A new image of women created by Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme in ``The Silence The Silence of the Lambs''

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2020.03.18Omori Sawako

Demi's mystery direction, which was also inspired by Hitchcock.

Demme teamed up with Roger Corman to make B-grade action films like Riot at Noon and Mountains of Fury (1976), and in the 1980s he was praised for offbeat comedies like Something Wild and The Married to the Mob . As a director who loves music, his films also had a certain cheerfulness to them. Therefore, for those who knew Demme's style before Silence The Silence of the Lambs, Silence The Silence of the Lambs seemed rather unusual.

"I may be a director with something unpredictable. I can't even clearly define what I'm interested in next. Just like how I made "Silence The Silence of the Lambs," which has a different style from my previous works." (From the aforementioned "Film Comment" interview)

In a video of a conversation between Demme and Roger Corman, who also starred in the film (included on the DVD of Crazy Mama ), Demme seems to think of Silence The Silence of the Lambs as a Corman film made with an A-budget. Corman has also produced a lot of cheap, creepy horror films, but he also seems to think that Silence The Silence of the Lambs, which features a serial killer and a mad doctor, is an extension of the junk films Corman produced in the 1960s.

From the perspective of a suspense film, Demme seems to have been conscious of the way Hitchcock films were made. The killer Buffalo Bill in the film is a mix of several real killers, one of whom is Ed Gein, who was also the model for Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).

Demme himself is a big fan of Hitchcock, and in 1979 he directed a mystery film called "Last Embrace" starring Roy Scheider, which was a homage to some of Hitchcock's films (such as " Vertigo " and "Psycho").

This film is one of the lowest rated in Demme's filmography and has not been released in theaters in Japan, but after watching his other films, it is interesting as the origin of Demme's mystery films. The protagonist, played by Scheider, was a government agent, but after his beloved wife was murdered in front of his eyes, he became mentally ill and distrustful of people. Then a mysterious woman appears and his fate begins to change. In the end, the Holocaust and Jewish issues are also included, but this point is particularly hard to digest.

"Last Embrace" Trailer

Demme himself said about this film, "It's a Hitchcock-type film, so I thought I could just steal the style, but I ended up being consumed by that style" (from the aforementioned "What Goes Around Comes Around"). However, this failure made him realize that he couldn't just borrow Hitchcock's style, and he reconsidered the style of suspense films. In this old film, the protagonist has a trauma about death, which is also a point shared with "The Silence of the Lambs."

After "Silence The Silence of the Lambs," Demme also directed the mystery " Crisis of America, " a remake of John Frankenheimer's " The Sniper " (62). The film depicts the terrible themes of brainwashing and memory replacement on the battlefield, with Denzel Washington's character playing a soldier facing his trauma on the battlefield. It also depicts the backstage of the presidential election, and includes social themes.

If we trace the lineage of Demme's mysteries, we can see commonalities with "Silence The Silence of the Lambs," such as paranoid delusions, past trauma, and subconscious conflicts. Yes, this movie was by no means born out of nowhere.

"Crisis of America" trailer

Demme sadly passed away in April 2017, but he still has some ardent admirers in the film industry, including Paul Thomas Anderson (whose film Phantom Thread (2017) was dedicated to him).

It is difficult to see the full picture of this director in Japan, perhaps because many of his films have not been released in theaters, but he actually has a wide range of talent, including drama, comedy, mystery, concert films, and political documentaries (among his works, " Philadelphia " (1993) is also known as a hit).

It seems that in Japan, the popularity of "The Silence of the Lambs" has taken on a life of its own, but as a fan, I hope that the day will come when his unique talent will be reevaluated.

Text: Sawako Omori

Movie journalist. His books include "Lost Cinema" (Kawade Shobo Shinsha) and other books, and his translations include "Woody" (by D. Evanier, Kinema Junposha). Contributes to magazines such as ``Weekly Women'', ``Music Magazine'', and ``Kinema Junpo''. A research book based on the web series, `` Mini Theater Revisited, '' is also scheduled to be published.

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"Silence The Silence of the Lambs"

Blu-ray now on sale ¥1,905 + tax

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Japan

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