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Subseq. Pages - TP/David Lynch
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Touching and Subtle
Rating: 10 of 10 
Usually, David Lynch's work is said to be either weird or strange. According to this kind of judgement, 'The Elephant Man' is his least weird picture, the one most easily accessible. The story is understandable, the persons in it not as weird as those in his other movies. So this is supposed to be a David Lynch film? But it is. Apart from the overall "normal" way of telling a movie (does something like that exist?), the film starts with a sequence of, yes, indeed, strange images - the elephant scenes. Also, at the end he returns to being different. He sort of uses the reverse scheme as he did in 'Blue Velvet' - there he framed the unspoken into the obvious, here it is the other way 'round.
But to be honest, judging a director by the weirdness factor is dull and stupid. This is the beauty of Lynch's work: He might seem to rely on a certain, indescribable way of telling weird things, and so it is expected, and if it doesn't occur, something has to be wrong. But that shifts the focus, it distorts it into a direction which isn't helpful at all. I, too, expected something like this, and after having seen 'Eraserhead', I really was afraid of watching this one! Instead I got a beautiful, very emotional and caring story about a deformed man, John Merrick (John Hurt), who, with the help of a doctor (great as ever: Anthony Hopkins), is able to lead a normal life. The way the "Elephant Man" is being introduced is brilliant. First we get to see nothing of him, then he is merely being described and parts shown, and when we get to see him, the viewer is already prepared - and the person behind the distorted face can appear.
Lynch uses some of his prevailing topics, the fight between Good and Evil, loneliness, love and also some humor. With his extraordinary sense of vision, we get a sight of London which is actually giving the impression of Victorian England. Lynch shows the ugly, the ordinary, the hidden - and he is able to show hidden beauty and hidden treasures where anyone else would expect none. Freaks become human beings, human beings but are thoroughly questioned - some fulfill their own agenda and show humanity, others on the contrary reveal the face of evil. Here, Lynch's themes become more obvious and lie open - and it finally is a David Lynch film for those who wouldn't survive the intensity of 'Eraserhead'.
August 25th, 1998
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