The Grandmother (1970) directed by David Lynch

 

The Grandmother (David LYNCH, 1970) portrays a heavily stylised short film about a young boy who is abused by his parents for his childhood misfortunes, specifically wetting the bed. His parent’s intolerance drives the boy to grow his own grandmother by sowing seeds in the upstairs bedroom. The film also mixes in some animated sequences that have a childish style to them, based on the uneducated understandings of sex, birth, and death, these sequences are used to introduce the characters of the film. The surreal/dreamlike atmosphere of The Grandmother (David LYNCH, 1970) is further employed by the intense, strumming diegetic sound, giving a strong sense of unease that is sustained throughout. Lynch heavily relies on Chiaroscuro lighting and low-key lighting to remove the colour of the backgrounds of shots, but all of the characters have white facial make-up. This use of binary opposition (Claude LEVI-STRAUSS) between characters and lighting to evoke tension and represent the conflict between the boy and his parents. The eyes of the characters are blackened, connoting the soullessness and corruption of innocence. The contrasts in colour hold significance as the yellow of the sun and the bedsheet stains pulls focus against the monochrome footage. The Grandmother (LYNCH, 1970) uses non-diegetic sound to disturb and confuse the audience. LYNCH collaborated with sound editor Alan Splet, the sound design of LYNCH and Splet is a stable of LYNCH’s filmography. Furthermore, David LYNCH could be considered an auteur (André BAZIN) as LYNCH holds a distinct approach to filmmaking by exuding an elusiveness and producing unfamiliarity in that which was once familiar. Torn between the spectrum of safety and danger, with an entity/character whose intentions are unclear to a wider audience. Uncertainty is upheld as LYNCH includes elements that bring an emotional response without context. This is demonstrated in The Grandmother (1970) through the bag of seeds that birth the Grandmother and how the parents communicate through barking and grunting. LYNCH forms a perspective of a fundamental distrust on everything onscreen and disperse the doubt of the audience.