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Taken from: The online guide to Eraserhead
Maintained
by the creative team at the Man In Black Homepage:
D.
Ian Rogers (the Man In Black)
Man
In Black #2 (who doesn’t want any of his female chat room friends knowing
his real name) AKA the Man With Black Book... we call him Kevin
Man
In Black #3 (who can’t give out his name due to warrants outstanding) AKA
the Man In Straightjacket
Amy
Stewart AKA the Woman In Black (yes, we’re politically correct here)
Sylvester
AKA the Cat In Black... and White
A text
version of this FAQ can be found here.
Accept
no substitutes!
Please
direct all suggestions, comments and corrections to: the
Men In Black
Table of Contents
Section I - General Information
History
of the Film................................... 1.1
Pre-production.........................................
1.2
Principal
Photography - Year One............. 1.3
Principal
Photography - Year Two............ 1.4
Principal
Photography - Year Three......... 1.5
Post
Production - Year Four. .................... 1.6
Cast &
Credits.......................................... 1.7
David
Lynch Filmography....................... 1.8
Section II - Frequently Asked Questions
1.
What kind of budget did Lynch have for ERASERHEAD and his other early films?
2.
Is it true that Lynch had a paper route while he was making ERASERHEAD?
3.
How was the film completed with such a small budget?
4.
Does Lynch and his crew make any money off the film today?
5.
Is it true that some fellow directors helped ERASERHEAD’s popularity?
6.
How the heck did Lynch make "the baby"?
7.
What this story I’ve heard about Jack Nance and the giant baby head?
8.
What’s the deal with Henry’s hair?
9.
Is it true that Lynch used hospital refuse for some of his special effects?
10.
What else did Lynch use for special effects?
11.
What this story I’ve heard about Henry’s nosebleed?
12.
Why is Jack Nance listed as John Nance in the credits?
13.
What the heck is ERASERHEAD about?
14.
What is THE LABYRINTH MAN?
15.
Where can I purchase ERASERHEAD on video? Laserdisc?
16.
What is David Lynch currently working on?
Section
III - Deleted Scenes
1.
Is it true that several scenes were cut from ERASERHEAD?
Section
IV - *Extra* - What is RONNIE ROCKET?
1.
What is RONNIE ROCKET?
Section
V - *Extra* - What is THE LEMURIANS?
1.
What is THE LEMURIANS?
Section
VI - Acknowledgments
1.
Special thanks and all that other warm fuzzy stuff.
Section
VII - Copyright
1. Copyright
Stuff
Section I - General Information
ERASERHEAD began when
David Lynch applied for admittance to the Centre for Advanced Film Studies.
Lynch had to submit previous work
and a script. The
previous work was THE GRANDMOTHER, and the script was a piece called GARDENBACK.
Lynch spent much of his first year at the centre working on the script.
GARDENBACK was a story of adultery.
Lynch: "When you look at a girl, something crosses from her to you. And in this story, that something was an insect which grew in this man’s attic, which was like his mind. The house was like his head. And the thing grew and metamorphosized into this monster which overtook him. He didn’t become it, but he had to deal with it, and it drove him to completely ruining his home."
Caleb Deschanel, another student (who would later go on to photograph THE BLACK STALLION, BEING THERE and THE RIGHT STUFF) introduced Lynch to a producer from 20th Century Fox, who wanted to help turn the screenplay into a feature film. He had only one problem with it: the realism.
Lynch is best known for being vague and abstract. GARDENBACK had little dialogue and even though several people tried to help him flesh it out into a fundable project, Lynch soon lost interest.
Lynch: "I had worked on it so long that it had sort of killed the spark for me.
So Lynch met with the guys from 20th Century Fox and said:
Lynch: "I don’t want to do GARDENBACK. I want to do this thing called ERASERHEAD."
To which they replied: "Go ahead and do it."
ERASERHEAD grew out of GARDENBACK. The characters, Henry and Mary, were still there, but the limit of having only one-theme (adultery) was tossed.
And so ERASERHEAD was born.
With $10,000 from the AFI, Lynch began pre-production below the main mansion at the Centre. With stables, garages, quarters for maids, a greenhouse and a huge hay loft, he was able to set up his own makeshift studio. Eraserhead had a shooting schedule of six weeks.
Lynch: "We had about five or six rooms and this giant loft where all the other sets were built - a miniature sound stage and studio."
Set-building began immediately, with Lynch being assisted by his brother, John, and Alan Splet. For $100, he bought a lot of flats from a studio, which was going out of business, which he was able to re-use over and over again. When filming was complete on one set, it was torn apart and re-built into another.
For example, one area of the loft served as the pencil factory, the pencil company’s front office and the lobby of Henry’s apartment.
During this time, Lynch created "the baby".
It was also during this time that Lynch hired cinematographer Herb Cardwell, and production manager Doreen Small. It was Small’s job to locate props and organize things. When she was brought on no filming had taken place yet, and Lynch was still constructing Henry’s apartment. Small was in charge of decorating it: the picture of the nuclear explosion which hangs on the wall, and the matted substance that lies under the radiator.
With sets coming close to completion, Lynch began screening actors.
Charlotte Stewart (Mary X) came to the film through Doreen Small, her roommate at the time.
Judith Roberts (The Beautiful Woman Across the Hall), Allen Joseph (Bill X), and Jeanne Bates (Mrs. X) had all been members of a theater workshop, Theatre West.
When Jack Nance was interviewed by Lynch, both were a little wary.
Nance: "I had done a couple of AFI projects before. We kept our distance at first. Lynch wasn’t sure and I wasn’t sure."
In the end, it was something completely unrelated to the film, to filming in general, that made Lynch want to hire Nance. As they were about to depart company, Nance, who owned a Volkswagen, saw an old VW, which had been fitted with a big home-made wooden rack.
Nance: "It was kind
of an ingenious design. You could probably load as much on the VW as you
could on a truck. I thought what a neat thing.
So I said, ‘Boy,
whoever built that thing must be on the ball.’ And David said, ‘Thank you,
Jack. I did that, and you’re hired."
Catherine Coulson, who would become an important part of Lynch’s crew, was originally an actress brought in by Nance (her then-husband) to audition for the role of a nurse. She came dressed in a "prim little dress and my hair back very severely." Lynch thought she would be fine for the part and hired her.
The first scene rehearsed was the one when Henry comes home to Mary who’s having trouble feeding their baby. Lynch gave Coulson a stopwatch and asked her to time the scene.
Coulson: "He wanted to be sure that the film would be the right length."
1.3 - Principal Photography - Year One
Shooting began on May 29, 1972.
Since Coulson spent a lot of time on the set with her husband, Lynch asked her if she would help out with other duties around the set, like holding the boom or pushing the dolly. There were so few people involved that distinctions between jobs quickly broke down. Everyone simply did what they could - whenever necessary.
Lynch also suggested that Coulson take production photos, so Cardwell taught her how. She also began to learn about lighting. When the original camera assistant left the film early on, Coulson took his place.
The day shooting began, a number of AFI people - Frank Daniel, Tony Vellani and others - "kind of peeped in and sort of smiled."
The first scene to be shot that night was Henry’s visit to the X’s, where Henry sits awkwardly on the couch beside Mary and speaks with her mother, Mrs. X.
It was done in a single take.
1.4 - Principal Photography - Year Two
Shooting resumed May 29, 1974, exactly two years after the filming of the first scene in X’s living room.
The biggest change during this time was the mood of the film.
Doreen Small: "It was much less of a dream and much more of a nightmare when we began."
The original version, Henry’s longing for escape had no object. The script called for Henry to kill the baby and then watch as his world disintegrated around him. These feelings were reflections from Lynch’s own moods at the time.
Due to his steady bought of cigarettes and coffee, Lynch often came to the set moody and grouchy. He was divorced from his first wife and had taken up residence (albeit illegal) in the AFI stables.
Lynch: "It was sort of illegal, but I found a way to camouflage the room to look like no one was in there."
When someone suggested meditation, he knew it was right for him. With this cloud lifted, Lynch began to see a bright side to Henry’s world and created one of the key characters, not yet realized at the time.
Lynch: "One day I was sitting in the food room, and I just drew this little lady, and little foetuses were falling out of her. And I thought she would live in the radiator where it’s nice and warm, and this would be a real comfort for Henry. So I went running into this set, which was just across the hall, and I looked at the radiator and lo and behold! there was this little square in it. It was perfect. And not only that. We had shot scenes with Henry looking at the radiator two different times; there was nothing extra we had to shoot. It fit in perfectly.
It was also during this time that several key members of the crew left to the project:
Doreen Small moved to Santa Barbara, and Alan Splet moved to Scotland.
The first scene to be filmed after the long hiatus involved the Lady in the Radiator, played by Laurel Near. Near sang in a trio with her two sisters, Holly and Timi, the latter being a good friend of Coulson’s. Although she enjoyed her stint on the film, Laurel never realized how complicated and tedious filmmaking could be. She had to endure long hours and painful make-up sessions.
The stage on which the Lady in the Radiator performs her dance, was built outside at the AFI.
Jack Fisk, a friend of Lynch, and his wife put money into the film and assisted in production for a day. Fisk underwent some painful make-up to become the Man in the Planet, while Sissy Spacek, Fisk’s wife, took on the duties of the script assistant.
Other scenes filmed at this time included the dream sequence in which Henry is decapitated and his head stolen by a boy for use in the production of pencil erasers.
1.5 Principal Photography - Year Three
Due to the unions within the AFI, Lynch and crew were given a deadline of 30 hours for the completion of ERASERHEAD, before they were to be kicked out of the AFI stables.
They were able to pull it off, with the only break being Lynch’s paper route, and some of the major effects sequences left to be shot.
These scenes included all the scenes involving miniatures and stop-motion. They were finally completed in Fred Elmes’ living room.
1.6 - Post Production - Year Four
After principal photography was completed at the stables, Lynch rented a small guest house that was joined to a double garage (which was transformed into a small post production studio).
Thus began the complicated work of creating the film’s sound effects
As Lynch cut the film together, Splet cut the soundtrack. They worked from the summer of 1975 to the spring of 1976.
A Libra Film Release
- 1977 - Black & White - 89 minutes
Written, produced
and
directed by David Lynch
Cinematography and
lighting: Frederick Elmes, Herbert Caldwell
Location sound and
recording: Alan R. Splet
Assistant to the
director: Catherine Coulson
Production manager:
Doreen G. Small
Picture Editing:
David Lynch
Sound editing: Alan
R. Splet
Sound effects: David
Lynch, Alan R. Splet
Lady in the Radiator
song composed and sung by Peter Ivers
Pipe Organ by "Fats"
Waller
Crew: Jeanne Field,
Michael Grody, Stephen Grody, Toby Keeler, Roger Lundy, John Lynch, Dennis
Nance, Anatol Pacanowsky, Carol Shreder
Production design
and special effects: David Lynch
Special effects photography:
Frederick Elmes
Assistant camera:
Catherine Coulson
Special thanks to
(in alphabetical order): Ron Barth, Mars F. Baumgardt, Ron Culbertson,
Frank Daniel, Richard Einfield, Jack Fisk, Mary Fisk,
Ken Fix, Andre Guttfreund,
Marvin Goodwin, M. D., Randy Hart, Roman Harte, George T. Hutchinson, David
Khasky, Jim King, Margit Fellegi
Laszlo, Paul Leimbach,
David Lumney, Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Lynch, Peggy Lynch, Sarah Pillsbury, Sydney
P. Solow, Sissy Spacek, George
Stevens Jr., Antonio
Vellani.
Produced with the
cooperation of the American Film Institute Centre for Advanced Film Studies.
Henry Spencer...
Jack Nance
Mary X... Charlotte
Stewart
Mr. X... Allen Joseph
Mrs. X... Jeanne
Bates
Beautiful Girl Across
the Hall... Judith Anna Roberts
Lady in the Radiator...
Laurel Near
Landlady... V. Phipps-Wilson
Man in the Planet...
Jack Fisk
Grandmother... Jean
Lange
The Boy... Neil Moran
Pencil Machine Operator...
Hal Landon, Jr.
*Little Girl... Jennifer
Lynch
*Little Boy... Brad
Keeler
*People Digging in
Alley... Peggy Lynch, Doddie Keeler
*Man with Cigar...
Gill Dennis
*Man Fighting...
Toby Keeler
*Mr. Roundheels...
Raymond Walsh
* Do NOT appear in
the final cut (except the People Digging in Alley, who are seen briefly),
but listed in the credits.
1.8 - The Works of David Lynch
1967
Six Figures AKA Six Men Getting Sick AKA Six Figures Get Sick (Short film, director, producer)
1968
The Alphabet (Short film - director, writer, producer)
1970
The Grandmother (Short film - director, writer, producer)
1974
The Amputee (Short film - director, writer, producer, actor)
1977
Eraserhead (Feature-length film - director, writer, producer, art design, special effects, make-up...)
1979
(approx.) Lynch finishes first draft of Ronnie Rocket or The Absurd Mystery of the Strange Forces of Existence.
Heart Beat (Feature-length film - Actor)
1980
The Elephant Man (Feature-length film - director, co-writer on screenplay)
1982
Eraserhead soundtrack (Album - producer, concept, design, lyrics)
1983
The Angriest Dog in the World (Comic strip - creator)
Painting exhibition in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico (Artist)
1984
Dune (Feature-length film - director, screenplay)
1986
Blue Velvet (Feature-length film - director, writer)
Goddess (Unproduced screenplay, joint project with Mark Frost)
1987
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (Short film - director, writer)
Don’t Look At Me (Documentary on Lynch)
One Saliva Bubble (Unproduced screenplay, joint project with Mark Frost)
Painting exhibition at the James Corcoran Gallery in Santa Monica (Artist)
1988
Zelly and Me (Feature-length film - Actor)
(approx.) The Lemurians (Unproduced television series, joint project with Mark Frost)
(December 7) Lynch and Frost complete the screenplay for Northwest Passage, which will become the pilot of Twin Peaks.
1989
(Feb-Mar) Twin Peaks
Pilot (Feature-length film - Director, executive producer and screenplay)
*Laura Palmer's wrapped
in plastic scene was filmed on March 17.
Dangerous, by Michael Jackson (Trailer)
Painting exhibition at the Lou Castelli Gallery in New York City (Artist)
Floating into the Night, by Julie Cruise (Album - producer, art design, photographs, lyrics)
1990
Twin Peaks (Television Series <29 episodes> - Director (episodes 1, 2, 8, 9, 14, 29), co-creator, writer, producer, actor)
Wild at Heart (Feature-length film - director, screenplay)
Industrial Symphony 1: The Dream of the Broken-Hearted (Feature-length film, director, writer)
Twin Peaks soundtrack (Album - producer, lyrics)
American Chronicles (Television documentaries - Director (w/ Mark Frost on episode 1) executive producer)
We Care About New York (Commercial; public service announcement - director)
Obsession Perfume (Commercial - director)
Opium Perfume (Commercial - director)
Hollywood Mavericks (Documentary - Featured director)
1991
June 10 - Final episode of Twin Peaks airs.
Wicked Game, by Chris Issak (Music video - director)
The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez (Feature-length film - Executive producer)
On The Air (Television series <7 episodes> - Director (episode 1), executive producer, screenplays (1, 6 w/ Bob Engels))
1992
Hotel Room (Television shorts <3 episodes> - Director (2 episodes), executive producer)
Asymmetrical Productions (Production company)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Feature-length film - director, co-writer, executive producer)
Once Upon A Time (Documentary - producer)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack (Album - producer, lyrics)
Gio Perfume (Commercial - director)
The Voice of Love, by Julie Cruise (Album - producer, percussion, art direction, photographs)
1993
Georgia Coffee (4 Commercials - aired in Japan - director)
Crumb (Feature-length film - producer)
1994
Nadja (Feature-length film - producer, actor)
1995
Lumiere et Compagnie (Feature-length film w/ various directors, including Lynch)
1997
Lost Highway (Feature-length film - director, co-writer, producer)
Lost Highway soundtrack (Album - producer, art design)
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch (Documentary on Lynch)
Four commercials: "Nuclear Winter" and three others.
Section II - Frequently Asked Questions
1. What kind of budget did Lynch have for Eraserhead and his other early films?
1a. The budgets for Lynch's early films are as follows:
Six Figures - $200
The Alphabet - $500 approx.
The Grandmother - $5000
Eraserhead - $10,000 approx. (this is the initial budget supplied by AFI, which doesn’t include the money raised over the course of the four years it took to complete the film)
2. Is it true that Lynch had a paper route while he was making ERASERHEAD?
2a. Yes. To make ends meet, Lynch delivered the Wall Street Journal for $48.50 a week on a 210-paper route.
Filming was constantly interrupted as a result. This gave the others a chance to eat, change the lighting for a new scene, or just to rest.
Fred Elmes: "I know occasionally, the Wall Street Journal didn’t get delivered."
3. How was the film completed with such a small budget?
3a. Finishing ERASERHEAD was no easy task. It took four long years to make and the people involved worked long hours, becoming a sort of family in the end. When money became tight they re-used sets, cooked their own food instead of ordering out, cut their own salaries in half, and other personal sacrifices.
Even some of the props in the movie were bought at discount stores or borrowed from cast and crew members, such as:
Henry’s bed sheets and the baby’s vaporizer came courtesy of Catherine Coulson’s aunt.
Henry’s entire wardrobe came from the Salvation Army.
The living room furniture in Henry’s apartment lobby belonged to Catherine Coulson and Jack Nance.
Raw sound stack came from old reels thrown out by Warner Bros.
4. Does Lynch and his crew make any money off the film today?
4a. As a matter of fact, they do.
Even though the AFI gave him a small budget, Lynch insisted that everyone who worked on the film be paid. Herb Cardwell was the only one who received a true salary.
Coulson: "I had worked
on other AFI films, where it was just assumed that the actors and technicians
worked for free, but David took his initial money from AFI and paid everybody.
I was making $25 a week, but when we ran real low on money, we cut everybody’s
salary in half. I put it all back into the food; we would all kind of pool
our money to some extent. It really did seem like our film, even though
it was David’s film.
There was a sense
of collaboration."
During the second year of production, when there wasn’t enough money to pay the crew, Lynch re-wrote the contracts so that they would received a percentage of profit of the film.
5. Is it true that some fellow directors helped ERASERHEAD gain notoriety?
5a. Yes. When ERASERHEAD was screened at Filmex, it received mix reviews. Lynch cut 20 minutes of footage (see the section on Deleted Scenes) to make the film an even 90 minutes, and he found a distributor in Ben Barenholtz of Libra Films.
Lynch had a print of the film sent to Barenholtz, who was known for turning EL TOPO, PINK FLAMINGOS and THE HARDER THEY COME (films that would never survive a regular theatrical release) into midnight hits.
Lynch: "The major studios will put a film out for a week and if it doesn’t make so many dollars, they’ll pull it forever. Well, Ben puts a film out, and just kind of waters it. First, the real weirdoes will see it; they’ll see anything if it’s running at midnight. And if it clicks with them, it’ll enter the next phase, which is a slightly bigger group of people."
Soon the film was drawing a healthy audience, but it was the words of some fellow directors that really got things moving.
John Waters, director of PINK FLAMINGOS, CRY BABY, HAIR SPRAY and others, helped plug the film.
Lynch: "He was real good to me. When ERASERHEAD opened, Waters’ film, DESPERATE LIVING, was opening at the same time. At a personal appearance, he told the audience that his favourite film was ERASERHEAD and recommended that everyone see it. He really helped the film out."
The praise wouldn’t stop there. Other directors who raved about Lynch’s film included Stanley Kubrick and William Friedkin.
6. How the heck did Lynch make "the baby"?
6a. Lynch is always reluctant to discuss special effects, and flatly refuses to discuss "the baby", even to the point of declining credit for it.
Lynch: "In a way, nobody designs anything. All these shapes are found in nature. They are archetypes that everyone can relate to even if they can’t intellectualize why."
So, in other words: He isn’t going to tell us.
7. What this story I’ve heard about Jack Nance and the giant baby head?
7a. Nance had a personal reason for being a bit curious when he signed on for ERASERHEAD.
Nance: "I was reading all of these strange images in the script. And then I got to the final scene where there’s the giant baby head. I was struck by that because it was describing , in some detail, a sort of hallucination that I had at one time when I was very sick and running a fever. I was in a hotel room in Great Bend, Kansas, in a blizzard, dying, and I had a terrible nightmarish kind of hallucination. When I was reading that scene I thought, ‘My God, this is exactly like that time in Great Bend.’ And then later, when he introduced me to the baby, I said, ‘That’s it.’ "
8. What’s the deal with Henry’s hair?
8a. Henry’s towering hairdo was designed by Lynch, who wanted it short on the sides, and about two inches tall on top. Nance had his hair cut two weeks before the start of principal photography, allowing it to grow back a little.
The first night of shooting, Catherine Coulson teased it.
Coulson: "I got a kind of maniacal pleasure from back-combing his hair."
Lynch’s response? "By God, that’s it!"
One of the hardest things with filming was keeping Jack’s haircut consistent over the years of shooting.
Coulson: "He tried to comb it down, but it never really looked very good."
9. Is it true that Lynch used hospital refuse for some of his special effects?
9a. Oh yes.
The scene in question is when Henry and Mary are asleep in bed. Henry is woken up by the spastic movements of his wife and pulls several "foetuses" from her body.
The "foetuses" were actually human umbilical cords that Catherine Coulson obtained from a hospital.
Doreen Small: "I was under the bed to keep tension on the umbilicals - the ‘billy cords’ as Jack would call them. And Jack pulled, and we sort of missed, and one of them landed in his shoe. He got so grossed out that we had to stop filming for a couple of days."
10. What else did Lynch use for special effects?
10a. Lynch has always harbored a deep concern for authenticity when it comes to detail. Hence, the use of organic waste tissue in the "foetus" scene.
Doreen Small and Catherine Coulson were in charge of obtaining these props, which included:
- Instant cream of wheat combined with the textures of a dissected cat.
- Mashed potatoes and grape jelly.
- Jellied consome for the scene with Henry’s decapitated head.
- And of course, instant vanilla pudding and green peas for the scene when Henry is looking for the baby’s evaporator.
Lynch: "There’s nothing better than the real thing."
11. What’s this I’ve heard about Henry’s nosebleed?
11a. The scene in question is right after Mrs. X tells Henry that Mary has a had a baby and how they’ll have to get married. The news shocks Henry, to the point of inducing a nosebleed.
The story gets interesting when we learn about David Lynch and special effects.
For starters, Lynch doesn’t like conventional special effects. He’s always looking for alternatives.
Lynch: "Make-up blood looks too gray in black and white, and it’s always too thick. Real pig’s blood would be the best thing to use, with maybe a little bit of darker coloring added to it."
For Henry’s nosebleed, Lynch used a concoction of his own creation. The result was a great effect (as far as nosebleeds go) with a minor drawback.
Lynch: "It was pretty toxic, and it really burned the inside of Jack’s nose."
This was not the only occurrence of an actor’s distaste for Lynch’s special effects.
Jack Fisk, a friend of Lynch had to endure some painful make-up when he was transformed into the Man in the Planet.
Jack Fisk: "I’d just started growing a beard. And I‘d had it about two weeks. David got this stuff to cover my beard, but make my skin look kind of deformed. When I went home after doing this, I tried to get it out. Sissy (his wife) didn’t want me to shave my beard off, so I was in a tub of hot water, pulling it out a piece at a time. I’ve never really forgiven David for that."
The same went for Laurel Near (the Lady in the Radiator):
Laurel: "My face hurt a lot after the sessions."
12. Why is Jack Nance listed as John Nance in the credits?
12a. Nance’s full name isMarvin (John) Jack Nance.
It’s unknown whether John is a nickname, pseudonym or part of his actual name. Anyone? A little help?
13. What the heck is ERASERHEAD about?
13a. In a future (?) of industrial holocaust, we meet Henry Spencer, a printer on vacation. Henry has a girlfriend named Mary X, who has given birth to a premature ‘baby’. On the strong insistence of Mrs. X, they are married. Home life involves spastic fits from Mary, who is quick to run home to mommy, and Henry’s constant fantasy of a woman living in his radiator. Seduction and parental responsibility collide, thrusting Henry into a nightmare of fantasy and reality, where the only escape lies in one fatal action.
I think we can all agree on this simple synopsis. You will not find any subjective analysis of the imagery here because everyone’s has their opinion (that’s what makes Lynch’s films great). We do not wish to cement our opinions in this FAQ since there are more than enough people out there claiming that theirs is the only one.
14. What is THE LABYRINTH MAN?
14a. After the success of THE ELEPHANT MAN, Lynch re-released ERASERHEAD in France, under the title, THE LABYRINTH MAN.
15. Where can I purchase ERASERHEAD on video? Laserdisc?
15a. Late in 1981, Lynch approved the transfer of ERASERHEAD to video for a pay-TV showing on New Year’s Eve, even though he’s less than approving of the medium.
Lynch: "The best part about it is that ERASERHEAD works best when you run the mix on magnetic tape with a brand new print off the original negative on a huge screen. That’s the way it should be seen. That’s the way every film should be seen. If it can’t be that way, you’re always going to miss something. The worst thing about TV is the sound. So much will be lost for those people. They’ll think they saw ERASERHEAD but they haven’t really seen it. You can’t really experience it on TV. You can only go into the world a little bit. It’s not the same experience at all.
If you bribe a video store clerk, they might let you buy their copy should they have this very rare video.
In 1992 (’93?), ERASERHEAD was released on a rare Japanese-import laserdisc. The film is presented in letterbox format with stereo sound.
If you can't find either one of these, then your best bet is to find a bootleg copy, or get a friend who owns a laserdisc player to make you a copy.
16. What is David Lynch currently working on?
16a. Due to the dismal box office take of Lost Highway, Lynch probably won’t be directing a feature-length film any time soon. His contract agreement with CIBY 2000 stipulates two more features, but they passed on the Ronnie Rocket script, so don’t expect to see it on the screen any time soon.
Lynch also co-wrote the screenplay The Dream of the Bovine with Robert Engels, but doesn’t expect to get funding to put it into production due to its "disgusting and graphic" humour.
Currently (May 1997), Lynch has been contracted to direct four commercials. The first one is entitled "Nuclear Winter". We’ll have the other titles soon.
1. Is it true that several scenes were cut from ERASERHEAD?
1a. Yes. The original cut of ERASERHEAD was 110 minutes long. It was screen only twice: first at the AFI, and then at Filmex. The audience reaction was nil.
Fred Elmes: "The theater was so quiet after the screening. It was a little bit spooky. No one knew quiet what to say. No one had seen it except for a couple of people, and nobody saw the whole movie together. And it was sort of different than anyone had imagined it to be. It was a real shock. It does take your breath away, and it’s hard to know how to respond to it, which I think depressed David, because he was expecting some response."
Lynch knew that the film was too long and that scenes would have to be cut, but he liked each scene individually.
Lynch: "The pacing is slow in ERASERHEAD, and that’s great. I love the feel of it, but I think some scenes were dragging it down to where the pacing was painful. It was pushing you out of the film. I stayed out of the room at Filmex, but I could feel that it was too long. Fred was in there, and he said that people weren’t reacting. It was just too long."
CUT SCENES INCLUDED:
1. A scene in which the X’s bring Mary home from the hospital with the baby.
2. A phone call that Henry receives.
3. A fit that Mary has in Henry’s apartment.
4. A scene where a group of kids kill a cat with a piece of wire. Henry walks by, tripping over the wire. (Lynch actually dissected a dead cat for this part. The body of which was left in a puddle which can be seen in the film as Henry walks home. A picture of the dead cat, preserved by a coat of tar, can be found in Images)
5. A scene when Henry is looking for the evaporator for the baby. He opens a drawer full of vanilla pudding with peas on top.
6. A scene in which Henry hears noises coming from down the hall in his apartment. He investigates and looks into a room. Two women are tied up on a bed and a man with a cigar approaches them, holding a black box. The women spot Henry and he runs back to his room.
7. A scene where Henry hears a sort of calling and he looks out the window. A kid down in the alley is digging in the dirt and finds a row of dimes. Wind blow furiously around him. Henry runs out of the room, but the baby starts to cry. He ignores it and makes it to the elevator. He pushes the button, but the elevator won’t come. So he runs downstairs and into the lobby. We see the elevator has been propped open with a mop. The landlady is cleaning it out.
Since the door is
open, we can hear the baby crying. It echoes down the hallway and all through
the elevator shaft. So Henry gets frustrated and kicks in the couch in
the lobby. The landlady says, "Don’t kick my wood" and starts into this
whole landlady-tenant lecture. The scolded Henry returns to his room and
looks out the window again. The dust is really blowing now and there are
more people digging in the alley. By the time night falls, they are fighting
over the dimes. (Some of the night scenes can still be found in the final
cut)
The scene for which Catherine Coulson was originally been hired had the X’s pick Mary up at the hospital and a disgust nurse (Coulson) hands them the baby. It was never filmed.
Since these cuts were made in the final composite print, there are actors listed in the credits who didn’t appear in the final cut.
Still photos from
the deleted scenes can be found at:
the Man
In Black ERASERHEAD Page
Section IV - *Extra* - What is RONNIE ROCKET?
"Life is a donut." - The Donut Man
1a. After directing THE ELEPHANT MAN, Lynch turned down the chance to direct RETURN OF THE JEDI. Instead, he moved into Zoetrope Studios and began work on RONNIE ROCKET.
Lynch: "It’s all about a little three-foot tall guy with 60-cycle alternating current electricity."
In the script, Ronnie is a teenager taken from a hospital by two doctors who "put him back together". His talent as a musician is soon realized and soon everyone wants a piece of Ronnie. The other half of the story concerns a Detective who travels to the Inner City to confront a man who controls all the electricity.
Lynch has spent over fifteen years trying to get this project off the ground and met with resistance each time. After Dune belly-flopped at the box office, film execs were questionable about Lynch’s ability to draw a strong profit with his type of films.
Blue Velvet was Lynch’s next feature, garnering rave reviews around the world and an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Ronnie Rocket was back on the ready line, but quickly shot down again after Zoetrope Studios went bankrupt.
Short films, commercials and the television craze of TWIN PEAKS kept Lynch busy for the next few years until he signed with CIBY 2000 for a three picture deal, with TWIN PEAKS - FIRE WALK WITH ME being first, and LOST HIGHWAY, the second. CIBY 2000 passed on the RONNIE ROCKET script, concerned that its abstract qualities wouldn’t draw a large movie-going audience.
So when will RONNIE ROCKET finally be made? Who knows. Lynch has gone on the record as saying that the film would need to be produced by someone who wasn’t concerned with getting a large financial return (in other words, he needs the money, but knows it probably won’t make it back). These road blocks haven’t stopped Lynch from beginning casting for the film. He already has two people in mind: Michael Anderson (Twin Peaks’ Man From Another Place) as Ronnie, and Isabella Rosellini (Dorothy in Blue Velvet, Perdita in Wild At Heart) as Deborah. (Of course, these names mean nothing unless you’ve read the script, so go download it off the ‘net right now!)
Section V - *Extra* - What is THE LEMURIANS?
1a. Lynch's first television series was a collaboration with Mark Frost, called, THE LEMURIANS.
Very little is known about the unproduced series, except that it dealt with detectives who traveled around the country in a big, black English taxi cab, disguised as a jazz band. Their mission: to investigate alien presences. (Think Blues Brothers meets the X-Files - yeah, I know blues and jazz are different, but...)
Part of the detectives method for uncovering aliens was to place ads in newspapers. The ad is a blank face that the reader is suppose to draw eyes on, then mail to the detectives. Apparently, they had the ability to determine if the artist is an alien by examining how the eyes are drawn on the face.
This FAQ wouldn't have been possible without the following resources:
Cinefantastique Magazine
Wrapped In Plastic
Magazine
'David Lynch' by
Michel Chion
'CUT! Behind The
Scenes of the Most Disturbing Horror Films' by
Copyright (c) 1997, D. Ian Rogers and Amy Stewart.
All Rights Reserved. Permission for personal, educational or non-profit use is granted provided this this copyright and notice are included in its entirety and remains unaltered. All other uses must receive prior permission in writing from both Amy Stewart (at [email protected]) and D. Ian Rogers (at [email protected]).
This FAQ is dedicated to the memory of Jack Nance