We are all voyeurs at heart. Don't gaze at that car crash. Act normal to the boy with Tourette's Syndrome. You don't want to know what the latest escaped pervert did to the girl down the road. Or do you??
Monsters, real, psychological, or ones we deem accidents of nature, are a constant source of fascination. Those in the cinema are like fairground rides - safe - but scary. You can laugh, scream or hate them with impunity. One particular cannibalistic serial killer has been called the most memorable villain in film history. His name is Hannibal Lecter.
Sequels and prequels are often safer box-office bets than new material. One of them (The Silence of the Lambs) ranked among the most significant movies of its day. Hannibal Rising represents the fifth of the Hannibal films, and is also the first film to be scripted by the novelist and original creator, Thomas Harris. So is it scary?
Taking as its overt theme, a psychopath in the making, Hannibal Rising introduces us to Hannibal Lecter as a young lad in Lithuania. It's 1944 and nasty Russians and nastier Germans are killing each other as war nears its end in the most hostile of regions. After watching his parents killed before his eyes, Hannibal cuddles up to his young sister Mischa. But the wardogs that barge into their forest lodge are almost dying of starvation and Mischa looks kinda tasty.
Just as we lean forward to watch the gratuitously gory slaying and feasting on a five year old, the camera cuts and we follow Hannibal as he struggles through snow and border crossings to reach his Japanese aunt living in Paris. At this point I am thankful that Germans, Lithuanians, Russians, French and Japanese all speak English in the movies - how else would they understand each other? Auntie Shikibu teaches him the arts of Japanese sword and stick fighting. Hannibal quickly puts the skill to use when a local butcher insults favourite auntie before nephew has got into her pants. And brings her his head. Literally.
Auntie manages to get Hannibal off the charges and he goes to Paris to study medicine - specialising, it would seem, in the art of chopping up corpses. Hannibal quickly acquires all the skills a would-be psychopath needs, yet in flashbacks and nightmares he is haunted by the memory of his sister.
"Memory is a knife," Auntie tells him, "it can hurt you", but undeterred he doses himself with truth serum and continues to track down all the war dogs that were nasty to lil' sis'. Most of them were also war criminals, so the authorities don't stop him too soon, and we get to see nasty Hannibal almost as a good guy.
Hannibal Rising is mainly of interest as a psychopathology of Silence of the Lambs. It tells us what we already guessed about how he came to be a nutter. What it doesn't do is scare us out of the two hour tedium.
We might believe iconic 'Hannibal' is scary in himself, but the truth is probably that Silence of the Lambs was simply one of the most important films of its time. Hannibal Lector was merely a side-product. In 'Silence', for instance, we got a technique little used at the time, where both Foster and Hopkins alternately look directly at the camera, face square on, as they speak. We are in the shoes of the person being addressed. One of those people is going to be hunted. Mercilessly. Add to that, Jodie Foster's star persona (shaped by the roles she's played) is one of a rugged woman who's nobody's pushover. We sense that if Foster is scared, anybody would be. Silence of the Lambs was neo-noir psychological thriller with victimisation that invokes morbid fantasy and horror. Oscar-winning performances, skillful cinematography and taut direction all combined to scare us out of our wits. Hannibal Rising sadly has no such assets. The script is pedestrian, the ending a foregone conclusion, much of the acting overdone, and it delivers neither horror nor thrills. It is a long film that groans under its own lack of momentum.
To its credit, there is some fine photography, and Gaspard Ulliel as Hannibal does a brave job of making the character convincing. Our story does include a small twist about 'sister stew' at the end, but it lacks the force to deliver a suitable climax. While adding to the growing canon of Hannibal films, I personally preferred all the preceding movies, and even the Trey Parker song and dance tribute, 'Cannibal! The Musical'. As a revenge thriller, Hannibal Rising is long-winded; as a psychological study it's didactic; and the camera turns away too often to satisfy a true gore-fest fan. While it will have its adherents, Hannibal Rising is hardly worth rising from your armchair to go and see.
Monsters, real, psychological, or ones we deem accidents of nature, are a constant source of fascination. Those in the cinema are like fairground rides - safe - but scary. You can laugh, scream or hate them with impunity. One particular cannibalistic serial killer has been called the most memorable villain in film history. His name is Hannibal Lecter.
Sequels and prequels are often safer box-office bets than new material. One of them (The Silence of the Lambs) ranked among the most significant movies of its day. Hannibal Rising represents the fifth of the Hannibal films, and is also the first film to be scripted by the novelist and original creator, Thomas Harris. So is it scary?
Taking as its overt theme, a psychopath in the making, Hannibal Rising introduces us to Hannibal Lecter as a young lad in Lithuania. It's 1944 and nasty Russians and nastier Germans are killing each other as war nears its end in the most hostile of regions. After watching his parents killed before his eyes, Hannibal cuddles up to his young sister Mischa. But the wardogs that barge into their forest lodge are almost dying of starvation and Mischa looks kinda tasty.
Just as we lean forward to watch the gratuitously gory slaying and feasting on a five year old, the camera cuts and we follow Hannibal as he struggles through snow and border crossings to reach his Japanese aunt living in Paris. At this point I am thankful that Germans, Lithuanians, Russians, French and Japanese all speak English in the movies - how else would they understand each other? Auntie Shikibu teaches him the arts of Japanese sword and stick fighting. Hannibal quickly puts the skill to use when a local butcher insults favourite auntie before nephew has got into her pants. And brings her his head. Literally.
Auntie manages to get Hannibal off the charges and he goes to Paris to study medicine - specialising, it would seem, in the art of chopping up corpses. Hannibal quickly acquires all the skills a would-be psychopath needs, yet in flashbacks and nightmares he is haunted by the memory of his sister.
"Memory is a knife," Auntie tells him, "it can hurt you", but undeterred he doses himself with truth serum and continues to track down all the war dogs that were nasty to lil' sis'. Most of them were also war criminals, so the authorities don't stop him too soon, and we get to see nasty Hannibal almost as a good guy.
Hannibal Rising is mainly of interest as a psychopathology of Silence of the Lambs. It tells us what we already guessed about how he came to be a nutter. What it doesn't do is scare us out of the two hour tedium.
We might believe iconic 'Hannibal' is scary in himself, but the truth is probably that Silence of the Lambs was simply one of the most important films of its time. Hannibal Lector was merely a side-product. In 'Silence', for instance, we got a technique little used at the time, where both Foster and Hopkins alternately look directly at the camera, face square on, as they speak. We are in the shoes of the person being addressed. One of those people is going to be hunted. Mercilessly. Add to that, Jodie Foster's star persona (shaped by the roles she's played) is one of a rugged woman who's nobody's pushover. We sense that if Foster is scared, anybody would be. Silence of the Lambs was neo-noir psychological thriller with victimisation that invokes morbid fantasy and horror. Oscar-winning performances, skillful cinematography and taut direction all combined to scare us out of our wits. Hannibal Rising sadly has no such assets. The script is pedestrian, the ending a foregone conclusion, much of the acting overdone, and it delivers neither horror nor thrills. It is a long film that groans under its own lack of momentum.
To its credit, there is some fine photography, and Gaspard Ulliel as Hannibal does a brave job of making the character convincing. Our story does include a small twist about 'sister stew' at the end, but it lacks the force to deliver a suitable climax. While adding to the growing canon of Hannibal films, I personally preferred all the preceding movies, and even the Trey Parker song and dance tribute, 'Cannibal! The Musical'. As a revenge thriller, Hannibal Rising is long-winded; as a psychological study it's didactic; and the camera turns away too often to satisfy a true gore-fest fan. While it will have its adherents, Hannibal Rising is hardly worth rising from your armchair to go and see.