“There’s a connection between music, film, painting, writing, everything, you’re into, the more they’re going to help each other”
– David Lynch
David Lynch’s 1968 short The Alphabet was inspired by his first wife Peggy’s niece reciting her ABCs during a nightmare then waking up and bouncing around repeating it.
Filmed years before he directed his first feature film, Eraserhead in 1977, and subsequent art-driven movies, including The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986) and Wild At Heart (1990), among others – films that unveil “the mystery and madness hidden in the normal”, as film critic Pauline Kael put it – Lynch scared us with Alphabet.
“There are things lurking in the world and within us that we have to deal with,” he said of the surreal Blue Velvet. “You can evade them for a while, for a long time maybe, but if you face them and name them, they start losing their power. Once you name the enemy, you can deal with it a lot better.”
It was theme he hit upon in The Alphabet. He painted Peggy white and filmed her in a black-painted room painted. She lies in bed, her whiteness appearing ghostly against the inky black around her. The film turns to animation an collage before a supernatural alphabet plays havoc with Peggy’s sensibilities. We see sheets splattered in blood. The sound of a baby crying is a recording Lynch’s newborn daughter Jennifer.
Would you like to support Flashbak?
Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.
