David Lynch’s The Alphabet
“The Alphabet Combines animation and live action; A simple narrative structure relating a symbolically rendered expression of childhood and aging. (4 minutes)
The idea for “The Alphabet” came from Lynch’s wife, Peggy Reavey, a painter whose niece, according to Lynch in Chris Rodley’s Lynch on Lynch book, “was having a bad dream one night and was saying the alphabet in her sleep in a tormented way. So that’s sort of what started ‘The Alphabet’ going.” Based on the merits of this short film.”
The Alphabet is a good example of a surrealist film based on dreams and is really good inspiration for what i hope to make for my final project. The film is quite dark and twisted, which makes it really powerful, in that it has the power to freak people out if they are susceptible to it. As stated above the inspiration for the short film came from Lynch’s wife’s niece saying the alphabet in a tormented way, which can only spark intrigue in the subject of dreams even more. This is one of the reasons i want to do something on dreams as i think they offer a lot to us not only creatively but in our subconscious mind.
One of the friendlier creatures from Pan's labyrinth...
When i first saw it i thought one of the monster’s really reminded me of a monster from Pan’s labyrinth, which is a film based on fairy tales so i am starting to like the idea of surrealism and fairy tales linking in a dream world. This is something i will take forward for consideration next term when i hopefully take my memory film on dreams into production.
