The Dryden will screen Eraserhead (David Lynch, U.S. 1977, 90 min., 35mm) as part of the 40th Anniversary series.

David Lynch's feature film debut was greeted with massive acclaim on the midnight movie circuit and stands as one of the most haunting and renowned cult classics of American cinema, introducing audiences to the director's unique unsettling aesthetic. Set in an eerily dark, fetid industrial landscape, the film follows a young couple (Jack Nance and Charlotte Stewart) as they struggle with married life and the arrival of an unexpected and hideously deformed child. Nightmarish hallucinations, adultery, and violence follow as the family dissolves in their squalid existence. Meticulously constructed sound design and visceral black-and-white cinematography create a grotesque and surreal cinematic experience, foreshadowing Lynch's later mainstream successes which plumb the vile and insidious depths of the American family. The Eastman Museum is one of the very few archives to hold a 35mm print of this iconic film.

[source: George Eastman Museum calendar, 2017-Aug-7]