Jonathan Demme And The Simple Power Of The Close-Up
Demme, who directed 36 feature films and documentaries over the course of his long and varied career, died this morning. He was a filmmaker fascinated by the pure emotional force of the human face.
by Glen Weldon
Apr 26, 2017
3 minutes
Forget the fava beans.
The main reason Jonathan Demme's Oscar-winning 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs gets its hooks in you — and leaves you feeling vaguely distracted and discomfited long after it's over — isn't anything Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter says.
It's how he says it. And to whom.
In the reality of the film, of course, he's directing his consummate, artisanal brand of creepiness at Jodie Foster's FBI agent, Clarice Starling.
But Demme, who died this morning, was a filmmaker fascinated by the simple, unadorned power of the tight
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