Reviews
Eraserhead (1977)
The most powerful cinema experience I've ever had.
I first saw Eraserhead (the remastered version) in a theater where half the viewers were laughing almost all through the film, and still it was the most powerful cinema experience I've ever had. Unlike what most people believe, it's not such a strange film. What makes it look strange is the preconceptions inside the viewers' heads about what an "ordinary film" should look like. I see Eraserhead as Lynch's Citizen Kane, for the following two reasons: it's his first feature film as well as the best film he has ever made (although some of his next ones came pretty close) and it was made with total disregard to the storytelling rules of the mainstream. It borrows from genres such as German Expressionism and the Avant-Garde, but combines them to create a masterfully structured new approach that remains faithful to its inner logic. I would have to go back to the silent films in the beginning of the century in order to find a movie that has such a strong feeling of trying to figure out what cinema is capable of. In my mind the strangest thing about Eraserhead is: how can people burst into laughter while watcing Henry and the baby at the ending? It felt like being inside a David Lynch film.
Miss Monday (1998)
My personal favourite for 1998 (so far).
Finally, in a period of crisis for filmmaking, a director who knows how to handle his subject perfectly. My personal favourite for 1998 (so far).