Eraserhead
Starring: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Jeanne Bates
Director: David Lynch
The film: 'It's a personal film that no reviewer, critic or even viewer has given an interpretation that is the same as mine,' says director David Lynch of Eraserhead.
With sparse dialogue and inscrutable scenes, Lynch's debut - a stark, monochrome feature made over more than five years - ranks as one of the most enigmatic of films. A narrative backbone does exist - that being the traumas faced by the lead character Henry (Jack Nance) when faced with fatherhood (and a limbless mutant as a son).
The circumstances in which he wallows, however, grow increasingly bizarre and grotesque, climaxing in the notorious finale.
The ambiguity, not to mention the disturbing visual stunts (spring chickens that ooze black slime, oversized sperm cells being stomped on, the messy demise of Henry's 'son'), have alienated mainstream audiences throughout the years. Those who delve hard into their imagination, however, would have a fine time decoding Lynch's brooding tale. Lynch got married to his first wife when she was pregnant, and the child that came out of that marriage, Jennifer, was born with club feet.
