Hannibal - Bon Appétit

Hannibal is perhaps the only current network drama series worth watching, and certainly the only that stands up to shows by FX and HBO. The series is an adaptation not of the novel Hannibal, but is an original story featuring characters in Robert Harris' novels. The film follows the lead character of Will Graham, FBI special agent who was also featured in Red Dragon, and Dr Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant gifted psychologist, who helps the FBI in their investigations.

The series is fantastically plotted, suspenseful and tense, and the creators do a good job of maintaining the psychologically thrilling elements of The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. The film is not especially gory, although there are occasional moments of gore. The series is visually highly distinctive, and everything has a certain beauty about it, even the bodies. The series plots Hannibal Lecter as a gifted gastronomist with a highly evolved sense of smell, and food is an important plot point at many moments in the series, Lecter is known for throwing extravagant dinner parties, and he prepares food much in the same way that he dissects corpses, with an almost obsessive precision and elegance.

The series features fantastic performances from it's leads, and the chemistry between Graham and Lecter is almost tangible. Hugh Dancy gives a fantastic performance as Will Graham, a criminal profiler and psychopath with an ability to empathy with serial killers that both terrifies and exhilarates him, it also makes him frighteningly good at catching killers, and useful to the FBI. Dancy is fantastic in the role, and is perfect as the obsessive, catatonic Graham, he plays the role differently to those before him, and is more relatable and empathetic than Norton or Peterson.

Also fantastic is Mads Mikkelsen, who portrays Hannibal Lecter, Mikkelsen has an overwhelmingly difficult part to play, as this role was so iconically played by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. Mikkelsen's performance in the series is absolutely fantastic, and he differentiates his performance from Hopkins' by making his character colder, darker and more threatening. Hopkins performance was witty and darkly funny, with fast lines and crime dialogue. Mikkelsen's performance is highly different, and he is deadly serious, never smiles, and always seems to be one step ahead, every action seems to be precise and thought out, and Lecter is threateningly intelligent.

Hannibal is a stylish and thrilling series, intelligently plotted and highly suspenseful, the series remains faithful to the spirit of the original novels and the original films, and yet it expands the world of the books and adapts it for a modern audience. The series features fantastic performances and chemistry between its leading actors. Visually the series is stunning and atmospherically beautiful, and the series is the only network show capable of rivaling cable and online television series. Rating:A-

  
"Did you really feel so bad because killing him felt so good?" 

How to Remake

Bizarre title i know, but i recently watched the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong, and had to compile a list of remakes for the cinema club. I was inclined to discover what makes a successful remake. Many films, such as scarface and The Italian Job are remakes often without people knowing that they are, and with significant plot changes.

King Kong has been remade twice, once during the seventies, starring Jessica Lange as Ann Darrow, and then again in 2005, starring Naomi Watts as the leading lady. In both cases, the films were a technological improvement on their predecessors, however the films do not promote technology for technologies sake, in the 2005 the same technology is used to animate Kong as was used to animate Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, the result of this is the Kong becomes an actual character in the movie, and not just a monster or villain. The character is incredibly expressive, and has a personality and a motive, we understand his actions, and the deep love he has for Ann. He also looks fantastic, and it as scarred and gashed as an animal who has battled dinosaurs would be.

Ann Darrow and the beast (2005)

Often when remaking films, times plots and themes are updated, the seventies remake of King Kong updated the plot to modern new york, and featured Kong climbing the twin towers instead of the Empire State Building. The remake of Scarface updated the plot to feature cocaine smuggling instead of bootlegging, and The Italian Job was updated to modern day Los Angeles, with the plot featuring modern technology and spy equipment. The successes of these remakes relies mainly on the fact that they reference the originals without being shot-for-shot remakes, The Italian Job retains the iconic Mini car chase whilst updating the plot and location, and King Kong references the iconic nature of the character and the final scene, whilst adding much to the plot in the way of action.

Scarface (1983)

There is of course a way not to remake, Gus Van Sant produced a much derided shot-for-shot remake of iconic film Psycho. The problem with these kind of remakes is that they don't add anything to the source materiel, and don't provide the audience with any more insight into any of the characters. The success of a remake relies on insight, homage and iconography, and the ability to add something to the source material that was previously missing.