Eraserhead (1977)

I saw Eraserhead for the first time several years ago in the cinema, as part of some David Lynch special for the birthday of someone who was a fan who worked at the local arty cinema.  It was one of the best outings to the cinema I've ever had, because it was packed with both fans and newcomers, so there was both hysterical laughter and people going "what the fuck???" in equal measure, the perfect mix of hilarity and repulsion.  And it was awesome on the big screen.  On a big or small screen the film is an experience.  

The film is unique for Lynch because aside from Dune it's probably the furthest removed from the "real" world.  Most of Lynch's films have some strong relation to reality, set in real places with real things and relatable characters, but filmed, acted and photographed in just the right way so that it looks and feels unreal...like most great films, though Lynch does it very well and in his own uniqe way.  Eraserhead on the other hand makes no effort to be half-grounded, its' world a claustrophobic industrial nightmare of undersized living edible chickens and mutant offspring that are apparently expected.  So it's the perfect midnight movie, funny, dark, and really uncomfortable.  It's also the most obviously metaphorical of his films, featuring abstract symbolic images like the man in the planet who controls the actions of Henry with levers beside cracked window, and the giant squishy sperm infesting his girlfriend, and the weird white shape that keeps falling into a bunch of holes and coming out again that never goes away.

The film is a sort of machine nightmare about creativity.  I don't think it's a literal tale about a troubled couple who have a mutant baby, I think the endlessly crying mutant baby is Henry's inner baby, his neediness, anxiety and confusion in bandaged bondage, only it is no longer needed and is starting to ruin him and his relationship with his girlfriend.  Jack Nance's performance as Henry is great and funny.  His terrified, awkward expressions are hilarious, especially when he has to cut up miniature chickens for dinner with his girlfriend's parents, and the chicken's legs start moving while it secretes a weird fluid.  It has to be seen.  The guy who plays the father is also brilliant, and after the chicken apparently craps on the plate he grins at Henry and asks "So Henry, what do you know?"  That was the cherry on the cake, and just slayed me.

One of my favourite parts of the film is the dream sequence in which Henry loses his head and it's taken to a factory to be made into pencil erasers.  I think it's Henry being given control, his mind erased and re-written anew.  One he has this, he kills his screaming child and the man in the planet loses control, his levers stuck and flinging sparks.  In that one moment after killing his imaginary second controller through his baby he is free.  It's a great sequence that has to be seen, because it's really a visual film.  Of course it's up for interpretation, but that's mine.  The film took 7 painstaking years to make, a real labour of love, and it all looks effortless on screen.  It was a creative process about a creative process.