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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 1981)
Wine Loft is now open Tues. to Sat. tVines by the glass Free hors d’oeuvres 5 to 7 1340 Alder Henry’s on tap 683-1795 Grand Canyon National Park Lodges Live & Work at Grand Canyon Immediate Openings Electrician Carpenter Year-round openings for skilled crafts people. Three years experience. Must have own hand tools. Work boots required. Laundry Mechanic Year-round opening for a skilled Laundry Mechanic with both commercial and residential washing machine experience - 4 years preferred. Must have own hand tools. Work boots required. Our operation is located within Grand Canyon National Park in Northern Arizona. We offer an excellent benefit program and wages equal to experience. Dormitory housing located within the Park is available. Come see us, we will be holding local interviews January 31 1981: ’ Valley River Inn 1000 Valley River Way Eugene, OR 9 am - 5 pm Walk-Ins Only. No Phone Calls Acceptedl GRAND CANYON National Park Lodges Grand Canyon, AZ 86023 equal opportunity employer m -f/h Film Eraserhead Starring John Nance Directed by David Lynch Bijou Theatre Perhaps no other film has such a grotesque, yet haunt ingly intriguing appeal as the cult film Eraserhead. The force behind this ex traordinary film lies in the ar tistry of writer, director and producer David Lynch. Lynch, whose recent film The Elephant Man won national acclaim, dis plays deft form in Eraserhead by creating a penetrating explora tion into the psychological hor rors of a malformed and de praved society. The outcome is nothing less than bizarre. The plot revolves around the dolorous — almost farcical character — of Henry (John Nance), a schizoid factory worker who’s helplessly powered by the levers of indus trial society. Unable to cope with his futile existence, Henry plods aimlessly on earthen mounds in the shadows of an industrial park. His sorrowful condition is accented by a tuft ed pompador which sprouts from his head like an electrically charged balloon. The story evolves when Henry appears at his girlfriend Mary’s (Charlotte Stewart) house for dinner where he meets Mary's family, a gross collection of withered zombies living in the backyard lot of a squalid train yard Bill, Mary's father, is an ex factory worker, laid-off work because of an arm injury He engages Henry in one of the film's more revealing dialogues: "Well, what do you know, Henry?" "I don't know much of anyth ing." As dinner progresses, reality dissimulates and disappears in to the grossly absurd. Henry ends up married to Mary and finds himself the proud father of a premature baby. Unlike most infants, however, Henry’s child is anything but an adorable new babe. Rather, it is an undiscernable creatural form, covered by a gelatinous membrane, and swathed in cloth up to its worm-like neck. Placed prone on a table, its malformed head propped by a pillow, it displays an amazing prowess to cry, chatter and goob. Undaunted, Henry and Mary care for the tyke — until, un nerved by its incessant wailing, Mary leaves for the peace and quiet of her parents’ home. His world melting around him, Henry descends into the con fines of his unfettered mind, attempting to grasp the elusive controls which power his life. But, Henry is unable to avoid the socio-industrial ills which plague his existence. And shortly, his head, dismembered from his body, rolls into the hands of a boy who sells it to a factory. At the factory, Henry's head is run through a machine and stamped into pencils with perfunctory precision. Eraserhead is not a moving drama, nor a gripping thriller — rather, it is a psychological sojourn through the cluttered remnants of a fragmented mind. The plot, often abstruse and comically absurd, offers the viewer plenty of space to turn, twist and ponder Lynch’s un dermining theme — a theme prevalent in many expressions of art — which alludes to the human condition as striving for one’s peach-of-mind: that "heaven on earth." A low budget production, Eraserhead is a high-quality ar tistic achievement. Filmed in black and white, the movie pre sents a visual abstraction of the mass industrial state. Gray cement walls, empty train lots and endless tracks of smoldering factories present a stirring perceptual image reminiscent of war-time Ger many on a gray, rainy day. Lynch demonstrates his proficiency in the special effects department and equals his realistic accomplishments on The Elephant Man set. When Henry slips into a catatonic state, the screen responds with a stirring display of phantas magoric images: a progression al transendence from the real to the mind-boggling absurd. These surreal illusions are off set by the penetrating clangs, roars and blasts from an am plified factory boiler. Eraserhead is a delicious stray from the ordinary. Its audio-visual effects offer an en grossing sensory experience. Produced in 1977 on an American Film Institute Grant, Eraserhead is Lynch’s first full length feature film. The film is currently playing at the Bijou Theatre. Showtimes are Midnight, Thursday through Saturday; matinees on Sunday at 2 and 4 p.m. By James Jiier HEART THROBS 20 words for $1.50 if placed by 1 pm Feb. 12 at the ODE office (300 EMU), UO Bookstore, EMU Main Desk. Great Throbs from the Past: JANET: Your hair, your lips, your dreamy eyes Such beauty fashion can t disguise And on your thighs I'd love to dine Won't you be my Valentine? CIA PHILBERT: Why don't we get together this Valentine's Day and aim your arrow for my target Hopelessly in love with you PEANUT LIL UPTURN: Like the wind through the trees Your love makes me shake But everytime I tell you so Your head begins to ache USA: Roses are blue, Violet are red My back is cramped, Fix your bed Love. JOHN JIMMY: How bout some hot sauce on a cold winter night? SUE