ELEPHANT-MAN
"All Monsters"
About David Lynch's film
by Alexandre Prouveze 
Book out of print
Less mysterious and hermetic than an Eraserhead or a Mulholland Drive , David Lynch's second feature film, Elephant Man , nevertheless succeeded in the feat, in 1980, of reconciling openness to the “general public” and radical singularity. Through this film, Lynch also defines some of the decisive features of his cinema, particularly in terms of atmosphere, spaces, direction of actors or dramatic progression. But Elephant Man is also the fruit of a collective adventure. Around the young Lynch, are indeed busy a producer as unexpected as faithful (Mel Brooks), a John Hurt just out of Heaven's Gate by Michael Cimino, the chief make-up artist of the first Star Wars , or even the cream of the British theater and cinema, led by an impeccable Anthony Hopkins.
On the occasion of the forty years of its theatrical release, this short book proposes to return to the collaborative process which gave birth to Elephant Man : from scriptwriting to sound editing, including location scouting, the filming story, the making the face of John Merrick or the great work on the photography of the film. Where we discover a thirty-year-old Lynch, both humble and determined, who will soon become one of the greatest filmmakers of his century. And the next.
Alexandre Prouvèze worked for more than ten years as a film critic (notably for Time Out magazine) and collaborated with numerous reviews. He is currently translating various works on the history of cinema, as well as crime novels.
IN THE CINEMA JUNE 22, 2020