THE GRANDMOTHER - SHORT FILM REVIEW

Release Date: 1970

Age Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 34 min
Director: David Lynch

Writer: David Lynch

Stars: Dorothy McGinnis, Richard White, Virginia Maitland and Robert Chadwick

I recently bought the short films of David Lynch after having an epiphany after viewing Blue Velvet. Yes, I had watched Eraserhead, Lost Highway, The Striaght Story and only the first series of Twin Peaks before; but nothing could have prepared me for The Grandmother, which like I said is a short film by the weirdo, of the name Lynch, it came prior to the cult classic of Eraserhead. 

In short, The Grandmother is about a boy who is unloved by his parents, he yearns to be loved, and so one day he finds a bag of seeds in his bedroom. So by no hesitation he dumps a mound of soil in the middle of his bed and plants a seed. Over time this seed develops and pops out a person; his grandmother. She smiles, and loves him. After that, it sort of becomes a blur and I wouldn’t be able to tell you what happened. 

Either way, I strangely enjoyed it, the low – very low lighting brought a nightmarish aura to this otherwise lovely film. All the characters have pale – very pale faces. There is a shot in the film that incorporates this fantastically.  We see a close up of the boy’s face, he turns away and walks down the stairs, but we only see his white face floating down, in otherwise utter darkness. 

David Lynch’s 1970 short film is hard to understand, difficult to relax into, but very enjoyable when looking back; it also gives you the permission to say you’ve seen a very peculiar film.

8/10