Responsible for the irrational and unconscious in movies, the devotee of transcendental meditation, David Lynch, is almost the only living master who has remained true to his unique style. His film language is imbued with mysticism, a unique supernatural that exists in close relationship with reality. It is not a strong exaggeration to say that it gave rise to a new direction in cinema, because it is absolutely wrong to classify it as only surrealism or avant-garde. Lynch worked at the intersection of many genres, wielding time, several levels of dream and reality, existential horror, laying a double or even triple meaning in the video series.
The short film "The 3 Rs" was shown in 2011 at the Viennale, the international annual film festival in Vienna. The film lasts only one minute, but contains many artistic images.
When asked by the teacher how many stones Pete has, the first student answers that there are 3 stones, and the second that there are 14, but it is obvious to the viewer that there are 2 stones. It is not for nothing that girls of different races are shown as contrasting cultures - eastern and western. Numbers 3 and 14 are the indicators of how close the education systems of different countries are close to the truth. The image of the doorway symbolizes the passage to adulthood after graduation. The ladder is a symbol of ascent, enlightenment and striving for knowledge. The corner where the students stand represents the fact that they are deprived of choice and driven into the framework.
In the next scene, Pete uses scissors to cut off the head of a toy duck swimming in the water. The metaphor of a defenseless child's mind that has been deformed becomes a logical continuation of the scene with two students. Pete's cry of "School!" directly points to the meaning of the episode: this is what the school does. It erases individuality and negates the natural perception of the world. It is worth mentioning the transition between the penultimate and last scenes: the camera casually captures trees where you can see an empty cube located high on the branches. The emptiness of the cube as something lifeless, devoid of knowledge and common sense, is contrasted with trees, which have long been considered as symbols of life, knowledge and spiritual culture of man.
The scene with Pete, in which he strikes the ground with a hammer, is key to the entire film. Strange old man Pete is an artistic symbiosis of the elite and churchmen, thanks to the efforts of which the educational system was formed in the middle ages. The black dress, the headdress and the kneeling posture, as during prayer, are details that allow us to compare school with religion, because it also makes children believe in dogmas. The shepherd urges the unruly pigs, who can only go forward, making a loud squeal after each strike.
Let's go back to the first scene and begin to permeate the entire film with a single semantic thread. At the very beginning, the shaky shooting suggests that the ordinary man is not able to see the truth clearly. The elite sees reality undistorted: this is hinted at by two round objects - Pete's "eyes that popped out of their orbits".
Let's pay attention to how Lynch strongly hints at the number 2: the question sounds in two versions with different word order, the school board consists of two squares, the word "SCHOOL" is first shown to us written on the board, then we hear it from Pete's mouth in the scene with the duck. Note that 12 hammer blows correspond to 12 classes of school education. Multiply the number of letters in the word "school" by two, because it appears in the movie twice. Each hammer blow that provokes a scream is equivalent to one year of school. For those who are particularly attentive, there is a hidden hint: the numbers 3 and 14. If you divide them into numbers, you get 3,1,4 or in another order 1,3,4. The number 2 is missing.
Lynch does not leave without several interpretations even the name of the short film. The meaning of the abbreviated name "The 3 Rs" comes from the word "rocks" (stones, cobblestones). The director did not forget about the verb "to rock", which is directly indicated by two scenes with a shaking shooting: the first and with a duck. The second meaning refers directly to school education, because the name can mean 3 letters "R": Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic - three basic skills that are taught at school.
The board on which the girls write answers is shaped like a square with a square drawn inside. Those who are at least a little familiar with Lynch's cult TV series "Twin Peaks" know that the source of the supernatural in it is electricity. Electrical installations with double insulation are marked with a symbol that is a square within a square. The director wanted to show the strong isolation of the students' minds from simple truths, recognizing which they seemed to be electrocuted. A curious point is also the connection of the square shown with the transcendental meditation that Lynch is so passionate about. The fact is that one of it's techniques is called "Black square". The principle of performing the technique is very simple: lie on your back, close your eyes, and represent a large black square. This will allow you to get rid of anxiety, as well as to stop the "mental dialogue" for a while. Lynch used the symbol of the black square to show the lack of real mental work of students, because they are taught to cram, but not to think.
The short film "The 3 Rs" is an absolutely creative artist's vision of the education system, the main feature of which is to distance people from simple truths. This movie is not only about the school as an educational institution, but also as a system of generally accepted rules for studying something that leads away from the very essence of the object being learned. David Lynch is a true mystic, so the inexplicable is the cornerstone of his work, which finds its expression in the main question: why is the film called "three stones", if in fact Pete has two of them in his hands, and, as we have seen, the whole film is filled with hints of the number 2? The number 3 in numerology is a perfect sign of the trinity, corresponding to a stable geometric figure - a triangle. The director gives his work artistic images of the original figures that have carried a deep philosophy for thousands of years: a square is the school board; a circle is the black circle on the ceiling; the triangle is number 3.
Let's consider two details that are invisible to the viewer. First, the answer board is labeled "ROCK/ROCKS". It contains a hint that there is one stone (rock) that is different from several others (rocks). Second, Pete's raincoat is missing one button, and the central one, with the other two buttons at their places. This is another clue that the third stone is hidden somewhere in the film. Did the first student answer the question correctly, even if she did it by accident? No, the student answered wrong, there are 2 stones in the hands of Pete indeed, but to unravel the mystery of movie's name, let's turn to the name "Pete". The name Pete is a short form from Peter, which is derived from the Greek name Petros, meaning "stone", "rock". Pete himself is the third stone.
7 out of 10
7 out of 10
