The look of the film was always going to be hugely important in conveying the tension and trauma of the story. Director of Photography Ben Davis, whose credits include IMAGINE ME AND YOU and LAYER CAKE, was responsible for translating Webber’s ideas into a visual style. “The great thing about this film is it has so many different textures,” says Davis. “It has different seasons, different moods, and different time periods. Also our lead character changes fundamentally from the beginning to the end, so the look of the film shifts with him.”

The story gave Davis the opportunity to explore different moods, something he relished: “Visually the film follows Hannibal’s journey, starting in Lithuania in the war, which is a very dark time in his life, reflected in a very dark, de-saturated, grainy look. There are a lot of shadows, a lot of blacks. Then he escapes Eastern Europe, crosses the border, and comes into post war France. It’s very claustrophobic at the beginning and then opens up when he escapes. We are outside for the first time, so there are more wide shots to convey a sense of freedom. And because that seems to me to be the only part of his life which is in any way nice, the colors become warmer.”

The final, violent crescendo of the film was a creative challenge to light. “It’s a sort of a descent into insanity, which is reflected in style, as the film becomes more and more film noir. Peter is a fantastic choice of director for this project because he has, like Gaspard, a sense of the macabre about him. There are scenes in the film that need to be handled very subtly and he’s done that, and he’s brought something new to the Hannibal films. There’s a subtlety to his approach which is key.”

Ben Davis’ lighting skill is certainly appreciated by the performers. “Ben is a great cinematographer,” says Ulliel, “the light is amazing. This is really important in a film like this, because it creates the atmosphere of suspense and fear.”

Production designer Allan Starski, who won an Academy Award for his work on SCHINDLER’S LIST and received numerous nominations and awards for THE PIANIST, was charged with creating the look of the film. Starski took his first inspiration from the script: “Thomas Harris’ knowledge is fantastic and this really helped me because his descriptions are so good.”

Both Webber and Starski wanted to introduce as much reality as they could into the scenes of the Second World War. Webber explains: “Our props look real. For example, the Russian tank looks shabby, it’s got a bike tied to the back of it, it’s got cans of paint. It’s not nice and pristine which is what you often see in war movies. Allan grew up in Poland during the communist era and he’s old enough to remember the world war. That’s great because he can bring that level of authenticity to the film.”

Starski’s concern over authenticity even influenced how he had the sets painted. “Lady Murasaki’s Paris apartment is very elegant but it’s her father’s apartment and we should believe that it has history,” he explains. “Therefore even the walls must be true to the history and look like they were painted eight years ago not four days ago. I want to show the process of aging with the layers of paint.”

This striving for perfection was appreciated by the performers, as Stephen Walters, who plays Milko, explains: “Being surrounded by such authentic sets really helps the actors. For my death scene in the water tank, they filled the tank with body parts. That creates a reality before you’ve even started acting. The attention to the detail is amazing.”

That focus on authenticity was shared by costume designer Anna Sheppard, re-teamed with Allan Starski following her Oscar-nominated work on SCHINDLER’S LIST and THE PIANIST. For the character of Hannibal, subtlety was the key. “Gaspard’s got the most amazing face and he plays a lot with his eyes so the costumes on him are different enough to show his change of age but not to distract from his performance. We used the costumes and the make-up to show how Hannibal’s character develops as the film progresses. When Hannibal first arrives in France, we kept a boyish look and used a lot of light colours and original clothing from the fifties, but when he goes to Paris his clothes become more streamlined and more severe. The last sequence is played just in a black polo neck, which really shows off his face and his slicked back hair. He looks very menacing.”

Sheppard was delighted to be dressing Gong Li. “We used a very stylised Japanese element in her dressing gowns, the shape of her kimono. I managed to find some original kimonos from the forties. The moment we move from the chateau, which was her husband’s home, to the family home in Paris, she becomes a very chic Parisian, and the older Japanese element practically disappears.”

Gong Li’s busy schedule did present some challenges: “It was quite nerve racking because I met her just once when I went to Miami to discuss her character, then I didn’t see her until she arrived on set,” explains Sheppard. “All her costumes were made without fittings, so there were a lot of alterations. I was dreading it slightly, but she was fantastic, putting on costumes she had never seen and then going straight out on scene - it worked out perfectly.”

Peter Webber is keenly aware that however individual the performances and however unique the look of the film, HANNIBAL RISING will be measured against the films that have come before it. “There are things both in the script and the performances where we tip our hats to those previous films, but the nature of this film is very different,” he says. “It’s a European story rather than an American story, it’s not a psychological thriller in the same way, it’s more of a suspenseful drama - more of a Gothic Western than the others. I hope that what we do is something quite separate and quite distinctive.”

NEXT
SYNOPSIS
In RED DRAGON we learned who he was. In SILENCE OF THE LAMBS we learned how he did it. Now comes the most chilling chapter in the life of Hannibal Lecter – the one that answers the most elusive question of all - why?