This being my first post of a new academic year, specifically my 2nd year, this is the topic I decided to approach since it was the first screening we had since coming back from the Summer holidays (which were AH-MAZING, but that's besides the point.)
So to start off in the right foot, this is a film made by noted filmmaker David Lynch as a final graduate project whilst he was attending the American Film Institute back in the day.
Even though he eventually got funding to effectively produce this film, he still fought through a lot of set backs and most of them were from people who didn't believe that his project would ever come to life as it was "too insane" as to ever become a successful screen story.
Well, far to say we know who came out on top from that setback.
But moving along to my actual interpretation/review of the film in of itself:
- The first thing that caught my eye as soon as the film started was, amazingly, that the movie was not only shot in black and white but rather that Lynch actually used film stock to create it! Talk about creativity and perseverance.
- Consequently the mood of the film, didn't feel like any other stereotypical 1970's film but rather it transported the viewer into a completely different era in cinematic history. The ambient, mise-en-scene and respective clothing of the actors exuded a late 1940's/early 1950's vibe which in conjunction with the brilliant cinematography made the viewing of it quite an immersing experience.
- There is no way of putting "Eraserhead" into a specific category or genre since it can embody a diversity of both in a single scene. Yes, it has the crackling feeling thanks to the 35mm film stock that was used and the texture and feeling of a film noir where you feel like Humphrey Bogart could appear out of nowhere and become the hero of reaction less Henry and his down spiraling and short lived marriage to Mary. Yet still maintaining the contemporary feel to the story with the introduction of a fantasy element here showcased by the strange, alien-like creature that is assuredly Henry and Mary's out of wedlock child.
- Basically, there isn't only one single answer to what the meaning of the film is. It can be interpreted differently by different people. So if you are looking for a complete and all consuming answer to what Lynch's film is about then, well, I am sorry to disappoint you because there isn't one!
But my opinion is that, there is no denying that this film plays with the morals and social conduct of a society. Lynch exploits this through the introduction of a couple who has sexual intercourse before marriage in which the result is an unwanted pregnancy that forces them to be wed, despite them both being mentally and emotionally unstable people. This is the main plot of the story and what sets the story in motion. We see the ups and downs of both an unwanted marriage and child and how Henry and his wife react to it.
By the end of the film, Henry has been left as the only parent to his son and because he has never felt any love, or should even I say, acknowledgement for the creature that he ends up killing it and is thrown into this strange location where a smiling lady in white expects him and beckons him forward. She, in my eyes, functions as the portal to Heaven which he tries to access but fails because he is not worthy of such after murdering an innocent child. So he is condemned to Purgatory and his punishment is to live out the same series of events that led up to the murder of his creature child for eternity!
Or maybe that's just what I wished that had happened.
"Eraserhead" (1977) Trailer
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