The Elephant Man

Music by John Morris

 

 

 

 

 

With its macabre delicacy John Morri´s music for The Elephant Man (1980) balances a world of darkness and the sensitivity of the protagonist submerged under his repulsive appearance.

The film served to the recognition of director David Lynch in a drama with aesthetic of a horror film. The excellent cinematography in black and white is by Freddie Francis, veteran director of suspense and horror in British cinema in the 60s and 70s. After the cult respectability his first feature Eraserhead, Lynch´s Elephant Man – produced by comedian Mel Brooks company Brooksfilm – was a project that provided larger market exposure for David Lynch. The music of John Morris, musician for Brooks in his best films, leads the listening into a world of reclusion and few lights. To avoid sound excess the soundtrack focuses on string expression. A music of no exhibitionists flourishes and more direct meaning. The sick aura, typical of the freak shows, infiltrates right in the opening with The Elephant Man Theme, a kind of macabre lullaby. The theme is reworked in other moments as on the hallucinated developments of The Nightmare, in marching Belgian Circus Episode and in the dark passages of Dr. Treves Visits the Freak Show. There is also room for some lightness in John Merrick and Mrs. Kendal. The melancholy lyricism of Recapitulation that concludes the work is one of the highlights and the edition of Milan Records also includes Adagio for Strings of Samuel Barber in recording by André Previn.