Whose Genius?
In Nikki Finke’s Feb. 10 piece on director Jonathan Demme and the brilliant film “The Silence of the Lambs,” Anthony Hopkins applauds Demme’s “insight” and his use of “bits of genius that are funny.” Then the writer illustrates that point by referring to a scene where Hopkins, as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, is being wheeled away in restraints, shouting at a senator’s wife, “Love your suit.”
I agree the scene was a good example of the movie’s use of dark comedy to ease the tension. But while the writer is crediting Demme and Hopkins, might she also credit Tom Harris, the creator of that line and the book’s author, and Ted Tally, the screenwriter who was smart enough to include it in his adaptation?
DAN WITT
Los Angeles
Several readers have written to note that the character at whom Lecter shouted was a female senator, not a senator’s wife.
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