Eraserhead (1976)

[Valenti]

Director: David Lynch.
Written by: David Lynch

Cast:

Henry Spencer - Jack Nance
Mary X - Charlotte Stewart
Lady in the Radiator - Laurel Near
Man in the Planet - Jack Fisk

Synopsis:

"Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child."
-IMDB.com, AKA: HELL.

I decided to make my first post on this board--which my friend Papa Giorgio tells me is wonderful--a good one.

Eraserhead is the first film by highly regarded director and writer David Lynch. It follows the surreal and often nonsensical travails of a man named Henry Spencer, who works in one of the factories that seem to populate his entire city, who spends his free time indulging in fruitless hobbies and listening to a woman who lives in his radiator, singing.

One night after coming home--he doesn't go to work, according to him he's on "vacation"--the lady of the night who lives across the hall from him relays a call that was taken at his apartment from Henry's girlfriend, Mary X, who he hasn't seen in weeks. She invites him to dinner with her parents, where it is revealed that after a strangely short pregnancy--it lasted only a month or two, I believe--Mary has given birth to a strange reptilian looking child.

They care for the baby together, but after a while Mary leaves, as the child is constantly screeching like a dying cat, which deprives it's mother of sleep. What follows is a cavalcade of dream sequences and surreal images, which I'm not going to relate. I don't want to spoil anything.

I give the film three stars out of four. I only wish I could've gotten a better version of the DVD.

[RNL]

valenti said:

-IMDB.com, AKA: HELL.

;D Too true.

Eraserhead is one of the five or so best films I've ever seen, and one of only three films I give five stars.

[Valenti]

It's a surrealistic masterpiece. I had to watch it three or four times to develop an interpretation.

And IMDB is a big bubbling cauldron of rage and stupidity, both of which seem to go hand in hand. I swear to God, if I see another topic titled 'OMG tarenteno iz a ripoff artist1111" I'm going to put my foot through the computer screen.

Although that'll only hurt my foot, and make me look like an idiot myself...

[Michael]

Why is it that everybody longs for an "interpretation" of Lynch's films? The beauty of his films is that they don't have, or necessarily need interpretations.

[RNL]

^ I agree. Especially this one.

Certain nightmarish themes are apparent, but assigning 'meanings' to the images only devalues them.

[Valenti]

I developed an interpretation for my own amusement, really. It's just a movie meant to scare, unease, and generally make you feel bad.

David Lynch did well with that theme in his short film "Alphabet".

[RNL]

It makes me feel great! ;D

The Alphabet is his best early short. I wish he still did animation.

[Valenti]

Sorry for a very, VERY delayed reply.

Lynch still does animation, look up "Dumbland" on youtube.com. I think episode five in on there, the rest you'll have to pay to see on Lynch's website.

I read somewhere that "Alphabet" was Lynch's attempt to animate a nightmare his toddler niece had had about the alphabet. It certainly is nightmarish. I need to see some of his other shorts.

[RNL]

I'll rephrase: I wish he still did good animation.

I've seen Dumbland. It sucks, hard.

I have heard, from an IMDb user (add salt), that there will be animated sequences in Inland Empire.

[Valenti]

Inland Empire makes me go *WHHEEEE* everytime I hear about it. I'm very excited.

And yes...Dumbland didn't live up to my expectations.

What other Lynch shorts do you reccomend?

[RNL]

Rabbits is amazing, up among his best work. The eighth and final episode is on YouTube, but you can download the whole thing on any P2P network.

[Valenti]

I'll look it up. P2P, you say? I'll have to look into that, as well, I've never heard of it. My internet literacy is very, very low.

[RNL]

It just means Peer to Peer. Stuff like KaZaA, Limewire, eMule, SoulSeek, etc.

They're programs that, when they're running, allow users to trade files between any computers running that program and their own.

[Valenti]

Ah, thank you. I think my older brother has LimeWire...

I'll be downloading 'Rabbits' very soon.

[Capo]

Inland Empire has animation? Not so sure about that one. But like the duration, I must cast aside my doubts and go along with Lynch. Is the title supposed to be capitalised still?

I've seen the opening episode of Dumbland, and thought it was rather funny in a crude, let's-all-be-childish kind of way. But I remember you saying, Wet Dog, that was the best episode. I'd like to see the rest, just to say I've seen it, but I think, of his short films, Rabbits remains the best. I also love The Amputee and Darkened Room, which has a fantastic opening but doesn't sustain its genuine terror...

...whereas Eraserhead does. "Pure" Cinema? Perhaps; it depends on what constitutes Cinema...but for a while now I've been wanting to write how much I love that first shot of Henry looking at something over his shoulder, beyond the camera, and then how he simply turns and walks towards and through that tunnel. How on earth could you translate that into another artform?

[RNL]

I don't think the title was ever meant to be capitalised. I think that came from lynchnet, who quoted an article where the film's title had been printed in caps, and presumed that was how it was to be written, but most 'serious' publications do that to titles instead of bolding or italicising... we'll see, though, I suppose.

All this talk of Eraserhead's got me jonesin'!

[Capo]

Italicising is the way forward, surely. It looks much neater than all other alternatives.

Didn't you order the Eraserhead DVD, the one with that lovely "2000" written on the cover? If so, how's the transfer? Watched it yet? I still have it only on VHS. There's something hardcore in watching the Man in the Planet pull that lever with the low hum of the VCR in your headphones.

[RNL]

;D Rugged.

I haven't watched the film through yet, but I checked the AV quality and it's very crisp. There's even a foreword stating that most TVs' brightness levels are too high, and a special video calibration screen where you turn your brightness level all the way down, then bring it up slowly until you can just make out the figure on the screen.

My TV was too bright

[Valenti]

I don't own Eraserhead on DVD...I saw it for the first time at a drive-in theater when I was a teenager, and anybody here who was around during the drive-in theater days knows that it isn't really a great way to watch movies, unless you're rich and pay the owner to clear the place out.

I rented it not too long ago on VHS--by not too long ago, I mean six or seven years--and the quality was terrible.

Which DVD do you fellows reckon I should grub my hands on?

[bobbyreed]

The Region 1 Eraserhead "2000" DVD.