John Merrick is a severely deformed man in Victorian England who is put on show as a carnival freak. A London surgeon rescues him, and for the first time he gets a life with dignity and human connection. This is Lynch's most openly emotional film, and it uses black-and-white images to ask what it takes to be treated as human.
The Elephant Man is a 1980 biography and drama film directed by David Lynch. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 cinematography, 1 narrative and 1 psychology), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Unforgiven uses several of the same techniques.
Choosing to shoot in black and white to take away the comfort and pleasure of color. The film feels more serious, and you watch as a witness.
How this film uses it
Lynch and cinematographer Freddie Francis shoot in black-and-white so the film looks like Victorian photography and early cinema. Those are the media that recorded Merrick's world. Alongside that, the lack of color stops the film from turning him into a spectacle. The film can't be pretty in the usual sense, and Lynch wants it that way.
Where to see it
The opening sequence. The surreal black-and-white images of Merrick's mother set the film's tone and give it the stark look of Victorian photography.
Watching events from a measured distance with no swelling music, tear-jerking close-ups or showy camera moves. The film trusts what happens to carry the weight on its own.
How this film uses it
Lynch waits a long time before he fully shows you what Merrick looks like. When he does, he refuses to frame it as a spectacle. The camera watches Treves react before it shows Merrick's face. It often stays on other people's responses and holds back the 'shocking' image itself. By holding back, the camera stays with Treves as his understanding grows, and it keeps away from the crowd's leering curiosity.
Where to see it
Treves's first examination of Merrick. The camera stays on Treves's face and holds back what he sees, so you have to wait.
Lighting a scene with strong contrast between bright light and deep shadow, a style borrowed from old paintings called chiaroscuro. How lit a character is hints at their moral or mental state.
How this film uses it
The film's Victorian London is lit by gas lamps, foggy streets and the harsh light of industrial exhibitions. In the dark, Merrick is anonymous and safe. In the light, he is exposed and vulnerable. Lynch uses chiaroscuro, the strong contrast between light and dark, to raise the film's moral question: who chooses to shine a light on a person and why.
Where to see it
Bytes exhibiting Merrick in harsh exhibition light. Here, the light itself is what violates him, and darkness is the only privacy he has.
Having a character invent and keep up a false version of reality to shield someone they love, or themselves, from a truth too painful to bear. The lie is a way to survive.
How this film uses it
Merrick has elaborate manners, a love of theater and a carefully built model of the cathedral. These are the fictions that let him keep his dignity in a world that treats him as an object. Lynch presents all of it as a real inner life. Merrick is denied an ordinary human life, so he builds these things to make room for one anyway.
Where to see it
Merrick's room at the London Hospital. His model of St. Philip's Cathedral, the books and the photographs of his mother make up the private world where his sense of self lives.
Questions
The Elephant Man: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does The Elephant Man use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in The Elephant Man (1980): Black-and-White as Moral Urgency, Observational Restraint, Chiaroscuro Lighting and Protective Fiction.
Who directed The Elephant Man?
David Lynch directed The Elephant Man, released in 1980. CineCode also covers Eraserhead (1977), Dune (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Lost Highway (1997).
What films are similar to The Elephant Man?
Films that share techniques with The Elephant Man include Unforgiven (1992), Drive My Car (2021), C'mon C'mon (2021), The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021).
