"I am not an animal! I am a human being! I.. am... a... man!"

With this poignant second feature, David Lynch brought his atmospheric visual and sonic palette to a notorious true story set in Victorian England. When the London surgeon Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) meets the freak-show performer John Merrick (John Hurt), who has severe skeletal and soft-tissue deformities, he assumes that he must be intellectually disabled as well. As the two men spend more time together, though, Merrick reveals the intelligence, gentle nature, and profound sense of dignity that lie beneath his shocking appearance, and he and Treves develop a friendship.

Shot in gorgeous black and white and boasting a stellar supporting cast that includes Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Freddie Jones and Wendy Hiller, THE ELEPHANT MAN was nominated for eight Academy Awards, cementing Lynch’s reputation as one of American cinema’s most visionary talents.

"David Lynch's powerful depiction of Merrick (played by John Hurt) moves a viewer from revulsion and fear to empathy and tenderness. That's the very movement of the story itself." (The New Yorker)

"It is an absorbing and satisfying drama, and John Hurt's Merrick is very powerful." (Guardian)

"Director David Lynch has created an eerily compelling atmosphere in recounting a hideously deformed man's perilous life in Victorian England." (Variety)

"This is a tale of redemption and transcendence, of the hunchback of London Hospital, of the noble phantom who wanted to go to the opera, of Beauty and the Beast." (TIME Magazine)

Wednesday, May 21
Doors 8:30 pm | Movie 9:00 pm *Please arrive on time. Start time subject to change.

THE ELEPHANT MAN (David Lynch, 1980 / 124 mins / PG) A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.