The Friday Afternoon Movie: The Grandmother
Today the FAM presents David Lynch’s 1970 short film, The Grandmother. The heart warming story of a boy who — neglected and abused by his family — grows a kindly old lady to provide with the affection he craves. A silent film, the characters interact with abstract soundtrack cues. It’s strange and undeniably artsy; artsy enough to be mistaken as a parody of an artsy movie. And yet, whether for its brevity or Lynch’s youth, it is most certainly one of his most straightforwardly discernible films, devoid of the extraneous imagery woven throughout his later films, confounding and misdirecting the audience at every opportunity. Whether that is counted as being a good thing or not depends, I suppose, on how much of a David Lynch fan you are.
March 5th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I saw this film through an earlier post on Coilhouse that Zoetica Ebb put up, and it was the first Lynch film I ever saw. Since then, I’ve only seen Blue Velvet and have slowly been watching my way through Twin Peaks. If I had more time, I would have seen every film this man has made multiple times, though. I’m pretty much addicted. Thanks, guys.
I love The Grandmother so much. It’s incredible to me that this strange sort of world, where no words are spoken, can make me feel as much as I do. There are not many films that make me care about the characters as much as this one.