Excellent

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2008)

I think it's a pity David Lynch abandoned the path of a traditional screenplay in his following movies. "The elephant man" is like "Eraserhead" with the benefit of a realistic pattern. Basically what happens around John Merrick is a process of cleansing. At the beginning he's dirty, oppressed and isolated. Then he gets through a recovery period, while he receives assistance and increases his knowledge. At some point of the story (more or less 30 minutes before the end) he's left alone in order to double-check his new abilities. Then, obviously, we end up in a triumphant happy ending. I wish to see a film like that, instead of another "Inland empire". I've heard that it was considered a sort of sequel for "Mulholland drive", but I slightly disagree with this view. If you don't have a character, you don't have a story. If you don't have a story, you have an artworks gallery. That's what David Lynch is when he writes his own films. "The elephant man" is the only David Lynch movie I wanted to watch again.