(David Lynch, US 1980, 125 min.)
Lynch’s follow-up to Eraserhead recounts the final months in the life of John Merrick (an unrecognizable John Hurt), the deformed Londoner of the 1880s whose career as a sideshow freak ends when he meets the compassionate Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins). Lynch’s dreamlike imagery is aided by the gorgeous black-and-white widescreen photography of Freddie Francis.
Program Notes
David Lynch’s second feature film, The Elephant Man, provided him with the opportunity to direct a cast that included some of the most renowned British actors of the day and resulted in eight Academy Award nominations. The film is a biographical account of Joseph Merrick however, due to a mistake in Sir Frederick Treves’ book Merrick is often said to have the name “John.” Born in 1862, it is now believed that Merrick suffered from Proteus Syndrome a congenital disorder that causes skin overgrowth, abnormal bone development, and is often accompanied by tumors over half the body. Merrick lived as a sideshow attraction until he was discovered by anatomist Frederick Treves. The script is based on two books, The Elephant Man and other Remembrances by Sir Frederick Treves and The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity by Ashley Montagu. Surprisingly, this very serious film was produced by Brooksfilms - Mel Brooks’ production company. Brooks purposely made efforts to disassociate his name from the project, fearing that people would mistakenly believe the film to be a comedy.
The film is shot in black and white, and in a documentary that appears on the Paramount DVD of the film, Brooks explains that the decision to film in black and white was based primarily on two considerations. First, it helped to create the atmosphere of Victorian England. Second, it helped to tone down some of the more horrible aspects of the deformity. Christopher Tucker based the make-up on Treves’ detailed notes of Merrick’s appearance. He also borrowed the plaster casts that were made of Merrick’s body from the London Medical Museum and used them to create the molds for the make up. This serves to make the physical image of Merrick seen in the film as accurate as possible. It took many hours to apply the make-up and, once finished, actor John Hurt is entirely unrecognizable.
Lynch employs some of the devices of the horror film genre, and as Film Quarterly reviewer Bruce Kawin declared, “the spirit of Lon Chaney, Sr. is particularly felt, not just in the eloquently vulnerable performance of John Hurt as Merrick, but in the tone of the entire project.”
The way in which Lynch approaches the subject reproduces the freak show dynamic. Shown initially in elusive glances and shrouded in shadow, the audience doesn’t get a good look at Merrick until almost half an hour into the film. This delayed appearance of the subject of the film heightens the audience’s curiosity and desire to see Merrick, thereby creating in them the same feelings as those of audiences attending the freak show. In the book, The Cinema of David Lynch: American Dreams, Nightmare Visions, Joe Kembler writes that “the audience’s self-reflexive sense of discomfort with its own viewing practices thus achieves what Merrick’s face cannot: a degree of empathy and emotional participation.” These feelings also help the audience identify more closely with Treves (Anthony Hopkins) in his fear that he is also guilty of exploiting Merrick and is simply exhibiting him in a different kind of freak show. This technique is effective in communicating to the audience the complexity of the situation being presented. Even when attempting to lead a normal life it is impossible for Merrick to avoid being an object of attention and curiosity.
~Dianna Ford, Student, L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation
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