“Eraserhead”

“Eraserhead” (1977) written and directed by David Lynch is one of the strangest and most unique films ever made. What it is about, I can’t really say; only that there are strange things that happen to and around a young man whose head looks like a pencil eraser. It is all mood and weirdness, but you never forget it once you have seen it.
Lynch began the film while a student at the American Film Institute. It is said of Lynch and “Eraserhead,” according to film historian David Thomson “It was not just a student film, but as private as any solitary art like writing or painting.” Apparently Lynch did everything; he wrote, directed, special effects, photographed. His characters are weird, sometimes grotesque and repelling. The late musician Peter Ivers wrote and sang the song “Everything in Heaven is Fine” for a character that is a strange cupie doll with a melon size growth on her face.
“Eraserhead” found an audience in weekly midnight screenings at a theatre in Venice. It slowly gathered a cult following.
From “Eraserhead” one would expect that Lynch would make only small experimental films. However, he went on to make great films that also found a wide audience such as “Blue Velvet” (1986) and “Mulholland Dr.” (2001), and “Elephant Man” (1980). Lynch also made his mark with a twisted and dark television melodrama “Twin Peaks.”


Links:

AFI
http://www.afi.com/Education/

David Lynch
http://www.davidlynch.de/
http://www.davidlynch.de/head.html

Alexander Roos Extra Credit #2.2