#435: Killer Instincts, Pt. 1 — The Silence of the Lambs

The Next Picture Show

There’s no doubt that director Osgood Perkins had Jonathan Demme’s THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in mind when he made the new LONGLEGS, but there are as many fascinating contrasts as there are comparisons between these two films about inexperienced female FBI agents and seasoned serial killers. But before getting into those next episode, this week we’re joined by critic and author Charles Bramesco for an in-depth revisitation of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS that digs into how the “Demme Touch” elevated a potentially lurid procedural to an Oscar-sweeping sensation, why its artful exploration of trauma inspired a legion of imitators, and how its sidestepping of trans identity plays in an era that’s much more attuned to that conversation. And in Feedback, a listener deconstructs a couple of our recent pairings and reconstructs them as inversions of the same story.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, LONGLEGS, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [e-mail], or leaving a short voicemail at [phone].

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