The Underlying Emotion of Hannibal is Affection

  Romance

Ridley Scott has said he believes the underlying emotion of Hannibal is "affection". 

"In some instances, you might even wonder or certainly from one direction — is it more than affection? 

It is dark, because the story is of course essentially dark, 

but it's kind of romantic at the same time."

Scott openly admits to a "romantic thematic" running through the film.

He told CNN that: "Hannibal was quite a different target, essentially a study between two individuals. 

Funny enough, it's rather romantic and also quite humorous, but also there's some quite bad behaviour as well."

During the opera scene in Florence, Lecter attends an operatic adaptation of one of Dante's sonnets, and meets with Detective Pazzi and his wife, Allegra. 

She asks Lecter, "Do you believe a man could become so obsessed by a woman after a single encounter?" 

Lecter replies: "Yes, I believe he could ... but would she see through the bars of his plight and ache for him?" 

This scene, in the film, is one which Scott claims most people "missed" the meaning of. It was in reference to Starling —to their encounter in The Silence of the Lambs.

The New York Times, in its review of the film, said Hannibal, "toys" with the idea of "love that dare not speak its name".

Composer Hans Zimmer believed there were messages and subtext in each scene.[11] He said, "I can score this movie truly as a Freudian archetypal beauty and the beast fairy tale, as a horror movie, as the most elegant piece, on corruption in the American police force, as the loneliest woman on earth, the beauty in renaissance ..."

Zimmer ultimately believes it to be a Dark Love Story, centering on two people who should never be together — a modern day Romeo and Juliet.

During post-production, Scott, Zimmer and the editor passionately argued about the meaning of Starling's tear during a confrontation with Lecter. 

They could not agree if it was a tear of "anguish", "loneliness" or "disgust".

Scott told the New York Post that, the affair of the heart between Lecter and Starling is metaphorical.

Rolling Stone magazine said in their review, "Scott offers a sly parody of relationships—think 'When Hannibal met Sally'."

Retribution and punishment

Scott has said he believed Lecter, in his own way, was "pure", whose motivation is the search for "retribution and punishment".

"There is something very moral about Lecter in this film," said Scott in his audio commentary. 

"The behaviour of Hannibal is never insane — [I] didn't want to use that excuse. 

Is he insane?  No, I think he's as sane as you or I. 

He just likes it."

Scott did say, however, 

"In our normal terms, he's Truly Evil."

Scott also brings up the notion of absolution in reference to Lecter towards the film's end.

Verger has one overriding objective in life: to capture Lecter and subject him to a slow, painful death.

Corruption

Part of the story involves the character Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini), a Florentine policeman who learns "Dr. Fell"'s True Identity and realizes that this knowledge could make him rich. 

His escalating abandonment of morality allows him to countenance and facilitate the death of a Romani pickpocket, egged on by the desire to have the best for his much younger wife.

There is a moment in the film when Pazzi becomes corrupted, despite being what Scott describes as "very thoughtfu