"Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper".– David Lynch
Six years ago ‘The Guardian’ made a joint survey based on public opinion poll and a panel of international critics regarding the best director of current time. The Top forty list has some of the brilliant names- Scorsese, Coen Brothers, Tarantino, Wong Kar-Wai, Bella Tarr, Terrence Malick, Cronenberg, Miyazaki, Fincher, Miike and others but the man who score the top position is none other than David Lynch. There are many close rivals in substance, craft, look and intelligence but as far as originality is concerned he scored maximum points among the rest.
Eraserhead is debut full length film of Lynch and it’s undoubtedly an experimental cult film with an unconventional plot set in an industrial waste land loaded with bizarre and surreal imagery. It’s absolutely challenging film for your head like most of Lynch works. Lynch himself called it “dream of dark and troubling time.” One can see the stamp of Lynch as the auteur in all three shocking scenes- dinner party scene, dream sequence of Henry’s head to pencil machine operator and the climactic scene where Henry cuts the bandage of deformed baby and feel paranoia.
Without using any commercial material except special effects in few scenes Lynch absolutely made a film with his independent touch. The peculiar use of mechanical sound, B&W bizarre camerawork, negligible dialogues, neurotic characters looming between symbolic heaven and hell and absolutely awesome imagination that envy any creative directors. It’s a kind of film which opens up more intensity after several viewing like his the most intriguing ‘Mullholand Drive’. But again it’s an out and out head product of Lynch; amid his all terrific creativity he skipped the heart here. My favorite Lynch film still remains ‘The Elephant Man’ where he beautifully combines his heart and head making everlasting experience for all audience.
If you don’t mind watching a challenging film with unease, disgust and full of weird surreal underpinning than it’s out and out film which blow your mind away!!!
Ratings-9/10
5 comments:
This deserved a 10/10! My fave Lynch, one of the must watch films.
The opening scene is a class apart too. No one else could have imagined such a beautiful way of depicting
thx for comments. The originality of creativity is impeccable in Lynch and its no wonder why he would be inspirational to makers like Cronenberg. what u say!!!
Still pending with me...Didn't know it was his first full length feature!
Elephant Man is my favourite Lynch too :)I thought your favourite was Blue Velvet..
Going by heart my favorite Lynch is 'The Elephant Man' but by head it's 'Eraserhead'. This is the film, which with each viewing open up new vistas with its striking imagery and surreal tones.
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