My favorites

1978 was the year i was born. I have no clue to how many movies i´ve watched since. But i´m sure of something... I LOVE going TO THE MOVIES. I asked myself 10 questions as i revisited different films as well as stages of my life in the  process.....

1)My favorite COMEDYI guess it depends on what mood you're in that day
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, CAVEMAN,,,, 
If i had to pick just ONE:  
TOP SECRET Because ... Val Kilmer as a young ELVIS PRESLEY type of ROCK STAR going to sing to NAZI GERMANY. The MOST RIDICULOUS MOVIE PLOT EVER. 
But it works. The way AIRPLANE did. Top Secret pushed further. Nonsense everywhere. Not taking anything serious. Doing good parodies to ICONS and POP CULTURE is not easy.  

2)The film I WATCH the most
There are two films i watch almost every week The Social Network or Moneyball.

 I don´t really know if its Sorkin´s way of writing dialogue or the long moments of silence and reflection that both movies soundtracks HAVE. But i´ve lost track on how many times i´ve watched them .

3)My favorite SOUNDTRACK

Crazy Heart 
I LoveJeff Bridges acting and I love COUNTRY music !! JUST EPIC! I´m a fan of his work since I can recall ....he made The last Picture show, KING KONG on the 70´s with Jessica Lange all the way through the 80´s with TRON and the 90´s with BIG LEBOWSKI. A LEGEND.

4)My favorite CONCERT movie
METALLICA -ORGULLO PASION Y GLORIA 
UNbelievable is to meet  your idols. 
FCKN AWESOME!!! to have it captured ON A MOVIE.  
Inside CHAPTER 23 holds the testament of:
whatever you wish can become true. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!

5)The film i love that NO ONE else has HEARD OF

It´s a tie between my two favorite comedians...
Peter Sellers and Gene Wilder.

BEING THERE is Peter Sellers PERFORMANCE of a lifetime. As a Stan Laurel(ish )character who is the victim of everyone´s assumptions. After facing the death of his long time employer the life of Chance, a simple gardener will never be the same.

FRISCO KID is a "buddy movie " featuring the talents of Gene Wilder & Harrison Ford can you i magine that. Avram the rabbi and Tommy the outlaw TOGETHER??? It´s a wonderful light comedy set in the Old West Gold Rush to San Francisco.

6)the film that always makes me CRY
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder makes an awesome performance as a scary ,crazy owner of a Candy World Corporation. But i have to say it is Peter Ostrum (Charlie) whose performance floored me. Every time i  watch Charlies face when he opens that Wonka Bar searching for the last Golden Ticket. 

7)the film i LOVE that everyone HATES
GOAL
Kuno Beckers performance is not the best, neither is his english. But at least he tried. Whenever i catch it on TV i watch it full and enjoy it. As ROCKY  did on the 70´s it is the story of an UNDERDOG who wants BIG THINGS. To play professional footbal in ENGLAND. Maybe because I love soccer. I would´ve loved to play professional soccer.

8)the film i will NEVER watch again
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM 
It gave me too many nightmares. 






9)the FIRST movie i ever saw
Cinderella 
One of my aunts took me to the movie theatre when i was like 3  but after it i was a little dissapointed because the story wasn´t about the adventures of little mice but about a princess and her step mother. But i loved eating popcorn.

10)the film that SCARES me the most
PET SEMATARY 
It is really scary TO ME beacause it deals with the relationship of DEATH AND LOVE and the circle it makes in our lives. As many fear DEATH because of what it takes away. Stephen King uses that unconditional LOVE to trick us into watching a film that is very, very dark. Rooted within us is the question ..what if we had the power to bring someone back to life? To me that is a scary thought.

ThisDiseased Lewis Carroll Universe

....thats what, american film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called Terry Gilliam´s film TIDELAND.

"I don´t want to do what is easy ...I don´t want to do what everybody else is doing.

There´s enough people out there doing that and they are tecnically better than I am 

I don´t want know about that.

I wanna take the ideas, the stories... that nobody wants to touch 

or doesn´t know how to make in this instance"

- Terry Gilliam

The first movie i ever saw of Terry Gilliam was 12 Monkeys. It attracted me because of my cousin ALEX. WHO told me you had to watch this FILM! Its Brad Pitt & Bruce Willis like you´ve never seen them. Not in hollywood STYLE but in the world of Terry Gilliam!! He also got me interested in riding bikes, READING Spiderman comics (he had a massive collection) The magazine "HEAVY METAL" listening to jazz,  Neil Peart´s DRUMMING, Nine Inch Nails The downward spiral, oil Painting and french press coffee.

As we begin to grow and experience things we begin liking some better than others. Brands and styles. Movies and stories. Trends and tendencies. As if we were trying on clothes. We watch on others and on ourselves. Some stay forever others pass quickly. The importance of having options or adding colors to our own palette is fundamental.In movie making the more you have to choose from the better. I have many favorite films & directors one of them is Terry Gilliam because he makes no repeated formulas.He has no FEAR.

The representation of SPACE affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, LIGHTNING( has a profound effect on the way an image is perceived), DECOR(the objects contained in and the setting of a scene), effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the diegetic world. Terry Gilliam plays with all of these elements for his dark storytelling.

His worlds are full of fantasy and dirt, a magic loneliness, surreal confussion and misguided adventures...as if we enterd a world full of lost people in the after math of war. A world recovering. A world that just exploded and is trying to join all the broken pieces. Like in BRAZIL. A world not completly clean nor clear in ideas. Deeply troubled main characters that have to socialize within as well  as stumbling onto others. There are no supporting ROLES everyone counts. As in movies or theatre we all are laughing as we witness the brutality of the few who think PEOPLE MUST BE CONTROLED. Gilliam makes this point across like on  the Monthy Python skits.

Only in a Terry Gilliam movie you will see HUGE UNIQUE

worlds made of clouds and doubts, colorful CHARACTERS, grey PERFORMANCES,  factory bureaucracy, deformed lifestyles , THE BROTHERS GRIMM, a fisher king, the future made of brick walls, A  BARON MUNCHAUSEN, CRAZY CAMERA ANGLES,  the ever present poor people, the all seeing eyes, all the  questions remain silent as type writers, TIME BANDITS , ZERO THEOREMS and wait...Tom Waits is the devil.??????

To André Bazin, a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist, he believed that a film should represent a director's personal vision but the interpretation of a film or scene should be left to the spectator.

The real magic of Terry Gilliam, to me is that he doesn´t have to make sense. Nor is trying to give us a happy closure perfect movie ending. He screams his thoughts and ideas out there for us to see and experience. No one is right or wrong. THE IMAGINATION has no limit. Every MIND is DIFFERENTLY complicated. As admiring a painting... Gilliam´s work stays with us and speaks to you. And you ALONE. Everyone can criticize but you have to acknowledge...He has THE COURAGE TO PUT IT ON FILM. His work has influenced, trascended  and molded my creative process in so many different ways  as those rainy afternoons with my cousin ALEX... listening to jazz, drinking coffee and  watching a Terry Gilliam movie...

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...

"I know this sound silly ...and i know that i might sound ridiciulous...like this is "the scene" of the movie, where the guy is trying to get a hold of the long lost son... this is "that scene" and i think they have "those scenes" in movies because they´re true."

-Philip Seymour Hoffman 

DARKNESS

By some fantastic inexplicable unknown force every movie begins so. In darkness. We don´t know whats it about or who are we going to meet. But i discovered the one true constant in every single movie ever made in history. And that is ..."Time stops here for a reason".

Movies are stories worth telling by characters we are drawn to like or to hate. Told by them and witnessed by us. To be in a little relationship. A two hour relationship. Character involves the illusion of being a human and a premise is an assumption that something that will happen is true.

"to be able to tranform, to undergo a metamorphisis not act but become and comand and inhabit the character" 

-Martin Scorsese

The Academy is not always right...it has given OSCARS for 86 years and not necessarily are THOSE MOVIES OR PERFORMANCES THE BEST OF THAT YEAR. In my opinion. 

"acting is ...claiming the moment " 

-Marlon Brando 

Movies also reflect the struggle within ourselves and our inner changes.

"i was creating characters that i felt ... i´m learning" 

-Dustin Hoffman

The way a story is told,  the way we are introduced to the characters. Conflict or the lack of it moves the main character to action taking him outside his daily routine. Or the oposite. A charcter so troubled by the constant conflicts of his own persona he cannot relate to anyone not even him or herself.

TIME. 

Time is the only proof that a movie has what it takes to prevail. Performances that last forever. To act is to portray the inner truth of another human being. Year after year we watch performances that reach deep inside ourselves. Portrayed by a stranger we will never meet but we will always remember.

Movies are the way may skilled artists are capable of carrying emotions to our senses in a cinema. From  script to film from the movie set and a camera to finally reach our EYES and SENSES.

THE MAGIC

The real MAGIC in movies happens in scenes where absolute silence could be just listening to the wind or missing someone we lost. Scenes where you can almost hear the character´s mind. Nothing in movies is ignorable.

"ignorable is different from unimportant"

-Meryl Streep

As different people there are different points of view. My favorite is not gonna be your favorite. There are movies we buy, movies that make you think, others make you laugh, others you can never watch again. WHY????Movies are deep connections and answers to ourselves. We watch each other and ourselves in the silver screen. And how easy it is as an audience to criticize. To stand up and go. Or to remain seated watching how it will end. What all of this is about.

Movies are entertainment, teaching tools, they are history, they are fiction or human feelings encapsulated in film. They ALL mark  a certain point of view. We might not share it, WE MIGHT NOT EVEN LIKE IT, but it is basic to our social behavior and every day communion to respect the other and what his beliefs. Everyone... has felt happy, afraid or sad. Triumph or tragedy are constants worth telling the stroy.The movies in our lives  become a part of us kind of like our family. We are all not the same it´s the differences that makes us grow and learn and come together.  Thats is why "THE MOVIES" are so important to us. And that is why we MUST go to the movies . To feel that experiences over and over again.

If Movies are events (TIME)

the Score is the mood (STOPS) 

Actors perform the present (HERE).

That  is why...Time stops here.

"if you analyze it..... the way fairy tales and folk tales are analyzed.............. all those characters actually, probably represent aspects of the protagonist. It´s really Dorothy who needs courage, needs the brain, needs a heart " 

-Harold Raimis (talking about The Wizard of OZ)

CRIME Movies

" I always wanted to use the Mafia as a metaphor for America. Both...have roots in Europe. Basically, both... feel they are benevolent organizations. Both... have their hands stained with blood from that it´s necessary to do to protect their power and interests. Both are totally capitalistic phenomena and basically have a profit motive. Of course it´s a romantic conception of the Mafia.
-Francis Ford Coppola

Movie making is influence. Influence of life, influence of what we see, Influence of what we want. It was there before, it will be there tomorrow. Our amazement at that light in a dark room. An almost religious  affair. This movies are my favorite Crime Movies. They´ve influenced me in so many ways i can only try to mention a few. 

Movie genres are both, similar and different. They all have their distinct features. The western has the outdoors as atmosphere and the eternal conflict of good vs evil. Horror as atmosphere the unknown and features a darkness that hides in the shadows. And the Crime movies as atmosphere the Big City by featuring the greed of power and money of the human being. Few movies have made what this ones have. 

Become the standard.

I BELIEVE IN AMERICA

As Bonazera DEMANDS Vengance with Don Corleone. Don Corleone respectfully DEMANDS RESPECT. If you watch carefuly on Bonazera´s neck when he says(HER NOSE WAS BROKEN) you can see when he raises his hand a shadow made by the small lamp that lights him. As if we were watching a play at the theatre Bonazera asking The Devil for a favor. 

Made to resemble a memory or an old yellowish picture....Francis Ford Coppola´s masterpieces The Godfather & The Godfather Part II are the quintessential crime movies from 1972 &1974 to our days. As James Cagney & Humphrey Bogart were inmortalized in that genre. So was Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Duvall, Cazale and James Caan. 

The Godfather was born Vito Andolini, in the town of Corleone Sicily. We are witnessing both Michael´s and Vito´s  first murder. How by fate they turned their life towards crime and power.And how both of them eventually loose a child by the life they choose.

YOU BROKE MY HEART 

 Family is synonym for tradition. Such is cooking. Non other than FAT Clemenza is the best for that giving his spaghetti and meat balls recipe. Clemenza tells Michael after hanging up the phone with Kay. "why didn´t you tell that girl you loved her? ...I love you with all my heart" ...Years later Michael mentions his heart not to Kay but to Fredo at the new years party in Cuba. "You broke my heart" Both lines are opposites one of love and advice. The other one as a disappointment and hurtful reminder. As he gives him the kiss of death like Kirk Douglas did in the 1968 movie The Brotherhood.

AND THEN... THEY WILL FEAR YOU

In the Godfather part II, Coppola had the chance to tell his tale on a non linear way of both father and son.That is why the use of fade in´s and fade out´s work so beautiful. It works both ways as a sequel and a prequel. Telling the story of the head of the family, the DON that will not give up and will do everyhting to protect his family and his chair of power. 

IT´S NOT PERSONAL IT´S JUST BUSINESS

I´M GONNA MAKE HIM AN OFFER HE CAN´T REFUSE

DON´T EVER TAKE SIDES OUTSIDE THE FAMILY

WE DON´T TALK BUSINESS AT THE TABLE

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE BUT YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER

To me the greatest  advise in movie history in one liners.

"Crime isn´t a disease, it´s a symptom"  

-Raymond Chandler (novelist)

"as a director you don´t have to do that... your job is to hire talented people that can do that. Your job is explaining what your vision is"- Terry Gilliam´s advice to Quentin Tarantino

Oliver Stone was inspired by his writing, bought one of his scripts and turned it into Natural Born Killers, about a husband and wife serial-killing duo, and Tony Scott did the same with True Romance, the story of another couple who uncover a cocaine cache.

Quentin Tarantino made a name for himself in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs. But his next movie was distinct, unique and has become an american classic by its style and sounds. As Singin' In The Rain in A Clockwork Orange or Ride Of The Valkyries in Apocalypse Now .

Misrilou is Pulp Fiction.

YOU READ THE BIBLE BRETT?

In 1994 Quentin Tarantino took us to a familiar place called the streets of L.A. in 3 short stories. About a watch,  a briefcase and a date with the bosses wife. Never the less Vincent Vega would say: "It´s not a date!!!"

Simple to match? it hasn´t been done in  20 years. What Tarantino learned on the set of Reservoir Dogs  he perfected it on Pulp Fiction.  He took his love for movies... Embrace it. And put it on FILM.

THE LITTLE DIFFERENCES

Influenced by Sergio Leone´s The Good The Bad and the Ugly, Hong Kong action films  and Mario Bava´s Black Sabbath.... Pulp Fiction is the result of almost 100 years of movie watching coming to fruition. It´s not just another heist movie. It is the very definition of the style of a decade. 

"And i will strike down UPON thee with great vengance and furious anger"-Jules

It was, it is, it will forever be an american tale of crime. Mixing AND BLENDING the american pop culture: hamburgers, milk shakes, cartoons and rock n roll. In such a cool way, within 5 mins of the movie we started to like all this bad guys. 

A FIVE DOLLAR SHAKE

Not for what they said but how they said it. Taratino´s epic crime movie is a colorful feast and rewachable at any time. It is both timeless and epic. Using the oldest trick in the book. As Coca Cola. He created a  product then the LOGO & then he sold it. It is PULP FICTION.

As Jules eats his big Kahuna burger i can´t help but wonder...how much i want a burger! It is visual food marketing. Featuring ICONIC figures as waiters  Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. And a memorable dance sequence with  Chuck Berry´s "You Never Can Tell ". 

WANAKI KEPT HIS WORD

As many movie directors before him,  George Lucas had Alec Guiness on STAR WARS. In the Godfather Francis Ford Coppola had Brando. As Harvey Keitel did on Reservoir Dogs to give credibility and respect to a movie.  Tarantino got for Pulp Fiction the one and only Christopher Walken. It almost seems as a tribute to The Deer Hunter. Timing mearly 4 and a half minutes of monologue(almost a mini movie on its own) that becomes  prologue  for what that WATCH means to the story of Butch´s Birth Right.

There are very few directors that inspire so much in just one movie. Orson Wells in Citizen Kane or David Fincher on Seven. This is a tale that proves every body is conected some how. And it doesn´t matter if it´s  at the beggining or at the end. We are all supporting roles in everyone elses story. Except our own.

" I wanted you to hear them say very ugly things, I also wanted you to hear them say profound things. I wanted them to come across like fucking idiots one moment and brilliant geniuses the next."

-Quentin Tarantino

The loneliness OF BILL MURRAY

Have you ever been to a job interview? And the loneliness one feels before it? Have you felt it too? 

Have you seen a Bill Murray film the last 10 or 15 years?

Have you ever noticed he appears so lonely?

Have you ever felt like him? A Stranger in his own world?

Worried, careless, selfish, antisocial, impatient & self obsessed.

He has played a clown, a cowboy, a zombie, a president...

William James Murray was born on Illinois, gained exposure on Saturday Night Live where he did 73 episodes, then came Meatballs, Caddy shack, Ghostbusters, What About Bob? and Groundhog Day. 

Murray gained critical acclaim in his career starring in Lost in Translation, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, then the indie comedy-drama Broken Flowers and a series of films directed by Wes Anderson, including Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums , The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel

Since the movie Rushmore Bill Murray became a synonym of eclectic: different plots, different directors & different scripts. But there is one common denominator in all of his latest performances...he seems lonely. 

We started watching the world of Bill Murray as a hero or bigger than life  SUPERSTAR. Then became aware of what kind of actor he became. We forgot the comedian to begin watching the artist.

We were expecting on each of his movies the same Bill Murray over and over again... Scrooged, Ghostbusters 2 or Quick Change....

But he chose not to do the same thing always. He started giving us hints of his drama skills. In real life he got rid of his movie agent. He has an answering machine. If he is interested he´ll call you back.

He always pauses... 

The ever wondering & doubtful human.

That mystery inside all of us.

Talking to himself... or maybe to us, the audience?

The masterful craft of drama

He makes us look inside him as we take a hard look on ourselves. Finding out we are not so different.

He is a superstar he doesn´t need to make us laugh nor an OSCAR. We´ve been sharing 40 years of cinema with him.In every movie he takes us on a journey with him as his companions. He always is full of people the movie crew, the director, the cameraman but he always can share with us the loneliness on set, on a corridor, on a side walk. That is what makes his acting so natural.

Between smiles, awkward situations and lonely places. He is  one of the finest actors TODAY. Maybe you like his acting maybe you don´t. But all of us have at least seen one of his films

Not every actor can make you experience what he is feeling as Bill Murray does. 

He is all of us

He is none of us

He is Bill Murray

"I have to be myself to do it correctly, it´s the hardest job there is, because it’s going to be on screen."

-Bill Murray

The recipe is you.

"I want to be surprised as a filmmaker. I was an audience member long before I was ever a director. And so as an audience member I know what I respond to: I like being surprised, I like being respected, I like being challenged, I like being instigated, I like movies that live for me on the screen, that are like friends of mine, and as I go back to them over the course of my life they actually seem to change, and I know that they’re not changing, I know I am changing, but the movies are made open enough that they let me participate in the imagination of the characters in the story." -DEREK CIANFRANCE DIRECTOR (Blue Valentine)


Before NETFLIX i remember when my brother, my sister and I had to wait for my dad on Fridays to take us to the video rental store. For me it was something almost religious. Better than going to buy candies and almost as fun as watching toys. Friday night picking a movie out to rent was something far off this world. Because of two things my dad let us pick any movie, but just one. And we got to buy popcorn and pizza!!! i love movies, popcorn & pizza!

That was the way me and my siblings grew & watched many films for 20 years!

Before IMDB, My dad usually had us playing movie-trivia in our living room without us noticing. Who is that actor? In what other movie I’ve seen her? Is that a remake? This film is too dark i can´t see anything!!! He also did it during a movie in the movie theatre.


My dad wanted WAR films or EPIC films or usually (Where Eagles Dare, The Ten Commandments or The Godfather.) My mom preferred musicals or Disney cartoons (Sound of Music or Wizard of OZ, DUMBO or BAMBI). Usually my brother, my sister and I had the same taste: sometimes a comedy or a Horror movie or a Western or Star Wars again and again. As a family sometimes we had to watch movies we didn´t like. But it gave us a wider perspective or a bigger color palette. This visual education had a deep impact in all of us.


It shaped me as someone who likes to watch any kind of film and then makes the comment. Never before. Having a better eye to make better judgments. Pacino, De Niro, Newman, Redford, Shelly Long, Shelly Duvall, Brando, Taylor, Sellers, Wilder. Today trailers have become spoilers. Here´s the money shot. Do we really need to see the whole #!%&ing movie in 3 mins.? just to want to go and see it???...


I remember a time walking inside the movie rental store. Just picking by the poster of the film. We were influenced by so many movies, actors, directors. It makes us realize that those days are gone. That innocence of picking without knowing. Nowadays on Oscar night my brother my sister my wife and I… print the whole list of nominees and we try to guess who will win. The one who gets more wins. Just for fun. Like when we picked movies in the Video Rental Store.


"Be yourself. Find your style, your way; find the border and cross it, or else you may be lost or, even worse, boring. Don’t forget what you really want to say. There is no recipe. The recipe is you." -BÉLA TARR DIRECTOR (Kárhozat)

Fava beans and a nice Chianti

"People don't always tell you what they are thinking. 

They just see to it that you don't advance in life."

-Hannibal 

One of my all time favorite movie characters. He is a man of pure evil. I want to share with you the BEAUTIFUL UGLINESS of Hannibal essential trades and my favorite quotes. 

The Gentleman

Sophisticated and Complex. Charming and well educated. Doctor Hannibal Lecter´s elegant darkness has some kind of magnetism to me. As it is to stare at a candle. It is evil and knowledge ... insanity or wisdom. He is an avid reader, clean , obsesive with the detail of his drawings and most of all his gourmet cooking. Dr. Lecter has become such an ICON of EVIL, perfectly well dressed and proper manners, a Classic Movie Monster. He is a Cannibal Serial Killer but after all,  A TRUE gentleman.

"and don't your eyes seek out the things you want?"

-Hannibal 

The mask

It is a warning. It captures everything Lecter is INSIDE. A beast who knows no limit. He will speak words to lure you into his world. His mind. He is twisted and likes to test who ever comes to inquire him. With Clarice Starling he feels attracted. With Will Graham he feels matched. He enjoys talking to both of them.

"Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?"

-Hannibal 

Good Taste 

I think as a symphony orchestra starts tunning... such is Dr. Lecter´s mind. Always preparing for what comes... fine wines, good food , proper dress code and most important of all "no rudeness". If there were commandments in the life of Dr Lecter, that would be number ONE. Rudeness is not tolerable. Wether verbally or by action he does not stand it. Proper manners and behavior is the best human quality. He enjoys playing piano and listenting to Opera.

"Now you're being rude, and I hate rude people."

-Hannibal 

The Perception 

Lecter hasn´t lost his sense of humor. He is sarcasm and knows how to talk to any one.  But he is never out of control. Whatever he says he has thought of it at least 3 days prior. He can be soft, as a warm bath or agressive as a razor. He is evil in a seductive way. Whatever he says it is for his advantage.

 I'll call you if I think of anything else, would you perhaps like to leave me your home phone number?

 -Hannibal 

Through the Glass

As a true evil movie archetype,Dr. Lecter is demented and behind bars. Or shall we say behind the glass. Dr. Chilton who´s in charge of the Baltimore Hospital is his True nemesis. Lecter´s language is Freudian-Sarcasm. He questions by affirmation he wants to know about the person in front of him but by making fun. Chilton as many others think they are smarter than Lecter. Chilton wants to analyze Lecter´s mind in an attempt to gain money and fame. I love the scene where Lecter demands a dinner with a waiter in his cell. And during that dinner Lecter looks at the security camera. No words, he just raises the glass. Because he knows Chilton is watching him and will be very angry when he smiles. 

"Ah yes Dr. Chillton. Gruesome isn't he? Fumbles at your head like a freshman pulling at a panty girdle." 

-Hannibal 

The monster

As Dracula or Frankenstein, Dr. Lecter comes from literature. Thomas Harris way of writing is dense and macabre. I most say i read (RED DRAGON, HANNIBAL AND SILENCE OF THE LAMBS)and the movie portrayal of Dr. Lectrer is mearly the surface of the complexity of this character. He is meticulous and horrifying. He is a monster with good taste.

"Io fei gibetto de le mei case." 

I made my own home... be my gallows."

-Hannibal 

Whatever Hannibal does it atracts us. It makes us watch. I think the most scary aspect of Hannibal is that it could be real or someone we know. That human darkness we know exists. As the movie theatre resembles the glass that separates us from the monster. The illusion of safety. As Clarice , Will Graham and ourselves find out. He cannot hurt us ...as long as he is behind the glass. 

 "What a collection of scars you have. 

Never forget who gave you the best of them, and be grateful, our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real." 

-Hannibal