The Amputee (1974)

Director:

David Lynch

Writer:

David Lynch (writer)

Genre:

Short | Drama

Plot:

In this plotless 5 minute short, Catherine Coulson plays a legless double-amputee who, throughout the film...

Plot Keywords:

Letter | Wound | Nurse | Double Amputee | Writer Director

Cast

Catherine E. Coulson	...	Woman with amputation to the legs
David Lynch	...	Unable and scared nurse

Directed by
David Lynch

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
David Lynch		writer

Produced by
David Lynch	....	producer

Cinematography by
Herbert Cardwell
Frederick Elmes

Runtime:

5 min | 9 min (original version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Quotes:

Woman with amputation to the legs: This isn't what I am telling you. You weren't in the room when Jim said that. And I was. And he really did. He told me that everything was fine between Helen and him. And I knew that even if he didn't say it, that it was true. He knew it then. No one else did...

Movie Connections:

Edited into The Short Films of David Lynch (2002) (V)

An experiment, rather than an experimental film

While at the American Film Institute, David Lynch tested two different types of videotape stock by shooting this strange little piece, featuring Catherine Coulson as an amputee writing a letter, & Lynch as a nurse attending her. Coulson's voiceover details various domestic issues, & she remains oblivious to the fact that she might be bleeding to death while the nurse rushes around frantically, eventually, it seems, abandoning her.

It has been suggested that Lynch deliberately shot both versions badly, so that the Institute wouldn't start replacing film with videotape.

Regardless of whether or not this is true, The Amputee is better viewed as an example of Lynch's warped sense of humour than his skill as a filmmaker, & of what sort of ideas he might come up with for something as simple as a stock test.