Sunday, March 9, 2008

DVD-Hannibal Rising



Gaspard Ulliel is Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising which explores the origins of the character Anthony Hopkins made famous in The Silence of the Lambs.

Hannibal Lecter was a boy in Lithuania, and he was traumatized by atrocities during World War II that led to the death of his family including his beloved sister Misha who was killed, cooked, and eaten. The horror of this killed something in Hannibal Lecter, and he became a monster.

The rest of the movie is a revenge epic, and it is great. It is a first rate film. The scenery is gorgeous. The characters are fascinating. Ulliel does a splendid job with the role.

The movie also touches on a bigger theme for me. It is one birthed by the Marquis de Sade and reared in Nietzsche. It has to do with the nature of humanity and our response to it. Hannibal Lecter is a fascinating character because he asks for no mercy and does not give it. But he does operate by a code of conduct. Lecter's victims are clearly deserving of their fate because they are monsters as well. Some are more monstrous than others. Because of this, we are both repelled and fascinated by the character.

Hannibal seems to accept that people are fucked in some way, and the world operates between victims and victimizers. This was the viewpoint of the Marquis de Sade. Hannibal does not have compassion so much as an aesthetic appreciation for things. He cherishes the beautiful and the elegant. He destroys the ugly.

The character of Hannibal Lecter fascinates us because he represents many ideas and a strange way of looking at the world. He embodies both the savage and the sublime. He is a monster, but he is monster who has our sympathy. You root for Hannibal even as you are repulsed by him.

This one is a must see.

0 comments:

Post a Comment