The Elephant Man
This film oozes with humanity. I wasn't expecting this from David Lynch. A film with a straight forward narrative! The movie takes its name for it's main character, John Merrick, a disfigured man who is dubbed the 'Elephant Man' and is paraded around as a sideshow freak. Everyone thinks he is mentally incapacitated, and treats him like an animal. The real horror is that he is not, but an intelligent, feeling human being.
This movie is full of feeling. John Hurt does a fantastic job portraying the unfortunate looking man, and the incredible makeup job helps. Knowing that this is based on a true story, and knowing that there are people out there who have disfigurements and suffer the same scrutiny and consciousness makes the emotional impact of the story that much more indelible. It's impossible not to feel some sort of sympathy for John. Lynch is subtly cynical in playing on these sympathies. On the one hand you have the rough and tumble peasants who want to gawk at him and are cruel to him. Kicking and laughing at him as if he were a toy put on Earth for their amusement. On the other hand you have the high society folks, who have taking a liking to John. They too come and gawk, but bring gifts and talk with him, all as the newspaper boasts of their benevolence. Both are using John for their own entertainment in a way. True, one makes John feel good, the other makes him feel like an animal. Is either acceptable though? Shouldn't John be treated like anyone else, not as a creature to be marveled at?
Lynch crafted a fantastic character study. It is layered, intense and full of emotion. He plays with your feelings like a puppeteer, pulling the strings and making you dance between feelings of despair, rage and happiness. It's an expertly crafted character gem.
Cat People
I had my doubts going into this movie. First off, before I knew anything else about it, the title alone gave me misgivings. 'Cat People'. It sounds like a bad Saturday morning cartoon. This was written by the same guy that wrote 'Taxi Driver'? Then the details started to come in and I started to become even more apprehensive. The poster with the highly stylized, rain drenched catlike woman, complete with overly 80's print for the title. It's classified as an 'erotic horror', and yep, that would be David Bowie doing the music. One thing is certain, this was going to be a ride.
The opening shot solidified by apprehensions. There is a camera pan across a desolate wasteland, clearly long ago in the past, where there are barely clothed people painted like cats, tying a woman to a tree. A black panther creeping up to her to do who knows what. The entire scene was reminiscent of a hair-metal's album cover come to life. The surrealistic atmosphere put me off guard. Where in the world was this thing heading?
The story is no less bizarre then the style. It begins with Irena (Nastassja Kinski) reuniting with her long lost brother Paul (Malcolm McDowell). The two were split up when their parents died and sent to live with different foster parents. It turns out that Paul has a secret, which he is excited to share with Irena. He turns into a jaguar when he has sex and the only way to turn back into a human is to kill someone. It turns out this affliction runs in their blood, and has for many generations and that Irena also has the same condition. Irena is confused by all of this, and creeped out by her newly reunited sibling and flees him, seeking the comforts of Oliver the local zookeeper who has crush on her.
Have I mentioned this is a really bizarre movie? It's also painfully dumb on top of its many questionable cinematic expositions. For example, why have Oliver be a zookeeper? Apparently this fairly large zoo in a fairly large city is run by a handful of people. Anytime there is an animal on the loose, the zookeeper is apparently the most appropriate person to call, not Animal Control. It was just a little over the top. For a movie that takes itself all too seriously, there were too many comical and groan-worthy situations.
The undertones of sexual frustration and incest were more disturbing than anything. Paul Schrader went for something big, but completely missed the mark. I'm at a loss with this movie. It's an odd movie. It is definitely strange, but not strange enough to be enjoyable for its weirdness. It toes the line of absurdity, but takes itself serious enough that it doesn't have a good time. It has its moments where I can see where this movie may have gone had it been put on the right track making it all the more of a jumbled mess. It's fitting that Bowie did the music for this. It fits perfectly, and serves as more a overly long music video to one of his more out there songs.
Verdict: Well, one was actually good. The Elephant Man moves on. It's a shame Cat People made it this far.