Daily Dialogue — October 13, 2010

Pilcher: What do you do when you’re not detecting, Officer Starling?
Clarice: I try to be a student, Dr. Pilcher.
Pilcher: Ever get out for cheeseburgers and beer? The amusing house wine…?
Clarice: Not lately. But maybe someday.
Roden: Sphingid ceratonia, maybe.
[cuts open cocoon]
Roden: Agent Starling, meet Mr. Acherontia styx.
Pilcher: Weird.
Roden: Better known to his friends as the Death’s-head moth.

 — Pilcher (Paul Lazar), Roden (Dan Butler), Clarice (Jodie Foster), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), screenplay by Ted Tally, based on the novel by Thomas Harris

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is exposition, suggested by The Unknown Lyricist. The Silence of the Lambs suggested by 77kart.

Trivia: In the second draft of Ted Tally’s screenplay, the names of three characters had to be changed from Thomas Harris’s novel for legal reasons. “Jack Crawford” became “Ray Campbell”; “Frederick Chilton” became “Herbert Prentiss”; and, finally, “Hannibal Lecter” became “Gideon Quinn”. 

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