Review

Six of Lynch's short films, from his very first works to his AFI films and a couple for French TV. Each short is introduced by Lynch (a rare attempt at introspection, even if in the end he doesn't say much). The menu page even features a song by Lynch's band, Blue Bob.

"Six Men Getting Sick" (1967, 1-minute loop played six times) Conceived by Lynch as an animated painting, with only a blaring siren for a soundtrack. Frighteningly drawn heads (one is used for the cover of this DVD) appear, cover their mouths, their stomachs fill with fluid, and they puke. As a glimpse into Lynch's obsessions with bodily fluids and excretions, an interesting curio. (Due to age, and the fact that the loop played repeatedly, the source material is quite beaten up).
"The Alphabet" (1968, 4 min.) A mostly animated short that gives several renditions of the alphabet, from a relatively sunny Yellow Submarine-style to a darker reading (with repetition). Apparently this alphabet is a dream, because a woman wakes up spitting blood. Though Lynch would continue to work with animation ("The Grandmother" and the "Dumbland" series), none would be this elaborate.
"The Grandmother" (1970, 30 min.) With the two previous films in his portfolio, Lynch received an AFI grant to make this film, in which the seeds of Eraserhead are firmly planted. A boy (called "Maht!!" by his parents, the only word spoken in the film), dressed in a snazzy suit but harassed by his parents for wetting his bed (with orange liquid), plants some seeds in his bed and grows a grandmother. Earlier, the parents and boy were borne from the earth themselves, so maybe that isn't so strange after all. In this grandmother, the boy finds the unconditional love that he craves. Some animation, lots of creepy sound effects, and a marginally coherent plot: the David Lynch we know and love has arrived!
"The Amputee" (1973, 4 min. & 5 min.) During a break in the production of "Eraserhead", Lynch shot this single-take black & white video as an experiment for two new stocks of videotape. (The tape failed the test; the quality is pretty bad). A double-leg-amputee sits at a chair composing a letter to her estranged lover, while a male nurse removes some bandages to work on her left leg. The end result is a single black-comic joke. Still, as stock tests go, it's a lot more interesting than color bars.
"The Cowboy and the Frenchman" (1987, 30 min.) After 4 dour early works with muted colors (when there is color), this cheery comedy is bracing in its sunny on-location photography. Conceived as part of series, with different directors' takes on the French, Lynch transplants a stereotypical Frenchman (named, what else, Pierre) onto a stereotypical American ranch. Tracked by an Indian for days, the Frenchman finds his way onto a ranch populated by almost-deaf Harry Dean Stanton and his cohorts Jack Nance and Tracey Walter. They view Pierre with suspicion as he pulls out of his suitcase escargot, baguettes, and Eiffel Tower souvenirs. Only when they find french fries do they find the common bond. The comedy is extremely laconic, punctuated with brief musical interludes, and points the way to the humor Lynch would find in "On the Air".
"Lumiere" (1995, 55 sec.) Armed with the original camera that the Lumiere company used in the 1890s, Lynch was the only director out of several dozen (highlighted in Lumiere and Company) to break his one-minute, one-take film out of a static, one-set mold. Police arrive at a murder scene, the camera moves inside the house to see some shady sexual dealings, and a curtain burns down to reveal the police coming in the door to make their arrest. Warrants multiple viewings, just to see how the heck he does it.