Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
If you missed your abc-education from the Sesame Street during your preschool-years no worries. David Lynch will teach you the basics in this less-than-4-minute short film. The frame to the story is an extremely pale, possible sick woman lying in bed right at the beginning and also at the end. We see a strange structure rising including the letters a to z and more and more growing as the alphabet proceeds. After a short cut to a pout with red lipstick we hear all the different ways in which the letter a can be shouted, some sounds downright creepy. Then we see an animated female figure having the letters put, literally put, into her head, which, not long after, explodes from the pressure. The blood is particularly memorable as the rest of the film is almost exclusively inconspicuous shades of gray. Then finally the cut back to Lynch's wife at this point who sings the alphabet song before she faces a similar fate like the previous girl, only she exhales the letters and the other had them inserted.This short-film is indeed very Lynch. If you like his abstract, surreal works, you'll probably have a good time watching, otherwise you'll wonder what in God's name is going on or even be downright appalled. You won't feel nothing though, that much is safe.
preppy-3
VERY weird short by David Lynch. It's in black and white and shows a girl who looks like she's going completely mad while the letters of the alphabet go flying around her. She also sings that alphabet song.I should have expected something weird from Lynch but this is even stranger than I thought it could be. In 4 short minutes he gives you a morbid and disturbing little story about the alphabet and terror. It doesn't make a bit of sense but the imagery is so strange and the sound so odd that you're pulled right in. Basically a short little horror film. You can see where "Eraserhead" came from. Worth seeing but only for those who don't scare easily. An 8.
xlisax82x
lynch has, with this short, somehow managed to recreate with disturbing accuracy the experience of any childhood nightmare. on watching you are instantly transported back to being 6 years old, wanting desperately to wake up and not being able to. you have to wonder at the fact that lynch has reproduced this experience to such effect that when it is finished you're left with that morning after feeling of relief that the dream is over, yet also that lingering discomfort as the memory gradually fades. to be able to recreate on film with such accuracy, the sub-conscious experience of people everywhere is an impressive achievement. i wish i could do it... disturbing yet brilliant.
enmussak
This avant garde piece miraculously comes off without being cliché or dismissible (as is so common with artsy avant garde film). Peggy Lynch (I'm assuming is his daughter) goes through a sequence of harrowing events that had some connection with the alphabet. I particularly liked the bed-wetting and the dirt. The person I watched this with said the dirt looked very "inviting." I strangely agreed. Only Lynch could make dirt inviting. Very interesting work. 8/10
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