Eraserhead, Sunset Blvd and David Lynch

This past Saturday it happened.  Amantha was in the same room as David Lynch.  A mere 8 rows or so seperated us from the man, the myth, the legend.  As he was introduced, Amantha  applauded wildly every credit, sometimes in solo.  She leaned forward and hung on his every word as he answered 5 questions submitted in advance via twitter.  His answers included professing his love for the sound of a Scottish wind he has used in many of his films as well as giving his support for both digital and 3D as technologies that only serve to improve the art of film as whole.  He introduced Sunset Blvd as the film that is not only his favorite but has inspired  his entire career.   As he exited, Amantha had tears in her eyes as her 20 years of waiting has been well worth it.  She had no intention of trying to run over and meet him.  Seeing him was enough because as she said he is the one person who would leave her starstruck.

This happened at this year's AFI Fest in Hollywood.  The AFI Fest gives away its tickets for free and so we had already intended to attend.  However once we found out the David Lynch would be the festival's first ever Guest Artistic Director, our decision as far as what to see had been decided.  We got four tickets for the double feature of Lynch's 1976 debut film Eraserhead and  the Billy Wilder classic Sunset Blvd.  Topping things off was the fact the films would be shown at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, a venue we had never been to before but had always wanted to visit.

Eraserhead is an interesting film in that it is fruitless to try to determine what it means.  Lynch himself rarely offers much insight in to the meaning behind his films, preferring to leave that for the audience to ponder and debate.  He has stated he has yet to hear an interpretation that matches his own.   The only clue he has given is that as he made it, the film seemed to "grow" wildly in different directions and what ultimately tied the film together was a single sentence he came across while read the Bible.  He does not intend to ever reveal the mysterious sentence.

A short break followed the film and then Lynch was introduced.   As stated above, he answered 5 questions and introduced Sunset Blvd.  We found it very disrespectful the number of people who jumped up and took off toward the lobby hoping for an encounter with Lynch rather than staying to appreciate the film that means so much to him.  I imagine it must be disappointing to present something you love to people who claim to love you and them respond by saying "we don't care...now please autograph this for me and listen to me tell you how much your work means to me."

The print of Sunset Blvd was not in good shape.  It was dirty and had many noticeable splices.  As the film neared it's end, the most famous scene in which faded silent film legend Norma Desmond descends the stairs toward the cameras, a sponsor slide suddenly appeared on the screen on top of the film.  Suddenly transporting her from the reality of being in her own house to instead floating larger than life above the city of Los Angeles.  It was an oddly Lynch-esque moment that I have attempted to recreate below (minus the AFI Fest & Audi sponsorship text).

All of these things, however, did little to detract from this amazing film that contains some of the best written lines in the history of  Hollywood. 

Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.

Norma Desmond: No-one ever leaves a star. That's what makes one a star.

Betty Schaefer: Where have you been keeping yourself? I've got the most wonderful news for you.
Joe Gillis: I haven't been keeping myself at all, lately.

Norma Desmond: [to newsreel camera] And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after 'Salome' we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

In my opinion, Sunset Blvd rivals only Double Indemnity as the best of the classic voice over narrated film noirs.  What do these films have in common?  Billy Wilder directed both as well as numerous other films in various genres that have made him both a favorite and inspiration of many directors in addition to Lynch. 

There was also an added excitement to watching the film at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.  Every scene in the film is set with a one mile radius of the theater.  This fact was very much on my mind as I longed to be able to step outside into the Hollywood of 1950 shown in the film.  Grauman's Egyptian Theatre was built in 1922, five years before it's more famous sibling Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and was the site of the first ever Hollywood premiere: Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood. 

After years of neglect, the theatre was sold by the city of Los Angeles to the American Cinematheque for one dollar.  The theatre underwent a $12 million dollar renovation before reopening to the public in 1998.  The theatre maintains many of the original architectural aspects combining them with newer modern features such as stadium seating and moving walls that compensate for the poor acoustics in the original design.  While part of me wishes the theatre better preserved it's appearance inside and out as well as it's sibling, I greatly appreciate the fact this theatre was saved at all.