The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 film directed by Jonathan Demme
and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. It is based on the novel by
Thomas Harris, his second to feature sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr.
Hannibal Lecter. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is sent to
see the imprisoned Lecter in order to ask his expert advice on catching a serial
killer given the name Buffalo Bill, who is abducting women and skinning
them.
The film adaptation was released in 1991. Jonathan Demme won an
Academy Award for Best Director. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins both won
Oscars (for their roles as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter,
respectively); the film won additional Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and
Best Picture. Thus, it is the last of the only three films to win the five most
prestigious Academy Awards (after It Happened One Night, 1934 and One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975).
Also, Hopkins' performance as Lecter remains one of
the shortest lead acting Oscar-winning performances ever, as Hopkins is only on
screen for seventeen minutes in the entire film.
