201 ... Eraserhead
201 ... ERASERHEAD
Here it is, the first film in my odyssey.
A film I would probably have never seen, if I had not undertaken this project. I'd heard differing views on Eraserhead before I watched it, ranging from "rubbish" to "good" to "better watched whilst under the influence of mind altering drugs" !
It is definitely different. After watching Hollywood style films, the lack of a definite plot, grainy black and white picture, few spoken words and a weird soundtrack, made this film hardwork.
The film starts with a weird 6 minute scene including the main character Henry, staring into space and screaming, a shadowy character sat in a window pulling leavers and a giant sperm falling into a puddle !
The general gist from then on is Henry, living alone in a run down industrial area. He visits his girlfriend and her parents for tea. The evening is weird, and includes a litter of puppies suckling their mother, long silences, the girlfriend having a seizure, the meal itself is little "man-made" chickens ! The father smiles insanely, and the mother has a total character transformation (from quiet, to shouting, to suckling Henry's neck). Henry finds out at this point his girlfriend is pregnant.
Next thing is the girlfriend at Henry's apartment with the baby - the baby looks like a cross between E.T. and Kermit the frog, but with no arms or legs. The baby cries, the girlfriend walks out, leaving Henry with baby, the baby gets sick, then (as you do) Henry sees a disfigured dancing girl and falling sperm inside the radiator ! Henry's attractive neighbor seduces him, then later comes home with another man, the baby cries, Henry loses it and kills the baby. He then appears to fall into insanity and the arms of the girl in the radiator ?
A WEIRD film, bizzare, a metaphor, full of other metaphors. There are some memorable images and I can see parts of the story saying something, but this is a tough film to watch and very different to the norm. Not enough to really hold my attention throughout or for a repeat viewing.
AFO (A Film Odyssey) rating 5
TJ (T J Hooker) rating 0
CK (Captain Kirt) rating n/a
Links .... IMDB Wikipedia The City of Absurdity
Please add your comments ....
Labels: DVD
posted by MrC at 3:48 PM
5 Comments:
Mr (Matrix) Anderson: This is a work of complete originality, once watched; never forgotten. A walk through nightmare for the wide awake. I just hope I never experience such imagery whilst asleep or after too much pear cider.
Finger buffets with chicken legs have never been the same since !
Sorry, I'm not going to watch this movie. Too surreal for my liking. Even I have my limits.
No rating available.
This is one film I couldn't get my head round. I wasn't certain if it was the director, the cast (?) or myself that were on drugs. This is certainly one to watch if you want to confuse yourself.
1 out of 10
A total waste of 89 mins of my time.If anyone can tell me what the film was all about please do.
I could write a book about how bad this film was but I will just say the worst film ever made
Rating -10 out of 10.
Look forward to your next review
I worked in a cinema in Manchester years ago and some came to see it and threw up half way through. After that I sat and watched it.At least I have an advantage over most people who have seen it;I didn't have to pay.
Did Mr Lynch just set out to make a film that was so bad and so unexplainable and so sick and made not the slightest sense that people would remeber it. Well in my case he succeed. It's 20 years since I saw it and I still remember it.I wish I didn't.
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