12 Silence of the Lambs Details Most People Missed

Here are some details about Silence of the Lambs you may have missed, even if you're in the Behavioral Science Unit.

If you haven't seen the 1991 masterpiece, please do. The film, by director Jonathan Demme, follows young FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) as she is dispatched to charm imprisoned serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to seek insights into a string of killings by Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). It is based on the book by Thomas Harris, and written by Ted Tally.

And now — fresh off of Jodie Foster winning Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture—Television at Sunday's Golden Globes for her role on True Detective — here are 12 Silence of the Lambs details you may have missed.

The 'Bill Skins Fifth' Article Isn't About Buffalo Bill, It's About Hannibal Lecter

When Clarice is waiting for Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) in his office at Quantico in the first minutes of Silence of the Lambs, she scans the grisly photographs and newspaper clippings on the wall. One headline from the National Inquisitor stands out: BILL SKINS FIFTH.

But hit pause and look closer at the article, and you'll see that the article isn't about Bill at all, but rather about Lecter: It describes Lecter's arrest and background, and includes comments from Lecter and Crawford.

Whoever created the news article for Silence of the Lambs either never anticipated anyone squinting at the text of the article, or is having a bit of fun with us. We'll get into more depth about the specifics of the article soon, because it's very weird.

Clarice's Politics

Silence of the Lambs doesn't wear any politics on its sleeve — its message of empathy and resilience in the face of hideous opposition should be universal. But we learn a little bit about Clarice Starling's beliefs in a very brief exchange when she's first summoned to Crawford's office.

"I remember you from my seminar at UVA," he says, referring to her university. "You grilled me pretty hard, as I recall, on the bureau's Civil Rights record in the Hoover years."

We can't know for sure, but the reference to Civil Rights suggests she's referring to Hoover's surveillance of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. It's one of many ways the film tips us off to Clarice's empathy and support for underdogs.

Lecter Gives Clarice a Massive Clue When They First Meet

Barely two minutes into their first conversation, Clarice asks Lecter about one of the skillful pencil drawings he displays in his cell. "That is the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere," he says. As Lecter already knows, Jame Gumb — aka Buffalo Bill — lives in Belvedere, Ohio.

A belvedere is an architectural structure designed to take advantage of another view, in this case the duomo, or cathedral, in Florence, Italy. "Do you know Florence?" asks Lecter.

He's not only giving Clarice a clue about Jame Gumb, but perhaps about his own plans, should he manage to escape Dr. Chilton's little box: At the beginning of the Silence of the Lambs sequel Hannibal, Lecter is living in Florence, working as a museum curator.

Museum Curator

Speaking of museum curators? We promised earlier we'd explain more about the text of the "BILL SKINS FIFTH" article — the one that is actually about Lecter, despite the headline about Buffalo Bill.

The first sentence of the article reads: "Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a medical and society figure of Baltimore for many years has been charged in the brutal slaying of a museum curator at his home..."

This is interesting because Hannibal does kill a museum curator, and take his job... but that doesn't happen until the movie Hannibal, which of course takes place after Silence of the Lambs.

The TV series Hannibal also has Lecter pulling the ol' kill-the-curator-and-take-his-job routine. Hey, maybe the guy just kills a lot of museum curators.

Hello Again, 'Goodbye Horses'

The beautiful song that Buffalo Bill plays while dancing around in his robe, "Goodbye Horses," also appears in Married to the Mob, the film Jonathan Demme made prior to Silence of the Lambs.

It appears in a scene in which Michelle Pfeiffer's character is wearing a robe. Perhaps Buffalo Bill has seen Married to the Mob, and Pfeiffer is the kind of woman he would like to become? That feels too self-referential for Demme, but who knows.

Michelle Pfeiffer as Clarice Starling? Meg Ryan? Laura Dern? 

Jonathan Demme initially didn't want to cast Jodie Foster.

He told Paul Thomas Anderson in an Austin Film Festival conversation that he was initially talking to Michelle Pfeiffer about playing Clarice Starling, but that Foster asked for a chance, telling him, "I love this book so much and I love this part so much." He said she loved that it was "about one young woman trying desperately to save the life of another young woman" — with men as obstacles.

He remembered thinking, "Hm, that is rather a great theme. I think I'm gonna take that theme and claim it but I'm not gonna cast her."

He then wanted Meg Ryan to play the part, but he said Ryan seemed almost offended by the script. Then Laura Dern won him over with a great audition.

More on Casting Jodie Foster

Finally, Orion Pictures asked him to take another meeting with Foster, rather than signing Dern. He said they argued that Foster had just won an Oscar for The Accused, and that Dern was much less well-known.

He agreed to meet Foster, but was still determined not to hire her — until he watched her exit down the hallway.

"And I thought about how much she loved that part, and how much my partners at Orion wanted her in that part, and I was like, "ehhhh, I'll go with her."

He added: "Look what happened. I fell madly in love with her," Demme told Anderson.

That Article Though

Back to the "BILL SKINS FIFTH" story. I assume this newspaper article is just something someone on the Silence of the Lambs set had to write very quickly, and that the article is not canonical.

But there's a quote attributed to Lecter in the story that is insane — like, exactly the kind of thing a serial killer would say before being committed to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, which is where Hannibal Lecter lives at the start of Silence of the Lambs.

"I believe in truth and honesty, and what you see here is neither," Lecter says after his arrest for murder. "This is a pitiful world of liars and cheaters, and one day, you will see things my way. Bon Appetite."

How Awful Is Buffalo Bill? Swastika-Quilt Awful

"This guy, he can sew!" Clarice tells Crawford, as she realizes that Jame Gumb has dreams of making himself a "women's suit."

Another repugnant way he puts his sewing skills to use? By making a quilt festooned with orange swastikas. He keeps this quilt next to another, very nice quilt, with a butterfly (we know how much he adores his transformative, winged insects).

He uses his Nazi quilt to hide his very big gun, a kiiinda phallic Colt Python. Buffalo Bill is nuts, is what I'm saying.

Liver, Fava Beans, Nice Chianti Make for a Bad Drug Interaction

People who are taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which treat various psychiatric ailments, are given a list of foods they should avoid that include liver, fava beans and red wine.

Ardelia Mapp Solves the Whole Thing?

Clarice's friend (played by Kasi Lemmons) has the highest ratio of lines-to-clues-figured-out ratio in the history of film. For example, she helps Clarice realize that Buffalo Bill is from Belvedere, Ohio when they note that his first victim is from Belveredere.

"We covet what we see..." begins Ardelia.

"....everyday," says Clarice.

The Ol' Naked-Bodies-Turned-Into-a-Skull Detail

This one's second-to-last because there's kind of a generational divide about whether this is a little-known detail or not. Let me explain.

The movie poster for Silence of the Lambs famously features Clarice's face, with her mouth covered by a moth. It is a death's head moth, so named because it has what appears to be a skull on its back. It's the kind of moth that obsesses Buffalo Bill, because, again: total nutcase.

What you may not notice, if you've only seen the Silence of the Lambs poster online, is that the skull is made up of naked female bodies. (It's a nod to the portrait “In Voluptas Mors” by Salvador Dali and Philippe Halsman.)

Here Is a Close-Up of the Silence of the Lambs Skull Bodies

People old enough to have seen the poster for Silence of the Lambs hanging in theaters can remember their grim fascination with the skull bodies, and are probably annoyed to even see this included on this list.

But people who have only seen the poster in grainy internet form, before seeing the image above, may have just gotten their minds blown.

Also, About Clarice's Eyes

In the novel Silence of the Lambs, the basis for the film, author Thomas Harris says Lecter's eyes are maroon, and reflect light in "pinpoints of red." Sounds like Clarice's eyes in the poster, right?

In the movie, both Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter have blue eyes.

Thank You for Reading This List of Silence of the Lambs Details Most People Missed

You might also like this list of Stars of the 1970s Who Are Still Going Strong, including both Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.

Tour Buffalo Bill's House

You may also be interested to know that the real-life Buffalo Bill house from The Silence of the Lambs was sold not too long ago. Here's a tour.

Main image: A 1991 promotional image from Silence of the Lambs. Orion.