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Crumb (1994)

Starring Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky, Charles Crumb, and Maxon Crumb. Cinematography by Maryse Alberti.  Edited by Victor Livingston.  Produced by Lynn O’Donnell, Terry Zwigoff, and David Lynch. Directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Robert Crumb was a countercultural icon of the sixties and seventies.  He has been credited by some as the father of underground comic books and his unconventional characters like Mr. Natural and Fritz the Cat have become icons of the era.  But if you think Crumb is strange, you ought to meet his family.  His brother Charles is an agoraphobe who has lost his teeth and lives with his mother.

Before the documentary was completed he had killed himself.  His other brother Maxon is a convicted molester that assumes Yoga positions on beds of nails while begging for spare change.  And his wife Aline seems to compliment his oddities perfectly as the two live out a seemingly happy marriage despite the abnormal world around them.

In the time between Twin Peaks:  Fire Walk with Me and Lost Highway, David Lynch would work on many small side projects while looking for the inspiration to begin his next feature film. One would be the short lived television series “On the Air”.  Co-created with “Twin Peaks” collaborator Mark Frost, “On the Air” was a slapstick comedy set in 1957 that gave a behind the scenes look at the fictitious “The Lester Guy Show”.

The series was poorly reviewed and cancelled after only seven weeks. While that television series was dying, Lynch was starting up a fresh one.  Teaming back up with his Wild at Heart producer Monty Montgomery, Lynch developed a program that would feature random nights in a similar hotel room.  Appropriately titled “Hotel Room”, this HBO series only lasted three episodes before it faded out. While Lynch was hard at work trying to find another television success, he was also earning a feature film credit without doing anything at all.

The film was Crumb; a documentary featuring the bizarre life of underground comic book artist Robert Crumb. The film’s director, Terry Zwigoff, met Crumb in the early 1970’s while he was printing covers to Crumb’s comics. Zwigoff and Crumb would eventually form a relationship and over the next few years the pair wrote a handful of feature film screenplays that never saw the light of day. 

In the mid 1980’s Zwigoff decided that he would make a documentary about his eccentric friend. For two years he followed Crumb around with a camera, capturing poignant moments with his wife, family, and fans.  Almost ten years later Lynch would agree to lend his name to the production as it represented a legitimate slice of the “Weird Americana” that Lynch had become so well associated with. 

Lynch’s involvement was pivotal in finding the film a distributor. Crumb went on to become one of the most celebrated documentaries of the decade. Despite the lack of Lynch’s creative involvement, there is certainly enough crossover appeal in the offbeat documentary to keep most fans of Lynch’s work entertained.

Budget: $???

Total US Gross: $2,965,804

Genre: Documentary

Runtime: 119 Minutes

US Release Date: 4/28/95

Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1

Awards:

Sundance Film Festival: 
Won the Cinematography Award and the Grand Jury Prize for a Documentary.

Directors Guild of America: 
Won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary.

Tagline: Weird Sex · Obsession · Comic Books

Quote: “You know Robert’s not too oriented towards, ah, normal sex so there wasn’t much in the way of normal sex in our relationship but, ah, lots of piggy back rides and, ah, wrestling around and, ah, he liked to sit on my shoe a lot.”