Welcome to my analysis of Hannibal. Buttons at the bottom of each post can be used to navigate through the parts of the analysis. (One of the buttons links to the table of contents.) Also, there are links to videos taken from this analysis at the left-hand side of the screen. Free use of Wikipedia is made at various places in the analysis, as detailed in the notes.
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological horror film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. Hannibal was the highly anticipated sequel to 1991's Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs, which introduced Hannibal Lecter to mainstream movie-going audiences (though the character was first portrayed by Brian Cox in the 1986 film, Manhunter, based on Harris' novel, Red Dragon). Set ten years after The Silence of the Lambs, the premise is that Hannibal Lecter's only surviving victim, the extremely wealthy Mason Verger, is determined to capture, torture, and kill him.
Just as we used some of the writings of medieval philosopher and theologian, Saint Augustine, to analyze The Silence of the Lambs and Manhunter, so also will we need him to help us find the underlying meaning of Hannibal. In my analysis of The Silence of the Lambs, I claimed that Lecter's Baltimore prisoner number, 'B1329-0', is a reference to book 13, chapter 29 (i.e., book 13.29) of Augustine's Confessions. The makers of Hannibal have provided us with a somewhat more indirect hint of Augustine's applicability, that hint being given by virtue of the fact that at one point in the movie, Lecter quotes from a sonnet which is contained in Chapter 3 of Dante Alighieri's La Vita Nuova. (Recall that in the movie, Lecter and Inspector Pazzi see an outdoor opera in Florence based on La Vita Nuova, called Vide Cor Meum. This opera is based on the sonnet "A ciascun'alma presa", in chapter 3 of La Vita Nuova. After the opera, Lecter quotes from the sonnet while conversing with Allegra, Inspector Pazzi's wife.)
If we turn to chapter 3 of La Vita Nuova, we see that in it, Dante makes several references to the numbers 3 and 9 (the latter being equal to 3 x 3, that is, the root of 9 is 3):
- At the opening of chapter 3, it has been nine years since Dante has seen his beloved Beatrice.
- In the scene described to us, Beatrice is walking with two other women; thus, there are three women walking together.
- It is the "ninth hour of that day (3 o'clock in the afternoon)", when Beatrice again appears to Dante.
- A vision later appears to Dante "in the fourth* hour of the night; that is, it was without a doubt the first of the last nine hours of the night."
- The second part of the sonnet begins, "The first three hours"; Dante points this out to the reader after the sonnet, as if to emphasize it.
It is my belief that the movie's use of this chapter from La Vita Nouva, with all its references to the number 3, are references to the concept of the Holy Trinity; and furthermore, it is also a hint to use St. Augustine's book, On the Trinity, to help interpret the movie. We will begin to look at the Holy Trinity in the next post.
*The hours of the night began at 6 p.m. It was between 9 and 10 p.m.
[The above footnote, and quotes from La Vita Nuova itself given in this post, are from the Musa translation. All emphasis, however, is mine.]
[UPDATE 10/6/11: At certain places in this analysis, it will become evident to the reader that I have found what may appear to be expressions of antisemitism by the author of Hannibal, the novel which serves as the source for the movie. Two things should be understood about this: 1) Per the disclaimer on this blog (see below), these views should not be taken as expressing my own personal opinions; 2) Various claims I have made in the analysis that seem to suggest this antisemitism, may appear to the reader to be somewhat tenuous or far-fetched - it appears that author Thomas Harris has designed things this way intentionally, so that it takes a certain amount of 'abstruse' reasoning to deduce the connections that form the basis for these claims; and therefore, so that a question can be raised as to whether or not Harris is really saying these things. This serves to distance Harris from any controversy which may ensue.]
