A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things: Eraserhead (1977)

"Dude, what the hell am I watching?"

Words that are so very often associated with David Lynch, one of modern cinema's most creative, imaginative auteurs, and one of my personal idols. The surrealist elements in his movies are incredibly unique, beautifully grotesque and often incomprehensibly weird. But since the beginning of his film career none of his works have quite reached the level of strangeness that is achieved in his first feature length movie, Eraserhead (Except maybe Inland Empire, but I'll talk about that some other time). The plot is hard to explain, because a) there really isn't much of one, it's a very visual film and b) if you haven't seen this movie already you should do yourself a massive favour and watch it so I don't have to even try to explain it.

Basically it's about an average guy named Henry (played by Jack Nance, an actor who appeared in pretty much all of Lynch's work before his death in 1996) who has a weird mutant baby with his girlfriend and then has some really, really weird dreams and stuff happen to him. Honestly, that's the best summary I can come up with. It's nearly impossible to convey the plot of this movie using words, because there basically isn't a coherent, forward moving narrative here.

But don't get me wrong, that's not a bad thing. In fact, quite the opposite. David Lynch describes Eraserhead as "a dream of dark and troubling things", and that's exactly what it is. A dream. Most of the things that happen in this film happen for no reason at all. Strange fluids pour out of things. Mutant babies cry all the time, apparently. There's a chipmunk lady living in Henry's wall heater who likes to sing (what?). Creepy worms float through space. And it goes on and on and on. Calling it a dream is pretty accurate, because anything can and will happen in a person's dream, for no reason at all. And that's one of the reasons Eraserhead works so well, it puts the viewer directly in Henry's tense, paranoid brain, front row center to his surreal, dark and disturbing nightmare. We (the audience) are just as confused and oblivious as he is for most of the movie, it's almost like Lynch put a camera in his head and taped a dream he had.

But while the movie is weird and nonsensical, the interactions Henry has with people and some of the situations he is put in are all too familiar to the average person. Coming home from work, going to his girlfriend's house for dinner, meeting her parents, these are things that normal people can empathize with. But Henry's demeanor is almost always intensely uneasy, he locks up when engaged in conversation, and just seems generally ill at ease all the time. Which makes sense, considering the things that happen to him over the course of the movie. Henry experiences and dreams some really weird stuff, and it's an interesting juxtaposition placed beside the fairly normal, ordinary circumstances that the film opens with.

Another thing that always stands out for me in Eraserhead is the use of audio in the film. There's almost always some kind of background noise in every scene, whether it's a train, random machinery, the howling of wind, a thunderstorm, or a mutant baby screaming, it's almost never entirely quiet. But when it is finally silent, things become really freaky. The viewer gets accustomed to the background noise, and when it's not there the silence kind of tricks your brain into thinking that something really weird or unexpected is going to happen (and it usually does). This is a pretty cool technique.

Overall, Eraserhead is an entirely unique film. It's a surreal string of creative imagery that draws the viewer directly into David Lynch's messed up dream, and it never fails to captivate me, even after several viewings. A lot of people hate it for it's nonsensical plot and "excessive" use of gore but whatever. The bottom line is there is absolutely nothing like it and that in itself makes it a massive success, not to mention the fact that it launched David Lynch's extremely successful film career.

And I think the chipmunk lady was adorable.

Just Watched: The 39 Steps (1935)

Note: Posts with the "Just Watched" tag are movies that I just watched for the first time.

          I have a confession to make. I'm a really big fan of Alfred Hitchcock, but I've never seen The 39 Steps, a film that is regarded as an essential espionage movie and one of Hitchcock's greatest works. Thanks to Netflix, I just changed that.

          This movie is fantastic. Although some of Hitchcock's movies are shot in colour, I think black and white really was his best medium. His use of light is brilliant (see the picture above), often using heavy amounts of contrast and sharp, unsettling shadows to reflect the constant state of paranoia that the protagonist lives in, something that could probably not been accomplished (or possibly done to a lesser effect) in colour. That said, the setting in this particular film are gorgeous. This was made before Hitchcock's departure from England to Hollywood, and most of it takes place in rural Scotland. Gorgeous hills, peaceful farms and quaint country life visually counterpoint the chaotic chase that unfolds throughout the movie, as a man wrongfully accused of murder runs from police and spies trying to find answers. Hitchcock's signature attention to detail is also dominant in the composition of the elements onscreen. Everything is in its place, drawing the eye to the most important parts of the shot and keeping  the viewer focused on what matters.

          The plot of 39 Steps was absolutely not what I expected. I was expecting a spy movie focused on a protagonist (a spy), trying to stop an evil nemesis of his from taking over the world, stealing technology etc etc etc. In short I was kind of expecting a typical espionage film, which was probably stupid of me because all of Hitchcock's work is anything but conventional. Blame it on me watching too many Bond movies, I suppose. The story is more focused on the journey of the main character, and his struggle to prove his innocence. His character definitely grows over the course of the movie, turning from a freaked out average guy to a (sort of) fearless perceived criminal who jumps off trains, runs from cops, gets shot, and eventually proves his innocence in the end. And that's what made The 39 Steps so appealing to me. There was a lot of effort put into character development. A movie hero is nothing if not interesting, and I was constantly left wondering how he was going to get out of these tough situations. Hitchcock really makes the viewer empathize with the plight of his character here, and that is one of the biggest triumphs of this movie.

          This was also one of the first Hitchcock movies I've seen where I was able to spot his famous onscreen cameo on my first viewing, and I just want whoever reads this to know that I am really proud of myself for that. But in addition, there were some other plot elements that are very "Hitchcockian" that I noticed in 39 Steps that also show up in other films he has made. For instance, the concept of an average, normal person becoming involved in some type of conspiracy, or suddenly thrown into a world they know nothing about. This also happens in North By Northwest, where the main character's identity is mistaken and he is kidnapped. There were also a few things in Psycho that are reminiscent of this movie. Both contain a character that is just kind of "off". The crazy killer Norman Bates doesn't immediately strike his victim as a psychotic murderer, but you can definitely tell that something is not right in his head. In 39 Steps, the main character stays with a farmer and his wife in Scotland, the husband is extremely religiously zealous and suspicious; he has an unsettling presence on screen. The viewer knows that he is not trustworthy and is going to negatively impact the protagonist. This adds to the suspense because we do not know initially what is going to happen in that circumstance. Also, the concept of killing off a character early in the story is evident, in Psycho the "main" character is killed off fairly early in the film, in 39 Steps our hero appears to be shot and killed halfway through but survives due to a book hidden in his jacket. It's things like these that Hitchcock uses to mess with our minds, one of the reasons why he is known as the Master of Suspense.

          This is classic Hitchcock, I love it.

the title of this post is not important

Apparently mandatory introductory post. College student, 22 years old. I like movies. And video games. And books. And writing about them on the internet. And music. And sentence fragments. And that's all.