Eraserhead

Teuthida · 01-12-2006, 02:18 AM

Has anyone seen this movie? It's probably the most bizarre film I've ever seen...or tried to see. I was reccomended it because I was said to bear resemblence to the main character...at least hair-wise. But man is it weird. I couldn't sit through the whole thing sadly enough. It's so slow moving and creepy. Reminded me of one of those artsy films they sometimes play in museums in a loop...but much longer...and with decapitation and monster babies...and jumping fetuses... And after watching it I had my first nightmare in I don't know how many years. From the mind of David Lynch.

Professor S · 01-12-2006, 02:25 AM

David Lynch has always been a master of setting tones in films, but he often fails to actually make good films. Eraserhead is creepy and unnerving and spectacularly shot and directed... but its still just a lot of bluster without much substance. This is often my biggest gripe with Tim Burton's films as well, but Burton isn't as bad of a storyteller as Lynch for the most part.

Lynch's opus is The Elephant Man, a simply fantastic movie that rips at your soul and makes you re-examine your own humanity through the eyes of this poor soul. Other than that, I think his best work is DUNE, believe it or not. Its creepy, original and effective at what it tries to accomplish. Its also one of the better Christ-figure stories put to film.

Teuthida · 01-12-2006, 02:28 AM

I'll have to check out Dune. Was also considering seeing Mulholland Dr. Suppose to be confusing yes?

Professor S · 01-12-2006, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teuthida

I'll have to check out Dune. Was also considering seeing Mulholland Dr. Suppose to be confusing yes?

Very. Lynch has a tendency to just thow weird up onto a movie screen to see if it sticks. One of my professors said something very profound abouy Lynch, and I'll paraphrase here:

"If art is not made to be understood by an audience, in the end all the artist is doing is babbling to himself."

I tend to agree with him. Yes, Kubrick was often times cryptic, but even if you didn't understand his films fully, you knew there was an underlying meaning and artful presentation that would reveal itself through repeated viewings. It took me at least 5 viewings of 2001 before I understood its brilliance and meaning (one that few agree with but I am certain of) but I always knew there was something there to discover. Lynch often just comes off as plain odd for the sake of odd.

DeathsHand · 01-12-2006, 03:55 PM

Only Lynch movie I've seen was Mulholland Dr.... I dunno, I thought it was pretty rad...

Actually I'll admit, I've only watched it once and, for the most part, I didn't understand a lick of it...

But as I do with most extremely confusing things that I've found mildly amusing, I looked for discussions about it online... And after reading various people point out various things, it ended up more-or-less making sense...

As for Eraserhead... Havn't seen it... But I suppose I'll check it out...