Lambs. And they were screaming.
Dr. Lecter: They were slaughtering the spring lambs?
Clarice: And they were screaming.
Dr. Lecter: And you ran away?
Clarice: No. First I tried to free them. I … I opened the gate to their pen, but they wouldn't run. They just stood there, confused. They wouldn't run.
Dr. Lecter: But you could and you did, didn't you?
Clarice: Yes. I took one lamb, and I ran away as fast as I could.
Dr. Lecter: Where were you going, Clarice?
Clarice: I don't know. I didn't have any food, any water, and it was very cold, very cold. I thought, I thought if I could save just one, but … he was so heavy. So heavy. I didn't get more than a few miles when the sheriff's car picked me up. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again.
Dr. Lecter: What became of your lamb, Clarice?
Clarice: They killed him.
Dr. Lecter: You still wake up sometimes, don't you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs.
Clarice: Yes.
Dr. Lecter: And you think if you save poor Catherine, you could make them stop, don't you? You think if Catherine lives, you won't wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.
Clarice: I don't know. I don't know.
Dr. Lecter: Thank you, Clarice. Thank you.
Clarice: Tell me his name, Doctor.
Dr. Lecter: … Dr. Chilton, I presume. I think you know each other.
Dr. Chilton: Okay. Let's go.
Clarice: It's your turn, Doctor.
Dr. Chilton: Out!
Clarice: Tell me his name!
Boyle: I'm sorry, ma'am. We've got orders. We have to put you on a plane. Come on, now.
[Chilton and the guards start leading Clarice out]
Dr. Lecter: Brave Clarice. You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won't you?
Clarice: Tell me his name, Doctor!
Dr. Lecter: Clarice, your case file. Goodbye, Clarice.


Murray: [assessing the mutilated "Sergeant Pembry"] He's alive. Sergeant Tate, he's alive!
Sgt. Tate: Get a hold of him more and feel his hand, son, talk to him.
Murray: What do I say?
Sgt. Tate: It's Jim Pembry, now, talk to him, damn it!


Roden: Sphingid ceratonia, maybe. [cuts open cocoon] Agent Starling, meet Mr. Acherontia styx.
Pilcher: Weird.
Roden: Better known to his friends as the Death's-head moth.


Clarice: Good afternoon. Sorry to bother you. I'm looking for Mrs Lippman's family.
Jame Gumb: No, Lippmans don't live here any more.
Clarice: Excuse me. I really need to speak with you.
Jame Gumb: What's the problem, officer?
Clarice: I'm investigating the death of Fredrica Bimmel. Your name is?
Jame: Oh, uh, Jack Gordon.
Clarice: Mr. Gordon, good, uh … well, Frederica used to work for Mrs. Lippman. Did you know her?
Jame: No, nuh-uh. Oh, wait … was she a great, big, fat person?
Clarice: Yeah, she was a big girl, sir.
Jame: Yeah, I may've … no, I read about her in the newspaper. Um, Mrs. Lippman had a son, though, maybe he could help you. I got his card in here someplace. Do you wanna come in while I look for it?
Clarice: May I?
Jame: Yeah, sure. Are you close to catching somebody, you think?
Clarice: Yes. We may be. Did you … take over this place after Mrs. Lippman died, is that right?
Jame: Yeah, I – I bought this house … two years ago.
Clarice: [looking around] Did she leave any records? Any business records, tax forms, lists of employees?
Jame: No, nothing like that at all. Say, does the FBI learn something? The police around here don't seem to have the first clue.
[Clarice notices a moth]
Jame: … I mean, have you got, like, a description, fingerprints, anything like that?
Clarice: No. No, I don't.
[Clarice unbuttons her gun holster]
Jame: Oh, here's that number!
Clarice: Very good, Mr. Gordon. May I use your phone, please?
Jame: [starts laughing] Sure you can use me phone.
Clarice: [draws her gun] Freeze! Put your hands over your head and turn around! Spread your legs! Spread your legs! Put your hands in the back … thumbs up – freeze!
[Jame runs off]


Clarice: He won't come after me.
Ardelia: Oh, really. How do you know?
Clarice: He won't. I can't explain it … he – he would consider that rude.


[Last lines]
Dr. Lecter: [on telephone] Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?
Clarice: Dr. Lecter?
Dr. Lecter: Don't bother with a trace, I won't be on long enough.
Clarice: Where are you?
Dr. Lecter: I have no plans to call on you, Clarice. The world's much more interesting with you in it. So you take care now to extend me the same courtesy.
Clarice: You know I can't make that promise.
Dr. Lecter: I do wish we could chat longer, but … [eyeing Dr. Chilton] I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye.
Clarice: Dr. Lecter? … Dr. Lecter? … Dr. Lecter? … Dr. Lecter? …

Taglines

  • Prepare yourself for the most exciting, mesmerising and terrifying two hours of your life!

  • May The Silence Be Broken!!

  • Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Brilliant. Cunning. Psychotic. In his mind lies the clue to a ruthless killer. – Clarice Starling, FBI. Brilliant. Vulnerable. Alone. She must trust him to stop the killer.

Cast

  • Anthony Hopkins – Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter
  • Jodie Foster – Clarice Starling
  • Anthony Heald – Dr. Frederick Chilton
  • Kasi Lemmons – Ardelia Mapp
  • Ted Levine – Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb
  • Scott Glenn – Jack Crawford
  • Diane Baker – Senator Ruth Martin
  • Brooke Smith – Catherine Martin
  • Danny Darst – Sergeant Tate
  • Stuart Rudin – "Multiple" Miggs
 
Quoternity
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