How and why Hannibal Lecter became maniac · 2007-02-09 15:22
"Hannibal Rising." Psychological thriller explaining how and why Hannibal Lecter became a maniac.
How and why the Hannibal Lecter we came to know, fear and love in "The Silence of the Lambs" became such a cold-blooded, flesh-eating maniac is something that might be best left to the imagination.
But the three Lecter movies starring Anthony Hopkins had a combined domestic gross of more than $380 million, so it is back to the well for author Thomas Harris and producer Dino De Laurentiis ??“ and back to World War II Lithuania for "Hannibal Rising," where the answers rest.
"Rising" is both a monster movie and a revenge fantasy. It’s the story of a young aristocrat whose family is driven from their castle by Nazis, is orphaned in a shelling attack and is forced to watch his young sister Mischa get eaten by Nazi sympathizers.
Years later, as a student in France, Hannibal begins to fulfill his promise to Mischa to find her killers.
Director Peter Webber has brought the story’s gothic settings and period vividly to life. But there’s a hole at dead center ??“ young French star Gaspard Ulliel. Not only will he remind no one of Hopkins, his performance will remind no one of Lecter. He gives such an old-fashioned portrayal of psychopathic evil you’d think he’s channeling Bela Lugosi.
Lecter has evolved in the public imagination and through Hopkins' playfully sinister interpretations into a sort of noirish hero.
The romantic relationship that evolves between Hannibal and his protective Japanese aunt-in-law (Gong Li) is thus changed from a reasonable stretch in the novel into a no-way-Jose in the film.
This strikes me as the final nail in the franchise’s coffin. I can’t name an actor who could have made young Lecter as interesting as the older one, but Ulliel does not come close, New York Daily News informs.
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