10 Best Acting Performances In The Hannibal Lecter Trilogy

Giancarlo Giannini appears in 2001’s Hannibal as Rinaldo Pazzi, a police detective in the city of Florence. He leads the majority of the film's first two acts as he unwittingly stumbles across Lecter, who is masquerading as a museum curator named ‘Dr. Fell’, and decides to take it upon himself to take down the serial killer for a reward of $1 million.

Giannini has numerous scenes with Hopkins. Lecter’s weird, creepy behaviour and tendency to be silent makes the scenes uncomfortable and Giannini is able to perfectly encapsulate the same awkwardness that the audience experiences in these scenes.

Perhaps Giannini’s best scene with Hopkins is when he goes to confront the cannibal in the museum while he is giving a talk. His awkward silence as Lecter proceeds to be creepily polite to him is again masterfully portrayed. The scene ultimately culminates in Pazzi being captured by the cannibal before being disembowelled and hung.

Giannini is also able to encapsulate the other aspects of Pazzi’s character, such as his nonchalant attitude towards Lecter when he is attempting to take him down. Scenes such as the phone call with Moore’s Clarice Starling, in which Pazzi pretends to be unaware of the serial killer, best encapsulate this.