sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ben Barenholtz, BlueBOB, Blue Velvet Revisited, Chrysta Bell, Darkened Room, David Lynch bibliography

October 30, 2018 (XXXVII:10) : Elephant Man (1980, 124 min.) Online versions of The Goldenrod Handouts have color & hot links: http://csac.buffalo.edu/goldenrodhandouts.html

DIRECTED BY David Lynch WRITING by Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren, and David Lynch; (book) (as Frederick Treves), (in part on the book ": A Study in Human Dignity") PRODUCED BY (executive producer), (producer), and (executive producer, uncredited) MUSIC John Morris (director of photography) FILM EDITING Anne V. Coates PRODUCTION DESIGN Stuart Craig DIRECTION Robert Cartwright SET DECORATION Hugh Scaife COSTUME DESIGN MAKEUP DEPARTMENT hairdressers: Paula Gillespie and Stephanie Kaye; makeup artists: Beryl Lerman and Michael Morris; makeup application: 'Elephant Man' / makeup supervisor: Wally Schneiderman; makeup creator: 'Elephant Man' / makeup designer: 'Elephant Man': Christopher Tucker

The film received eight nominations at the 1981Academy Awards: Best Picture: Jonathan Sanger; Best Actor in a Leading Role: ; Best Director: David Lynch; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium: Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren, David Lynch; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration: Stuart Craig, Robert Cartwright, Hugh Scaife; Best Costume Design: Patricia Norris; Best Film Editing: Anne V. Coates; Best Music, Original Score: John Morris.

CAST ...Frederick Treves John Hurt...John Merrick Alfie Curtis...Milkman ...Mrs. Kendal Bernadette Milnes...1st Fighting Woman ...Carr Gomm Brenda Kempner...2nd Fighting Woman ...Mothershead Carol Harrison ...Tart (as Carole Harrison) Freddie Jones ...Bytes Hugh Manning...Broadneck Michael Elphick...Night Porter Dennis Burgess...1st Committee Man Hannah Gordon...Mrs. Treves Fanny Carby... Mrs. Kendal's Dresser Helen Ryan...Princess Alex William Morgan Sheppard...Man In Pub (as Morgan Sheppard) John Standing...Fox Kathleen Byron...Lady Waddington Dexter Fletcher...Bytes' Boy Gerald Case...Lord Waddington ...Nora David Ryall...Man With Whores ...Merrick's Mother Deirdre Costello...1st Whore Pat Gorman...Fairground Bobby ...2nd Whore Claire Davenport...Fat Lady Kenny Baker...Plumed Dwarf Orla Pederson...Skeleton Man Chris Greener...Giant Patsy Smart...Distraught Woman Marcus Powell...Midget Frederick Treves...Alderman Gilda Cohen... Midget Stromboli...Fire Eater Lesley Scoble...Siamese Twin (as Lisa Scoble) Richard Hunter...Hodges Teri Scoble...Siamese Twin James Cormack...Pierce Eiji Kusuhara...Japanese Bleeder Bush...Messenger Robert Day...Little Jim Roy Evans...Cabman ...Screaming Mum Joan Rhodes...Cook Tommy Wright...First Bobby Nula Conwell...Nurse Kathleen Peter Davidson...Second Bobby Tony ...Young Porter John Rapley...King In Panto Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—2

Hugh Spight...Puss In Panto program, ,* a show that raised the bar of what was Teresa Codling...Princess In Panto expected from television, setting the stage for an era of Marion Betzold...Principal Boy “premium television” that some would argue has not surpassed Caroline Haigh...Tree Lynch’s initial accomplishment. In 2017, Lynch brought Twin Florenzio Morgado...Tree Peaks back to television, directing and co-writing all 18 episodes Victor Kravchenko...Lion / Coachman in the new series, prompting some to consider the work an Beryl Hicks...Fairy eighteen-hour film. In 1990, Lynch took the distinguished Michele Amas...Horse Palme d'Or for Wild at Heart (1990). He Lucie Alford...Horse was nominated, in 1992, for the Palme d'Or for Twin Peaks: Fire Penny Wright...Horse Walk with Me (1992)* and, again, in 1999 for Janie Kells...Horse (1999). At the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, he was, again, Lydia Lisle...Merrick's Mother nominated for the Palme d'Or, and he won, in a tie, Best Director for Mulholland Drive (2001), for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2002. Lynch has directed 80 films, video shorts, documentaries, and television series. Some of his other directorial works include: Six Men Getting Sick (1966, Short), Sailing with Bushnell Keeler (1967, Short), Fictitious Anacin Commercial (1967, Short), Absurd Encounter with Fear (1967, Short), The Alphabet (1968, Short),** The Grandmother (1970, Short), The Amputee (1974, Short),* The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988), : , Wild at Heart Version (1990, Video short), Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted (1990, TV Movie),*** Premonition Following an Evil Deed (1995, Short), Lost Highway (1997),* Stories (2001, Video documentary), (2002, Short),** Coyote (2002, Documentary short),** Inland Empire (2006),**** Working with Marilyn Manson (2007, Video documentary short), David Lynch Cooks Quinoa (2007, DAVID LYNCH (b. January 20, 1946 in Missoula, Montana) is Documentary short), Blue Green (2007, Video short), Ballerina one of the few contemporary filmmakers to inspire an (2007, Short),** : Shot in the Back of the Head (2009, eponymous qualitative term: Lynchian. The late American Video short), Dream #7 (2010, Short), 42 One Dream Rush novelist and cultural critic David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) (2010, Short), Ariana Delawari: Lion of Panjshir (2010, Video said that in film “a regular domestic murder is not Lynchian. But short), : (2013, Video if the police come to the scene and see the man standing over the short), : Unstaged (2014, Video documentary), and body and the woman's 50s bouffant is undisturbed and the man Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014).* and the cops have this conversation about the fact that the man *Indicates films and television series Lynch acted in killed the woman because she persistently refused to buy, say, for **Indicates films Lynch did cinematography for instance, Jif peanut butter rather than Skippy, and how very, very ***Indicates films Lynch composed music for important that is, and if the cops found themselves somehow ****Indicates films Lynch acted in and did cinematography for agreeing that there were major differences between the brands He has written 41 films and other video projects and and that a wife who didn't recognize those differences was produced 41 films and other video projects. He has also acted in deficient in her wifely duties, that would be Lynchian.” Lynch 25 films and television series, including: Heart Beat (1980), went to art school in a particularly violent and run-down area of Arena (1987, TV Series documentary), Zelly and Me (1988), which inspired Eraserhead (1977),*** a film that Nadja (1994), BlueBob: Thank You, Judge (1999, Video short), he began in the early (after a couple of shorts) and which The Disc of Sorrow Is Installed (2002, Short), DumbLand (2002, he would work on obsessively for five years. The final film was TV Mini-Series short), Hollyshorts Greeting (2008, Short), Peixe initially judged to be almost too weird for release, but thanks to Vermelho (2009, Short), Louie (2012, TV Series), The Cleveland the efforts of distributor , it secured a cult Show (2010-2013, TV Series), (2010-2016, TV following and enabled Lynch to make his first mainstream film Series), Girlfriend's Day (2017), Lucky (2017), and The Black (in an unlikely alliance with Mel Brooks), though The Elephant Ghiandola (2017, Short). Man (1980)* was shot through with his unique sensibility. This He has also done cinematography for 14 films and film also led to Lynch’s first Academy Award nominations for shorts, some of which are: The Pig Walks (2002, Short), Factory Best Director and for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Mask (2002, Short), Dead Mouse with Ants (2002, Documentary Material from Another Medium. Its enormous critical and short), Bees (2002, Documentary short), Lamp (2003, commercial success led to Dune (1984),* a hugely expensive Documentary short), BlueBob Egg (Short), Early Experiments commercial flop, but he was nominated, again, for the Academy (2008, Short), and The 3 Rs (2011, Short). He has also composed Award for Best Director in 1987 for, arguably, the definitive music for 9 films and shorts, some of which are: No Frank in “Lynchian” film Blue Velvet (1986). From 1989 to 1991, Lynch Lumberton (1988, TV Movie documentary), BlueBob: Thank collaborated with to create the iconic television You, Judge (1999, Video short), Lady Blue Shanghai (2010, Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—3

Short), Good Day Today (2011, Video short), David Lynch & Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), (2018 TV : Bird of Flames (2012, Video short), Star (2014, Movie), Westworld (2016-2018 TV Series), and The Pope (2018 Short), and Night Ride The Director's Cut (2017, Short). post-production).

FREDDIE FRANCIS (b. December 22, 1917 in , London, —d. March 17, 2007 (age 89) in Isleworth, Middlesex, England) did cinematography for 36 films and directed 37 films. He won two : one for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White in 1961 for Sons and Lovers (1960) and Best Cinematography in 1990 for Glory (1989). These are some other films he did cinematography for: Hell in Korea (1956 director of photography), Time Without Pity (1957 as Frederick Francis, photography), Room at the Top (1959 director of photography), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960 director of photography), The Innocents (1961 director of photography), Night Must Fall (1964), The Elephant Man (1980 director of photography), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981 director of photography), The Executioner's Song (1982 TV Movie), The Jigsaw Man (1983), Dune (1984 photographed by), JOHN HURT (b. January 22, 1940 in Chesterfield, , Return to Oz (1985 uncredited), Code Name: Emerald (1985), England—d. January 25, 2017 (age 77) in East Runton, , Clara's Heart (1988), Her Alibi (1989 director of photography), , England) acted in 207 films and television series. He Brenda Starr (1989), : A One-Way Ticket to was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a (1989 TV Movie documentary), The Man in the Supporting Role in 1979 for Midnight Express (1978) and for Moon (1991 director of photography), Cape Fear (1991 director Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1981 for The Elephant Man of photography), School Ties (1991), Princess Caraboo (1994), (1980). He also acted in films and television series such as: Rainbow (1995), The Nail File: The Best of Jimmy Nail Video Young and Willing (1962), The Contact (1963), This Is My Street Collection (1997 Video), and The Straight Story (1999 director (1964), Love Story (1964, TV Series), of photography). (1966), (1971), Cry of the Penguins (1971), The Pied Piper (1972), The Ghoul (1975), I, Claudius (TV Mini- ANTHONY HOPKINS (b. December 31, 1937 in Margam, Port Series), Midnight Express (1978), The Shout (1978), Watership Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales) has acted in 133 films and Down (1978), The Lord of the Rings (1978), (1979), The television series. He won the Academy Award in 1992 for Best Elephant Man (1980), Heaven's Gate (1980), Night Crossing Actor in a Leading Role for Silence of the Lambs (1991), and he (1982), The Osterman Weekend (1983), Champions (1984), The was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Hit (1984), 1984 (1984), After Darkness (1985), Role in 1994 for Remains of the Day (1993) and in 1996 for (1987), White Mischief (1987), The Bengali Night (1988), Nixon (1995). He was nominated for an Academy Award for . (1990), Roger Corman's Unbound Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1998 for Amistad (1997). (1990), Monolith (1993), Even Cowgirls Get the (1993), These are some of his other films: A Matter of Degree (1960 TV (1995), Wild Bill (1995), Contact (1997), New Blood Series), The Man in Room 17 (1965 TV Series), The Lion in (1999), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), and the Winter (1968), (1969), The Looking Glass War (1970), Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Miranda (2002), Young Winston (1972), War & Peace (1972-1973 TV Series), A (2002), (2003), Hellboy (2004), Manderlay (2005), V Doll's House (1973), Juggernaut (1974), The Lindbergh for Vendetta (2005), and the Kingdom of the Kidnapping Case (1976 TV Movie), Victory at Entebbe (1976 Crystal Skull (2008), Outlander (2008), New York, I Love You TV Movie), A Bridge Too Far (1977), International Velvet (2008), The Limits of Control (2009), (2009), (1978), Magic (1978), The Elephant Man (1980), A Change of Brighton Rock (2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Seasons (1980), (1981 TV Movie), The Bounty (1984), (2010), Melancholia (2011), Harry Potter and the Deathly 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Desperate Hours (1990), Hallows: (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Jayne (1992), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Chaplin Mansfield's Car (2012), Sightseers (2012), Only Lovers Left (1992), The Trial (1993), The Innocent (1993), Shadowlands Alive (2013), Hercules (2014), Jackie (2016), My Name Is Lenny (1993), The Road to Wellville (1994), Legends of the Fall (1994), (2017), That Good Night (2017), and Damascus Cover (2017). Nixon (1995), Surviving Picasso (1996), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Meet Joe Black (1998), Instinct (1999), Titus (1999), ANNE BANCROFT (b. September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, New Mission: Impossible II (2000), How the Grinch Stole Christmas York City, New York—d. June 6, 2005 (age 73) in New York (2000), Hannibal (2001), Bad Company (2002), Dragon City, New York) acted in 86 films and television series. She won (2002), The Human Stain (2003), Alexander (2004), Bobby an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1963 (2006), All the King's Men (2006), Beowulf (2007), The City of for The Miracle Worker (1962), and she was nominated for the Your Final Destination (2009), The Wolfman (2010), The Third Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1965 for Rule (2010 Short), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), in 1968 for The Graduate (1967), in Bare Knuckles (2010), Hitchcock (2012), RED 2 (2013), The 1978 for The Turning Point (1977), and in 1986 for Agnes of Dresser (2015 TV Movie), Misconduct (2016), Collide (2016), God (1985). She also acted in films and television series such as: Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—4

Suspense (1951, TV Series), The Ford Theatre Hour (1951, TV (1989), War and Remembrance (1988-1989, TV Mini-Series), Series), Studio One in Hollywood (1950-1951, TV Series), The Strike It Rich (1990), 's Books (1991), Shining Through Adventures of Ellery Queen (1951, TV Series), Don't Bother to (1992), The Power of One (1992), First Knight (1995), Shine Knock (1951), Gorilla at Large (1954), Demetrius and the (1996), Gulliver's Travels (1996, TV Mini-Series), The Portrait Gladiators (1954), The Raid (1954), New York Confidential of a Lady (1996), Hamlet (1996), David (1997, TV Mini-Series), (1955), A Life in the Balance (1955), The Naked Street (1955), A Dance to the Music of Time (1997, TV Mini-Series), The The Last Frontier (1955), Walk the Proud Land (1956), Nightfall Magic Sword: (1998), The Tichborne (1956), The Restless Breed (1957), The Girl in Black Stockings Claimant (1998), and Elizabeth (1998). (1957), Slender Thread (1965), 7 Women (1966), The Young Winston (1972), Blazing Saddles (1974), The Prisoner of Second WENDY HILLER (b. August 15, 1912 in Bramhall, Cheshire, Avenue (1975), The Hindenburg (1975), Lipstick (1976), Silent England—d. May 14, 2003 (age 90) in Beaconsfield, Movie (1976), Fatso (1980), Shogun (1980, TV Movie), The , England) acted in 58 films and television Elephant Man (1980), To Be or Not to Be (1983), Garbo Talks series. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a (1984), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Honeymoon in Vegas Supporting Role in 1959 for Separate Tables (1958). She was (1992), Love Potion No. 9 (1992), Point of No Return (1993), nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading The Simpsons (1994, TV Series), How to Make an American Role in 1939 for Pygmalion (1938) and for Best Actress in a Quilt (1995), Home for the Holidays (1995), Dracula: Dead and Supporting Role for A Man for All Seasons (1966). She also Loving It (1995), G.I. Jane (1997), Critical Care (1997), Great appeared in films and television series, such as: Lancashire Luck Expectations (1998), Antz (1998), Up at the Villa (2000), (1937), Major Barbara (1941), 'I Know Where I'm Going!' Keeping the Faith (2000), Heartbreakers (2001), The Roman (1945), Outcast of the Islands (1951), Something of Value Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003, TV Movie), and Curb Your (1957), Sons and Lovers (1960), Toys in the Attic (1963), From Enthusiasm (2004, TV Series). Chekhov with Love (1968, TV Movie), David Copperfield (1970, TV Movie), When We Dead Awaken (1970, TV Movie), Murder JOHN GIELGUD (b. , 1904 in , on the Orient Express (1974), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The London, England—d. , 2000 (age 96) in Wotton Cat and the Canary (1978), Richard II (1978, TV Movie), The Underwood, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England) acted in 134 Elephant Man (1980), Making Love (1982), Witness for the films and television series. He won the Academy Award for Best Prosecution (1982, TV Movie), Attracta (1983), The Lonely Actor in a Supporting Role in 1982 for Arthur (1981), and he Passion of Judith Hearne (1987), A Taste for Death (1988, TV was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Mini-Series), and Screenplay (1992, TV Series). Supporting Role in 1965 for (1964). He also acted in films and television series, such as: Who Is the Man? (1924), The Clue of the New Pin (1929), Insult (1932), The Prime Minister (1941), (1953), (1954), Richard III (1955), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), (1956, TV Movie), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957), (1957), Becket (1964), Hamlet (1964), The Loved One (1965), (1965), Alice in Wonderland (1966, TV Movie), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Assignment to Kill (1968), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Julius Caesar (1970), Lost Horizon (1973), Frankenstein: The True Story (1973, TV Movie), Gold (1974), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Galileo (1975), Aces High (1976), Providence (1977), Joseph Andrews (1977), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1977), Romeo & Juliet (1978, TV Movie), Richard II (1978, TV Movie), Les Miserables (1978, TV Movie), (1979), (1979), The Human Factor (1979), The Conductor (1980), The Elephant Man (1980), The Formula (1980), Lion of the Desert (1980), Sphinx (1981), Arthur (1981), Priest of Love (1981), (1981, TV Mini-Series), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982, TV Movie) Inside the Third Reich (1982, TV Movie), Gandhi FREDDIE JONES (b. September 12, 1927 in Stoke-on-Trent, (1982), Marco Polo (1982, TV Mini-Series), The Scarlet and the Staffordshire, England) acted in 214 films and television series, Black (1983, TV Movie), The Wicked Lady (1983), The Far including: Androcles and the Lion (1960, TV Mini-Series), Pavilions (1984, TV Mini-Series), Scandalous (1984), The Marat/Sade (1967), The Avengers (1967, TV Series), Far from Master of Ballantrae (1984, TV Movie), Frankenstein (1984, TV the Madding Crowd (1967), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed Movie), The Shooting Party (1985), Invitation to the Wedding (1969), The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), Goodbye Gemini (1985), (1985), Leave All Fair (1985), The Theban Plays (1970), Kidnapped (1971), (1972), Son of by Sophocles (1986, TV Series), The Whistle Blower (1986), Dracula (1974), Juggernaut (1974), Old Dracula (1974), Appointment with Death (1988), Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988), Nicholas Nickleby (1977, TV Mini-Series), (1979), A Man for All Seasons (1988, TV Movie), Getting It Right The Elephant Man (1980), Firefox (1982), Krull (1983), And the Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—5

Ship Sails On (1983), Dune (1984), Comrades (1986), Erik the Fate, luck, and new acquaintances who happened to Viking (1989), Wild at Heart (1990), Royal Deceit (1994), Cold have access to people with influence brought David Lynch to the Comfort Farm (1995, TV Movie), It Could Be You (1995, TV limelight. In an odd way, it parallels the story of the protagonist Movie), Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1995, TV Series), of his sophomore movie, John Merrick (based on the actual The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), Ladies in Lavender (2004), historical figure named ), who has reached the Come on Eileen (2010), and By Our Selves (2015). very heights of Victorian England society after being ridiculed and humiliated for years as a kidnapped circus freak, due to his body being riddled with tumours and other deformities which gave him his nickname. After failing to find finances for a script he had himself developed called , Lynch went on a search for scripts he could direct. Immediately as he heard the name The Elephant Man, Lynch, the intuitive eccentric that he is, didn’t want to hear of any other scripts—didn’t even bother to read the bloody thing before he said yes—and the rest is history. This, therefore, marks the first writing collaboration in Lynch’s career, namely with fellow writers Christopher DeVore and Eric Bergren, developing a story that was pitched to the American comedy guru Mel Brooks of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, of all people. Brooks had infamously organized a screening of Eraserhead to check out “this David Lynch” and whether he would be qualified for this project, while the Lavorco Maric: “’The Elephant Man’: A Portrait of an frightened young director morosely waited in the hallway Outcast Defeating His Fears and Deformities with Creativity, expecting to be sacked out of the project pretty much as soon as and Compassion” (Cinephilia & Beyond) Eraserhead started. Brooks defied Lynch’s expectations in David Lynch, a name that is for many film enthusiasts proudly declaring to him in his extroverted manner after the epitome for weird, surreal, and bizarre, surprised many experiencing the nightmare of Eraserhead: “I love you, you’re a people when he had characterised himself as a Boy Scout from mad man! You’re in!” Thus, an Eagle Scout from Missoula, Missoula, Montana. He is also known as “Jimmy Stewart from Montana, known for a dark, avant-garde film with sparse Mars,” or “Jimmy Stewart on acid”—a very polite, happy-go- dialogue, was on his way to England to direct a Victorian drama lucky, enthusiastic individual, who unironically uses words and with mammoth actors such as Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, phrases like “Golly!,” “Holy jumping George!,” “Howdy!” etc., Anne Bancroft, Dame Wendy Hiller and Sir John Gielgud. and who just happens to have a vivid imagination that has been The Elephant Man has over the years acquired the the basis of nightmares for many of his viewers. Contrary to reputation of a David Lynch movie for movie fans who do not popular belief, Lynch is not the type of a guy who, for instance, like David Lynch. It is based on strictly linear storytelling with a chops off his fingernails in his grandmother’s basement and then minimal amount of bizarre, surreal and/or violent sequences. But puts them in his dinner salad, but is somebody who is actually even if one would reduce the term “Lynchian” to these two trying, through foundations, meditation recommendations and tropes, The Elephant Man is thematically and stylistically charity work, to promote, and achieve without a hint of irony, integrated far more into the director’s oeuvre than it would seem peace and prosperity. But Lynch’s worlds are full of such on the surface. contradictions, full of idealists who also happen to be scoundrels While Lynch is arguably more famous for themes of below the surface, and Lynch is fascinated with the dark and revealing a dark underworld of deceit, debauchery, and perverse facet of the human condition, but also on the profound perversion below a seemingly ideal American way of life, as and gentle side of humanity, a soulful aspect of his work that represented in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man doesn’t get nearly mentioned as the former one. The oblique and does the opposite: it reveals decency and dignity below that mysterious nature of Lynch’s work draws many to become which seems ugly and degenerate on the surface, and this obsessed with finding a universal explanation or an enlightened pertains primarily to John Merrick, the title character played by meaning to his films. But Lynch insists on never revealing what the recently deceased, great English thespian John Hurt. Due to the abstractions in his films “mean,” and he suggests to his his disturbing appearance, Merrick is first ridiculed and viewers that they also try to find out for themselves more on an humiliated, but after finding an unexpected social anchor in the intuitive than a rational level as to what the disturbing visuals, form of Doctor Frederick Treves, played by Anthony Hopkins, the labyrinthian plots and the unreliable characters truly convey. he manages to discover–and give back–human kindness and Lynch claims that everybody is a detective, but it is also compassion. Nevertheless, Lynch is not shy to show here a more important to note that Lynch’s movies are not merely a puzzle to despicable side of humanity as well, particularly through two be solved: they are to be experienced, after which a powerful characters: one the self-appointed ruthless “owner” of Merrick, cinema-going epiphany may come out of his best work. This set the other a crass hospital orderly, who spends no idle time in of essays will try and derive certain interpretations and exploiting Merrick and his condition to obtain profit. Despite explanations of Lynch’s ideas, but they are in no way to be this, there is a profound warmth to the movie, as even the understood as definitive or let alone indicative of what the Victorian aristocracy, not a stranger to hypocrisy and director himself was thinking. Every reader should be an condescension, proves to be welcoming and understanding of autonomous detective indeed…. Merrick in Lynch’s vision, particularly through Anne Bancroft’s Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—6 character of Mrs. Kendal, the elite actress who even makes the familiarly creepy is again the work of Lynch and narcissistic notion of giving away her picture as a present seem . The Elephant Man shares some of its mood with noble and gracious. Eraserhead with its depictions of smokestacks and sooty Whereas Eraserhead encompassed themes of escapism, factories; while the industrial, macabre post-world of Eraserhead The Elephant Man is, to an extent, about integration. Even was more suffocating and isolationist in nature, Lynch’s London though Merrick is a misunderstood outcast, he begins to form in The Elephant Man presents the success of the Industrial sincere friendships and his inner circle becomes less judgmental Revolution, taking boastful pride in its expansion and the rise of and less prone to irrational fear as time goes on. Hurt’s technology, mirroring Merrick’s rising awe of the world around performance goes to lengths in never allowing Merrick to him which is slowly but surely revealing itself in a manner become a caricature and not proportional to how he opens making him exclusively an more to the society around object of pity, since the actor has him. In Lynch’s eyes, as brief moments of unabashed fun explained in Chris Rodley’s with the character, giving him Lynch by Lynch, Merrick’s that much-needed personality body is the extension of these and thus avoiding plunging the factories, seeing his tumorous movie into the slippery territory growths akin to explosions, of cheap sentimentality. The declaring that the human body make-up by Christopher Tucker is the greatest and most fearless must be mentioned as well in factory of them all. Merrick is, hitting the right notes of not therefore, more integrated into making Merrick ridiculous or too this Lynchian world than any frightening, and Hurt’s of the “normal” people he has distinguished voice, along with surrounded himself with. The the emphatic look in his eyes, use of symbolism may seem at gives the Elephant Man the emphasis on the “man” and less on times on-the-nose, particularly in the unusually unambiguous the “elephant.” Anthony Hopkins complements him in the role of dream sequences in the beginning and end, but the use of the a man haunted by the dilemma of being ambitious and cathedral model that Merrick is building is a tasteful summary of exploitative for the purpose of ambition and recognition, while the movie’s themes—Merrick only sees the top of the bell tower having a guilty conscience due to the fact that he cannot cure from his window, and he will try to reach it by letting his Merrick’s condition and that he perceives himself as much of an imagination flow, conquering the heights with his creativity and exploiter as Freddie Jones’ manic Mr. Bytes, the Elephant Man’s wit instead of his deformed physicality. cruel slave master. Hopkins’ performance here is subtler and less The use of music in the crucial moments of the film also flashy, using his eyes to reveal the torment behind the introverted brings Lynch’s impeccable sense of mixing sound and picture to persona, providing an interesting contrast to, for example, his the forefront. For instance, the scene where both the viewer and more exaggerated work as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the the characters of Hopkins and Gielgud realise that Merrick is Lambs. Some of the more memorable shots in Lynch’s movies indeed intelligent and literate brings out with the introduction of involve heavy close-ups of faces, and Hopkins is right to the task a musical cue an emotional resonance that continues on with the at making them some of the more definitive ones in Lynch’s sequence where Merrick is harassed by whores and deviants in a career. perverse drunken ball, to the carefully orchestrated, Hopkins was infamously antagonistic towards the 32- affecting ending, with Lynch choosing “Adagio for Strings” by year-old Lynch, refusing to shave his beard and in general Samuel Barber, a theme that has been exploited in movies feeling alienated by the young director’s approach to actors, but endlessly since (Oliver Stone using it most famously in Platoon nevertheless giving a performance that just might prove to be the six years later), but holding its timeless poignant impact in this pinnacle of his career, giving Lynch an early and consistent film. reputation of getting great performances from his actors, even These examples show that Lynch’s work has a deep though Hopkins claimed he was listening more to his own emotional truth to it, which is most visible in his most plainly instincts than yielding to Lynch’s demands (years later, Hopkins heart-rending movie that is The Elephant Man, but also in his sent Lynch a somewhat redemptive fan letter). Lynch was faced other later work, behind all the layers of alleged incoherence, with many challenges during his stay in England, including a inaccessibility or plain weirdness that seem to alienate Lynch’s failed attempt at Merrick’s makeup before the production skeptics. Even though his attempts of connection with the officially started, which even had him contemplate suicide for the audience may seem weirdly sentimental at times, they mostly first and only time in his life. The persistence of his vision seem sincere, unironic and are rarely manipulative in a resulted in a slowly gained confidence, earning the trust of his Hollywood sense of the term. Some of Lynch’s later work—The cast and crew, including the always reliable Sir John Gielgud and Straight Story and Mulholland Drive in particular—will ensure Brooks’ wife Anne Bancroft, and ultimately giving way to an that the emotional connection to the story is essential in the essential humanistic piece of Lynchian cinema. journey of his characters; one could say that the genesis of One of the key pieces of the puzzle was the Lynch’s maturity as a deeply emotional filmmaker started with cinematographer; the stunning monochrome palette of The this film. Naturally, the movie was marketed in Hollywood (after Elephant Man is the work of Freddie Francis, while the some difficulties of trying to market it as a “monster movie” Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—7 when it was, in fact, the opposite, as John Hurt has stated), won and taught him that introducing strong human emotion into his eight Oscar nominations and gave Lynch the keys to the nightmarescapes and populating the frames with the finest of kingdom, whose doors he unlocked to confront his first artistic performers, could result in a work that was art and product in and commercial failure. The architect of nightmares on the equal measure. screen was now in a dune of a creative nightmare from which he That movie was 1980’s The Elephant Man, Lynch’s cringes on even to this day. follow-up to his fearless, unclassifiable midnight sensation Eraserhead. And 37 years later, looking back, it’s still a bold, brave and immaculately produced motion picture that offers the best of what Lynch could do and bears early evidence of the tropes and themes that would define his subsequent works. As the story goes, Mel Brooks, he of scatological, smart and silly comedies Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, had just started a company called Brooksfilms wherein the producer could make “real movies” while hiding in the background so as not to mislead his fan base. His partner, producer Jonathan Sanger, got his hands on first draft script called The Elephant Man, which told the loosely true story of Joseph “John” Merrick, a wildly deformed young man who was rescued from the sideshow circuit in Victorian England and who became first a case study for a prominent London doctor and then, a national celebrity. The story was dark, evocative and sharply moral and for whatever reason, Sanger — who had recently seen and swooned over Eraserhead — thought Lynch would be a good bet to bring the steam-soaked tale to life. He met with Lynch who adored the script and agreed to do the film and, after a few re-writes, the movie was put into production. Chris Alexander: “Is The Elephant Man David Lynch’s Best With the budget and muscle of Brooks, Sanger and Paramount Film? (ComingSoon). Pictures behind him, Lynch was able to amass a remarkable cast As of this writing, the first four episodes of David of British talent, first class performers like Sir Anthony Hopkins, Lynch’s Twin Peaks have run their course and those of Sir John Hurt, Sir John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft (Brooks’ wife) us who have responded enthusiastically are on the edges of our and Freddie Jones. But most importantly, The Elephant Man seats, hungry for more. The new Twin Peaks takes everything allowed Lynch to work with a man widely considered to be one that made the landmark original ABC series so memorable and of the greatest living directors of photography, Freddie Francis, a goes even further into the ether, with the unobstructed non- man who had worked as both DP and director on a myriad network outlet (the series is a Showtime production) allowing Hammer Horror movies and British exploitation pictures, Lynch to go as far into the odd as he wants. Here, he has almost including ’s final film, . Shooting in stark total freedom to respect fan expectations while radically black and white to better paint a picture of the Victorian period expanding and inverting that world, lapsing into the avant garde, but also give the production’s limited designs a more dream-like totally liberated and with complete creative freedom. It’s feel, Francis and Lynch essentially dragged Eraserhead to turn mesmerizing. It’s energizing. Because out of all the elite of the century England and grafted that film’s horrific, directors who managed to infiltrate the Hollywood machine, hallucinatory style to a potent story of pain and grace. Francis Lynch remains one of the few that were working artists first, was never a conventional artist and with Lynch he was allowed visionaries who developed a language all their own during a to fully embrace his own eccentricities. I firmly believe that formative time and who use that singular language to make films Francis’ influence on Lynch was an invaluable experience and their way, only giving cursory consideration to the suits who heavily influenced Lynch’s sense of cinema and visual keep an eye on him, hoping to keep his work at least somewhat storytelling. commercial. From the beginning of The Elephant Man, we know And while seeing this new Twin Peaks standing tall as that we’re in that very same world first found in Eraserhead, the pure, unfiltered wellspring of the Lynchian aesthetic, citing where, after the tinkling, circus-steeped strains of John Morris’ when Lynch has had to collaborate and enlist a more lovely score and images of a face floating in space (a Lynch disciplined approach to his vision, yields no real criticism. I trademark), we are treated to a nightmarish, impressionist mean, the fact that Twin Peaks ever ended up on general stream sequence where a group of slow motion-moving elephants either network television in 1990 at all, is a marvel. It was way out trample or gang-rape a screaming woman, meant to be Merrick’s there and defied what anyone wanted or expected from a prime mother. This is not a scene to be literally, but rather is a time program. But going even further back, right back to 1980, to dream that metaphorically illustrates Merrick’s life of trauma and Lynch’s second feature film, we see what might very well be his exploitation, where the love of his mother and his own greatest achievement, a movie that he was brought into and yet upbringing have long been distorted by the scream of his was given enough of a long creative leash to ensure that the carnival-barking owner (the great Freddie Jones, who is at his motion picture he was hired to make, was indeed his and yet was most despicable here). From this passage of savagery, we are also greater than him. A movie that likely educated the director thrust into the tawdry back-alleys of London where Lynch expertly juxtaposes the grime with the kind-eyes of doctor Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—8

Frederick Treves (Hopkins, who has never given a more moving there was a kind of magic in The Elephant Man that looms the performance on-screen) and from here, our tale unfolds. Hearing largest in his filmography. Where youth and talent and freedom tales of the horrifying “Elephant Man,” Treves’ professional of expression and education all met to make one brilliant and curiosity and interest in helping the needy, spur him to bring the enduring motion picture like no other. unfortunate Merrick (who is brilliantly played by John Hurt, buried under Christopher Tucker’s intense prosthetic make-up) to Dennis Lim: “David Lynch’s Elusive Language” (New the hospital where he works in order to study him and present Yorker, 2015) him to his peers. First thinking the disfigured wretch an imbecile, One of the first video recordings of a David Lynch Treves soon learns that Merrick is in fact a gentle, educated man interview dates from 1979. The twenty-minute black-and-white who, despite the horrors he has endured is graced with a childlike segment was produced for a television course at the University of sense of wonder and a hard-wired humanity and heart full of , , and conducted in the oil fields of the hope, instilled there by his late mother. As Treves treats Merrick, Los Angeles Basin, one of the locations that constituted the he is lauded for his work and “The Elephant Man” becomes barren wasteland of his first feature, “Eraserhead” (1977). This famous. But despite the kindness and grace the unfortunate was the moment of Lynch’s first brush with cult Merrick receives at the hands and hearts of his benefactors, there fame: “Eraserhead” was a year into its three-year run as a are blacker forces at hand that aim to drag the young man back at the Nuart Theatre on Santa Monica into the cesspool. Boulevard. Against a backdrop of The Elephant Man hulking tanks and rusted pipes, an is a perfect movie and, as eager student reporter named Tom John Hurt once said “If Christie directs questions to Lynch you’re not moved by the and his cinematographer, Frederick time The Elephant Man is Elmes. The thirty-three-year-old over…then you’re not Lynch, in a voice so flat and nasal someone I want to know.” I it verges on cartoonish, enthuses agree. about all the “neat areas…down in Lynch’s interest in holding the tanks,” explaining that he found frames and not giving into the location while driving by one quick edits allows sequences day: “I think this place is beautiful, of Hurt reacting to the if you look at it right.” He directs kindness he is suddenly the camera’s attention to a blotch being shown to become almost religious experiences. We feel on the ground: the remains of a cat, procured from a veterinarian this man’s pain, his gratefulness, his empathy. There’s a for use in the film, that “got covered in tar and preserved itself.” humanity at work here that Lynch would later weave into the Citing the vague tag line that describes “Eraserhead” as harsh worlds of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, real, profound “a dream of dark and troubling things,” Christie asks Lynch: emotion and sadness over just how cruel men can be to other “Would you like to expound on that a little?” “No,” the men. The story is clear, elemental and driven by its talented cast filmmaker replies immediately, shaking his head and smiling. and, again, the period is richly realized by Lynch and Francis. Christie reads from a review that likens the movie both to a And when Lynch steers the imagery towards dreams, when he dream and a nightmare. Lynch reacts with puzzlement. “I’m not begins fetishizing belching smoke stacks, grinding machines and sure I know what that means,” he says, before conceding, “That’s the horror and coldness of the factory, they serve to not only tie a fine statement, you know?” the movie into Eraserhead but also comment on the hostile, Affable despite his elusiveness, Lynch seems less to be anti-human world that Merrick sadly came of age in, the one stonewalling than striving to verbalize daunting concepts with a surrounds the refined, clean and kind world of Treves. The vocabulary that might politely be termed basic. “Eraserhead” was imagery is not self indulgent. It makes sense. “a real, definite thing in my head,” he says. “It’s not like thrown- By the time the movie winds down, an inevitable climax together abstract; it’s meant-to-be-that-way abstract.” Christie of grace, surrender, sadness and hope, all played out the strains points out an apparent incongruity: Lynch the family man (he of Barber’s Addagio, you feel The Elephant Man in your bones. was then newly remarried, with a young daughter, Jennifer, from You feel as though you have witnessed a one-of-kind amalgam his first marriage) and Lynch the creator of the dark, of bold artistry, history and universal human drama. Of horror weird “Eraserhead.” “I’m not all that strange, really,” Lynch and beauty in equal measure. responds. “Beneath a calm exterior is the subconscious, right? Lynch would bring much of what he did here to his Everybody has their little—the denizens of the deep and all that.” failed adaptation of Dune, but he wasn’t ready for Dune. It was He proposes a working theory of filmmaking as world-making: too big for him to control. Blue Velvet was more successful and “No matter how weird something is, no matter how strange the yet it still suffers somewhat for its over-reliance on freakishness world is that you’re making a film about, it’s got to be a certain and kink. Still, what is Frank Booth () but a way. Once you see how that is, it can’t be another way or it’s not mutated version of Freddie Jones’ character in The Elephant that place anymore. It breaks the mood or the feeling.” Finally he Man? What is and his followers in Twin Peaks, but a gets in a good closing one-liner, explaining his decision to cast satanic riff on the human sludge that exploit and prey upon John the unknown and not a name actor in the film’s lead Merrick and others like him? role: “If you’re going into the netherworld, you don’t want to go The new Twin Peaks is so-far a marvel and might just be in with Chuck Heston.” Lynch’s final opus, his magnum. But for my , Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—9

The David Lynch of today is, in many ways, not so far compulsion to name, label, and caption which, in heightening the removed from this pale, polite young man, doing his best not to absurdity of words, strips them of their power. squirm under interrogation. The floppy hair would later swoop In Lynch’s own speech and in the speech patterns of his up into a signature quiff. The unfussy attire — a light shirt and films, the impression is of language used less for meaning than zip-up jacket in the video — would be formalized as a uniform: for sound. To savor the thingness of words is to move away from khaki slacks, a slightly rumpled black suit, and, most distinctive their imprisoning nature. Lynch has said, more than once, that he of all, a white shirt primly buttoned to the top. (This getup has had to “learn to talk,” and his very particular, somewhat limited not escaped the attention of men’s magazines. GQ has called the vocabulary seems in many ways an outgrowth of his aesthetic. In no-tie, buttoned-up style “the David Lynch look.” Esquire went keeping with his interest in the intangible, he has a curious, so far as to dub the filmmaker an accidental fashion icon: “David syntactically awkward fondness for abstract nouns: “When you Lynch dresses badly, but he gets away with it and you can’t.”) do something that works, you have a happiness.” “It’s such a In person, Lynch projects niceness. He has kindly eyes, sadness that you think you’ve seen a film on your fucking a soft-featured handsomeness, an air of corn-fed good cheer. He telephone.” If his films swing between extreme moods, so, too, has often sought out these very qualities in his actors, most does the tenor of his conversation, especially when he’s notably Kyle MacLachlan, who bears a physical resemblance to discussing his work. Great ideas are “beautiful” and “thrilling” him. But there is also something a bit strange about Lynch’s and make you “fall in love”; when the creative process is niceness — a heightened, golly-gee, stuck-in-the-fifties impeded, it’s a “terrible thing” that can feel “like death.” (What folksiness that some people think must be a put-on. The Lynch, a prodigious coffee drinker, lacks in eloquence, he biography he typically uses for press releases consists of four generally makes up for in caffeinated enthusiasm.) words: “Eagle Scout, Missoula, Montana.” Whether innate or cultivated or both, the picture of David Lynch the straight-arrow square is striking for the obvious contrast with the darkness and From Wikipedia extremity of the work, its obsession with grotesquerie and Joseph Carey depravity. In view of the work, in fact, Lynch’s mild-mannered Merrick (5 August 1862 – calm can seem somewhat creepy. This is the contradiction — 11 April 1890), often David Lynch the all-American weirdo — that defines how we incorrectly called John think about him. Not for nothing did Mel Brooks call him Merrick, was an English “Jimmy Stewart from Mars” and David Foster Wallace describe man with very severe face his voice as “Jimmy Stewart on acid.” and body deformities who That voice has become more caricatured over the years, was first exhibited at a freak even the subject of self-parody. Most of us know it from Lynch’s show as the "Elephant recurring cameo as the hard-of-hearing F.B.I. bureau chief Man", and then went to live Gordon Cole in “Twin Peaks,” whose foghorn delivery only at the London Hospital after slightly exaggerates Lynch’s speaking voice. So much about he met Dr. Frederick Treves, Lynch’s fraught relationship with language is summed up in that subsequently well voice, in its unnervingly high volume and halting cadences. It’s known in London society. clear from the 1979 footage — and from almost every interview Merrick was born in he has done since — that words do not come easily to him. Both , and began to develop abnormally during the first few Lynch and his first wife, Peggy Reavey (née Lentz), have years of his life: his skin appeared thick and lumpy, he developed referred to his “pre-verbal” years, a phase that lasted into his enlarged lips, a bony lump grew on his forehead, one of his arms early twenties, when he had a hard time stringing even more than and both of his feet became enlarged and at some point during a few words together. In his early short film, “The Alphabet,” his childhood he fell and damaged his hip, resulting in permanent verbal learning is a source of dread: a young girl is terrorized by lameness. When he was 11, his mother died from the letters of the alphabet as she sleeps. The serial killer in “Twin bronchopneumonia, and his father soon remarried. Merrick left Peaks” leaves lettered scraps of paper under the nails of his school at the age of 13 and gained employment at Freemans victims. Cigar Factory in Leicester. Rejected by his father and Lynch’s films abound with gnomic pronouncements and stepmother, he left home and went to live with his Uncle Charles incantations. “Now it’s dark,” the maniacal Frank Booth hisses Merrick, a hairdresser. In December 1879, Merrick, aged 17, in “Blue Velvet.” “This is the girl,” the mobster financiers keep entered the Leicester Union Workhouse. insisting in “Mulholland Drive.” (The key to Transcendental In 1884, after four years in the workhouse, Merrick Meditation, which Lynch has practiced for more than four contacted a showman named Sam Torr and proposed that Torr decades, is the repetition of a personal mantra.) Lynch’s mistrust should exhibit him. Torr agreed and arranged for a group of men of words means that his films often resist the expository function to manage Merrick, whom they named the Elephant Man. After and realist tenor of dialogue, relying instead on intricate sound touring the , Merrick travelled to London to be design to evoke what lies beyond language. Conversely, his exhibited in a penny gaff shop on Road which was studio art is notable for a perverse preponderance of text. Many rented by showman Tom Norman. Norman's shop, directly of Lynch’s large, tactile art-brut canvases feature variously across the street from the London Hospital, was visited by a cryptic, comic, and ominous inscriptions (“Suddenly My House surgeon named Frederick Treves who invited Merrick to be Became a Tree of Sores,” “There Is Nothing Here, Please Go examined and photographed. After Merrick was displayed by Away”). Especially in his recent series of smudgy black-and- Treves at a meeting of the Pathological Society of London in late white lithographs, the verbiage comes to seem obsessive: a Lynch: ELEPHANT MAN—10

1884, Norman's shop was closed by the police and Merrick arranged for a friend of his named Mrs. Leila Maturin, "a young joined Sam Roper's circus and was toured in Europe. and pretty widow", to visit Merrick. She agreed and with fair In , Merrick was robbed by his road manager warning about his appearance, she went to his rooms for an and abandoned in . He eventually made his way back to introduction. The meeting was short, as Merrick quickly became London, and to the London Hospital. Treves was in the hospital overcome with emotion. He later told Treves that Maturin had at the time and whatever conversation passed between them, been the first woman ever to smile at him, and the first to shake Joseph was given a temporary bed in the hospital. Although his his hand. She kept in contact with him and a letter written by condition was incurable, Merrick was allowed to stay at the Merrick to her, thanking her for the gift of a book and a brace of hospital for the remainder of his life. Treves visited him daily, grouse (a pair of birds), is the only surviving letter written by and the pair developed quite a close friendship. Merrick also got Merrick. This first experience of meeting a woman, though brief, visits from the wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society, instilled in Merrick a new sense of self-confidence. He met other including Alexandra, Princess of Wales. women during his life at the hospital, and appeared taken with Merrick died on 11 April 1890, aged 27. Although the them all…. official cause of his death was asphyxia, Treves, who performed Merrick wanted to know about the "real world", and the on the body, said that Merrick had died of a questioned Treves on a number of topics. One day he expressed a dislocated neck. Joseph was found at 3pm by Doctor Sidney desire to see inside what he considered a "real" house and Treves Hodges. Joseph was lying across his bed, his lunch was where obliged, taking him to visit his Wimpole Street townhouse and the maid had left it at 1pm, untouched. Joseph was found meet his wife. At the hospital Merrick filled his days with stretched across his bed which indicated he was awake and trying reading and constructing models of buildings out of card… to get up when he suffered an event which caused his death. In Merrick's case attracted the notice of London's high absence of the possibility of genetic tests, the exact cause of society. One person who took a keen interest was actress Madge Merrick's deformities has long been unclear, so that throughout Kendal. Although she probably never met him in person, she was much of the 20th century it was speculated that Merrick had been responsible for raising funds and public sympathy for Merrick. affected by other neurological syndromes. Only in 1986 was it She sent him photographs of herself and employed a basket conjectured that he had , a very rare congenital weaver to go to his rooms and teach him the craft. Other ladies disorder also known as Wiedemann syndrome (named after the and gentlemen of high society did visit him however, bringing German pediatrician Hans-Rudolf Wiedemann). DNA tests on gifts of photographs and books. He reciprocated with letters and his hair and bones in 2003 in a study by Charis Eng were hand made gifts of card models and baskets. Merrick enjoyed inconclusive. these visits and became confident enough to converse with Merrick's life was depicted in a 1979 play by Bernard people who passed his windows….Occasionally, he grew bold Pomerance and a David Lynch film in 1980, both titled The enough to leave his small living quarters and would explore the Elephant Man. In late 2014 and early 2015, hospital. When he was discovered, he was always hurried back to starred in a Broadway revival of The Elephant Man, directed by his quarters by the nurses, who feared that he might frighten the …. patients. Merrick settled into his new life at the London Hospital. On 21 May 1887, two new buildings were completed at Treves visited him daily and spent a couple of hours with him the hospital and the Prince and Princess of Wales came to open every Sunday. Now that Merrick had found someone who them officially. Princess Alexandra wished to meet the Elephant understood his speech, he was delighted to carry on long Man, so after a tour of the hospital, the royal party went to his conversations with …. It did not take Treves long to rooms for an introduction. The princess shook Merrick's hand realise that, contrary to his initial impressions, Merrick was not and sat with him, an experience that left him overjoyed. She gave intellectually impaired. him a signed photograph of herself, which became a prized Treves observed that Merrick was very sensitive and possession, and she sent him a Christmas card each year…. showed his emotions easily. At times Merrick was bored and Treves, with the help of , arranged for lonely, and demonstrated signs of depression. He had spent his him to attend the Christmas pantomime at the Theatre Royal, entire adult life segregated from women, first in the workhouse Drury Lane. Treves sat with some nurses, concealed in Baroness and then as an exhibit. The women he met were either disgusted Burdett-Coutts' private box. According to Treves, Merrick was or frightened by his appearance. His opinions about women were "awed" and "enthralled". "The spectacle left him speechless, so derived from his memories of his mother and what he read in that if he were spoken to he took no heed". For weeks following books. Treves decided that Merrick would like to be introduced the show Merrick talked about the pantomime, reliving the story to a woman and it would help him feel normal. The doctor as if it had been real.

COMING UP IN THE FALL 2018 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS SERIES 37: NOV 6 KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI, THREE COLORS: BLUE, 1993….NOV 13 ALAN MAK AND WAI-KEUNG LAU, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, 2002….NOV 20 , THE DEPARTED, 2006….NOV 27 TOM MCCARTHY, SPOTLIGHT, 2015….DEC 4 , THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, 1975

CONTACTS:...email Diane Christian: [email protected]…email Bruce Jackson [email protected] the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto [email protected] cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/

The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Dipson Amherst Theatre, with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News.