Hannibal Rising (2007)

Director:

Peter Webber

Writers (WGA):

Thomas Harris (screenplay)
Thomas Harris (novel)

Release Date:

9 February 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

It Started With Revenge

Plot:

After the death of his parents during World War II, young Hannibal Lecter moves in with his beautiful aunt and begins plotting revenge on the barbarians responsible for his sister's death.

Plot Keywords:

Hannibal Lecter | Aunt | Lithuania | Revenge | War Criminal

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Aaran Thomas	...	Hannibal 8yrs
Gaspard Ulliel	...	Hannibal Lecter
Li Gong	...	Lady Murasaki (as Gong Li)
Helena-Lia Tachovská	...	Mischa Lecter
Richard Leaf	...	Father Lecter
Dominic West	...	Inspector Popil
Rhys Ifans	...	Vladis Grutas
Michele Wade	...	Nanny
Richard Brake	...	Enrikas Dortlich
Martin Hub	...	Lothar
Ingeborga Dapkunaite	...	Mother Lecter
Kevin McKidd	...	Kolnas
Joerg Stadler	...	Berndt
Stephen Walters	...	Zigmas Milko
Ivan Marevich	...	Bronys Grentz

Also Known As:

Hannibal - Zrození (Czech Republic)
Hannibal 4 (USA) (working title)
Hannibal Lecter - Le origini del male (Italy)
Hannibal Lecter - Les origines du mal (France)
The Lecter Variation: The Story of Young Hannibal Lecter (USA) (working title)
The Lecter Variations (USA) (working title)
Young Hannibal (USA) (working title)
Young Hannibal: Behind the Mask (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong grisly violent content and some language/sexual references.

Runtime:

121 min | 131 min (unrated version)

Country:

UK | Czech Republic | France | Italy

Language:

English | German | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R | Ireland:18 | Australia:MA | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Finland:K-15 | UK:18 | France:-12 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | Italy:VM14 | New Zealand:R18 | Germany:18 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:NC-16 (edited version) | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Malaysia:18PL | Philippines:R-18 (MTRCB) | Japan:R-15 | Brazil:16 | Argentina:18 | Sweden:15 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

France

Company:

Young Hannibal Productions

Trivia:

"Lady Murasaki" (Shikibu Murasaki) is actually the name of an 11th-century Japanese novelist. Her "The Tale of the Genji" is regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese literature.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Hannibal Lecter is about to kill the guy in the houseboat when trying to rescue Lady Murasaki Shikibu, he has the guy on the ground with a knife next to his throat, with no blood on it, when the camera shoots back at Hannibal Lecter, the knife is shown with blood.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Hannibal 8yrs: Hide quickly! Run away! Quick! This way! Quickly! Down to the lake.
[giggling, drawing on dock]
Hannibal 8yrs: M... for Mischa.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Soundtrack:

Goldberg Variations BWV 988

A totally unnecessary and extremely poor prequel

There is a law that states that with every sequel to a film that is made, the quality of the sequel will deteriorate exponentially. This law seems to apply embarrassingly well to Hannibal Rising (HR).

Where Silense of The Lambs had a tremendous build up of suspense, HR is completely flat, plodding and repetitive. Furthermore, since it is a prequel, we already know that young Hannibal will survive his childhood unharmed, sophisticated and crafted in the art of human cuisine. So in every scene where he is in danger, one can just slide back in his chair waiting for the next pointless scene.

Where we had compelling characters in SoTL, HR gives us cardboard cutouts. And although we can see that Gaspard Ulliel studied the performance of Hopkins, his portrayal of Hannibal is just a embarrassing two-dimensional caricature. Amazing btw, that a tall, long-faced man can become a small, round-faced man in his later years. Talk about a complete miscast.

The story of HR is as far as I'm concerned plain bull, boring, unoriginal and it ruins the myth of Lector. Wooden dialog is not known to help mediocre stories but the producers must have thought otherwise. Actually, the whole script is plot driven which means it only reflects the content of the scenes while lacking any depth. Too bad there wasn't much of a plot to begin with.

Didn't we already have a prequel to the original classic and wasn't this movie in fact the first to be released? I strongly recommend skipping this movie because all you'll see is another rehash of something already rehashed to death. And even standing on it's own, it is just a very,very poor movie in frankly every aspect.

Alas poor Frenchise, I knew it Horatio...