Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a 19th century Englishman afflicted with a disfiguring congenital disease and the surgeon who saved him from a tormented life in a freak show, David Lynch’s THE ELEPHANT MAN explores the emotional life of a deeply intelligent man living with a severe disability and the exploitation and psychological torture he endures at the hands of an unsympathetic, uninformed society. Anthony Hopkins plays Frederick Treves, the man who takes pity on Merrick’s circumstances only to trot his new rescue out to his high society friends as a scientific oddity. John Hurt’s turn as the titular character is a complete triumph of fully-formed empathetic empowerment. Executive producer Mel Brooks (who left his name off the credits so people wouldn’t get the wrong idea about the kind of movie it was) hired Lynch to make the picture, and fought for it to be shot in black-and-white, based on his admiration for ERASERHEAD. The film garnered eight Academy Award nominations, including the first for Lynch for directing and co-writing the screenplay.
Programmer’s Note: This new 4K DCP restoration of the original camera negative, overseen by David Lynch himself, is only available to screen theatrically for a few brief months this spring. We were unable to include it in our March retrospective, but are thrilled to screen it in May before it goes back into the vault. Don’t miss it!
NOTE: Ticket 5-Packs for March’s Lynch retrospective cannot be used for THE ELEPHANT MAN.
