Art direction & cinematography

This has got to be one of the best looking films of the 1980s, if not all decades period. I watched this on a whim last night, and from the first few shots on the beach, I was in awe -- it looks incredible. There's not a wasted frame in this, and it just gets more and more daring as it nears the climax.

I suppose you could call the style excessive at times, but it captures both the mind of a killer and the detective placing himself in the same mental landscape -- quite literally, as he visualizes the murder scene (a stunning effect achieved late with a completely white bedroom set, and then even whiting out a victim's eyes). Several times I had to rewind a few seconds, just to take in how well composed the frame was. Lector in the prison cell, Graham and his wife in bed, visiting the tiger, Dollarhide with the woman's hand on his face, the blind woman and her coworker in the light of her front door, the wall of white file cabinets where Graham watches the home videos... I could go on and on.

What a gorgeous film; I can't believe I'd never seen it before. I'd kill to see a decent print of this in a theater.