– „I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! And… am… a man!” – calls out in the deepest despair Joseph „John” Merrick (1862–1890) at Liverpool Street station in London, surrounded by people.
„Nothing Will Die” [1]
When will the stream be aweary of flowing
Under my eye?
When will the wind be aweary of blowing
Over the sky?
When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting?
When will the heart be aweary of beating?
And nature die?
Never, oh! never, nothing will die?
The stream flows,
The wind blows,
The cloud fleets,
The heart beats,
Nothing will die.
Nothing will die;
All things will change
Through eternity.
‚Tis the world’s winter;
Autumn and summer
Are gone long ago;
Earth is dry to the centre,
But spring, a new comer,
A spring rich and strange,
Shall make the winds blow
Round and round,
Through and through,
Here and there,
Till the air
And the ground
Shall be filled with life anew.
The world was never made;
It will change, but it will not fade.
So let the wind range;
For even and morn
Ever will be
Through eternity.
Nothing was born;
Nothing will die;
All things will change.
Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
„The Elephant Man” (1980) [2] [3], British-American drama film.
◆ Directed by David Lynch (In my opinion, the this directorʼs most outstanding film)
◆ Screenplay by Christopher De Vore, and Eric Bergren (1954–2016) based on the memoirs of Frederick Treves (1853–1923), eminent surgeon and friend of the Joseph Merrick „The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences” (1923) [4] and on the biography of the Elephant Man Ashley Montaguʼs [Israel Ehrenberg] (1905–1999) „The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity” (1971) [5].
◆ Music: In addition to the main musical theme of the film by John Morris (1926–2018) [6], D. Lynch included in the final scene depicting the death of Joseph Merrick „Adagio for String” by Samuel Barber (1910–1981) [7].
◆ Produced by Jonathan Sanger and Mel Brooks [uncredited]
◆ Starring
◈ Anthony Hopkins
◈ John Hurt (1940–2017)
◈ Anne Bancroft (1931–2005)
◈ John Gielgud (1904–2000)
◈ Wendy Hiller (1912–2003)
◆ Accolades
• BAFTA
◈ John Hurt, Best Actor
◈ Stuart Craig, Best Production Design
• César Awards for Best Foreign Film
• „The Elephant Man” was nominated for eight Academy Awards [8].
◈ Best Picture
◈ John Hurt, Actor in a Leading Role
◈ Stuart Craig; Robert Cartwright; Hugh Scaife (1930–2009), Art Direction-Set Decoration
◈ Patricia Norris (1931–2015), Best Costume Design
◈ David Lynch, Best Director
◈ Anna V. Coates (1925–2018), Best Film Editing
◈ John Morris (1926–2018), Music, Original Score, and Writing
◈ Christopher De Vore, and Eric Bergren (1954–2016), Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
• 2005: AFIʼs 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes
◈ Joseph Merrick: „I am not an animal! I am a human being. I am a man.”, nominated [22]
Endnotes:
[1] https://genius.com/Alfred-lord-tennyson-nothing-will-die-annotated
[2] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/spark/classic-films/why-see-david-lynch-elephant-man-in-4k/
https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/panoptikum/article/download/4172/3499/5824
[3] https://videa.hu/videok/film-animacio/the-elephant-man-Z9yIYMclqpqKnOSL
[4] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59865/59865-h/59865-h.htm
[5] https://www.abebooks.com/9780925417176/Elephant-Man-Study-Human-Dignity-0925417173/plp
https://archive.org/details/elephantmanstud00mont/mode/1up
[6] The theme music by John Morris from the soundtrack of the drama „The Elephant Man” by David Lynch, arranged and performed by Rémi Ramaget.
[7] Adagio for Strings (a) (Agnus Dei, arrangement for choir from 1967) from the second movement of String Quartet, Op. 11 (Roma, 1936) by Samuel Barber. One of the saddest pieces of classical music.
(a) https://archive.ph/JmNKX
[8] https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1981
https://archive.ph/urnGs
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/18/movies/elephant-man-and-bull-up-for-8-oscars-each.html
Brian Cat 