Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 19, 2016
Eraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist body horror film written and directed by filmmaker David Lynch. Shot in black-and-white, it is Lynch's first feature-length film, coming after several short works. Starring Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Jeanne Bates, Judith Anna Roberts, Laurel Near, and Jack Fisk, it tells the story of Henry Spencer (Nance), who is left to care for his grossly deformed child in a desolate industrial landscape. Eraserhead spent several years in principal photography because of the difficulty of funding the film. It was produced with the assistance of the American Film Institute during the director's time studying there, and donations from Fisk and his wife Sissy Spacek kept production afloat. Lynch and sound designer Alan Splet spent a year working on the film's audio. Eraserhead earned positive reviews, especially for its intricate sound design, but only gained popularity after several long runs as a midnight movie. Its surrealist imagery and sexual undercurrents have been seen as key thematic elements. In 2004 the film was preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. (Full article...)