The Silence of the Lambs (film) The Silence of the Lambs (film) The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror-thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme from a screenplay written by Ted Tally, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1988 novel of the same name. The film stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, and Anthony Heald. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer to apprehend another serial killer, known only as "Buffalo Bill", who skins his female victims' corpses. The novel was Harris's first and
Hannibal (Harris novel) the plot of the novel. Seven years after the Buffalo Bill case, FBI agent Clarice Starling witnesses her career crumble around her. During a botched drug raid, Starling kills a meth dealer, who was holding a baby. Fugitive serial killer Hannibal Lecter, who has been living in Florence, Italy, under an assumed name, sends her a letter of condolence and requests more information about her personal life. Desperate to catch Lecter, the FBI tasks Starling with apprehending him. She meets with Barney Matthews, former orderly of Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. When Barney asks Starling if she ever