Sunday, February 13, 2011

my thoughts on.... 'The Short Films of David Lynch'

David Lynch is an artist.... one of a very small group of living artists that i can honestly say that i respect.... it took me a while to understand the mind of David Lynch and to appreciate his films.... but now, i watch and re-watch his films getting something new out of them everytime.... i wait for his next projects to emerge.... and i appreciate the dedication that he has to his art.... it's rare to find someone who basically lives for creation and the joy of new ideas.... whether or not you can appreciate him the way that i do, you have to respect his vision and his never compromise attitude.

this collection of 6 short films is a compilation of his earliest work and some other more recent pieces of work.... it's a nice cross-section of his non-feature length films.... not all of these are stand out examples of what he's capable of, but every artist has to experiment to find his voice.... that's kind of what some of this is, watching someone figure out who they are on film.... so you kind of have to take these with a grain of salt.... don't expect them all to be 4 star films and you won't be disappointed....
(these descriptions are being paraphrased from Netflix....)
1) 'Six Men Getting Sick': this is David Lynch's very first film.... it's a one minute loop of an art installation.... it was originally projected over a sculpture.... the film describes it perfectly, it's 6 men's heads getting sick and vomiting....
2) 'The Alphabet': this is a 5 minute short that David Lynch describes as an illustration of "the fear of learning".... it's a blend of live-action and animation.... where the alphabet is basically being 'born'....
3) 'The Grandmother': in this film, a little boy who's been mistreated by his parents decides to grow his own grandmother.... so he plants a seed and gets his wish, at least for a little while....
4) 'The Amputee': David Lynch is actually in this live-action comedy short.... he plays the nurse.... while he attempts to clean her wounds, she is oblivious to all of the horrible things happening at the same time....
5) 'The Cowboy and the Frenchman': this comedy was produced by French television and shows a stereotypical Frenchmen being thrust into the middle of some cowboys and a native American.... it stars one of David Lynch's favorites, Harry Dean Stanton....
6) 'Lumiere': this is a 52-second, single-take short film.... it was filmed with Auguste and Louis Lumiere's original Cinematographe, which was the cutting edge of film technology in 1895....

there may be times during this 6 films that you have to struggle a bit.... as they can be slow or seem repetitive.... but if you persist, you'll find something unique in each of them to enjoy.... and for those of you who are fans of David Lynch, this is a must.... those of you who aren't, may want to start elsewhere in his library of film and television.... i ended up only give this 3 out of 5 stars.... which is unusual for a Lynch film from me.... but it's a rounded off score based on a rating given to each short film.... like i said already, some are better than others....

if you like this, watch: 'Eraserhead', 'The Elephant Man', or 'Inland Empire'

this is David Lynch's short film: 'The Alphabet'.... to give you an idea of what to expect:

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