David Lynch Collection (2008) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Calibration Signals Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Behind The Scenes Featurette-Question and Answers with Lynch Short Film-Several Trailer-Several Gallery
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	443:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (5)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Lynch
Studio Distributor	Absurda Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	David Lynch Jack Nance Harry Dean Stanton
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$149.95	Music	David Lynch

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	Varies
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	Varies	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    The David Lynch Collection collates a series of discs that have previously been available in Region 1 exclusively through www.davidlynch.com. The content consists entirely of things Lynch controls the copyright to, which is mostly recent short films. The only fictional feature being his debut Eraserhead, which is finally presented in its original aspect ratio and with a decent (albeit NTSC) transfer. This set will have fans salivating, but it certainly has its share of chaff and comes with a hefty price tag.

Disc One- Eraserhead (88:40)

    Eraserhead is a film that any given viewer will either love or hate, almost without exception (Our own DeanM was certainly in the latter camp when he reviewed the original release). Made over the course of more than half a decade and on a shoestring budget, that ran out several times, Eraserhead is more or less akin to Lynch's latter day absurdist style, though even more surreal and shot, in black and white, with hardly any money and an abundance of ideas. Unlike his later work, Eraserhead is relatively short and lacks some of the complexity of Lynch's latter films. It is certainly slow moving, but that's not really a slight on the film to those who enjoy it as it evokes a dream-like flow to the film which suits both the narrative and the silent-era look of the film.

    The story is that of Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), a printer who seems to be permanently "on vacation". One day his estranged girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart), invites Henry over for dinner with her parents. There, Henry discovers that Mary has given birth, after a rather short pregnancy, and Henry is obliged to marry her. The baby is not like a normal child in that it has an almost snake-like head and is permanently covered in bandages.

    The new family all move into Henry's bedsit apartment, but it's not long before Mary cannot stand the sleepness nights any longer and runs for the hills. Henry continues to look after the child, but more out of a sense of fear than love. He also gets to know a strange woman who lives in his radiator (Laurel Near), who sings the film's iconic In Heaven, and enters a doomed romance with the attractive woman who lives across the hall (Judith Anna Roberts). Unfortunately, little by little, it all becomes too much for Henry.

    The version of Eraserhead presented on this disc is Lynch's preferred theatrical cut (it premiered in a slightly longer cut), which has been lovingly transferred and restored. This is certainly a vast improvement on the previous Region 4 release of the film.

Disc Two- The Short Films of David Lynch

    A diverse collection of surreal short films produced by Lynch between the 1960s and early 1970s, and a couple of commissioned shorts from later in his career. Each includes a few minutes of introduction by Lynch, which explains as much of his development as a filmmaker as it does the films themselves.

    The shorts included are:

• Six Men Getting Sick (4:00)- A one minute stop motion animation, played on a loop with a siren running throughout, consisting of footage of Lynch's sculpture with painting overlaid. This one is more of an animated art installation than a film as such.
• The Alphabet (3:46)- An obscure stop motion animation that plays to the tune of the alphabet song. In Lynch's words, this is his vision of his ex-wife's neice's nightmare of being stuck hearing the alphabet song repeatedly.
• The Grandmother (33:52)- Lynch's first short of significant length, funded by the American Film Institute. This combination of live action and animation tells the story of a boy who grows a Grandmother to escape neglect and abuse of his parents. Told with no dialogue, but an evocative soundtrack to push the story along. The live action segment also feature visuals that are a clear homage to the silent era.
• The Amputee (4:52, 4:06)- Filmed during an "out of money" break from producing Eraserhead, this is a strange (need I mention it) scene featuring a woman with no legs trying to write a letter as a nurse tends to her stumps. Two versions of the film are featured.
• The Cowboy And The Frenchman (25:51)- Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Frederic Golchan, and longtime Lynch collaborator Jack Nance, this is a slapstick comedy short made as part of an anthology for French television. The theme of the anthology was international perceptions of the French. This particular short is a simultaneous spoof of westerns and arty French folk.
• Lumiere:Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (:58)- Made for the 100th anniversary of motion film, as part of a series of shorts made by a wide range of directors, using replicas of the original film and a wooden camera as designed by the Lumiere brothers. This particular short consists of three very short, silent scenes depicting an evil deed and a fiery vision of bondage in Hell.

Disc Three- Dynamic:01 (The best of www.davidlynch.com)

    This disc contains a series of experimental digitally shot shorts written, directed, edited and scored by Lynch for www.davidlynch.com between 2002 and 2007. This is pretty much a collection of stylistic experiments, to see what can be achieved with digital video, and nightmarish dreamscapes. The influence and experience of a lot of these experiments can be seen in Lynch's Inland Empire.

    As with the second disc, Lynch personally introduces each short. This time, however, he is much more coy about the subject matter. In fact, it is hard to tell if he is trying to dress up complete nonsense as deep and meaningful art or if he really believes that there is an obscure, deep meaning to the shorts on offer. The very fact that he is able to dress these shorts up as such will probably spark enough debate to qualify them as art. That said, there isn't much art here that even die-hard fans will want to watch more than once, perhaps with the notable exception of the poetic Boat.

    The shorts included are:

• The Darkened Room(4:00)- It is all about bananas, apparently. A young Japanese girl awkwardly guides us around her appartment, amidst jumpy digital effects, segueing into a stilted confrontation between Jordan Ladd and ex-Power Ranger Cerina Vincent that resembles a dream sequence from Twin Peaks
• Boat(7:16)- A dreamy short, shot in the first person and featuring a softly spoken narrative. The poetic narrative and visuals tell of a man (Lynch himself) taking the protagonist on a boat-ride into the night.
• Lamp(30:40)- Lynch presents a lengthy DIY video on how to make a plaster-based lamp sculpture.
• Out Yonder - Neighbour Boy(9:38)- Shot in black and white, two neighbours (one of whom is Lynch himself) sit in the yard and discuss the unusual events across the street with helium-high voices.
• Industrial Soundscape(10:48)- A very crude animated video with accompanying percussive industrial noises. Besides being overlong, there isn't much to this one at all.
• Bug Crawls(4:25)- An animated black and white moodscape featuring a bug crawling over a small house.
• Intervalometer Experiments(13:45)- Experiments with using the time lapse function, called the intervalometer, on his camera. Lynch has found three nice shots to demonstrate the functionality and set the shots to eerie music, but there's no hiding that this one is a waste of time

Disc Four- Lynch (one)

    A lengthy documentary (125:41 minutes) about the David Lynch, specifically his creative process, in the two years development of Inland Empire. This is largely cut together from fly-on-the-wall footage, with a little direct explanation to the camera, and very visually artistic presentation.

    At times it is hard to judge whether Lynch is making everything up as he goes along or whether there really is method to his madness. It certainly makes for a fascinating profile, though the audio is very poorly recorded which only makes the man harder to follow. This would probably have worked better as a companion to Inland Empire than a standalone feature, but is certainly worth a look for fans.

Disc Five- Dumbland (33:26)

    A series of 8 incredibly crudely drawn and animated short cartoons, produced for www.davidlynch.com, about a three toothed oaf and, occasionally, his family and neighbours.

    Dumbland is described by Lynch as "crude, stupid, violent and absurd", who disclaims that any laughter you may find in them should be because you see the absurdity of them. He is right. Unfortunately the hilarity wears thin very quickly with this lot, which is a shame as the latter couple are probably the funniest (as well as the strangest) of the lot, but they the few before them are monotonous enough to have taken all the fun away before you get up to them. Quite a disappointment.

Video

    Each of the discs in this set is presented in NTSC rather than PAL. Viewers should ensure their equipment is capable of playing NTSC signals before buying this set, though most modern equipment should have no problems with the format.

    Eraserhead is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. The video is immaculately restored. The image is sharp and the contrast is excellent. Clack levels and shadow detail are excellent. There are no signs of film artefacts, save for a few moments where they are expected. Mild pixelation from the video compression can be seen in many of the backgrounds, but only if blown up to large size and examined in detail.

    Lynch (one) is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. The video looks decent given that the documentary looks to have ben largely shot with pro-sumer grade digital cameras. The image is fairly grainy and frequently quite soft. The colour levels vary throughout, but generally look good. There is no sign of film artefacts or compression-related artefacts.

    The content on the other discs is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio and not 16x9 enhanced, which results in a few of the shorts appearing heavily windowed. This is particularly the case with Dumbland, which opens with a full-frame intro to each episode only for the main content of the episode to be 1.85:1. The video generally looks good on all the films. Some of the earliest shorts feature significant levels of film artefacts, though none are particularly large, but it's reasonable to expect as much from films that have been in Lynch's garage for decades. Some of the digitally shot films exhibit mildly noticeable level os low-level noise, but nothing particularly distracting. None of the films feature noticeable levels of compression-related artefacts.

    No subtitles are present for any of the features, save for hardcoded subs where languages other than English are spoken.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Eraserhead and Lynch (one) each feature a single English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kbps) audio track, which is fairly basic but certainly the limit of the original material. Each of the other discs features uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 (1536 Kbps), presumably chosen to maximise the quality of the material.

    The dialogue in all the fiction films is presented at a good level. The dialogue in Lynch (one) is frequently drowned in background noise and hard to hear in a lot of places.

    David Lynch has has scored the bulk of the material himself, creating eerie soundscapes rather than music. Each soundtrack is clear and well mixed, again with the exception of Lynch (one).

    There is no surround use in any of the films in this set. Many of the films feature audio tracks with bottom end that reaches the subwoofer, however its use is fairly limited.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Disc One

Calibration tool

    This disc opens with a brightness calibration tool, before you even get to a menu screen.

Eraserhead Making Of Featurette (84:50)

    David Lynch presents a comprehensive "making of" featurette that discusses the production history of the film, countless anecdotes of what it took to get the film made and his general intent for making the film. The featurette is presented in a full frame ratio and filmed in black and white, in a style much like that of the film itself. Thoroughly worthwhile to any fan of the film

Eraserhead trailer (0:44)

    A particularly short, and rather mysterious, trailer for the film. Presented in a 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced ratio.

Disc Two

Calibration tool

    This disc features a calibration tool that helps adjust brightness, contrast and colour levels for your television.

Disc Three

Member Questions(4:00)

    Lynch answers questions submitted to www.davidlynch.com, including Musical Themes (1:39), Writing a Script (2:14), Abstraction and Reality in Film (1:53), Keeping a Journal (1:24), Working With Marilyn Manson (1:50), Out Yonder Theme Song (1:09), Roy Orbison's In Dreams (5:16), Coffee Breaks (2:02) and a general message to members of the site (2:26).

Disc Four

LODZ Featurette (7:16)

    A series of still bleak set images, put together into a slideshow.

Pilot Featurette (11:14)

    More or less a pilot for Lynch (one). David Lynchand his entourage are followed about with a camera filming with artsy effects overlaid. Not much really happens except for car rides and talking about how far the couldn't hit a golf ball.

Teaser Trailer For Lynch (one) (1:19)

    An obtuse teaser for an obtuse documentary. It's unlikely that you would know what it was advertising if it wasn't on the same DVD!

BlueGreen Short Film (3:01)

    An eerie short film shot around a disused factory using digital video. A lost woman meanders about in her nighty while an elfish child skips about. This is mainly an experiment with the medium and various styles of shooting with it.

Work Featurette (14:04)

    Lynch does a whole lot of woodwork and set preparation in his garage, all dressed in his signature nice shirt and pants. I had never pegged Lynch as the sort or bloke who would put up his own shelving, until now.

What's Myspace Featurette (0:45)

    Lynch paints "What's Myspace" on a large, white canvas...

Floor Sander Featurette (3:18)

    Lynch sits in his workshop and talks about Ford Falcons and floor sanders.

Teaser Trailer For Lynch (two) (0:47)

Teaser Trailer For Lynch (three) (1:02)

Disc Five

    None.

    The discs in this set are formatted for all regions. Each of the discs in this set are available individually in Region 1 through www.davidlynch.com. The discs in this set are identical to their equivalent www.davidlynch.com disc, right down to the FBI warning at the start of the disc.

    An essential purchase for die-hard David Lynch fans, but an expensive one. Casual fans and the wholly uninitiated would do best to look to David Lynch's features before sifting through this collection. There is a lot of chaff, but a few real gems.

    Hopefully, the impeccable transfer of Eraserhead will be released individually soon as it is a must-see for fans of art cinema, but one that would be hard to justify the puchase of this entire set for.

    The video quality and audio quality is generally excellent and several of the discs include calibration tools to help viewers maximise their viewing experience. The extras in the set are highly worthwhile and in good number.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall