Student EditionAuthors: Chelsea Mead and Davey

JonesEdited by: Dr. Kay Picart and Brett Ader

Timeline• Goals • Director biography• Author biography • Influences• Plot summary• Character analysis• Vampiric elements• Interactions and explanations• Lecter’s test

Jonathan Demme

• Born in Baldwin, NY, on February 22, 1944, • Career include approx 30 movies• Director, producer, cinematographer, writer, and actor• Most famous Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia • Helped produce adaptation and that thing you do• in 1991's The Silence of the Lambs, he earned an Oscar

for Best Director

Thomas Harris

•Born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1940•A native of Mississippi, •Thomas Harris has been called an enigma and a perfectionist •His father was a farmer. •He attended Clarksdale High School, where his mother taught biology. •His mother reports that he spent most of his time reading and writing,•Hemmingway was his favorite writer •Attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas•He pursued an English major by day •Worked as a police reporter at the Herald Tribune by night •Harris began his writing career covering crime in the U.S. and Mexico, •Met and married a fellow student named Harriet. •Had one daughter, Anne, before they divorced in the 1960s. •Father passed away during this same period of his life•Graduated in 1964, •Spent a brief period of time traveling through Europe•Began a job as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in New York City. •It was a job as a cop in Waco, Texas that would give him valuable insights into the world of crime, which he covered daily.

Novel timeline• BLACK SUNDAY, was published in 1975• RED DRAGON in 1981• THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in 1988 • HANNIBAL in 1999• The Lecter Variations: The Story of Young Hannibal

Lecter. Currently working on.

Influences – Ed Gein

• He influenced Buffalo Bill character• Cut up female parts and wore them • Had two personalities, his own and his

mother.• Also influenced Texas Chainsaw

Massacre, and Psycho

Plot Summary• Plot Summary: An FBI agent in training named ________ _________ is on the case of

finding a serial killer. The Killer is known to the public as “______ _____.” The FBI knows that time is running out to find the daughter of ________ ________. The clues they get from the psychopathic cannibal ___ ________ ________ cannot always be deemed reliable. He enjoys toying with them. What they really need is the true identity of Buffalo Bill which they seek out at a Gender Identity Clinic from a doctor named _________ who refuses to give up the information. We, the viewers, find out more in depth the reasons that Buffalo Bill makes this suit. He watches videos of his ___________ and, in some deranged way, wants to become her. Hannibal Lecter is being held in a cell at a courthouse, he escapes when _______ and ________ come to feed him. Clarice goes back to the home town of Buffalo Bill’s _________ first victim, still trying to figure out his true identity. At the same time the FBI gets a lead from the gender identity clinic that Buffalo Bill’s true name is ________ ________. Clarice goes to the house where Fredericka former employer lived. Here she finds herself in the middle of the sanctuary. She realizes the man living there is Jame Gumb and goes on a spine tingling chase through his basement dungeon where she finally shoots and kills him. After all this happens with Buffalo Bill, Clarice receives a letter/ phone call from Lecter asking if the lambs have stopped their screaming.

• Hannibal Lecter – Characteristics?– Shadow/s?

• Clarice Starling– FBI agent in-training– Exchanges personal info for leading info in

tracking this serial killer, Buffalo Bill– Develops a quid pro quo relationship with Dr.

Lecter.

Ed Gein

Buffalo Bill

• Jame Gumb– A serial killer– Has fascination of cross-dressing, wants to be a

woman– Is rejected from the only three hospitals that

perform the surgery. – Making a body suit of female parts.

• Jack Crawford – Clarice’s Mentor throughout the novel and movie. He picks her to be a exceptional questioner to Dr. Lecter.

• Dr. Fredrick Chilton – administrator of Baltimore State hospital for the criminally insane.

• Senator Ruth Martin – high class senator willing to do anything to save her daughter.

• Catherine Baker Martin – Buffalo Bill’s most recent victim, also senator Martins daughter.

• Dr. Danielson – head of gender identity clinic at Johns Hopkins, he doesn’t want to give up confidential patient info.

• Dr. Pilcher – identifies the Death Head’s moth• Bella – Jack Crawford’s dying wife• John Golby – FBI assistant director, head of new interceptive task

force. • Pembry and Boyle – assigned to watch Dr. Lecter in the former

courthouse and jail. Lecter attacks and kills both of them.

Vampiric elements

What are some examples of how the film plays on classical Vampire themes?

Interaction and explanations

• What are some of the significances of the moths Buffalo bill puts in the throats of some of his victims?

                                  

What are some of the boundaries that Clarice has in her work? What strengths does she possess to help her?

Class and Gender

• Clarice comes from a lower class background. Her father was a police officer and he was killed when she was young. She grew up on a farm with her Aunt and Uncle never having much and ending up in boarding schools. Her goal was to exceed what had been dealt to her and become an FBI agent which is what she did. Even after doing so Doctor Lecter still makes comments about her origins- seeing right through her.

• Clarice has strength in her will and determination. She is not seen as a typical female character. Rather she is propelled to be better than what is expected of her. She has some qualities that seem very masculine but at the same time is aware of her femininity.

• In the movie Jody Foster makes sure that she gives Clarice the posture of a strong woman, her speech is short, choppy and somewhat deep.

Bibliography• Websites

– http://www.pentaone.com/hannibal/sotlann1.shtml– www.blockbuster.com– www.Books.fantasticfiction.co.uk– www.Geocities.com/knight_lines_2002/silence.html– www.Mgm.com/hannibal/sotl– www.houseofhorrors.com/ed-gein.html

• Movie– Demme, Jonathon. Silence of the Lambs. Orion pictures. 1991

• Book– Harris, Thomas. Silence of the Lambs. St. Martins press. New York, New

York. 1988