Daily Dialogue — December 17, 2012
Hannibal Lecter: “Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center.” Sounds charming.
Clarice Starling: That’s only a part of the island. There’s a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There’s beautiful…
Hannibal Lecter: [cuts her off] Terns? Mmh. If I help you, Clarice, it will be “turns” with us too. Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no? [pause] Yes or no, Clarice? Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice Starling: Go, doctor.
— The Silence of the Lambs (1991), screenplay by Ted Tally, novel by Thomas Harris
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=YZBH
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is negotiations, suggested by JasperLamarCrab. Today’s suggestion by @MakerCK and @seanrdaniels.
Trivia: As revealed on the Blu-Ray documentaries, “Breaking The Silence” and “From Page To Screen”, both the film’s beginning and ending were altered. Ted Tally’s screenplay called for the film to begin with an FBI Raid not unlike the one featured in the opening sequence of Hannibal; the difference being that SOTL’s shootout would end with the revelation that it was all just a training simulation. Thomas Harris’ book ends with Lecter writing a threatening letter to Dr. Chilton. Ted Tally and Jonathan Demme decided it would be necessary for Lecter to track Chilton to a tropical island; for a more dramatic and audience-pleasing closing, in addition to an all-expense studio-paid trip to shoot somewhere warm.
Dialogue On Dialogue: In Latin, quid pro quo translates literally into “this for that,” and has come to mean a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. It fits perfectly with Lecter’s intellect to use the Latin phrase to strike a bargain with Clarice: I’ll give you information about Buffalo Bill if you give me information about your personal life. This is a major turning point in the story: (A) Clarice completely turns against the admonition by Jack Crawford re Lecter: “You don’t want him in your head.” (B) Allowing Lecter to psychoanalyze her is the key to Clarice confronting her repressed fear — her father’s death, the slaughter of the lambs, her equating a lamb she tried to save as her father.