Production Diary: The Grandmother (David Lynch, 1970)

The Grandmother (David Lynch, 1970) is 33-minute short film, being one of the very first films by visionary director David Lynch. Typical of Lynch’s work, the film is highly abstract and expressive throughout the portrayal of its narrative, depicting the struggles of a young boy living in an abusive household. Utilising a combination of live action and animation produced by Lynch himself, the boy is displayed ‘growing’ a grandmother from a mysterious pack of seeds he finds.

Throughout the film, Lynch employs a wide variety of techniques in order to create a chillingly eerie experience. The setting is highly minimalistic, merely depicting bedrooms and a dining room that exist in an abyss-like realm. Lynch implements the use of high contrast lighting, which works in tandem with the makeup applied to both the boy and the grandmother – the two characters appear to be reminiscent of a ghost through the use of pale makeup.

Pale makeup is applied to both the boy and the grandmother

Other uses of mise-en-scène include the strangely placed and conveniently labelled bag of seeds, alongside the cocoon-like plant from which the grandmother is born – permeating a sense of uncanny hyperbole. The soundscape is mostly non-diegetic, with the use of dissonant screeches and peculiar booming ambience utilised throughout to build atmosphere. The only diegetic sound heard throughout the film is the unintelligible screams of the parents towards their son.

Another highly expressive element of the film is the editing, which strikingly appears to be sequenced frame-by-frame at specific points in the film. Alongside the stilted one dimensional performances by each actor, this creates an extremely unnerving sense of dread throughout the film.

Personally, I relatively enjoyed The Grandmother for what it had to offer: a highly experimental experience that instils an acute sense of unease in the viewer. It is clear that this is the work of a young, untamed David Lynch. The film demonstrated to me the effectiveness of highly expressive and exaggerated mise-en-scène, used to elicit a particular meaning.