19 March 2024

"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

The title is Hannibal Lecter's famous line from Silence of the Lambs.  I learned at the movies subreddit that there is a subtle implication:
Lecter could be treated with drugs called monoamine oxidase inhibitors - MAOIs. As a psychiatrist, Lecter knows this.

The three things you can't eat with MAOIs? Liver, beans, wine.

Lecter is a) cracking a joke for his own amusement, and b) saying he's not taking his meds.

Reposted from 2015 because I ran across this post while browsing the back entries in the movies subcategory of the blog. 

4 comments:

  1. Also: in the book he drank an Amarone, which was changed to Chianti in the movie as viewers were expected to be more familiar with that term. But Amarone goes with liver much better because of its full, rich taste. https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/un9xvf/til_that_in_the_original_novel_of_the_silence_of/

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  2. I'm going to nitpick here - MAOIs are antidepressants, and there are no signs that Lecter is depressed at all, so no reason to treat him with any sort of antidepressant, let alone ones that are generally used when others have failed (because of the dietary restrictions). Also, you can eat fava beans on MAOIs, just not the pods.

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    Replies
    1. TYWKIWDBI loves nitpicking, because details matter. Thank you for the info.

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