David Lynch’s debut feature about the fear of one’s own creation has become a classic of American avantgarde film.
Lost in the smog of the urban jungle, Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) wears a boring suit and sports a striking hairstyle. One day, on his way home, he finds out he is invited to a dinner at his girlfriend Mary’s (Charlotte Stewart) place to meet her parents. Mary’s family are beyond strange: her mother asks awkward questions and tries to seduce Henry, her jolly father cannot feel his arm, and her grandma is in a coma. A huge dog surrounded by feeding puppies lies on the floor and they have chickens oozing slime for dinner. By the end of the meal, it turns out that Mary has given birth to a monster child and her parents insist that the couple get married to bring it up. Two days into their life together, Mary runs off, leaving Henry alone with the screaming, sick creature, hallucinating.
Lynch’s dark early film accumulated many shocking elements and metaphors from the history of film: disfigured bodies, blood, flesh, surrealism, eroticism, high-contrast black-and-white cinematography. Reworked by Lynch, these tropes feel harsher, more overwhelming. Even in comparison to his later films, Eraserhead is audacious. He brutally drags images created by anxiety and the fear of giving birth (to a child or a work of art) from the depths of the unconscious, showing how disgusting they can be.
The film will be screened in English with Russian subtitles.
Eraserhead
Director: David Lynch
USA, 1977. 89 min.
18+