What Is Cellar Door In Donnie Darko

It was the first feature length film from director and writer james richard kelly.

What is cellar door in donnie darko.

The words cellar door are written on the chalkboard in karen pomeroy s classroom. Donnie darko premiered at the sundance film festival in january 2001 eight months before the september 11 terrorist attacks. This idea is utilized in the 2001 film donnie darko where the phrase cellar door is discussed in one scene and an actual cellar door figures into the plot in a later scene. Donnie darko quotes quotable quote this famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the english language of all the endless combinations of words in all of history that cellar door is the most beautiful.

The film is considered one of the greatest cult classic movies of all time and was made with a budget of only 4 5 million. In fantasy a mundane door can become a portal to another world as with the wardrobe of the lion the witch and the wardrobe or the rabbit hole of alice in wonderland. When donnie asks about their meaning she replies that this famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the english language of all the endless combinations of words in all of history that cellar door is the most beautiful. The phenomenon of cellar door being regarded as euphonious appears to have begun in the very early twentieth century first attested in the 1903 novel gee boy by the shakespeare scholar cyrus lauron hooper.

Nunberg further suggests the semantics of cellar door are not actually irrelevant. The english compound noun cellar door has been widely cited as an example of a word or phrase that is beautiful purely in terms of its sound i e euphony without regard for its meaning.