Eraserhead
Short description
Henry Spencer lives in a bleak industrial town of smoke, noise and shadow, in a bare apartment whose window looks onto a brick wall. He learns that his girlfriend, Mary X, is pregnant, and a strained dinner with her parents ends with pressure to marry. The child arrives: a premature, inhuman creature that cries without pause. Mary soon leaves Henry alone with it, and the effort of caring for the infant pushes him further into a private world where waking life and dream merge.
David Lynch wrote, produced and directed the film, his third feature in a career that would run to seventeen. Jack Nance plays Henry, with Charlotte Stewart as Mary, Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates as her parents, Judith Roberts as the woman across the hall, and Laurel Near as the lady in the radiator. Made through the American Film Institute, the film earned about 7 million dollars worldwide, a substantial return for such an unconventional production.
On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from roughly 143,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.3 from a much smaller 2,840 votes, showing a committed cult following rather than broad consensus. Critics rated it considerably higher, 8.7 from 84 reviews. The next film Lynch directed was The Elephant Man in 1980.
What's left behind the scenes
- In his interviews, David Lynch calls "Eraserhead" his most subtle film and fundamentally refuses to comment on its plot, stating that viewers should form their own opinion and comprehend its meaning.
- Stanley Kubrick expressed regret that he did not direct this film.
- The original screenplay was titled “Gardenback” and was only 20 pages long, which was one of the reasons for funding problems.
- "Eraserhead" was one of Stanley Kubrick and John Waters' favorite films.
- The initial version of the film had a runtime of 108 minutes.
- To film "Eraserhead", the director had to find money in a variety of ways – even delivering newspapers.
- Since the film was shot in segments over five years, the same sets had to be assembled several times. The filming was generally very fragmented in terms of timing. For example, the scene where Henry enters his apartment was filmed a year and a half after the scene where Henry opens the door.
- The film’s soundtrack was dedicated “to The Man In The Planet’s Sister.” Jack Fisk played the character of The Man In The Planet in the film, and his sister Mary soon became Lynch’s second wife. Jack Fisk later married Sissy Spacek, who also occasionally attended the filming.
- Jack Nance, who played Henry, wore his character's distinctive hairstyle for all five years of filming.
- The film's original cinematographer, Herbert Cardwell, died in his sleep at the age of 38 two years after filming began.
- At the beginning of the film, Henry Spencer steps into a puddle with his right foot, but when he gets home, he dries the sock from his left foot.
- During the first year of work on the film (out of five), David Lynch's wife left him. Considering that their daughter had been born shortly before, many believe that David Lynch drew on personal experience when filming.
- "Eraserhead" made such a strong impression on directors Mel Brooks and George Lucas that the former offered Lynch to direct "The Elephant Man" (1980), and the latter – "Star Wars: Episode 6 – Return of the Jedi" (1983). Lynch accepted the first offer, which became his debut in "major" cinema, and declined the second.
- The black and white zigzag pattern on the floor in Henry’s house is identical to the pattern on the floor in the poet’s house in Jean Cocteau’s film “Orpheus” (1950). Lynch later transferred this same pattern to the floor of the Black Lodge from his series “Twin Peaks” (1990-1991).
- Premiere magazine named this film one of the 25 "most dangerous films".
- In 2004, the film was deemed culturally significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
- The role of the child-mutant was “played” by an embalmed calf fetus, but Lynch never revealed the secret of how he managed to make it move in such a way. After filming, the director personally buried it.
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