Eraserhead

1977, David Lynch, USA, 89 min.

Selected and introduced by composer and sound designer John Gromada

David Lynch’s 1977 debut feature, Eraserhead, is both a lasting cult sensation and a work of extraordinary craft and beauty. With its mesmerizing black-and-white photography by Frederick Elmes and Herbert Cardwell, evocative sound design, and unforgettably enigmatic performance by Jack Nance, this visionary nocturnal odyssey continues to haunt American cinema like no other film.

“Lynch’s films, in particular, are nearly every bit as powerful and disturbing if you close your eyes and just listen to them… Even when Henry is just walking the streets of Philadelphia at the outset of [Eraserhead], he’s doing so within an evocative aural landscape that mirrors the visual one. And then there’s the scene that most thoroughly creeps me out, in which Henry has dinner at his girlfriend’s house. In its broad strokes, this is essentially the same idea as Meet The Parents—awkward young dude does his best to make small talk, encounters darkly comic weirdness at every turn—but Lynch’s conception of “darkly comic weirdness” has its own flavor. And a uniquely discomfiting soundscape to match.” —Mike D’Angelo, the A.V. Club

About Cabaret Cinema: Soundtrack

You can probably name the best movie you’ve seen, but what about the best movie you’ve heard? It might be your favorite because of its sound effects, sound engineering, score, or another element of the audio experience. Watch—and hear—a series of films that caught the ear of notable New Yorkers.

About the introducer

John Gromada is a composer and sound designer for theatre, film, television, and dance. Best known for his theatre music for plays, he has written scores and designed sound for many critically acclaimed, award-winning Broadway productions including The Trip to Bountiful, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Clybourne Park, The Columnist, Seminar, Next Fall, Proof, A Bronx Tale, Rabbit Hole, Twelve Angry Men, Sight Unseen, Prelude to a Kiss, and A Few Good Men, among others. His many off-Broadway and regional theatre scores are distinctive for their blend of original music and abstract sound design, and have been a part of productions at leading theatres in the U.S. and abroad. Gromada received a Tony nomination for his work on The Trip to Bountiful and has also received three Drama Desk Awards, and the Lucille Lortel, Obie , Henry Hewes, Drama-Logue, EDDY, and Connecticut Critics Circle awards.