The Elephant Man

David Lynch's moving Victorian-era drama about a deformed yet disarmingly genteel man remains an enduring and iconic masterpiece.

Deformed in the womb by a rare disease, John Merrick (John Hurt) becomes a side-show attraction in a travelling freak show.

A London surgeon, Sir Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) rescues Merrick and, in making cautious efforts to socialise him, slowly coaxes out of the terrified man a disarmingly unembittered and reflective mind.

Curator's note

David Lynch's follow-up to Eraserhead relocates the black-and-white industrial cityscapes of the former to a post-industrial, Victorian-era London.

Cherry-picked by uncredited producer Mel Brooks based on the excellence of Eraserhead, David Lynch picked up a project that was already in motion and turned out a work that is both universally accessible while still being unmistakably Lynchian.

A commercial and critical darling of 1980, The Elephant Man was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. The film deserves all the accolades for the ending alone, which features one of the first uses of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings on film and guarantees to leave audiences frozen in their seats.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)