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David Lynch's second (short) movie is called "Alphabet" and dates back to 1968. It is a 16mm color movie,
showing a creature that gives birth to the letters of the alphabet.
The drawings are acompanied by the "Alphabet Song", changing from the rote children's jingle to the
operatic to the omnious. The letters appear as characters, designs, and decorations, even animated into shapes
suggesting moving symbols. These include life-cycle symbols: phallic symbols, tubes, and a birth-canal of
the letter 'A' giving life to a litter of 'a's, letters in full bloom, and letters submerged back into the screen.
A woman (Peggy Lynch), in white kabuki-like makeup and large, dark sunglasses is cut live into the animation.
The live action of the film includes shots of an exaggerated rendering of sultry lips, a prominent iron bed, and
assorted body parts. 'Remember you are dealing with the human form' is enunciated by the woman in a tight
close-up, breaking into the repetition of the alphabet.
Tension in the film is heightened by the dual structure of black-and-white photography with color animation. As
animated figures decay, wither, and die, the black-and-white reality of the stylized dreamer is increasingly disturbed
by the animation's darkening tone. Finally, live action becomes as disturbing. Red dots from the animation become
blood spots splattering onto the sheets of the writing woman in the bed. The pelting from the animation results in
her vomiting blood.
"The Alphabet: earned Lynch an American Film Institute grant to continue filmmaking.
This film is still available on the video "The New York Film Annex's Experimental Series, Volume 11"
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