David Lynch created his first short film The Grandmother in 1970 after studying visual arts and cinema. The film has no dialogue and uses animation and live action to tell the story of a boy who is unloved by his animalistic parents and finds comfort in a grandmother figure. When the grandmother whistles herself to death, the boy kills himself from devastation. Lynch was influenced by painters like Francis Bacon and experimental filmmakers. He aimed to portray dysfunctional communities through surreal and symbolic means without traditional narratives.

1. The Grandmother
David Lynch

2. Paintings
• “shadow of a twisted hand across my house”
• “suddenly my house became tree of sores”

3. Paintings
• They are childlike images that have a dark theme to them. It shows
what children go through even though lynch never went through it
himself.
• Lynch likes to address what happens in a “surrounding
neighbourhood” rather than big international problems
• He creates dark paintings of houses because
“the home is a place where things can go wrong”.

4. Extra information:
• To portray a dysfunctional society lynch uses:
• Surreal
• Non-traditional narratives
• Symbolism
These are all used to portray different communities.

5. David Lynch life
• He moved around a lot as a child, however this never effected his
education and he didn’t feel unhappy.
• He then studied art at Pennsylvania Academy of fine art.
One of the projects he had to complete was a visual arts with cinema.
He looped an animation project into one of his sculptures.

6. David Lynch filmmaking:
• After creating this moving image/ sculpture he was able to get
funding to make his first two short films.
• The Alphabet (1968)
• The Grandmother (1970)

7. What the film represents
• The grandmother represents Lynch’s first major films in terms of:
• Length
• Style
• Choice of material

8. The grandmother: story
• At first we see a mother and father born then not long after their son. The son is
not loved or respected in any way by the parents.
• They all have an animalistic nature to them so they do not speak to each other
they bark.
• The dad gets annoyed with the small boy and beats him.
• He feels so unloved that he finds and seed, plants it and waits for it to grow.
• Then a grandmother appears and the boy finally feels loved.
• The parents don’t like how the grandmother is treating him.
• The boy always runs to the grandmother for comfort after being with the parents.
• The boy has dreams about killing the parents and crushing them.
• However, the grandmother whistles herself to her death and the boy is so
devastated that he somehow kills himself.

9. About the film
• There is no dialogue used throughout the whole film.
• The film changes between an animation and people acting.
• The relationships between all the characters are very unusual and
unclear at some points.

10. About the film
• The film is very hard to put a meaning on but it does give the viewer
emotion towards the little boy.

11. The film and paintings
• The film is all images and no dialogue
• Full of painting qualities
• Consists of black and white with only small moments of colour
• All the actors wear pancake makeup with a red lip
• When the mother and father are in the frame so is the colour green.
• Colour contrasts – e.g. a bright blue sky
• When the boy is in his bedroom we see the colour yellow
• Most of the footage is black and white with colour reduction

12. Influences
• Paintings:
• Francis bacon:
• Figure of meat
• Screaming pope

13. Influences
• Film making:
• Norman Mclaren – neighbours
• Harry Smith – heaven and earth magic
• Maya Deren – meshes of the afternoon

14. Extra information
• His first collaboration was with Alan Splet
• Splet created sounds that add to the dreamlike theme
• Some of the sounds in the film sync to on screen activity
• Sounds dominate dialogue – hisses and rhyme noises