The Grandmother (1970)

Really Surprised!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

When setting my DVR for the week and seeing what was playing on TCM Underground, the description for this film, that a boy plants a seed to grow a grandmother, sounded so bizarre I HAD to record it. Watching the film, it's was even stranger than I expected, with a wordless story (the characters do grunt and vocalize), where all the characters in white face paint, filmed on sparsely decorated sets against a black background, and set to an unsettling score made up of what seems to be industrial noises (by a band named Tractor). While watching "The Grandmother," my impression was this seems like a bad version of "Eraserhead," but when the credits rolled I saw that this was in fact written and directed by David Lynch! This short film predates "Eraserhead" and if very amateurish in comparison. I'm a huge David Lynch fan, but "The Grandmother" felt more like a pretentious film major final project than a polished piece of filmmaking, instead brimming with self important, heavy-handed symbolism, amateurish acting, and poor photography. However, even in this primitive state, the visuals are unmistakably Lynchian, filling mundane settings with the surreal, a penchant for the grotesque (the boy stroking the growing grandmother is quite off-putting), and a very precise color palette. You can also sense Lynch's dark humor, although, like many of his earlier films, it's purposefully challenging and hard to watch. So to be sure, this is probably the worst David Lynch film I'd seen (until I watched "The Amputee" right after), but it's still interesting, if at the same time is annoyingly self important.

Let me start by saying that I'm certainly not the greatest David Lynch fan under the sun, especially not when it comes to his very early short films, so my expectations weren't too high to begin with. In the end, it was pretty much what I expected. As weird and surreal as always, with a couple good scenes, but as a whole rather underwhelming. It's Lynch's third film and definitely far superior at least to his first about several men getting sick. The story has some heart when a boy who gets abused verbally and physically by his parents plants a seed that grows into a caring grandmother, who smiles at the little one and gives him the emotional security he's been looking for.Occasionally it's an interesting mix of live action and animation and I liked the contrast between the B&W-scenes and the several shades of red, mostly related to blood. It started dragging a bit near the 25-minute mark, so I'm not sure the quite long running time was justified for the script, but I can't deny that some factors made it interesting again by adding general weirdness like the decent make-up work or the music, especially the song "You are my best friend." Nonetheless, while it's probably a feast for Lynch lovers, for me it was okay at best and certainly not eye-opening to his work.

I saw this very late one night when I was about 12 years old...I couldn't sleep so I watched this and it was so creepy I still couldn't sleep once it had finished! They say the boy is Lynch and his childhood experiences. To me, his Grandmother represented the love and security he craved and needed. Although she comforts him, her comfort is at times suffocating. I particularly remember that her huge chest smothers him and part of him hates her and fears her. He secretly hopes for her death and keeps putting mirrors over her face whilst she sleeps to check if she is still breathing. I'd recommend this to all Lynch fans and anyone who wants to see a sinister film which has little if no dialogue, no colour, no pure narrative, just mood, art and plenty of Lynch genius. I can't recall how it ends but having not seen the film for over 16 years I think that's fair enough. I would like to see it again though, if anyone knows how I can get hold of it..?

This film is a lesson. A lesson on how you can, with minor means,create a work which explores all ways of cinematography. And thiswithout any dialogue. In my idea films are not there to tell a story(they can be used as such tough) and this movie goes straightback to the time where films were shown at carnivals and gave youa glimpse of new worlds to be explored. Don't worry too much about the (lack of) narritive story. Just sit backand enjoy the huge amount of emotions that will come to you.Fear, hatred, love and desire for a better world.