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The Short Films of David Lynch

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This collection of David Lynch's short films was originally only available through his Web site. This new edition is reportedly the same disc with different packaging (it lacks the oversized box and booklet of the first version), but it's considerably cheaper. You can watch each film with or without an introduction by Lynch. The films are:

SIX MEN GETTING SICK - This animated one-minute movie was Lynch's very first film. It was originally part of a multi-media piece and was projected over a sculpture on a continuously running loop. The title is an accurate description of the film, as several human heads become inflamed, catch fire, and vomit copiously. It's worth noting that, while 99.9% of movie directors become filmmakers because they're into films, Lynch came to filmmaking purely as an extension of his painting, and was never a movie buff. I think that simple fact goes a long way in explaining Lynch's originality as a director.

THE ALPHABET - A combination of animation and live action, this approximately 5-minute film is "about the fear of learning," according to Lynch. The soundtrack consists of children repeatedly chanting the alphabet, while animated letters seem to excrete and procreate and a woman in white-face cowers in a bed and eventually vomits blood (vomiting figures strongly in Lynch's early film work). It's a concentrated and eerie piece of surrealism.

THE GRANDMOTHER - A lonely, abused boy grows a grandmother from a seed in this, Lynch's first attempt at narrative (of a sort). There's some animation, but live action dominates. It's crudely made in comparison to his first feature, Eraserhead, but it's clearly the product of the same singular artistic vision.

THE AMPUTEE - Back around the time he was making ERASERHEAD, Lynch was offered some videotape for free, so he used it to shoot this short bit of black comedy. It stars Catherine Coulson (much later she became the Log Lady in TWIN PEAKS) and Lynch himself.

THE COWBOY AND THE FRENCHMAN - Made for French TV right after he finished BLUE VELVET, this is a virtually plotless exercise in comic surrealism, plopping down an absurdly stereotypical Frenchman (he wears a beret, and carries a bottle of wine and snails in briefcase) in the middle of a ranch inhabited by several stereotypical cowboys. It looks like it was mastered off a videotape source, which is odd. I wonder if the original film elements were lost.

LUMIERE - Originally titled PREMONITION FOLLOWING AN EVIL DEED, which I personally like a lot better than LUMIERE. This was made for the film LUMIERE AND COMPANY, in which acclaimed directors from all over the world were given a Lumiere camera (the very first motion picture camera) and asked to make a movie with it. Since the camera could only hold 55 seconds worth of film, the directors were retsricted to that running time. They also were not allowed to edit. If you've seen LUMIERE AND COMPANY, you know that Lynch's film is by far the most interesting and imaginative of the bunch. He ingeniously got around the prohibition against editing by constructing several sets side-by-side, and blocking the lens momentarily while he moved the camera to the next scene. The movie goes by in a flash of bizarre black and white images. Was that a naked woman floating in a huge glass tube? And what were those humanoid things and what exactly were they doing? You have to watch the film several times to begin to get a clear idea of what you've seen.

These shorts represent the more abstract side of Lynch's film work - they're much more the work of the Lynch who made ERASERHEAD than the Lynch who made THE STRAIGHT STORY. Your average Joe Filmgoer would hate them. But if you're a Lynch fan and haven't seen some or all of these films, you'll definitely want to get this.

If you're a Lynch devotee, a student of the relationship between fine art and film, or you just like to stroll the docks late at night hoping to get beaten up, this is must viewing for you. The Short Films Of David Lynch showcases the celebrated eccentric's earliest efforts, some of which are only a few minutes long. Not only are they spellbinding, his commentary on them is as interesting as the subjects themselves. Watching these pieces, and they deserve repeated viewing, resolves the two most persistent questions about David Lynch. The first question is: Is David Lynch really as sick and perverse as he seems to be or has he cloaked himself in a mantle of depravity because such an affectation is considered hip in the art world?

After watching "Six Men Getting Sick" - six times in a row, you will have your answer. The Grandmother is equally grotesque and horrifying, foreshadowing the revulsion soon to come in his unforgettable Eraserhead. The Amputee is not really much different from many Monty Python sketches you've seen, except that the delivery is so deadpan as to be unpleasant if not twisted. Most illuminating of all, with respect to films made years later, is The Cowboy And The Frenchman - a frothy concoction of existential surrealism that dances between delightful absurdity and annoying stupidity with effortless ease. It has all the content of a Samuel Beckett novel.

Which brings us to the second question about David Lynch. Are his films pointless by design; is he completely uninterested in creating real characters and putting them in situations that have meaning? Or, to put it differently, does he view film as "moving canvas," a medium that shows but does not reveal, and in the process provides ample opportunity for him to unleash the bats in his brain that prevent him from sleeping at night?

The Short Films Of David Lynch answers this question too. The intentional lack of meaning and devotion to bizarre graphic style foretells what is to come, from Wild At Heart and Lost Highway all the way through to his masterpiece, Mulholland Drive. Lynch is brilliant, troubling, and hard to categorize. These short films, which just recently became available, provide valuable insight into the unique vision of our most painterly, unorthodox, and demented director.

What is it about old short films with grain, textures, and lo-fi sounds that make it so haunting?

I've never quite been able to state whether I love David Lynch's work or hate it. But I can't deny that he's always been intriguing. These films are quite frightening and yes, of course they're bizarre and strange. As I mentioned, the textures, the contrast, the audio, the characters and stories... all the elements combine to produce some really amazing and beautiful work. You'll get basically nothing as far as the traditional narrative here, but there is so much more to work with. If you're familiar at all with the Brothers Quay, this would be a definite buy for you.

Of the Lynch features I've seen, I'd probably say that "Eraserhead" and "Inland Empire" are the most comparable to the short films on this disc. Take it for what it's worth, could be good or bad. I think that his early work embraces the experimental, and he capitalizes on the fact he is working with a short film, not a feature. I really love these pieces, having previously only seen "Luminere"

I will assume that most people at least have some idea of what David Lynch can be like... so take that into account if buying this collection. I think the films are great, but they're definitely not for everybody. One huge attribute to this collection is the short intros given by the director before each film (option to watch with or without)

& Peggy singing the alphabet is going to give me nightmares for weeks.

It doesn't seem to affirm David Lynch was the most legitimate and visceral minimalist filmmaker of that generation. This artistic conception emerged in 1965, defying the lyricism, the abstract expressionism and pop art' figuration searching renovated forms of abstraction, based on the simplicity of colors and geometrical shapes.

In this brief but curious release, we will appreciate the first steps and concerns of this young promise.

Six sick men and the alphabet are featured by elemental and animated drawings, which dates us back to a sort of blend of aesthetic primitivism, accusing influences of Fauvism and Constructivism.

The grandmother is perhaps his most ambitious project. A surrealistic nightmare works out as preamble to a lonely child, incapable to establish no communication with his parents, and so he decides to become an apprentice of alchemist, creating that grandmother. Permeated by a gothic atmosphere and audacious chromatic games and expressionistic shots, he achieves - to my view- a fascinating,, outrageous and macabre tale , a dark metaphor about the alienation and horrid loneliness.

The amputee is, although its briefness, a caustic tale where the shocking images describe by themselves, the serene bitterness of very alluring woman.

Finally, The cowboy and the Frenchman, is an enraptured, sardonic and iconic tale where Lynch intermingles some folkloric elements, typical of both cultures.

It is interesting to realize how this provocative feminine choir, would be employed by Lynch in "Mulholland drive."

The films themselves are simple, odd and fun to watch; but the commentary by David Lynch is amaaaaaaaazing. Slow and intensely weird while at the same time, somehow, warm and educational. Lynch doesn't hold back about his beginnings, rambling on in his nostalgia. He's one of those people who make you think, "How can he be so serious about what he does?" And then, you realize, you've just been thoroughly entertained.

This is some pretty cool stuff by David Lynch. While I haven't been able to see Blue Velvet (already a contender to be one of my favorite movies, but I have to see it) or Eraserhead, well no matter. I have no clue about weird film directors besides Lynch, but matter not. It's some cool watching.

The short films on here are pretty great, and the Grandmother, The Alphabet (that one rules) and the six men getting sick are worth the price alone. David Lynch gives some great tricks.. I love his live action shooting in this one. It's extremely dark and his lighting is totally weird. Just check out the Grandmother, with Matt (well, that's what the parents yell, one of the only lines in the whole movie) and his creepy room, a weird looking bed in a black backdrop. Pretty cool. The Alphabet has some sinister looking faces, and is supposed to be about the life cycle (and was inspired when someone he knew was saying the alphabet in a tormented way) David Lynch does some great introductions as well. Great acting, really, just some cool stuff.

It's a great DVD. This one is just worth seeing just to see it's many cool images. A must watch, maybe not a must own, but a must watch.

David Lynch is my favorite director of all times. He stands on top, side by side with Stanley Kubrick, in my opinion. I've been watching his films over and over again since I was 16 and it's always a new experience. Every single time I discover new meanings, new interpretations, new compelling details, which is wonderful but also frustrating, in a way: when I think I'm pretty close to fully understand his art, I have to re-think it all.
But "The Short Films" came as a fundamental help to my efforts. There is where it all began and there I found the seeds (it's funny to see how the seeds are a constant in his early works, from "The Alphabet" to "Eraserhead") of his unique art.
The DVD includes the following works:

-- Six Men getting sick
-- The Alphabet
-- The Grandmother
-- The Amputee
-- The Cowboy and the Frenchman
-- Lumiere

I can see clearly a path connecting the first three films. In the odd "film painting" of the Six Men Lynch establishes one of his staple subjects: the birth/generation (the life!) as a sickness; then he depicts learning as a traumatic experience in "The Alphabet" and finally ends this unorthodox trilogy with that "nightmare of growing" called "The Grandmother".
"The Grandmother" is definitely a complete film and his first, disturbing masterpiece: I think this alone is worth the price of the DVD, an absolute must-see.
The remaining three works are less interesting. I see in them more mannerism and less significance, while "The cowboy and the Frenchman" is fun (thanks to Harry Dean Stanton!) and very reminiscent of the humour of "Twin Peaks".
I would have enjoyed some extras, but now my Lynch collection is complete and I'm very glad of my purchase.

"The Short Films of David Lynch" compiles six of David Lynch's short films. Two were made while Lynch was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. These are "Six Figures Getting Sick (Six Times)," a three-minute loop of nauseating animation and sound seemingly consciously or subconsciously designed to make the audience sick, and "The Alphabet," a disturbing, bloody incarnation of one of the former Mrs. Lynch's nightmares. "The Grandmother" is the longest of the shorts at just over half an hour, and was the first film Lynch shot at the American Film Institute. "The Amputee" features young Catherine Coulson, the Log Lady of "Twin Peaks," and was shot to test film stock while Lynch tried to secure funding for "Eraserhead." The subtle slapstick and absurdity of "The Amputee" is amusing. It's the first of the six pieces in which Lynch seems to be discovering himself as a filmmaker. Its predecessors are avant-garde bulls--t, interesting but unorganized, lacking purpose or theme, experiments in which Lynch searches for himself at the cost of emotion and humanity, those feelings which compelled his greatest works. The final segment was Lynch's contribution to the "Lumiere" project, in which filmmakers created a minute-or-so silent film in a single take on the Lumiere brothers original Cinematographe camera, the greatest cinematic technology of 1895. What Lynch's Lumiere film achieves in 52 seconds is intriguing, as well as disturbing, and surreal, even by Lynch's high standards of surrealism. The crown jewel of the collection is "The Cowboy and the Frenchman," a 25-minute short created for French T.V., featuring Lynch regulars Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nance. Lynch's knack for comedy is often overlooked. It shines in "The Cowboy and the Frenchman," Lynch's hilariously absurd vision of the French. A scene in which Stanton's fellow cowboys unpack the titular Frenchman's suitcase is one of the most enjoyable and outrageous Lynch has filmed.

Lumiere alone is a great example of pre-production & execution of an idea within the narrowest of constraints.

I'm a huge fan of SOME of David Lynch's work, and these films showcase him both at his most artistic and his most annoying. The first short film he ever made is essentially a Francis-Bacon style painting that is animated, with grotesque heads spewing out paint. Although not a great film on its own, it shows how from the very start Lynch exploited film imagery.

"The Alphabet" is a bizarre ultra-short which featuring a frightened girl reciting letters of the alphabet and then spitting up pints of blood. Honestly, it comes across as some type of deranged, violent imagery from the mind of a really disturbed person. I personally think this is an example of how Lynch would resort to violence and borderline misogynistic imagery in many of his subsequent films to get his kicks. But as far as nightmarish imagery -- it's quite impressive.

For me the most interesting and meaningful film of the entire set is "The Grandmother", which cost almost as much as Eraserhead did to produce. It's something around a half-hour long, was shot MOS, and is a genuinely inventive goth melodrama about a cute little kid who grows a "Mystery Man"-faced Grandma as a companion. This is where the imagery from "The Alphabet" actually gained some traction with Lynch's other burgeoning propensity -- a skeleton of syrupy emotionalism and melodrama.

Alas, things go quickly downhill from there. The Cowboy / Frenchman deal is just irritating and came out during my least favorite part of his career -- the very late 80's/early 90s. "The Amputee" is obnoxious and plays into the patronizing grotesquery of many of his lesser efforts. Luckily, Lynch's micro-short for The Lumiere Project is genuinely haunting; I saw it years ago and never forgot some of its imagery.

So, in my very subjective opinion -- this disc has some invaluable material for fans of Eraserhead, which is my favorite of David Lynch's work.