Hannibal

How this film uses it

The main titles show pigeons on the cobblestones of an empty Florence square early in the morning. The image slowly turns into the face of Hannibal Lecter. It asks the question the story is built on, which is where he is hiding. The calm, pretty start also sets up the film's mix of beauty and menace.

Where to see it

The opening titles: footage of pigeons in a Florence square morphs into Lecter's face.

How this film uses it

The film is a horror story, a police thriller, a dark romance and a black comedy at once. Scott has said he saw affection as the film's underlying emotion and called it romantic and humorous as well as dark. A single scene can be gross, funny and tender together.

Where to see it

The dinner with Krendler: Starling wakes in Krendler's home, and Lecter serves dinner. He opens Krendler's skull, sautés part of his brain and feeds it to him.

How this film uses it

Mason Verger has one goal in life, which is to capture Lecter and kill him slowly. That goal drives most of the plot. Verger gets Starling reassigned, bribes Krendler to frame her and puts a bounty on Lecter that pulls the Florence policeman Pazzi in. Every thread leads back to one man.

Where to see it

The boar pen: Verger's men capture Lecter to feed him to a herd of giant hogs. Starling frees him, and Verger ends up eaten instead.

How this film uses it

Verger is paralyzed and covered in scars. Scott rejected the first 20 heads the makeup team made because they looked like zombies, and he wanted a face that looked real and almost touching. Gary Oldman spent 6 hours a day in makeup. Pazzi's death goes further, since he is disemboweled and hung from a balcony.

Where to see it

Pazzi's death: Lecter forces Pazzi to confess, disembowels him and hangs him from the balcony of the Palazzo Vecchio.

How this film uses it

In Florence, Lecter attends an opera based on a Dante sonnet. Pazzi and his wife Allegra sit nearby, and she asks whether a man could become obsessed with a woman after a single meeting. Lecter says yes. The music and the quiet talk say what the film cannot say outright. Strauss's The Blue Danube also shows up in several scenes.

Where to see it

The Florence opera: Lecter sits near Pazzi and Allegra during a performance, and she asks him if a man could be that obsessed after one encounter.