David Lynch's 52 second film

Lumière and Company is a 1995 movie where more than 40 directors were invited to make a short film using the Lumière brothers' original cinématographe hand-cranked camera invented in the 1890s. Each short had to be less than 52 seconds long without synchronized sound and be made in fewer than three takes. All editing, of course, wa done in-camera. The final cut included works by Wim Wenders, Peter Greenaway, John Boorman, Merchant & Ivory, and many others. Here is David Lynch's contribution to the project. Link to Google Video, Link to buy Lumière and Company (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)

[#1 posted by jbettineski , May 19, 2008 1:54 PM]

There's a little NSFW in there.

[#2 posted by Takuan , May 19, 2008 2:00 PM]

even if you work in a law firm or brothel?

[#3 posted by Tgg161 , May 19, 2008 2:21 PM]

I watched this in college, because my friends and I were all Lynch nerds. I vaguely remember that this was the only one where it looked like the director even tried to make a full film. If I remember right, Spike Lee just filmed a kid standing on some stairs or something.

[#4 posted by Whiskey Spider , May 19, 2008 3:09 PM]

I've had this one in my Netflix queue forever. It's unavailable unfortunately.

[#5 posted by anthony , May 19, 2008 4:22 PM]

How did Guy Maddin miss out on this?

[#6 posted by Pipenta , May 19, 2008 6:17 PM]

My, but that's a lot of black leader.

And gosh, Lynch just hasn't gotten tired of cinematic violence against women and wrapping them up in plastic, has he? Is a plexiglas tank a step up or down from Saran wrap?

[#7 posted by octave , May 19, 2008 10:18 PM]

This was far and away the best of the Lumiere films and the only one that was a fully realized narrative. Unfortunately you can't see the film at all in the Google video linked to.

The film is on the Lumiere disc and also "The Short Films of David Lynch" but only one of them is a decent transfer. I can't remember which one is the good one though. (Anyone?)

Violence against women is repellent in the endless stream of cheap corpse-related drama on television. I'd be fine with all of that going away forever but I like what D. Lynch does with this subject matter. It's appropriately chilling, imho.

[#8 posted by JPW , May 19, 2008 10:35 PM]

OCTAVE, the good transfer would be the one on the Lumière disc.

I still don't know what connotes news with any of this, though. These have been out for years.

[#9 posted by Blue , May 20, 2008 1:52 AM]

Maybe we can also become tired of movie violence against men, children and animals.

And nasty videogames.

Or those horror comics!

Then the world will be a perfect place.