The Moth poster in The Silence of the Lambs keeps a scandalous secret

In Jonathan Demme's 1991 thriller, “The Silence of the Lambs,” FBI cadet Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) discovers several interesting and shocking clues while examining a carcass caught in the Elk River in Clay County, West Virginia. . In particular, large diamond shapes were cut from the skin of the victim's back; Starling has not yet determined to what end. Very curiously, the pathologist found a cyst in the victim's throat. It was too soft to fall accidentally, which means someone pushed it on purpose.

Starling later takes the nest to a pair of entomologists (Paul Lazar and Don Butler) to learn more about it. Entomologists carefully dissected the nest and discovered that it was a species of Acherontia styx, also known as the death's head moth (although it should have been more accurately described as the lesser death's head moth). The insect is easily identified by having a curious white spot on its chest that resembles a human skull.

The moth was such a prominent feature of “The Silence of the Lambs” that the film's marketing department put it on posters, often with its wings spread over the mouth of Starling or Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), the clever assassin. serially imprisoned. Starling consults the minds of other assassins for advice.

However, upon closer inspection of the poster, you can see that the death's head moth is not the same one seen in the film. In fact, the skull on the poster is actually a famous photograph created by Salvador Dalí and taken by fellow surrealist Philip Halsman, in which they arranged several naked women in a large skull-shaped painting.

A closer look reveals that the moth's thorax is the skull from “In voluptas mors” (“The Mighty Death”), the famous 1951 photograph by Dali and Halsmann. Seven women were asked to model in a special setting, prepared by Dalí with a skull. The teeth of the skull are the legs of the female, and its nose is formed between the two pelvises of the specimen. One specimen curves downward, forming its lower jaw, and two standing specimens form its cheekbones. In the center, a woman extends her arms; Its body and arms form the forehead and eyebrows of the skull, while the seventh model curls up to form the head. The Huffington Post once published several behind-the-scenes photographs of Dalí arranging models for Halsman. Unfortunately, the specimens were not identified by name. The shoot took about three hours, which is a long time to awkwardly kneel on a pedestal.

The image had to be modified slightly for the “Peace of the Lambs” poster to capture the most obvious details. “I had to draw some things because the MPAA requirements are to have no nudity,” designer Dan Bailey explained in a discussion. Poster House. “So it must be a little confusing.”

Dalí wanted to mix sensuality and sensuality, mixing sensuality with death. Dalí's paintings saw human bodies stretched and distorted into vague, distorted dreamlike figures, as if appearing unfiltered from the unconscious. Dalí and Halsman collaborated on several pieces, including a book of photographs published in 1954 as “Dalí's Mustache.” You may be familiar with the 1948 photograph “Dally Atunkus. It included Dalí, a painting of a chair, a stream of water and three house cats, all suspended in mid-air.

Halsman was also an accomplished portrait photographer. He took the portrait of Albert Einstein that appears on the United States postage stamp and the same portrait that appeared on the famous cover of Time magazine 33 years later. He also photographed the Marx Brothers, Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe, Milton Perle and Sid Caesar.

As mentioned, the moth is slightly misidentified in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Entomologists carefully cut out the sardine and roden nest and call it death's head moth. In fact, the lesser skull hawk is not as fearsome as its name might lead you to believe. The falcon is very fond of fruits and honey, and has the unique ability to emit a smell that resembles that of bees. Using the smell as camouflage, moths sneak into the hives and steal the honey. However, it seems that smell is not a foolproof defensive measure; Dead death hawks were found dead in hives after being killed by guards.

Hawks have thick, sharp tongues that allow them to pierce the combs and suck the honey inside. They use their tongues to pierce the skin of the fruit, making it a pest for yuzu growers in Korea; Mothtongue borers can ruin a good citrus fruit.

One aspect of the “Silence of the Lambs” story is that the skull hawk is not endemic in the United States, giving the FBI an investigative advantage. If the killer, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), is raising moths, he'll need imported caterpillars. In fact, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) thinks he has Buffalo Bill when he finds a bill for live insects from Suriname. However, they are commonly found in China, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The moth on the “Silence of the Lambs” poster is not an Acherontia styx as shown in the image, but a different subspecies, Acherontia atropos, the African death-headed falcon. Atropos is large and lives throughout the African continent.

According to the website Buck Underclass, many of the adult skull hawks fought by famous Hollywood buck fighter Ray Mendes are real. Movie buffs may recognize Mendez as one of four subjects from Errol Morris' 1997 documentary “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control,” in which he spoke at length about nudist mole rats. Mendez helped fight the area's notoriously creepy cockroach infestation. In 1982, George A. Romero's “Creepshow,” as well as the cockroaches from the 1996 MTV musical “Joe's Apartment.” He managed the bees for the 1989 drama “Sins of Life” and helped design the insect-like monster for the 1983 monster movie “Spasms.” Méndez knows his mistakes.

Close-ups of fully grown live insects, especially a moth perching on the fabric of a buffalo's beak, are authentic. However, the cocoons and pupae are not death's head moths, but rather tobacco hookworms. Maybe the filmmakers didn't think the death-headed hawks were right and decided on a cinematic insect. Or perhaps falcon cocoons and pupae are hard to come by in the United States, where “The Silence of the Lambs” was filmed.

“The Silence of the Lambs” is a great film, it is very popular, but it is always terribly transphobic. Buffalo Bill kidnaps and murders women, removes parts of their skin, and hopes to dress them in full-body female clothing. Bill – real name: Jame Gump – dances alone in one famous scene, placing his penis between his legs in hopes of appearing more feminine.

Hannibal Lecter explains that the moth represents an opportunity. Gump becomes a new person. A new girl. It's about to leave the nest.

However, Lecter has a line late in the film where he explains that Gump is not transgender: “He thinks he is.” Lecter says that childhood abuse and repeated trauma manifested as gender dysphoria, when Gump actually wanted to kill and possess the women around him. Lecter conveniently ignores the fact that Gump sought gender reassignment surgery for the better part of a decade, which was thoroughly explored in several deleted scenes (complete with Roger Corman songs!) fueling a general sense of cultural intolerance that endures to this day about the dark, transphobic Stereotype of “lambs” as murderous transvestites or murderous thugs.

“Lambs” has always been criticized for its transphobia, so its legacy is complex. On the one hand, a progressive feminist parable about women reclaiming their agency. In another, it is a horror story about trans people and their supposed evil.

Moths, of course, have always been associated with death and decay. In fact, one may be familiar with the phrase “bad moth” to describe the symbolism associated with the animal. Moths are essentially seen as the “evil twin” of butterflies, as butterflies are colorful, beautiful, and tied to tranquil, lush gardens. The moths are gray and brown in color, with thick, crawling bodies, and are usually found in closets and cabinets. Moths, then, are associated with shadows, darkness and decay. In fact, biologists are said to have chosen names for the insects such as “death's head moth” and “black witch moth.” The small flying animals and chubby cubs dressed in cultivator clothes look weird.

Edgar Allan Poe described a moth monster in his short story “The Sphinx”, which is said to be a human-sized insect with a human skull. When the narrator approaches the creature, it turns out to be an ordinary moth. Anyone who has discovered a giant moth in their closet has probably experienced an emotional roller coaster like the narrator.

Many movies use moths to represent terror. One might remember the moths in Guillermo del Toro's “Crimson Peak” or the moths surrounding the creepy ghost in “Mama.” And of course, citizens of West Virginia may have personally met the world's largest cryptid mothman. (Although it is said that he knocked down a bridge in 1967).