The classic. I think. This is one of those movies I’ve watched so many times both for fun and for study that I can’t help but quote vast chunks of it out loud as it plays. There are just so many things about this movie that, to my surprise every time, lift it far above the quality genre pieces the other installments in the series are.

It’s a perfect screenplay, to start with. Syd Field talked a lot of nonsense (I realised, eventually) about screenwriting and his “paradigm” is broken down with every recent passing week, but one of his books I’d still recommend is “Four Screenplays” which simply broke down four screenplays – this one, Thelma and Louise, Terminator 2, and Dances with Wolves – and showed why his system worked, owing a lot of course to Joseph Campbell, whose thoughts on mythology are overwhelmingly present here too – I think Jodie Foster in particular is fond of talking about the mythical aspects of this movie whenever she’s asked about it.

It’s interesting to me to notice that all those four screenplays, all produced between 91-92, have some seriously powerful women in them – Clarice Starling, Thelma and Louise of course, Sarah Connor, Stands with a Fist – and one of the most stand-out things about Silence is that it was made at a time when doing the whole feminist thing still actually meant something, before people started to see such things with an eye for cynicism and post-modernism.

I like the lightness here too, though, and it’s something I noticed while watching Hannibal is yet another thing I think they got right (in comparison to the very straightlaced Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising) there; “If this door should fall down or – heh-heh – anything else …”, “No … no, you ate yours,” – I think part of the reason I for one really didn’t object to Thomas Harris thinking a romance was spawned here is because of how the sharp minds of Clarice and Hannibal right from the off even resembled one another in the humour department.

It’s really just one of those perfect movies you can’t say much of for or against, being as it’s there in front of you as it is and it couldn’t be any other way. Even though I practically know it by heart, I still love it, could even watch it over again right now just a few days after watching it before. It’s classic Jodie, definitive Hopkins, perfect in genre; basically, more deserving of the Oscars it received than just about anything since. What else is there to say?

I hate to say it, ‘cos this movie’s so vaginal it’s stifling (you can practically smell the perfume in some scenes) and I’m sure someone out there will decide my response is thus because I haven’t got one – but though it’s beautifully photographed (the very first shot got me very excited; it was either that or Michael Cunningham’s name in the credits) and scored, this is like The Notebook with all semblance of a story plain sucked out.

The most notable thing about it is the casting – Meryl Streep’s own daughter Mamie Gummer as her younger self passes at least half an hour for the audience wondering, is that nose plastic, is the whole thing some new kind of CG … or does she really look like her mum?? lol. And though not so visually startling, the casting of Natasha Richardson as Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter is a nice touch too. In the context of such an empty 2 hours, though, it resembles too much nothing but a gimmick. One of the posters kinda says it all – the cast names dwarf the movie’s title and even mask the beautiful backdrop art. Definitely see The Notebook instead. After this and Away From Her, I might have to dig it out again myself. This one’s only saving grace is that it is, I’ll admit, nice to find another movie that’s so much slower and quieter than much that’s been released this year. That alone, though – though many will try to convince you otherwise, not to mention all the men’s men who’ll try to like it to get some sex – is not enough to make a movie worth watching.