My Favorite Movie

 A student asked me to name my favorite movie; the answer tends to change, but right now it's "The Silence of the Lambs."

This is a classic Hero's Journey story. Clarice must pursue a magical elixir--i.e., the senator's daughter, who has been imprisoned by Buffalo Bill. She resists the call; mainly, the resistance happens in her eyes. But ambition wins the day. Clarice wants to wield the power of Scott Glenn.

A Hero's Journey tends to involve a trickster, someone who can't quite be trusted. I think Bruno in "Encanto" is an example. Or Maria Reynolds in "Hamilton." Or Adriana in "The Sopranos." But "Silence" has the greatest of all tricksters, Hannibal, who will offer you advice and then eat your face. Hannibal is, literally, a shape-shifter; he stitches the skin of a corpse onto the surface of his own skin. He wants to chat with you about the Duomo--but, also, he wants to insult your accent and to share mean inferences about your socioeconomic background.

Clarice tolerates Hannibal because she needs the guidance; the guidance takes her (almost literally) to hell, where she has to wear night-vision goggles. There is something mythic in the final scenes, in which Clarice must descend beneath the surface of the Earth to retrieve her prize.

"Silence" made a mark on me very early in my life, so that, now, I can't really tolerate a movie or show unless it features a psychopath. Marc and I have seen both of Broadway's charismatic psychopaths--Madame Rose and Norma Desmond. I'm considering "Boop," but I know that no one cuts off an enemy's head, or eats a human heart, so I'm already a little disappointed.

I didn't share all this with my student, but I think there must have been something unnerving in my eyes. "I'm not into horror," my student said. "I like Caddyshack."

Then it was time to talk about math.