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the_dala at 06:54pm on 03/07/2003
the_dala at 06:54pm on 03/07/2003(brought over from Some Other 'Net Diary-thing)
I watched "The Elephant Man" last night (Tuesday night, actually) nearly the whole way through (I missed the first twenty or so minutes). It is, it really really is, the saddest movie ever made. EVER. I cried throughout the entire thing. That's a full two-hour (well, hour and forty minutes) bracket of heartfelt weeping. By the time it was over, I could no longer breathe through my nose.
For those who don't know, "The Elephant Man" is a 1980 David Lynch film, a somewhat fictional account of the real person Joseph ("John") Merrick, who was born horribly disfigured in Victorian London and died at the age of 27. John Hurt does an absolutely incredible job playing Merrick, as his extensive makeup means that he can only express himself through his eyes, his voice and his body language. Anthony Hopkins is perhaps more understated than at any other point in his career as Merrick's doctor Frederick Treves (this was pre-"Silence of the Lambs"). Plus, John Gielgud and Ann Bancroft. It was shot in black and white and has the feel of a much older classic.
There is no possible way to describe how incredibly sad this film is without viewing it, though I'll try. It's just...I can't even...ARGH. It is so fucking sad. The saddest bits off the top of my head:
I watched "The Elephant Man" last night (Tuesday night, actually) nearly the whole way through (I missed the first twenty or so minutes). It is, it really really is, the saddest movie ever made. EVER. I cried throughout the entire thing. That's a full two-hour (well, hour and forty minutes) bracket of heartfelt weeping. By the time it was over, I could no longer breathe through my nose.
For those who don't know, "The Elephant Man" is a 1980 David Lynch film, a somewhat fictional account of the real person Joseph ("John") Merrick, who was born horribly disfigured in Victorian London and died at the age of 27. John Hurt does an absolutely incredible job playing Merrick, as his extensive makeup means that he can only express himself through his eyes, his voice and his body language. Anthony Hopkins is perhaps more understated than at any other point in his career as Merrick's doctor Frederick Treves (this was pre-"Silence of the Lambs"). Plus, John Gielgud and Ann Bancroft. It was shot in black and white and has the feel of a much older classic.
There is no possible way to describe how incredibly sad this film is without viewing it, though I'll try. It's just...I can't even...ARGH. It is so fucking sad. The saddest bits off the top of my head:
- Merrick saying "Sorry...sorry" when the maid sees him and freaks out.
- repeating "Hello, my name is John Merrick, I'm very pleased to meet you" in front of the mirror.
- breaking down in tears in front of Treves' wife ("I've never been treated so nicely by a...beautiful woman...")
- showing Treves & wife the picture of his mother, hoping that she would love him if she could see him ("I must have been a disappointment to her..." "I've tried to be good...")
- "I've been meaning to ask you for some time now...can you cure me?"
"No, John. We can care for you, but we cannot cure you."
"I thought not." - the whole meeting with Ann Bancroft ("You're not an elephant man...you are a Romeo...")
- when the hospital tells him he can stay there permanently, he keeps saying "a home...my home..."
- the part with the evilfuckingbastards come to torment him...egads, I can't even think of it, it's too painful...they show him a mirror and he screams at his own reflection...
- being shoved into the monkey cage by the evilfuckingbastardcircusowner.
- the encounter at the train station, which you know is coming from the second you see the little boy with the pea-shooter and you're sobbing and yelling at the TV "Just leave him alone!" as he tries to run away, then..."I am not an elephant! I am notan animal! I am a human being, I am a man..."
- the wonder on his face when he goes to theatre, which you can only see through Hurt's eyes.
- the end, oh HELL the end...so sad...stacking the pillows so NEATLY on the chairs...
The images, they stick with me, and I find myself thinking about them for weeks, the urge to cry once again near.
It's so sad.
It's so fucking sad I almost can't take it.
But it's beautiful too.
melancholy
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