Imagine having the opportunity to chat with 33-year old David Lynch in 1979. “Eraserhead” would’ve just come out two years prior and blown people’s minds. What would you even begin to say to the man? “Are you okay? Do you need a hug?” In this newly unearthed video, you can see a fresh-faced David Lynch being interviewed in 1979 along with his cinematographer Frederick Elmes about their not-yet classic film “Eraserhead.”
Shot for a television-production class at UCLA, the interview finds Lynch discussing, at length, the process of creating “Eraserhead” and some of the challenges the crew faced. He also gives a mini-tour of the oil fields that were featured in the film, showing how they paced and shot certain scenes. The interview ends on an interesting note with Lynch expressing his disinterest in the Hollywood system and not wanting to work with celebrities, summing it up thusly: “If you’re going into the netherworld, you don’t want to go in with Chuck Heston.” Nice.
The 18-minute interview also features some great audience reaction footage from a screening of “Eraserhead,” as well. It really is a fascinating video that captures an interesting period in cinema history and you can click over to Cinephilia and Beyond to check it out. [via Thompson On Hollywood]
