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.
What is cellar door in donnie darko.
It was the first feature length film from director and writer james richard kelly.
It was written in the 1903 cyrus lauron hooper novel gee boy that an italian savant believed that cellar door was the most beautiful combination of english sounds in 1920 h l.
Donnie darko premiered at the sundance film festival in january 2001 eight months before the september 11 terrorist attacks.
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.
Donnie sees his destiny when ariel gretchen joins his spirit and when he has sex with her at midnight he sees a portal cellar door and realizes his destiny by going to roberta sparrow s house.
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.
Nunberg further suggests the semantics of cellar door are not actually irrelevant.
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.
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.
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.