starting a Hannibal rewatch, and while ep 1 is a lot more ~typical crime procedural~ than the luminous heights of later eps, the performances are SO on point from the get-go. love this invasive body language from lawrence fishburne. 
we all talk about how Hannibal doesn't get into full stylistic swing for a few eps, but i'd forgotten they just casually have a scene IN THE BATHROOM FROM "THE SHINING" in ep 1 lmao.
yep, there's as much overlap here with clarice's role as will's in the books, where he's characterized as more traditionally masculine.
https://twitter.com/pearwaldorf/status/1274436294974664706
how many thousands of words did i write about Hannibal's costume design, back in the day?
for instance, this first meeting where:
1. Jack assumes Hannibal's patient is the psychiatrist, because Hannibal looks too glamorous, so...
2. Hannibal adjusts his outfit to "fit the part."
for instance, this first meeting where:
1. Jack assumes Hannibal's patient is the psychiatrist, because Hannibal looks too glamorous, so...
2. Hannibal adjusts his outfit to "fit the part."
also, Hannibal's conscious costume change here is almost a joke in itself, because his overly-attached patient (Franklyn) was probably *trying to dress like Hannibal* in the previous scene, and failing to achieve H's greatness. whereas H's transformation is perfect.
the camera work is so good in the scene where Will shoots Hobbs. visually, we're immersed in vibrating-heartbeat animalistic panic... EXCEPT when Hannibal comes onscreen, and everything goes still & calm.
Hannibal is one of those characters where you need to *feel* his charisma & physical aura. But a great actor is only part of the battle. The show uses so many little visual/audio cues to emphasize his overwhelming presence, like (IIRC?) Hannibal not having audible footsteps.
Onto ep 2, featuring an unusual trifecta for an American crime drama:
1. The hero is a bad shot.
2. He's upset about shooting a criminal.
3. A woman teaches him better technique - without the typical romantic subtext.
1. The hero is a bad shot.
2. He's upset about shooting a criminal.
3. A woman teaches him better technique - without the typical romantic subtext.
iconic "marbled red meat" outfit from freddie lounds here.
i love that bryan fuller named a mushroom-themed serial killer AND a star trek mushroom scientist after (living!) mushroom expert Paul Stamets. what a legacy!
enough films & tv shows involve ~symbolic deer-hunting scenes~ that i'm now wondering if there's such a thing as professional tv deer, like all the trained horses for historical dramas.
the vibrancy of the color in this show is stunning, especially considering how many crime dramas are filmed in washed-out grey for Extra Grimness. just from ep 3:
Hannibal is so divorced from reality that it doesn't skeeve me out like other law enforcement shows, but it's occasionally so wild to watch Will make an absurd ~empathic deduction~ and remember that ACTUAL POLICE work with psychics IRL.
To any Hannibal fans who want to learn more about the art of fly-tying, I recommend the documentary "Kiss the Water," about the acclaimed (and fascinatingly eccentric) fly-tyer Megan Boyd. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Boyd
Kacey Rohl's magic mushrooms acting is so good lmao
just reached a truly iconic moment in american tv censorship: the scene where NBC told Hannibal's creators to hide the bare butts of two mutilated corpses by adding more blood.
Bella is the only character who wears pure black & white in a show full of complex, layered colors & shades.
In ep 5 her clothes transition from white to black as she reveals she's terminally ill.
In ep 5 her clothes transition from white to black as she reveals she's terminally ill.
omg the sheer audacity of unleashing eddie izzard and raul esparza in the same episode. how could i forget!
a respectful hello to freddie lounds visiting FBI headquarters wearing a leather miniskirt, fur-trimmed aquamarine jacket, a completely transparent shirt, and visible bra.
episode 6 "Entree" is a key turning point in the narrative, and also an important lesson about Not Reading The Comments, as multimillionaire artiste Hannibal Lecter freaks out over a meanspirited blog post.
luv this scene where Hannibal symbolically skins a grape whose interior flesh is as dark as its peel.
there is no such grape; food designer janice poon dyed the grapes with food coloring, re-skinned them with wax, and dusted them with eyeshadow.
there is no such grape; food designer janice poon dyed the grapes with food coloring, re-skinned them with wax, and dusted them with eyeshadow.
some grape aficionados are pointing out that Norton grapes are real. this is true but the food designer found out they weren't actually black inside. love this dedication to detail: buzzfeed.com/emofly/hanniba…
no joke, this show taught me to eschew the Big Light forevermore.
https://twitter.com/benchapman123/status/1276919101429035008
this exquisitely nauseating green wall... chef kiss.
Gillian Anderson lowkey has the creepiest costumes in the show. In her FIRST SCENE, Bedelia reveals she's a "retired" shut-in with only one client, and yet she ALWAYS has perfectly curled hair, heels, uncomfortable formal clothes. An enigmatic femme ghost.
All the classical music in the show is effectively from Hannibal's personal playlist. They really unleash it in ep 7, which is PACKED with melodramatic opera. (1/2)
(2/2) Hannibal's music taste is deliciously unsubtle:
• "The Golden Calf" from Faust while Hannibal butchers a human heart.
• Mozart's "Lacrimosa" while Hannibal sulks about Will missing an appointment.
• The FBI soundtracked by the advancing army from Verdi's Macbeth.
• "The Golden Calf" from Faust while Hannibal butchers a human heart.
• Mozart's "Lacrimosa" while Hannibal sulks about Will missing an appointment.
• The FBI soundtracked by the advancing army from Verdi's Macbeth.
dare i say....... the reclining odalisque
amazing thread. 🙏
https://twitter.com/cartersiddall/status/1272962848034107392
The Will/Alana/Hannibal love triangle is so fun. W & A have such cute-yet-sad chemistry; A & H have a mature, believable "never gonna happen" flirtation. Two very well-drawn detours on the road to H & W becoming the endgame couple.
Mads Mikkelsen & Gillian Anderson have SUCH similar facial features, it's wild. It's probably a happy accident, but I always view this casting as an echo of Hannibal's dead sister Mischa.
god, the Hannibal/Tobias fight scene is really top-tier action filmmaking. it legit feels like they're gonna kill each other.
a great detail from these mid-season-1 eps: Will starts wearing unbuttoned/collarless shirts because he's got a raging encephalitis fever, but doesn't know it yet.
it's very funny that NBC even bothered to hire an FBI consultant for Hannibal, a show where one guy singlehandedly builds a 40-foot tower of human corpses on a public beach without getting caught.
episode 10, another wonderful thematic marriage between the A & B plots. a delusional young woman believes that she is dead, while Jack & Hannibal gaslight Will into ignoring his own mental breakdown.
Jack Crawford is such a well-drawn Bad Boss role. on the surface he's a classic crime drama stock character, the hardass police chief. but his relationship with Will is more subtle, constantly exploiting him while asking after his welfare to create plausible deniability.
a few years ago my friend & i cowrote a novel-length Hannibal crossover fanfic with Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. this ep was where our story diverged from canon. archiveofourown.org/works/7548184
Hannibal's episode structure really adds to the unsettling tone of season 1. It's ostensibly a crime-of-the-week format, but most of the crime subplots begin or end at the "wrong" part of the episode, keeping viewers off-kilter. [1/2]
[2/2] The FBI team routinely solves a murder within half an episode, skipping the investigative beats you expect from a typical procedural drama. Or a crime subplot is left to bleed into the next ep. It encourages you to lose all sense of time.
the scene where a vividly hallucinating will graham brings abel gideon to hannibal's house at gunpoint...... comedy gold.
obsessed with the herb garden in Hannibal's dining room, perpetually shrouded in darkness. we must assume he blasts it with a grow-lamp whenever he's out of the house.
This is Bedelia's casual hanging-around-the-house look when Jack Crawford shows up to ask some Crime Questions. Full face makeup. Incredible.
https://twitter.com/Hello_Tailor/status/1278421022128123912
The lighting in Bedelia's office is so smart.
Usually the patient sits facing the window, so his face is illuminated & hers is in shadow. In this confrontation, Hannibal stands in front of the light to hide his reactions, ending the conversation by pointedly sitting down.
Usually the patient sits facing the window, so his face is illuminated & hers is in shadow. In this confrontation, Hannibal stands in front of the light to hide his reactions, ending the conversation by pointedly sitting down.
is anything more delicious than hannibal being a world-class despicable shitbag, framing Will for Abigail's murder & then "helping" Will with the aftermath, AND THEN tearfully mourning this unavoidable tragedy!!!!!!
me, a TV critic, watching this show for like the fourth time: i can't BELIEVE Hannibal Lecter is so evil and manipulative!!
lmao our boy Hannibal is so visibly horny about Will shakily pointing a gun in his face.
wow... so caring... what a sweet image...
The season ends with Vide Cor Meum, which you might assume is a classic opera aria, but was written by Patrick Cassidy for the Hannibal movie.
IDK why Ridley Scott chose to invent a whole new opera for one scene of Hannibal, altho obviously the results were iconic. If anyone knows of any interviews about this, please let me know!
omg is this rack of plastic-wrapped jackets visual foreshadowing or have i fully entered the tinfoil hat zone.
Hannibal's season 2 opener is truly an all-time great. An astounding fight scene in itself, but also such a bold & satisfying choice for a crime drama where the audience knows the perpetrator from Day 1.
One benefit of Hannibal's surreal tone is that it feels less wilfully misrepresentative than most crime dramas. This depiction of ""the American healthcare system"" is easier to swallow in a blatant fantasy world.
will & hannibal getting dressed in tandem while this Don Giovanni aria plays in the background: "on her peace depends my peace too/if she sighs i sigh with her"... hello.
hannibal just described a crime scene as "an arresting piece of theater" with a completely straight face
an amazing example of this: the judge's body being found 5 mins before the end of an episode.
https://twitter.com/Hello_Tailor/status/1280958906571919368
FBI agent #1: we're gonna need our beekeeping outfits for this crime scene.
FBI agent #2: the ones with yellow accents, color-coded to the theme of bees & honey?
FBI agent #3: OBVIOUSLY.
FBI agent #2: the ones with yellow accents, color-coded to the theme of bees & honey?
FBI agent #3: OBVIOUSLY.
i'm no medical expert, but it seems like a conflict of interest for abel gideon to be treated by the psychiatrist he disembowelled.
Hannibal & Alana really are a good match... she launches straight into morning pillow-talk with "I was thinking about funerals."
it's time for a very important episode
i know hannibal is literally dracula but it's still something of a surprise that they never did a vampire ep. i can only imagine bryan fuller was saving it for s4.
mason verger is - to risk a pun - THE hammiest character in this show.
"Meat is, at base, a people business."
"Meat is, at base, a people business."
(deleted a previous tweet because i mislabeled a screencap.)
apparently mason verger's red surgical scrubs are a reference to cronenberg's Dead Ringers! i rly need to see this movie.
apparently mason verger's red surgical scrubs are a reference to cronenberg's Dead Ringers! i rly need to see this movie.
https://twitter.com/ide_cyan/status/1320452323504726018
absolutely crucial detail in the latter half of Hannibal season 2: will graham visibly starts to condition his hair.
self-care, or part of his hannibal seduction plan? who can say!
self-care, or part of his hannibal seduction plan? who can say!
just guys bein dudes
hannibal has the same view of "science" as a 19th century aristocrat who just like, Reads Everything and Appreciates Theories. he's over here talking about reversing time, and how all the atoms of his office resonate with the history of his conversations with Will, etc.
sacrificial lamb skeleton, garnished with the pomegranate of hades, alongside a lobster hatching from a melon. death and rebirth.
hannibal's season 2 finale, a rare example of a recurring nondiegetic ticking-clock sound effect that DOESN'T feel like a total hack move.
that final, bloody confrontation before Hannibal flees the country? what more can one say! not a moment wasted!!
"hannibal lecter rides a motorbike & wears a sexy leather jacket" sounds like the premise to an archetypally misguided modern reboot, but somehow this show Makes It Work.
hannibal 3x1 "Antipasto" is the pilot episode of an anime series where glamorous millionaire academics compete by reciting Dante at each other at parties.
i love how Hannibal moves to italy and gets THE quintessential italian-gentleman-of-a-certain-age suit.
i think there's an argument to be made that Hannibal's "normal" outfits are also a costume, playing the role of an eccentric wealthy foreigner for the benefit of his american audience.
https://twitter.com/Hello_Tailor/status/1274440679201091584
anthony dimmond's single-episode role is SO perfectly written & cast. a man who superficially resembles will graham but is UNBELIEVABLY annoying, up to and including his tone of voice.
the moment in my life where i realized that Detective Pazzi's role in Hannibal was to be a patsy... i swear to god...
just reached a certified iconic moment in Hannibal canon... a cameo appearance from the Lecter crest, currently residing in my bedroom.
https://twitter.com/Hello_Tailor/status/732265410603692032?s=19
Chiyoh is my one persistent point of frustration with this show... she's implicitly Hannibal's peer (his aunt's personal maid) but is visibly 20 years younger. The timelines don't add up!
Everyone else's motives are so compelling in this show, but Chiyoh is like... spending her entire life in Lecter Castle, being obsessively loyal to the absent nephew of her former boss? And she's an enigmatic asian woman, here to deliver exposition? IDK man. She's a weak spot.
I once asked Bryan Fuller about this at a convention & he didn't have a satisfying answer, which is unusual for such a precise & thoughtful writer. I think Chiyoh might've worked better as a more obvious Mrs Danvers figure, though.
chiyoh's budget for locking that guy in a moldy dungeon for 10 yrs:
https://twitter.com/dril/status/384408932061417472?s=19
the situation!!!!!!
mason verger telling alana bloom, "i'm all ears, they've just been... redistributed." ... i swear to god.
I love how Alana Bloom embraces previously-unseen levels of theatricality in her new job as Niche Consultant For A Rich Weirdo. When you've got that kinda client, you need to keep their attention!
obsessed with the shot where Chiyoh just hoiks Will off the train... iconic move.
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