Brand New 4K Restoration Supervised by Cinematographer John Mathieson! The silence has been broken… Dark, absorbing and entertaining, this follow-up to The Silence of the Lambs is an audacious success. Screen legend Anthony Hopkins (Nixon) is perverse perfection in his return to the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the sophisticated killer who comes out of hiding to draw FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, Far from Heaven) into a high-stakes battle that will test her strength, cunning… and loyalty. Meanwhile, the good doctor’s only surviving victim plots a particularly nasty revenge. Drenched in baroque terror and hair-raising visuals, Hannibal is as compelling as it is shocking. Legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, The Martian) served up this smash-hit thriller from a screenplay by David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) and Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List), based on the bestselling novel by Thomas Harris (Red Dragon). Ray Liotta (Unforgettable), Giancarlo Giannini (Seven Beauties) and Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) round out the delectable cast.
As embodied by Alan Bates, Butley falls back on the surgically precise wit and savage eloquence that helped put him in his current circumstances in the first place. The blitzkrieg of vitriolic commentary with which Butley engages lovers, students, rivals, and allies, all with equal ferocity, becomes a glass bottom boat illuminating the churning depths of his bankrupted soul. Acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter, in what Time Magazine hailed as “a quite superior directorial debut,” turns author Simon Gray’s single-set, dialogue driven stage play into an irresistible dynamic visual experience that tracks Bates’ hilarious and fearless performance with cunning precision.
Bates and an expert supporting cast, including Oscar® winner Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy), joust with a sly, self-referencing wit and an unselfconscious exuberance that is breathtaking. With every verbal parry and valedictory flourish of wordplay, Butley’s life becomes more of an inescapable bear trap of thwarted ambition, clandestine affection, and squandered brilliance.
