The Elephant Man (1980)
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 124m
Director: David Lynch
Cast: John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft, Freddie Jones
Synopsis:
A Victorian physician discovers a victim of extraordinary deformity in a freakshow, and takes him into his hospital's care. But it seems that, wherever he goes, John Merrick cannot escape the fate of being gazed upon.
Review:
Lynch's re-imagining of the curious of case of John Merrick makes bold stylistic choices, channelling Todd Browning's Freaks and countless Limehouse-set melodramas into a disarmingly matter-of-fact dissection of man's dehumanising urge to ogle (and woman's to care). To say that it is the lower orders who are the guiltier is an over-simplification, for their need is greater, and the analogous scene in the lecture theatre before the assembled medical fraternity is deliberately eloquent in this respect, but neither does the film concur with Treves' own suspicion that he is little better than Bytes. Another way of viewing the film is as an examination of theatre in all its forms, with the subject ultimately accorded the respect he deserves among equals. Lynch's stylistic mannerisms are largely held in check, and he often chooses to let the camera stand back and observe, while Freddie Francis contributes boldly contrasted black-and-white cinematography.
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 124m
Director: David Lynch
Cast: John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft, Freddie Jones
Synopsis:
A Victorian physician discovers a victim of extraordinary deformity in a freakshow, and takes him into his hospital's care. But it seems that, wherever he goes, John Merrick cannot escape the fate of being gazed upon.
Review:
Lynch's re-imagining of the curious of case of John Merrick makes bold stylistic choices, channelling Todd Browning's Freaks and countless Limehouse-set melodramas into a disarmingly matter-of-fact dissection of man's dehumanising urge to ogle (and woman's to care). To say that it is the lower orders who are the guiltier is an over-simplification, for their need is greater, and the analogous scene in the lecture theatre before the assembled medical fraternity is deliberately eloquent in this respect, but neither does the film concur with Treves' own suspicion that he is little better than Bytes. Another way of viewing the film is as an examination of theatre in all its forms, with the subject ultimately accorded the respect he deserves among equals. Lynch's stylistic mannerisms are largely held in check, and he often chooses to let the camera stand back and observe, while Freddie Francis contributes boldly contrasted black-and-white cinematography.
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 124m
Director: David Lynch
Cast: John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft, Freddie Jones
Synopsis:
A Victorian physician discovers a victim of extraordinary deformity in a freakshow, and takes him into his hospital's care. But it seems that, wherever he goes, John Merrick cannot escape the fate of being gazed upon.
Review:
Lynch's re-imagining of the curious of case of John Merrick makes bold stylistic choices, channelling Todd Browning's Freaks and countless Limehouse-set melodramas into a disarmingly matter-of-fact dissection of man's dehumanising urge to ogle (and woman's to care). To say that it is the lower orders who are the guiltier is an over-simplification, for their need is greater, and the analogous scene in the lecture theatre before the assembled medical fraternity is deliberately eloquent in this respect, but neither does the film concur with Treves' own suspicion that he is little better than Bytes. Another way of viewing the film is as an examination of theatre in all its forms, with the subject ultimately accorded the respect he deserves among equals. Lynch's stylistic mannerisms are largely held in check, and he often chooses to let the camera stand back and observe, while Freddie Francis contributes boldly contrasted black-and-white cinematography.