Hannibal Lecter, Fictional Villian
Hannibal Lecter's formative years:
The son of Lithuanian nobility, curly-haired 7-year-old Hannibal (Gaspard Ulliel) sees his parents die during a Nazi-Russian skirmish. He briefly settles in as caretaker to his 3-year-old sister Mischa, until a band of murdering thugs arrive, led by Grutas (Rhys Ifans). The gang, on the lam and starving, cast a hungry eye toward little Mischa, who is selected to make a nice stew.
Hannibal survives, but is devastated and further damaged by years spent in a cruel Russian orphanage. In his late teens, Hannibal escapes to France and the loving arms of his Japanese aunt Lady Murasaki (played by Gong Li). She is a kindred soul in suffering, and it isn't long before she begins to fall in love with her somber nephew. Murasaki teaches him the art of Japanese swordplay, and Hannibal soon proves his dedication by delivering the head of a potty-mouthed butcher after the man insults Auntie.
Murasaki's ambivalence about Hannibal's methods of exacting revenge doesn't prevent her from protecting and enabling the boy.
Hannibal gets other breaks as well. French Inspector Popil (Dominic West) links Hannibal's tragic past to a series of murders, but his efforts to make a case are halfhearted. Murders committed by Hannibal in Eastern Europe earn the inspector's winking warning: "If you kill in France I will send you to the guillotine." Hannibal witnesses such executions firsthand because the Parisian medical school he attends assigns him to collect the beheaded corpses.
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Daniel Tammet, Brainman
