TRINITY FILMS

Easter Term 2004

Presenting a Series of David Lynch's Best Films -- Admission Free! 

"David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era. Providing a portal into the collective subconscious, the daydream nation conjured up [...] is by turns frightening, exasperating, revelatory and wild. Nobody makes films like David Lynch. He is our spooky tour guide through a world of dancing dwarves, femme fatales and little blue boxes that may (or may not) contain all the answers." -- The Guardian 

Tuesday 27 April, 8:30pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity

Mulholland Drive, 2001 (15)

Along Mulholland Drive nothing is what it seems. In the unreal universe of Los Angeles, the city bares its schizophrenic nature, an uneasy blend of innocence and corruption, love and loneliness, beauty and depravity. A woman is left with amnesia following a car accident. An aspiring young actress finds her staying in her aunt's home. The puzzle begins to unfold, propelling us through a mysterious labyrinth of sensual experiences until we arrive at the intersection of dreams and nightmares. 

Sunday 2 May, 8:30pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity 

Blue Velvet, 1986 (18)

A dark, sensuous mystery involving the intertwining lives of four very different individuals: Jeffrey, the naive college student with a penchant for mysteries who discovers a severed ear in the field; Dorothy, the haunting cabaret singer with a dark and deadly secret; Sandy, the detective's daughter who embodies the innocence in all of us; and Frank, the psychotic killer fuelled by his own sexual fantasies. The film's painful realism reminds us that we are not immune to the disturbing events which transpire in "Blue Velvet's" sleepy community. There is a darker side of life waiting for us all. 

Saturday 8 May / Tuesday 11 May, 8:30pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity

Lost Highway, 1997 (18)

Saxophonist Fred Madison receives a series of videotapes that culminate in one apparently showing him murdering his wife. After she is found dead, he is arrested, found guilty and sentenced to death. But while in prison, he transforms overnight into the younger Pete Dayton who is having problems with gang boss Dick Laurent. Radical, even for a David Lynch film, Lost Highway is not only about the human psyche, it actually seems to take place inside it. 

Monday 17 May, 8:00pm (!), Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity

The Elephant Man, 1980 (PG)

David Lynch’s follow-up to his 1978 cult classic Eraserhead is a striking blend of art and entertainment, which earned the film eight Academy Award nominations. John Merrick (John Hurt) is a hideously deformed individual dubbed the Elephant Man during his years in a circus freak show in Victorian England. After suffering for years, Merrick is "rescued" by compassionate surgeon Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins). Merrick becomes a social celebrity when he meets a popular stage performer (Anne Bancroft), but he must continue to fight for his dignity with those who still choose to view him as a freak. Meanwhile, Treves begins to question whether his supposed act of humanity has been just as exploitative as Merrick's former caretaker's.

Monday 17 May, 22:15pm (!), Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity

Eraserhead, 1977 (18)

David Lynch's feature-film debut, originally banned in the UK, is a masterpiece of the macabre and grotesque. Henry Spencer lives in a hopeless industrial landscape, lusting after the beautiful woman who lives in the apartment across the hall. After his girlfriend, Mary, informs him of her pregnancy, he is forced to eat dinner with her extremely odd family. The baby is eventually born, only it isn’t a human baby at all; it's a deformed creature that resembles a lizard. Eraserhead contains all of the trademark attributes of a Lynch film -- haunting visuals, an ethereal score, unsettling sound design, and, most notably, a black sense of humour -- creating a world onscreen that is exhilarating, terrifying, and unique.

Sunday 23 May / Tuesday 25 May, 8:30pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity

The Straight Story, 1999 (U)

A surprisingly gentle, hopeful, and irony-free crowd pleaser by David Lynch. The film tells the true story of Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old man who journeys from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, on a lawn mower in order to visit his dying older brother, Lyle. The estranged brothers haven’t spoken in years because of their stubborn pride, but Lyle's recent stroke convinces Alvin that now is the time to make amends. Along the way he meets a host of interesting characters – including a pregnant runaway teenager, a sad World War II veteran, and a sympathetic priest -- affecting them deeply with his unflinching spirit and belief in the power of familial love.