Twitter

Where to Stream:

The Silence of the Lambs

With the sad news that Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme has died, Hollywood has lost yet another phenomenally talented and accomplished filmmaker. Demme was best known for directing films like Philadelphia, Married to the Mob, and Something Wild, and of course for his best known film, the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. Demme was 73 and leaves behind a legacy that crossed genre and medium boundaries; he proved himself to be successful at comedies, thrillers, character drama, concert documentaries, contemporary and period work — there was seemingly no genre into which Demme couldn’t or wouldn’t confidently step.

Demme got his career started under the wing of pop cinema legend Roger Corman, putting him in company with other notable Corman alumni like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Joe Dante, Curtis Hanson, Ron Howard, John Sayles, and Robert Towne. Demme’s first directorial credit came on Caged Heat, a typically Corman-esque women-in-prison exploitation film that Demme was nonetheless able to imbue with a bit of sociopolitical substance.

His earliest films — the crime-spree comedy Crazy Mama with Cloris Leachman; the action thriller Fighting Mad with Peter Fonda; the trucker comedy Handle with Care; the Roy Scheider thriller Last Embrace — saw Demme hopscotching across genres while keeping a strong sense of auteur’s identity. Demme’s films were no-frills, humanistic stories, often about wronged or exploited people.

Demme’s career leveled up in the 1980s, where he directed a string of awards-friendly comedies: he directed Jason Robards and Mary Steenburgen to Oscar nominations (Steenburgen won) in 1980’s Melvin and Howard, Christine Lahti to an supporting actress nod for the period comedy Swing Shift in 1984, and a supporting actor nod for Dean Stockwell in the comedy hit Married to the Mob. The one-two punch of Married to the Mob, which also had the distinction of being a major breakthrough role for Michelle Pfeiffer, and the Melanie Griffith-starring Something Wild also earned Demme a reputation as a great director of actresses, something that would stay with him for his entire career.

Case in point: 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, one of the most acclaimed horror movies of all time. And while Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lecter became an instantly iconic figure, it was Jodie Foster as Agent Clarice Starling who stood as the steel spine of the film. Both actors took home Oscars, as did Demme himself as Best Director. It seemed fitting at the time — and even more so in retrospect — that Demme would have been able to pull off the rare feat of directing a horror movie to the Best Picture Oscar. Genre limits didn’t ever seem to bother him, as he’d deftly move from comedies to thrillers to darkest, liver-slurping horror.

After The Silence of the Lambs faced criticism from gay groups for its queer/transgender villain, Demme’s next film, Philadelphia, perhaps erred on the side of the overly earnest, telling the story of a gay, AIDS-afflicted lawyer (Tom Hanks, who won his first Oscar) fighting against the firm that discriminated against him and fired him. While the film definitely falls into the category of noble-gay-corpse movies, Demme also brought to it his signature sense of deep empathy.

The following decade was more of a mixed bag for Demme. The high expectations for his collaboration with Oprah Winfrey on the Toni Morrison adaptation Beloved ended in bad box-office and worse reviews. The Truth About Charlie was an ill-considered Charade remake starring Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton. His remake of The Manchurian Candidate fared better, with good reviews for stars Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, but the decade was seen as an ebb in Demme’s career.

As comebacks go, Rachel Getting Married was a show-stopper. Once again showing off his chops as an actress director, Demme guided Anne Hathaway to an all-time best performance (and an Oscar nomination), but the director’s personal touch was most deeply felt in the ways in which the film opens itself up, finding interest and meaning and countless moments of grace with all of the gathered family members. There’s a sense of deeply lived-in history among the Rachel ensemble that comes together in the most wonderful, sometimes heartbreaking ways. Hathaway, Debra Winger, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Bill Irwin give breathtaking performances. It’s by far the high point of what would become the last 25 years of Demme’s career.

Demme’s final narrative film was 2015’s Ricki and the Flash, a sometimes-ragged tale that saw Meryl Streep strap on a guitar as an aged, semi-successful rocker trying to re-connect with her family on the occasion of a wedding. The film never 100% works, but as with even the most meager of Demme’s efforts there are moments to savor. It’s endearing even in the moments it falls short.

Demme’s career was also marked by great and eclectic success as a documentarian. He directed the seminal Talking Heads concert documentary Stop Making Sense, the 2006 Neil Young doc Heart of Gold, and the Spalding Gray monologue Swimming to Cambodia. There is likely no greater tribute to Demme’s success in documentaries than the fact that Documentary Now dedicated two episodes in its most recent season to Jonathan Demme films. Last year, Demme directed his final film, Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids, for Netflix.

Demme’s stylistic elasticity extended to television as well, where he directed episodes for shows like Columbo, Enlightened, and The Killing. One of his two Enlightened episodes, the Robin Wright-guest-starring “Sandy,” ranks among the best episodes of the series.

Over the course of his 45-year career, Jonathan Demme found himself thwarted by no boundaries. He created films, characters, and moments that will live on forever in our cinematic memory. Michelle Pfeiffer fumbling with a gun in Married to the Mob; Tom Hanks lifting his soul to an opera recording in Philadelphia; Anne Hathaway’s stomach-churning toast in Rachel Getting Married; Lecter and Starling face to face in The Silence of the Lambs. Demme’s signature stamp was his great versatility. He was a filmmaker whose empathy wasn’t constrained by genre or style. An uncommon talent who will be greatly missed.

Where to Stream Jonathan Demme’s Films: