There are movies you watch. There are movies you enjoy. And then there are movies that make you.
Jonathan Demme has crafted many of those movies in his career as a director, screenwriter, and producer. He has impacted and spurred the art of others by simply being a masterful artist in his own writer. We’re very sad to hear about his passing this afternoon.
Demme’s career in film would start when he would work for exploitation film-maker Roger Corman, helping co-producer such seminal work such a The Hot Box, Caged Heat, and Crazy Mamma. His first film would be a comedy named Handle With Care. Released in 1977, this unheard of (but critically acclaimed hit), otherwise known as Citizens Band revolved around radios that helped connect human lives in an interweaving and humorous tale. Though it lacked a proper audience, Demme continued with his career to Last Embrace and the popular Melvin and Howard. The latter revolved around a real-life service station owner who was the beneficiary of Howard Hughes fortune. Noted as being “sharp” and “engaging,” Demme was lauded as a lyrical film-maker.
Through the eighties, he’d continue with comedy capers and performance pieces such as Something Wild, Swimming to Cambodia, and Married to the Mob.
However, it was in 1991 where he was handed a project based on a Thomas Harris novel called Silence of the Lambs. The film is perhaps Demme’s best known work, helping him scoop an Academy Award alongside lead actors Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. In it, Demme posses a gravitas in weaving a tonally tense thriller alongside deconstructions of sex and society. Through imagery, soundtrack, acting, and story, Demme’s work is a masterpiece in brewing fear, allowing the depth of human depravity to crawl on your skin in this truly stunning work.
Silence of the Lambs may be the first film many are jumping too this sorrow-filled day but his work didn’t stop there. Tom Hanks’ led drama Philadelphia is an emotionally turbulent film as a many with HIV battles with his former employees in a case of discrimination. Rachel Getting Married sees Anne Hathaway in turmoil as she struggles with mental illness at a family reunion. Though The Manchurian Candidate was a sub-par remake, it still earned praise and, more recently, Meryl Streep led comedy-drama Ricki and the Flash scooped some applause. Lesser known movies, that you should also watch, are horrors Beloved and Master Builder.
Since the news of his death, many independent of upcoming filmmaker have tweeted or expressed, not just their sorrow, but tales of how Demme has championed their films, more notably, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. Alexander Payne, Wes Anderson, and Paul Thomas Anderson have all stated Demme as influences in their work.
Beyond filmmaking, however, Demme was an activist and worked hard to produce documentaries and fight for rights of those around him. Demme was a critical filmmaker, whose movies still burn in your mind like the metallic eye of Hannibal Lecter. His work will live on for years, in the heart of every film lover, the soul of aspiring filmmakers, and everyone who couldn’t sleep for a while after Silence of the Lambs...
Thank you for the movies, Jonathan Demme. Rest in Peace.
