Inland Empire is really full-on subconcious Lynch and if Lost Highway isn't your thing, IE certainly won't be. Laura Dern's performance is maybe her best ever out of her pretty damn impressive career. It's one of his only movies I make zero attempts to make sense of since Lynch himself had said that entire scenes were often written on-set and made up as they went along and I just let it serve as an atmospheric mood piece. Lost Highway, you can figure out pretty easy. IE has the most insane and reaching fan blog analyses I've ever seen (and anyone who goes to the Kanye thread here knows I'm no stranger to making insane and reaching analyses).
Wild at Heart is like white trash Lynch and it's an indulgent, over the top blast. Just an extremely fun film to watch and show to the uninitiated.
I'll probably check out IE at some point anyway. I just didn't understand what actually happened in Lost Highway. Spoiler: multiple personalities? . I'm open to trying to watch it again though. But, what was the point?
RE: Blue Velvet, Someone on another site said that Criterion may have done the transfer themselves, so it's very possible that a release could come from them in the future.
Problems with the last disc aside, I really kind of hope they do as many of David's films as they can.
I feel like there's two takes on the movie you can go with: supernatural or psychological. Both work beside one another, though. I hope the spoiler tags work but it's a 20 year old movie so fuck it.
Psychological: Spoiler: He becomes suspicious of his wife cheating on him, and that paranoia manifests itself in the tapes, in the sense of "someone else" being in their home, looking into the bedroom, etc. because of that fear of another man in his house, ie., in his marriage and in his bed. He meets the Mystery Man who is exactly that: already in his house. The affair is already going on. But it's practically ignored by everyone else and no one sees how disturbing it is, in the way that everyone seems to ignore the Mystery Man.
You could take it as representative of him meeting the man she's sleeping with, and no one else seeing how wrong it all is, and him perceiving the MM as the freakish, frightening ghoul that he does because of it. He ends up catching her and murdering her. He goes to prison, is sentenced to death, and on the verge of execution, runs away in his head kinda like Nabakov's Invitation to a Beheading. In it, to escape that guilt, and run as far from reality as possible, he imagines himself as a young kid, very cliche bad-boy-type, going on to slowly encounter the seedier aspects of things. He meets a woman who's his wife, but looks a little different (the hair), and is herself a different person. Sexual immorality is brought back in through her seemingly coerced porn career -- so now she's sleeping with other men, etc. and he's not all there is -- and slowly but surely that "other life" in his subconscious creeps in. The Mystery Man reappears and terrifies him, but he isn't quite sure why, and he goes on to tell him of the executions in the Far East, and never knowing when it's going to happen -- he's confused, but this is exactly what's happening to him here. The fantasy collapses and he's back to being himself now, killing someone all over again and going on the run, warning himself of the affair that is going on by dropping off the video tape at his house from the beginning. He continues to flee from his guilt, but, inevitably, that road must end somewhere, representing his inevitable death/execution.
Supernatural: Spoiler: Gets video tapes leading into his house that raise suspicion, he's sexually impotent and insecure, etc., all that's the same. Kills his wife, that happens. Goes to prison, that happens. The Mystery Man is a manifestation of his paranoia and fear, his darker less trusting side, etc., a sort of evil figure that encourages his distrust of his wife and his depraved violent side -- which is why at the end of the movie, he's taping him murdering Robert Loggia and seeming to egg him on. Anyway he's supposed to be executed but is transported to another life where he's now the young kid, which, yeah, is split personality in that sense. In general in both interpretations many characters are "sides" of themselves. Just that in one, it's literal and one, it's mental. He's being punished by knowing his execution will come at any time, consumed by his guilt, and never knowing when -- he begins to remember his "real" self and finally transforms back, incapable of ever being with his wife again because of her death, and having been incapable of being with her because of their emotional distance and her affair -- hence, "I want you, I want you" followed by "You'll never have me." He and the MM kill Loggia and he gives himself the tape from the beginning of the film via time travel -- he's learned what this "lesson" was supposed to teach him, and tries to prevent it by passing it on to his past self, showing him what will happen (with the tape ending in footage of him above his wife's torn apart corpse). Having escaped prison and being a wanted man, he drives off, the timelines merging, as he goes down a seamlessly unending road into the darkness ahead.
I've done better jobs at explaining it before (or at least my perception of it; that's part of Lynch's fun -- often multiple interpretations are all equally interesting and valid), but that's the gist of it. Hopefully that helps!
Inland Empire as far as I remember is linear for the first hour and thirty minutes. Then it ends up unraveling into major wtf material. But what ends up happening is told to you in the film somewhere during the beginning (I can't remember when, but the director of the movie they're making tells the actors about the movie, and one thing he tells them is important.)
Also worth watching along with it, though I don't think these scenes are canon, is More Things That Happened, the deleted scenes which were edited into their own film kind of like the Blue Velvet deleted scenes. More Things That Happened is probably one of the most ignored films in David Lynch's filmography.
also, about Lost Highway, it's worth noting that the OJ Simpson Trial had a influence on the movie plus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue
Last edited by Frozen Beach; 03-06-2016 at 07:49 PM.
that's close to how I see it, with some quirks about the nature of true evil and all that jazz. film crit hulk had a great piece about mullholland drive that I think also offers some insights into how to think about Lost Highway:
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2012/03/...lholland-drive
listened to "The Air Is On Fire" tonight while reading and it was phenomenal. if you haven't heard it, i'd highly recommend checking it out. as much as i like his two, um, "pop" albums, he's at his best when making eerie soundscapes.
I probably would have loved Inland Empire if he'd filmed it a decade earlier and couldn't have gone the digital route. Or maybe if he'd filmed it a decade later when the quality of digital was better. As it stands, I feel like the film is marred by the way he made it. To me it doesn't feel Lynchian, and it's just hard for me to get lost in it.
I really regard Inland as being more or less a total experiment. It's him experimenting with digital cameras, it's him experimenting with the extremely low budget that would allow for, it's him experimenting for the freedom that allowed for -- suddenly he could shoot all day or have however many takes he wanted or have everything be improv'ed or made up whenever they felt like it because to film didn't mean they had to burn money all day and have as big a crew, etc. It allowed the actors more freedom and he was experimenting with that.
There's a narrative there, sure, and definitely core ideas present, but it's not some carefully constructed definable thing like Mulholland Dr. is. Like a nightmare, it maybe makes sense at points, and there's a through-line there somewhere, but it's ultimately senseless and can go off in whatever direction it wants to at any given moment, and go back to whatever the core of it was at will whenever it feels like it. It's not a movie interested in act structure or being something of a mystery for the viewer to figure out. There's a thesis statement somewhere in there, but the essay just starts rambling about whatever the hell it damn well feels like in the middle of sentences and paragraphs.
I don't view it like I do almost any other movie he's made and see it as a really neat atmospheric mood piece, a sort of film-based art installation rather than a narrative that's from some tight screenplay and narrative. It's his most subconscious movie as far as I'm concerned, whereas Mulholland Dr. is in this blurred space between the subconscious and the cerebral, maybe next to Lost Highway.
I'd recommend this if you can find it. It has a lot of drones and sounds used in David's films, like the train whistle that is sort of iconic, well, to me at least. I admit, I acquired it the an illegitimate way because it's incredibly expensive and I wasn't planning on using the sounds. But it's expensive since it's royalty free sounds.
https://www.discogs.com/Alan-Splet-D...elease/4957875
https://www.sound-ideas.com/Product/...-Sound-Effects
Yeah, I definitely don't have any issue with how formless the story is. I find the formless, nightmarish approach to be really intriguing. It's literally just the way it LOOKS to me. Like the image quality and the color tones of it. There are times where it almost reminds of a home video camera or even a webcam or something along those lines. I understand of course that some people really enjoy that quality, but it just never really clicked with me. Like, literally, I would probably love the movie if he filmed the exact same stuff but used a different camera. *shrug*
cool track! i glad David is also giving attention to his musical career
I acctually find Mullholland Drive really emotional that club Silenco scene sums up what i love about this film.
Its a wonderful powerful dreamy masterpiece.. that word is used too often!
Around 2010 at the end of last decade, many critics were calling it the greatest film of the 2000's.
Ive seen it listed at the top of quite a few of these sort of lists before.
Its one of only 2 films released since 2000 on the Sight and Sound best films ever.
I didnt like it when i first saw it around 2004, but something ticked when i watched it a few years ago, and its just amazing.
Im not acctually the biggest Lynch fan this the only thing by him i love, although i do find all of his work very interesting especially Lost Highway and Rabbits.
Last edited by Exocet; 05-24-2017 at 10:17 PM.
I did a list last year of my favorite films from 2000-2015 (that isn't Lost in Translation) last year as I had Mulholland Dr. at #5: http://thevoid99.blogspot.com/2015/0...2015-pt-5.html
Figured I'd repost this in here since it's going beyond simply Twin Peaks like I originally thought
http://lantermansoils.squarespace.com/
https://twitter.com/DAVID_LYNCH/stat...00518291025920
http://doublerdiner.squarespace.com/
http://www.playinglynch.com/
http://theslowclub.squarespace.com/
http://losthighwayhotel.squarespace.com/
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Um, John Malkovich as David Lynch? What the fuck is going on?
https://fpdl.vimeocdn.com/vimeo-prod...146f8ca50a8797
https://twitter.com/ThatsOurWaldo/st...94289830154241
John Malkovich as The Log Lady
https://twitter.com/ThatsOurWaldo/st...36540300488704
WTF? Malkovich has done it again...
Malkovich as the Log Lady...... *splooge*
my wife and i started our re-watch of Twin Peaks today (watching the blu-ray box set). it's her third or fourth time through the series and my second. loving it even more this time around.
https://www.srcvinyl.com/david-lynch...deluxe-lp.html
uh...yes please
- One-Time Pressing On Silver Vinyl, Strictly Limited To 1500 Copies
- Comes With Silver Vinyl 7-Inch With The Peter Ivers Songs “In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)” And “Pete’s Boogie”
- Includes Three 11" x 11" Prints And Deluxe 16-Page Booklet
Eraserhead rests firmly at the top of that canon of American underground culture for which there is no genre. A staple of the dark underbelly of popular cinema that was originally only viewable at arthouse screenings or on the Midnight Movie circuit, Eraserhead is a truly unadulterated offering; and much of its sensation lies beyond the purely visual realm. The stark, dusty black and white images put forth are caked with and submerged in a dense jungle of industrial hums, buzzes, screeches and screams. Eraserhead is a narrative made up of two intertwined veins: one of bleak and beautiful pictures elegantly painted in gray and black, and one of blankets of sublime, enveloping noise and static, the tinkering of Fats Waller organ rolls echoing in the background.
To lay in the dark and listen to this dizzying succession of blissful noise is a different way to get “lost” than in the visuals of the film itself. It’s no stretch to consider this soundtrack an experimental, early industrial masterpiece. Eraserhead’s individual passion and personal tone shines through even in the thickest moments of fierce static, an audio undertaking that took David Lynch and sound designer Alan Splet years to perfect. Eraserhead’s most famous piece of music is undoubtedly Peter Ivers’ unforgettable, oft-covered haunting ballad “In Heaven,” and the most exciting attribute of this edition of the soundtrack is no doubt its expansion, and it’s present here, along with “Pete’s Boogie,” an Ivers recording previously only available on the long out-of-print limited edition LP of this soundtrack.
also, the music box here in chicago is beginning this tonight:
Hooooly crap!, that soundtrack is a must!
Well this is rather sad. But, who knows what the future holds!? As tha article says, perhaps more TV projects are on the way...
http://nerdist.com/david-lynch-annou...irement-films/
I'm fine with it. He hasn't had a film since 2006's Inland Empire anyways.
I really wanna buy Mulholland Drive and a few other of his films on blu-ray but the prices are extravagantly high. It turns me off but oh how I want them. You can't even buy a Region A blu-ray version of Lost Highway.