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Death is beautiful in Hannibal

SINGAPORE — With Hannibal’s second season currently airing, we’re back on our weekly dose of the beautiful and the macabre.

SINGAPORE — With Hannibal’s second season currently airing, we’re back on our weekly dose of the beautiful and the macabre.

The show, which examines the blurred lines between revulsion and attraction felt in response to the gruesome, now sees criminal profiler Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy) institutionalised, having been framed by his friend, Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen), that closet serial killer and famous eater of people. Meanwhile, Graham’s boss at the FBI, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), is beginning to grasp at the truth.

Visually, what sets the series apart from the other crime procedural shows out there is the highly stylised way in which it is produced and shot. For example, this season, the asylum in which Graham is imprisoned forms a dramatic backdrop for his mental turmoil.

“The sets we built for the prison were pretty remarkable because they were quite continuous — the great corridors and staircases are very gothic without being too extreme,” shared Dancy. “There’s a huge hall, and in the middle of the hall are these cages in which he sits, a therapy cage just big enough for a man to sit or possibly stand up in.”

Being behind bars for several episodes was a “completely weird experience”, the British actor went on to say. “You’re always isolated, you’re behind bars — I mean, literally, the cameras were on the other side of bars… It’s quite interesting filming a scene in which, as an actor, you’re completely static.” Hannibal’s famous sets wouldn’t be complete without the various murder scene tableaux: Lingering shots of elaborately displayed bodies carefully staged by their killers. Dancy’s favourite this season, he said, was “the idea of cutting open a dead horse and a dead naked person spilling out from inside it”. “I shouldn’t laugh, but I think that’s a very powerful and disturbing, but strangely poetic image,” he added.

Fishburne’s favourite scene was one with about 50 bodies arranged in a pattern resembling the human eye. “I remember walking into that set, which was heated from the floor because all of the background artists were naked and laying in this huge circle,” said Fishburne. “(We) were doing our thing: ‘Oh my god, how horrific this is’. But really, what was happening inside me was like, ‘Wow, this is so beautiful, I just want to take my clothes off and lay down with everyone’!”

He continued: “It was warm and you could smell everyone’s scent. The pheromones were wafting up in this warm room, and everyone was covered with Vaseline to make their skin glisten and shine, and they were all sleeping peacefully. At one moment we heard snoring — one of the extras had just fallen asleep!”

But it’s not all style over substance. “Often, the tableaux reflect what’s happening with the characters on an emotional and psychological level. That’s just basic human stuff, in a sort of psychoanalytical frame, but it’s just wonderful stuff to play,” Fishburne said. “That’s what I’m enjoying the most about it — not to mention the nice suits I get to wear, and the beautiful shirts and ties, and all the beautiful things that Hannibal gets to wear. And, actually, Will is going to get a little smarter in terms of his style later on in Season Two.”

Speaking of stylish things, there is also, of course, Hannibal’s impeccably laid dinner table. “It’s always a joy sitting at Doctor Lecter’s table,” Fishburne said. “All of the centerpieces, for example, are mind-blowing to begin with. And the fact that he’s prepared the food and it’s always quite delicious and there’s always the right wine paired with it and the music is absolutely correct and the meal is, you know, beyond sumptuous.

“I’m a bit of a foodie anyway, so, uh, I’m a Fannibal of dining with Hannibal.” TRANSCRIPT COURTESY AXN

Catch the second season of Hannibal on Tuesdays at 10pm on AXN (StarHub TV Ch 511).

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