After two months of no screening, we are back with a director in focus: David Lynch. Despite the vastly diverse body of work, ranging from painting, photography, documentary, soap opera, music and comedy shows, Lynch managed to develop a somewhat idiosyncratic, instantly recognisable personal signature. Certain themes, motifs and styles recur throughout: exaggerated mundanities in everyday life,  unnvering combinations of the industrial and the organic, innocence and horror, meticulous attention to sound, deformation and sensitivity.

This month we’ll present five of his films: Eraserhead(1977), The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986)t, The Straight Story (1999) and Mulholland Drive (2001). Screenings are held every Saturday–except on the 30th (Sunday), 17.30,  at C2O library, Jl. Dr. Cipto 20 Surabaya 60264 (across US General Consulate — view map), free and open for public. This screening programme is run independently with the purpose of introducing and sharing references and informations, not necessarily limited films per se. Donations are most gratefully and lovingly welcome. We rely on your donations and support to ensure that we can continue this program for free and open for public.

This month’s screening is made possible thanks to Erlin Goentoro. Please note that due to the rainy season, we’ll be screening the films indoor in our small TV. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

1 Mei 2010 // Eraserhead

1977 | USA | 89 m| BW | 13+ | Bhs. Inggris, teks Inggris

Lynch in his interviews often mention Eraserhead as his most spiritual or perfect film. In this story, Henry Spencer, a printer on a vacation trip, suddenly found his girlfriend already giving birth to a monstrous, premature baby. They married and lived together, but shortly his wife left him by himself to deal with the baby and his nightmarish visions.

8 Mei 2010 // The Elephant Man

1980 | USA | 124 m | BW | 13+ | Bhs Inggris
with Erlin Goentoro

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous facade, there is revealed a person of intelligence and sensitivity.

15 Mei 2010 // Blue Velvet

1986 | USA | 120 m| Warna | 18+ | Bhs Inggris, teks Inggris

Blue Velvet centers around college student named Jeffrey Beaumont, who upon returning from visiting his ill father in hospital, comes across a human ear in a grass field in his idealized American hometown of Lumberton. He proceeds to investigate the ear with assistance from Sandy Williams, who provides him with information and leads from her father, a local police detective. Jeffrey’s investigation draws him deeper into his hometown’s seedy underworld, and sees him forming a sexual relationship with the alluring torch singer, Dorothy Vallens, who may be connected to the ear, and uncovering a breed of criminals, including Frank Booth, who engage in drug abuse and sexual violence.

22 Mei 2010 // The Straight Story

1999 | USA | 112 mins | Warna| SU | Bhs Inggris
with Pundi Triardi S.

Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) is an elderly World War II veteran who lives with his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek), a kind woman with a mental disability. When he hears that his estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has suffered a stroke, he makes up his mind to go visit him and hopefully make amends before he dies. But because Alvin’s legs and eyes are too impaired for him to receive a driving license, he hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty year-old John Deere Lawn tractor and sets off on the 240-mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin.

30 Mei 2010 (Sunday, not Saturday!) // Mulholland Drive

2001 | USA | 147 m| Warna | 18+ | Bhs Inggris
with Erlin Goentoro

The film tells the story of an aspiring actress named Betty Elms, newly arrived in Los Angeles, California, who meets and befriends an amnesiac hiding in her aunt’s apartment. The story includes several other seemingly unrelated vignettes that eventually connect in various ways, as well as some surreal scenes and images that relate to the cryptic narrative.