Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs or Perkins in Psycho?

Perkins. Hopkins is really good but a tad overpraised to me.

Fuck. Uhmmmmm, I'll get back to you.

Both of them are outplayed by their female leads. (Janet Leigh and Jodie Foster.) I'm choosing the doctor.

Anthony Hopkins whose entire performance is a master class of restraint and restraints (literally) put upon him.........Perkins just has to appear normal - or not - and he aces it but we do not know what to make of him so he can inhabit norms rather easily........not so with Hopkins who we are told is evil right from the start - his reputation precedes him before we see him - like Col. Kurtz etc. - and we almost do not see him "be" genunely evil at all for quite a while.

He has to convey it while almost everything works against him conveying that in what we see. He's old, locked up, humorous, mocking, intelligent, almost charming, but he appears far less threatening than prisoners who shout (and worse) things at Foster before she gets to him....... he's a man who lost his mind and likes it and conveys to us many things about that horror.......

Yeah, I know that's character and not necessarily performance but the performance is so precise it erases the distinction.......also his performance involves many other things too - for one thing it's extremely sensuous (not sensual but he mocks that too) - and links fine music, to fine food, to fine taste (no pun), to high intellect, civility and culture and the upending of both........as if he's "discovered" the key to a worldview that has lead to the abyss....it also is a masterclass in Zen stillness where every body mannerism represents a precise choice - breathing, an insane absence of blinking, very controlled mobility.......so when he's freed from that it's animalistic in fury - nothing we saw, suggests that, and afterwards everything suggests that.

One of the great things about Hopkins characterizaton is he also suggests to us that he'd kill Buffalo Bill in about 5 seconds

I could make a real good case for Hopkins as the male film performance of the decade - and while maybe it's not - it's certainly the only contender for that title with that little screen time.........

Easily Perkins for me.