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mikeisapro
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Rank David Lynch movies!
#20742883 - 10/23/14 12:55 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Only the ones you've seen of course.
I'm mainly concerned with the films he both directed and wrote.
My Lynch rankings are as follows (this is not an easy task, and my rankings are definitely not in line with mainstream critics, who rate Blue Velvet and The Straight Story as his best)
1. INLAND EMPIRE 2. Eraserhead 3. Lost Highway 4. Mulholland Dr 5. Blue Velvet 6. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 7. The Straight Story 8. Wild At Heart
I really think the first 5 are on about the same level of awesome. I enjoyed The Straight Story and FWWM, although I don't consider them on the same level as the first 5. FWWM was a creepy horror film based on his show Twin Peaks. The Straight Story was an artistic yet "realistic" film, with great cinematography and landscapes.
Wild At Heart just didn't do anything for me whatsoever.
I haven't seen Dune or the classic The Elephant Man yet. I seriously doubt they will beat the top 6, though.
Most people (I assume) would rank 3, 4, and 5, in the opposite order that I do (Blue Velvet, then Mulholland Dr, then Lost Highway). Blue Velvet was just too straight for me. Not Lynchian enough. I prefer his more ambiguous, psychological, subconscious, artistic- whatever word you want to use- films. To be honest, I can't say I rank Lost Highway over Mulholland Dr, as I consider them equals. But like I said, I consider the whole top 5 of my list to be basically equal.
Edit: Or just discuss any particular(s) of Lynch's work that you may want to discuss, since I have slightly deviated from the intent of my OP by posting two follow-up analyses. I could explicate much further with any of the films, but I felt that the level of explanation in the following two posts was important in order to justify my ranking of INLAND EMPIRE as his best film, as that is not the most popular opinion. By extension, it also explains why I like Mulholland and Highway enough to rank them as highly as I did. Eraserhead is just at #2 because it is a classic, and marked the beginning of the greatest American surrealist director's career. Eraserhead is also his most symbolic work by far, but it's not something that I would want to watch as many times as I would IE, MD, and LH.
-------------------- Life without drugs lacks substance(s).
Edited by mikeisapro (10/24/14 03:33 PM)
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mikeisapro
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro] 1
#20743248 - 10/23/14 02:16 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Some expansion:
In my view, Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr, and INLAND EMPIRE are practically a trilogy.
They all three are what I would call "Lynch's Identity films".
The first of these three he created was Lost Highway, then he refined this idea with Mulholland Dr, and finally his efforts culminated in his magnus opus, INLAND EMPIRE.
Lost Highway was the least refined of these works. It was raw, dark, surrealist identity crisis. (Keep in mind that while Lynch directed the film, it was co-written with Barry Gifford. But to say that it was a 50/50 effort would be giving Gifford too much credit, I think. It is still a Lynch film.)
Mulholland Dr was more refined. It was more fun, more funny (yet still quite dark in the end), more superficial, more understandable, yet it played on the same theme as Lost Highway. It was about a tragedy suffered by the main character (Diane), who dreamed up a happier version of reality in which she got what she wanted (Camilla), but during the dream she keeps getting clued onto the Truth. Just like in Lost Highway, when Fred is portrayed as a sort of victim involved in a tragedy that included his wife. Fred imagines himself as "Pete" in his alternate reality, and his wife Renee becomes "Alice", just as Diane imagines herself as "Betty" in her illusion and Camilla as "Rita".
These two films are pretty much the same thing, with Mulholland Dr being shinier, lighter, and more mainstream.
But then came INLAND EMPIRE. IE expanded on the identity angle to the max, but also was more surreal, darker, more spiritual, and more potent than these other two films. Yet, though it's certainly very dark, and the identity crisis is the most pronounced, it has a spiritual side to it that Mulholland and Lost Highway completely lacked. The main character in INLAND EMPIRE also was a hero as well as a tragic figure, while in LH and MD, the main character was exclusively a tragic, delusional person. In EMPIRE, there was delusion involved, but only as a sort of "trial" to come to enlightenment and the purging of its characters' inner evil.
On the other hand, you have Eraserhead, which was certainly very symbolic and surreal, but lacked these ideas about illusion/reality and dualism. Then there is The Straight Story, which had a surreal backbone (the riding of a lawn-mower over a long distance is certainly abnormal/surreal) but was essentially a "straight story", as the title suggests.
Blue Velvet was, in its own way, a "straight story" as well. Everything you see is exactly what happens in the reality of the film. There are no alternate universes, the film is its own universe. It is simple stuff. The world the characters inhabit is certainly strange, and the neo-noir influence is quite apparent, but it is a straightforward piece. Its theme(s) are understood bluntly and easily....especially the main idea: That the appearance is a facade--there is darkness underneath the light--loss of innocence as an exploration or realization of reality.
This is not hard to see, and helps the film's cohesiveness and therefore its recognition by the masses as being a good film.
But I'm grateful that Lynch got deeper after Blue Velvet. It's as if Lynch is self-fulfilling his own idea in Blue Velvet: He keeps diving deeper into the darkness, well beyond Blue Velvet by now.
-------------------- Life without drugs lacks substance(s).
Edited by mikeisapro (10/24/14 03:31 PM)
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mikeisapro
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20743361 - 10/23/14 02:47 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Another key point that I just thought of regarding the "Identity trilogy":
In MD and LH, the way the film is presented implies that a certain version of reality/identity is real, while there is an alternate, delusional version. It's pretty trippy to see the two different realities as part of the same reality (and it's easier to do this with the more ambiguous Lost Highway than with Mulholland Dr) but in the end, these two films should be most accurately described as having one real and one false version of reality.
However, Lynch wasn't satisfied with this. He didn't want it so simple (As if Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive were typical blockbuster movies!). He made INLAND EMPIRE, which, as the title describes, was his largest work involving people or person's inner psyche/subconscious. In IE, there are also two main versions of reality, although there are many subtler layers of reality in the film. But, unlike in MD and LH, these two realities are merged together, and it's much harder to say that one is real while the other is false.
Upon reflection, one could say that the Polish girl's reality is the true reality, and the entire reality of the actress Nikki, whose life merges with her character Sue, is the projected or false reality of the polish girl, who is constantly watching TV, which may be a metaphor for her mind's delusion. (I find it an interesting side-note that the girl is crying while watching the events of the film transpire on TV, and at the end, when her husband and son come home, she is quite happy. It's as if we the viewers are the Polish girl, watching films like INLAND EMPIRE which are so heady and tragic, in order to escape our real lives and find reality to be less dark or tragic in comparison.)
But INLAND EMPIRE at least makes it significantly harder to tell what is the truth and what is the fiction. In this major way, and in many other ways, it has surpassed it's predecessors.
-------------------- Life without drugs lacks substance(s).
Edited by mikeisapro (10/23/14 02:58 PM)
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Brian Jones
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro] 1
#20746182 - 10/24/14 06:40 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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I don't think anything could ever top Blue Velvet, but overwatching has dulled the experience. But it is brilliant, filmed as a dream, just like the Orbison song. I like Wild At Heart, but I think Lynch was riding the high and kind of going weirdness for the sake of weirdness (but I guess that was his whole career) I like the cast of Wild at Heart.
Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive are pretty good but they sort of run together to me indistinctly, and maybe it's just personal and my big David Lynch phase had run it's course.
I don't know Inland Empire at all, so I guess it's new. Can't believe I missed the reviews.
I thought Dune sucked and didn't read the book but apparently the people who did like it even less.
I did not Like Fire Walk With Me and thought it was very weak compared to the TV show. Lynch was operating on a low budget, and it is very apparent here. Plus what exactly was the point after you already know what the deal was with Leland and Bob.
-------------------- "The Rolling Stones will break up over Brian Jones' dead body" John Lennon I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either. The worst thing about corruption is that it works so well,
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Dilsnique
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Brian Jones]
#20746485 - 10/24/14 08:47 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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1. Fire Walk With Me - very creepy to me and much better than series 2. Lost Highway - pure surrealist grit 3. Eraserhead - pure surrealist grit
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mikeisapro
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Brian Jones]
#20747916 - 10/24/14 02:55 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Brian Jones said:
I did not Like Fire Walk With Me and thought it was very weak compared to the TV show. Lynch was operating on a low budget, and it is very apparent here. Plus what exactly was the point after you already know what the deal was with Leland and Bob.
Man, I'm going to put FWWM higher on the list after I thought about it last night.
Dude, Fire was an awesome horror movie. Even though I knew that BOB was Leland (actually it's ambiguous, BOB could truly be a demon that possesses Leland, but it doesn't matter. Whether BOB is really Leland or an outside entity, it is extremely creepy to imagine your own father coming in your window and raping you at night)
I think FWWM is underrated. I'm going to change it's position from 7 to 6. I definitely enjoyed it more than The Straight Story, although they are completely different types of film.
For you to say that the TV show was "much stronger" than the film, shows me that you are not at all a fan of Lynch. The film is more Lynchian than the TV show by default, as the show had several other writers and directors who added a lot of mainstream stuff to the Lynchian ideas. I thought the film was different than the show, not necessarily better or worse. Certainly not "much weaker"!
What I love about Lynch is that, while his films aren't exclusively genre pictures (unless you call "surreal" a genre), he incorporates multiple genres in them. Most notably mystery, fantasy, horror, neo-noir, tragedy, and occasionally comedy (in that order)
He does horror better than the vast majority of "horror" movies. I do not say this lightly, as I am indeed a fan of horror.
Quote:
2. Lost Highway - pure surrealist grit 3. Eraserhead - pure surrealist grit
Of course they are...but I'm not sure what you think about these films without any further explication...
To have the same exact labelling for both films is odd, as they are quite different. Lost Highway was one of his later "puzzle films" or "identity pictures" that I talk about in the second post.
I could see calling Eraserhead "pure, surrealist, grit" to be appropriate though. Eraserhead is definitely more surreal than LH (that is, more "purely surreal") and it has a gritty tone to it for sure.
-------------------- Life without drugs lacks substance(s).
Edited by mikeisapro (10/24/14 03:39 PM)
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clock_of_omens
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro] 1
#20762034 - 10/27/14 11:05 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Eraserhead Mulholland Drive Inland Empire Blue Velvet Wild at Heart Fire Walk With Me The Straight Story Lost Highway The Elephant Man Dune
I really need to see FWWM again, so that would maybe trade places with Wild at Heart.
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Icelander
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I just finished watching it and the whole Twin Peaks series. This is the third or fourth time I've done it basically as a marathon because I can't seem to stop once i've started. The whole drama of the modern human psyche is there imo.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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clock_of_omens
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Icelander]
#20763237 - 10/28/14 10:17 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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I've only seen the show and movie once each, but together they are one of my favorite things ever. Just seeing the Laura Palmer homecoming picture or hearing the theme music is enough to make me super sad. I can't wait for the new mini-series thing.
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mikeisapro
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Quote:
clock_of_omens said: Eraserhead Mulholland Drive Inland Empire Blue Velvet Wild at Heart Fire Walk With Me The Straight Story Lost Highway The Elephant Man Dune
I really need to see FWWM again, so that would maybe trade places with Wild at Heart.
I like your list, but I'm curious as to why Lost Highway is so low???
-------------------- Life without drugs lacks substance(s).
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Me_Roy
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20771961 - 10/30/14 11:27 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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1. Blue Velvet 2. Mulholland Dr 3. Eraserhead 4. Lost Highway 5. INLAND EMPIRE 6. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 7. The Straight Story 8. Wild At Heart
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Me_Roy
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Me_Roy]
#20771964 - 10/30/14 11:28 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Dune is kindof awesome in its own terrible way.
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mikeisapro
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Me_Roy]
#20771990 - 10/30/14 11:36 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Me_Roy said: Dune is kindof awesome in its own terrible way.
I haven't seen it yet, but Lynch himself called the film bad.
He said in an interview that "Dune" was "not only him selling out, but it got bad reviews as well, so it was twice the death", after commentating on the initial critical rejection of Fire Walk With Me "I died a little inside, but not as much as with Dune, where I died twice".
-------------------- Life without drugs lacks substance(s).
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clock_of_omens
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20772145 - 10/30/14 12:10 PM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
mikeisapro said: I like your list, but I'm curious as to why Lost Highway is so low???
Lynch is my favorite director, and I think all his movies are great with the possible exception of Dune, which I've only seen once and need to re watch. Lost Highway would maybe switch with The Straight Story, it just depends on my mood I guess. I feel like he explored a lot of the same themes from LH better in MD, plus IMO MD just comes together a lot better. I just love the whole world of Twin Peaks, and FWWM might be even higher, I've only seen that one once as well. Wild at Heart has Nic Cage, my favorite actor, so that is automatically higher on the list. Blue Velvet uses songs in such a great way, while LH has some weird music choices, e.g. Rammstein. I still love LH, just not as much as most of the others.
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20787242 - 11/03/14 09:07 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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I have only seen Eraserhead and I absolutely loved it. I found it really funny and atmospheric; I've never seen anything quite like it. That scene where he goes to meet his girlfriend's parents is so good. It's like the emotion of an awkward situation for him, translated into his own invented language. It's an intensification of emotions and also laughing at them. The soundtrack was great, luckily I had recently got some new speakers with a sub woofer, the deep rumble creates the location as much or more than the picture. This movie really has me interested in films again, I guess I got bored of most other movies I've seen recently.
I'll definitely watch some more Lynch soon.
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mikeisapro
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Jufin]
#20787488 - 11/03/14 10:31 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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I have some pretty concrete theories about Eraserhead's meaning.
I could write a lot about it, but I'm lazy at the moment. In a nutshell, the baby signifies an artistic creation by the protagonist. The protagonist with the weird hair is Lynch himself.
This was Lynch's most personal film, and he worked very hard on it. It took him years to make. All the props were handmade (or most of them?). He has called it his "most spiritual" film. INLAND EMPIRE, his latest work, would be more traditionally "spiritual" in my view, but his comment about Eraserhead was made before he made IE.
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mikeisapro
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Icelander]
#20787541 - 11/03/14 10:43 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Icelander said: I just finished watching it and the whole Twin Peaks series. This is the third or fourth time I've done it basically as a marathon because I can't seem to stop once i've started. The whole drama of the modern human psyche is there imo.
I'm glad you can appreciate the Twin Peaks movie and tv show, but have you not seen the rest of Lynch's work?
There is intriguing stuff to be found in his work. It's true that a lot of it involves dualism, but there are many other ideas as well. His films are art, and their effects on a person are very personal and psychological, in my view.
There have been imitators of his style (one movie that I thought was a blatant rip-off was a movie made in 2005 called Stay) but nobody can make films like he can, since he is a legit artist/auteur and his films reflect personal ideas and views of the world. Kind of like how Woody Allen approaches film. I must stress that it's similar, but again, not the same. Nobody can be the same as Lynch. Like "Nietzschean", "Lynchian" is a category all on its own.
-------------------- Life without drugs lacks substance(s).
Edited by mikeisapro (11/03/14 10:48 AM)
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Viveka
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20843951 - 11/16/14 02:46 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Lost highway does an incredible job setting up a visceral feeling and atmosphere that's relatable in the first 2/3rds or so but goes so far out there maybe sometime around the scene when Robert Blake's character tells Pete over the phone, "In the east...the far east...". The vibe though is about as sensuous as it gets while half the music is perfect and the rest is at times completely bizarre. I love Badalamenti's work with Lynch in general and how in this one he uses other artists for some stuff, like Manson's Apple of Sodom which is just goofy in that scene or a short track like this one which is probably the best fit for the vibe of a scene I've ever felt.
Mullholland Drive became a years long fascination and it honestly took me probably six or eight watches to discern what the hell was going on. (Being stoned most of the times I watched it probably didn't help). Even though Lynch had taken a similar narrative approach before with Lost Highway(which I'd only seen once prior to my years with Mullholland) I think it's an incredibly inventive technique, "I mean I just came here from Deep River, Ontario, and now I'm in this...dream place...". And I love how it's a puzzle that doesn't seem to all quite fit together but most things have their corollary and the locality of a thing or event or identity is treated with indifference, just like in a dream.
I have never felt my skin crawl from watching a movie the way that one has done many times. It's subtle but it has a few scenes that I would consider probably the most chilling moments I've experienced in a film, i.e.: the first scene at Winkie's where the guy's describing his dream and then after when they go out behind the building; when Louise Bonner shows up at the door; the Silencio moment or hell even stuff like the way the two old folks seem to congratulate each other on some hidden sinister deed in the back of the car right after they part ways with Betty at the airport(even though I can't really figure out what the intent of showing that exchange is supposed to be...), hell after you've seen it a few times the whole thing is alternating chills and tingles. Other scenes are funny and just plain awesome("What's the photo for?").
I've only seen Inland Empire once, when it was in theaters. I think I got lost in my own head while watching it as all I seem to remember is quasi-first person perspective with an increasingly deranged, disheveled woman interspliced with scenes of domestic, anthropomorphic rabbits. I also think I was half drunk when I went and in too extroverted a headspace to get into it. I need to watch it again.
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Me_Roy
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Viveka]
#20855050 - 11/18/14 10:24 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Viveka said: I have never felt my skin crawl from watching a movie the way that one has done many times. It's subtle but it has a few scenes that I would consider probably the most chilling moments I've experienced in a film, i.e.: the first scene at Winkie's where the guy's describing his dream and then after when they go out behind the building; when Louise Bonner shows up at the door; the Silencio moment or hell even stuff like the way the two old folks seem to congratulate each other on some hidden sinister deed in the back of the car right after they part ways with Betty at the airport(even though I can't really figure out what the intent of showing that exchange is supposed to be...), hell after you've seen it a few times the whole thing is alternating chills and tingles. Other scenes are funny and just plain awesome("What's the photo for?").
Yes yes yesyesyes.
I once watched that Winkies scene 20+ times in a row. It continued to give me chills through the last. I honestly think that much of its effect comes from the sound accompanying the homeless man's entrance.
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Icelander
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20855227 - 11/18/14 11:11 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
mikeisapro said:
Quote:
Icelander said: I just finished watching it and the whole Twin Peaks series. This is the third or fourth time I've done it basically as a marathon because I can't seem to stop once i've started. The whole drama of the modern human psyche is there imo.
I'm glad you can appreciate the Twin Peaks movie and tv show, but have you not seen the rest of Lynch's work?
There is intriguing stuff to be found in his work. It's true that a lot of it involves dualism, but there are many other ideas as well. His films are art, and their effects on a person are very personal and psychological, in my view.
There have been imitators of his style (one movie that I thought was a blatant rip-off was a movie made in 2005 called Stay) but nobody can make films like he can, since he is a legit artist/auteur and his films reflect personal ideas and views of the world. Kind of like how Woody Allen approaches film. I must stress that it's similar, but again, not the same. Nobody can be the same as Lynch. Like "Nietzschean", "Lynchian" is a category all on its own.
I think I've seen it all. I think I liked all of it.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Viveka
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Me_Roy]
#20863693 - 11/20/14 02:39 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Me_Roy said:
Quote:
Viveka said: I have never felt my skin crawl from watching a movie the way that one has done many times. It's subtle but it has a few scenes that I would consider probably the most chilling moments I've experienced in a film, i.e.: the first scene at Winkie's where the guy's describing his dream and then after when they go out behind the building; when Louise Bonner shows up at the door; the Silencio moment or hell even stuff like the way the two old folks seem to congratulate each other on some hidden sinister deed in the back of the car right after they part ways with Betty at the airport(even though I can't really figure out what the intent of showing that exchange is supposed to be...), hell after you've seen it a few times the whole thing is alternating chills and tingles. Other scenes are funny and just plain awesome("What's the photo for?").
Yes yes yesyesyes.
I once watched that Winkies scene 20+ times in a row. It continued to give me chills through the last. I honestly think that much of its effect comes from the sound accompanying the homeless man's entrance.
Haha yeah I did something similar, from the point where they're coming down the stairs, trying to get inside both their heads as I'm watching, until the last moment. I was trying to figure out what the most striking thing about that climax is and I think it's the color of those eyes.....fuck I just watched it real quick on youtube and it gave me a major chill. Yeah the sound design is definitely key too. It must be fun but also really challenging to do foley on a Lynch film, especially alongside Badalamenti's compelling yet delicate soundtrack. I wonder how much of a sound like that is done by Lynch directly alongside Badalamenti, it's practically a musical element.
Actually for me the Winkie's scene is just as hair raising when they're inside and the guy is describing his two dreams. There's also something about Mullholand Drive, that you feel in that scene especially, that relates to the fact that it was originally made for TV. So it has this kinda low key feel in the screenplay and it has a certain kind of texture like daytime television, but then the most astonishing things happen.
Speaking of the guy behind Winkie's, what are your thoughts about the elderly couple? Their appearances might be the most obscure part of the film for me but they sure do make me want to know what they're up to! Although Lynch wouldn't want us discussing it, lol. I read something once where he said talking about a movie ruins the magic. He probably just doesn't want people coming to terms with how sketchy his stuff is, haha. Hey, he works from the subconscious, what can really be said? So many symbols and archetypes...
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Me_Roy
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Viveka]
#20864963 - 11/20/14 11:00 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Thanks for reminding me that Lynch originally intended Mulholland Drive as a TV series. Imagine that -- it would have been wonderful.
I believe I read something years ago that integrated the elderly couple into an overall interpretation of the film, but I remember that part as not having been terribly compelling.
More generally, I like how Lynch's films are not seamless. Though the films beg 'decoding,' there are always signifiers that don't seem to be part of that code.
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Me_Roy]
#20873467 - 11/22/14 03:40 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Just watched Inland Empire on LSD on other day and I like it best out of the lost highway, mullholland drive trilogy. I liked Lost highway 2nd best. Mullholland drive was still great. I haven't seen the others in long time, I am going to grab Blue Velvet and Eraserhead. I haven't seen wild at heart since it was on big screen, I remember liking it. I see on IMDB that Lynch has a bunch of new Twin Peaks episodes due to be broadcast in 2016. I never got into the original show as back then there was no PVR and Lynch is confusing enough without missing episodes. I will probably watch it all one day.
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KremrBigSikter
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: my3rdeye]
#20873572 - 11/22/14 06:05 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Mulholland Dr Lost Highway Wild at Heart Blue Velvet Eraserhead Dune Inland Empire
IE to me just feels like Mulholland Drive but sloppier, longer and way worse aesthetics (maybe there's a point to the digital camcorder look, but I don't get it). Also Laura Dern is just awkward in it, the whole time through.
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usulpsychonaut


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I repeat watch Fire Walk With Me, Dune, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, Wild At Heart, Eraserhead and Blue Velvet every couple of years. These are all equally my favorite movies.
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mikeisapro
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Quote:
Speaking of the guy behind Winkie's, what are your thoughts about the elderly couple? Their appearances might be the most obscure part of the film for me but they sure do make me want to know what they're up to!
The old people are most likely Diane's real grandparents. In her dream, they are very supportive of her being an actor, so in real life they probably were not supportive of this.
There may be incest and abuse from the grandfather, and general neglect from the grandmother (in her dream as Betty, her grandmother not only supports her lifestyle but allows her to live in her apartment)
At the end, right before suicide, Diane imagines the two coming into her room and scaring the hell out of her. They represents her deepest fears about failing as an actress and being humiliated, as well as possibly a fear that the two investigators will find out about her (possible) murder, and generally her true feelings about her grandparents, as unsupportive and disapproving, judgemental monsters.
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mikeisapro
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20954713 - 12/09/14 08:00 PM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
IE to me just feels like Mulholland Drive but sloppier, longer and way worse aesthetics (maybe there's a point to the digital camcorder look, but I don't get it). Also Laura Dern is just awkward in it, the whole time through.
Dude, wow.
The 3 hours flew by for me. Aesthetically, it's FAR superior to MD, which was tame and highly polished.
The point of the handheld camera was greater control over his work, as well as a more intimate and even voyeuristic portrayal of the actors.
Laura Dern is far from awkward, but I understand what you mean, kinda. She didn't look so pretty as the actors in Mullholland, so I guess that's why you think it was uglier. But her performance is incredible in the film, much more compex and wide-ranged compared to the performances in MD.
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I repeat watch Fire Walk With Me, Dune, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, Wild At Heart, Eraserhead and Blue Velvet every couple of years. These are all equally my favorite movies.
Yep, I do the same. With the exception of Dune.
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wyrdjoy23
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#20955441 - 12/09/14 11:24 PM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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1. Inland Empire 2. Mulholland Drive 3. Lost Highway 4. Fire Walk with Me 5. Eraserhead 6. Dune
I still don't understand a lot of what was going on in Inland Empire but that movie is so powerful. It's been a few years since I watched it, maybe I'll do so again this weekend.
And this is the first I've heard their making new Twin Peaks!! Much excite!
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Jufin


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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: wyrdjoy23]
#21059751 - 01/03/15 08:20 AM (9 years, 27 days ago) |
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So I watched Mulholland Drive yesterday for the first time. I could of watched it again straight away. Lynch has got me interested in films again.
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SoupSandwich




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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Jufin]
#21072049 - 01/05/15 04:29 PM (9 years, 24 days ago) |
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DUNE!!...was pretty awesome right up until the end. Seems he just ran out of money / time and threw together a big fight sequence. 
Then again I prefered Straight Story to most of his more 'kooky spooky' stuff.
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them


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He didn't have full control over Dune. The producers put together the final cut.
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SoupSandwich




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I didn't know that. Thanks.
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zappaisgod
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I thought so much of that movie was bullshit (especially that stupid weapon) because I have always held the book to be brilliant in so many ways but I suppose all that could transfer to the screen was a shoot 'em up. Aside from that I loved the look, especially the Navigators.
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clock_of_omens
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: zappaisgod]
#21074306 - 01/05/15 10:31 PM (9 years, 24 days ago) |
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I haven't fully read the book yet. I got about 200 pages in, I really need to finish it at some point. It's also been a while since I've seen the movie, so I don't remember it too well. Jodorowsky's version would have been crazy.
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lowbrow
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: zappaisgod]
#21075284 - 01/06/15 04:19 AM (9 years, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
zappaisgod said: I thought so much of that movie was bullshit (especially that stupid weapon) because I have always held the book to be brilliant in so many ways but I suppose all that could transfer to the screen was a shoot 'em up. Aside from that I loved the look, especially the Navigators.
If you haven't seen the sci-fi channel version, you might like it, its more faithful to the book.
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Jufin


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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro]
#22991467 - 03/10/16 07:32 AM (7 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
mikeisapro said:
Quote:
Brian Jones said:
I did not Like Fire Walk With Me and thought it was very weak compared to the TV show. Lynch was operating on a low budget, and it is very apparent here. Plus what exactly was the point after you already know what the deal was with Leland and Bob.
Man, I'm going to put FWWM higher on the list after I thought about it last night.
Dude, Fire was an awesome horror movie. Even though I knew that BOB was Leland (actually it's ambiguous, BOB could truly be a demon that possesses Leland, but it doesn't matter. Whether BOB is really Leland or an outside entity, it is extremely creepy to imagine your own father coming in your window and raping you at night)
I think FWWM is underrated. I'm going to change it's position from 7 to 6. I definitely enjoyed it more than The Straight Story, although they are completely different types of film.
For you to say that the TV show was "much stronger" than the film, shows me that you are not at all a fan of Lynch. The film is more Lynchian than the TV show by default, as the show had several other writers and directors who added a lot of mainstream stuff to the Lynchian ideas. I thought the film was different than the show, not necessarily better or worse. Certainly not "much weaker"!
What I love about Lynch is that, while his films aren't exclusively genre pictures (unless you call "surreal" a genre), he incorporates multiple genres in them. Most notably mystery, fantasy, horror, neo-noir, tragedy, and occasionally comedy (in that order)
He does horror better than the vast majority of "horror" movies. I do not say this lightly, as I am indeed a fan of horror.
Quote:
2. Lost Highway - pure surrealist grit 3. Eraserhead - pure surrealist grit
Of course they are...but I'm not sure what you think about these films without any further explication...
To have the same exact labelling for both films is odd, as they are quite different. Lost Highway was one of his later "puzzle films" or "identity pictures" that I talk about in the second post.
I could see calling Eraserhead "pure, surrealist, grit" to be appropriate though. Eraserhead is definitely more surreal than LH (that is, more "purely surreal") and it has a gritty tone to it for sure.
I just watched FWWM in a cinema, and oh my god, I think it's my favourite one yet. It's an absolute masterpiece. It makes other horror movies silly, tame, hollow. This is dream-state dread embodied into film. This movie rocked my world.
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zappaisgod
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: Jufin]
#22993305 - 03/10/16 04:59 PM (7 years, 10 months ago) |
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I never considered it horror.
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Jufin


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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: zappaisgod]
#22993647 - 03/10/16 06:28 PM (7 years, 10 months ago) |
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I don't consider it straight up horror either, but it almost is. My point was is that whatever the genre you want to call it, it still dwarfs any horror movie I've seen in giving that feeling of dread, that horribly wonderful feeling.
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Deadmaker
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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro] 1
#23022671 - 03/19/16 08:43 AM (7 years, 10 months ago) |
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It has been a very long time since I have seen a few of these, but I would list them in this order:
Blue Velvet (Linear as it may be, Dennis Hopper puts this one on the top for me) Lost Highway The Elephant Man Eraserhead Muholland Drive Wild At Heart Fire Walk With Me Dune Inland Empire The Straight Story
Everything after Eraserhead is really interchangeable for me. I found it really tough to rank those and would probably have a different order if I ranked them again 5 minutes from now.
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viraldrome



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Re: Rank David Lynch movies! [Re: mikeisapro] 1
#28506350 - 10/16/23 03:38 AM (3 months, 11 days ago) |
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From best to worst
Twin peaks season 3 Mulholland Drive Eraserhead Blue Velvet Twin Peaks season 1/2 Lost Highway Wild at Heart Elephant man Inland Empire Twin Peaks FWWM Dune Straight Story
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