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 DividedQuantum
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 A David Lynch thread 
#26493454 - 02/19/20 01:49 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I am reading David Lynch’s autobiography/biography (it’s really both, as it has two authors, one of whom is Lynch himself) called Room to Dream, and it’s fascinating, and it has made me want to watch all of his movies again, so I figured I’d create a thread devoted to them. He’s truly a fascinating guy, and one of the best directors (he’s in my all-time top five) in cinema history, so it will be a pleasure watching and discussing his films. Anyone who is interested is free and welcome to comment, and I think it will be fun. I intend to go in order, so I shall start with Eraserhead.
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DividedQuantum
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Eraserhead 10/10
Eraserhead was Lynch’s first film, and as I mention above, it was his favorite to make, and seems to have been his favorite overall, or so I glean from his comments. Interestingly, Eraserhead is Stanley Kubrick’s favorite film ever – quite an endorsement.
This movie, at least to me, while absolutely excellent, is very difficult to watch. It is so emotionally jarring, in such a dark and sinister atmosphere, and so deeply sad, that I am at times quite uncomfortable while watching it. But I imagine that is part of the point. It is an abstract depiction of life in its most general form, for all of us, especially in the modern world. Henry, the main character, always seems to have an expression of deep anxiety on his face, as he drifts from meaningless, empty situation to meaningless, empty situation in his life. The film is in black and white and is printed very dark, and the atmosphere is one of sullen struggle and futility, as we all, ourselves, drift from scene to scene in our lives without ever really living. There is so little real meaning in Henry’s life, which is true, I think, of most people in modern civilization. And all there really seems to be is insipid distress in Henry’s life and ours.
The scenes that really get me are those of the mewling, crying baby, which is a miserable young being in itself. Of course, if you have seen it, you’ll know that the baby is some sort of reptilian freak, which disrupts the lives of Henry and his girlfriend/wife and turns these lives into even more of a Hell than they were before. The baby’s whimpers and the reactions of the protagonists make me so sad, and this is where I have the most difficulty watching this film. It’s the main symbol in the movie, which is a dark symbol of all human affairs. The pathos involved is palpable.
In the end, I think Lynch is setting up a very abstract commentary on the sheer Hell of a world we have created for ourselves. Everywhere you look is sadness, despair, anxiety, malfunction, meaninglessness, and utter futility. And Eraserhead is a kind of moving painting which evokes all the precise emotions we have stuffed down in our subconscious. Artistically and technically, it is essentially a perfect film.
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TheStallionMang
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Excellent idea for a thread!
I was 16 when by chance, I caught the first episode of Twin Peaks and I was hooked. I never missed an episode and have been a Lynch fan ever since.
It's been too long since I've seen it to say much about Eraserhead and I've probably only seen it once but I do remember it was disturbing AF but very interesting and unusual.
I also love how he uses the same actors throughout the years. I remember seeing Eraserhead and going "Hey, it's Pete Martel!"
He's damn good at making his audience uncomfortable and for some reason I like that feeling...maybe it has something to do with why I like tripping and don't mind the discomfort of the "come up"...hmmmm never thought of that before. Maybe David Lynch in a weird way lead me into psyches
Anyhow, here's a clip with a song from Eraserhead and a cover version of the same song by The Pixies that I always liked
I have a feeling this will be an awesome thread...thanks DividedQuantum!
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DividedQuantum
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The Elephant Man 10/10
This was David Lynch's second film, after Eraserhead, and at this time he was a complete unknown. Mel Brooks had just started Brooksfilms, and was looking to get a feature going. Someone recommended the story of John Merrick, and some materials were found and a script was written. By pure chance, Lynch's name was mentioned, and Mel Brooks was intrigued. He decided to see Eraserhead, and he immediately hired Lynch. In the book I read, it was pointed out that Mel Brooks is much more of an intellectual and philosopher than anyone could possibly realize, so he warmed to the Merrick story and he warmed to Lynch right away.
So, Lynch was on board, and worked also on refining the script. He originally wanted to do the make up for the "elephant man," but failed miserably, so they hired an English professional. He was severely depressed for several days because of this, and he was not confident that he could live up to the standard of making this film as a big-time, professional director -- directing the likes of Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt and Anne Bancroft. It did not help that Anthony Hopkins was a total dick to him, but over time his confidence grew, Hopkins later apologized, and the rest is history. Mel Brooks is of the opinion that it was the best film Brooksfilms ever produced.
It follows part of the life of the elephant man, John Merrick (whose real name was Joseph), who was bounced around between various freak shows for most of his young life. A Dr. Treves of the London hospital becomes interested in Merrick for scientific reasons, as he wants to study him for a medical lecture. Merrick goes back to his freak show "owner," falls ill, and Treves intervenes to treat Merrick at his hospital. One thing leads to another, and Merrick is invited to remain at the hospital under special care indefinitely. He and Treves befriend one another, as well as several other people, including London socialites, and it really warms your heart. There is a later incident that is rectified, and Merrick, Treves and several others continue to have a close and warm relationship.
John Hurt is spectacular as Merrick, and this is a very touching movie. Without any sentimentality, deep emotions are evoked throughout the narrative. It is at times disturbing, but is an extremely sweet and uplifting film.
In reality, Merrick was a very smart and quite gifted person, which went against the original belief that he was an imbecile. He always ended his letters to people with this brief poem by Isaac Watts:
Quote:
'Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God;
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.
If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul;
The mind's the standard of the man.
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 Brian Jones
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I can't wait for Blue Velvet. I'll let you do it and then add some comments. I think Blue Velvet is very influential on what he did later with Twin Peaks.
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DividedQuantum
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Dune 7.5/10
Many of us know that Dune was David Lynch's disaster, but he is on the record as saying that every filmmaker needs at least one disaster so that he can find himself as a director. Of course, what came after Dune was Blue Velvet, and the rest -- films with distinctly his vision -- is history.
The Frank Herbert book is, in my opinion, unfilmable. It is so complex and grand, with so many philosophical undercurrents that really require the exegesis of a book, that any film is bound to be a shadow of it. Denis Villeneuve is currently in post-production of his version of Dune, and we'll see how that goes. I'm sure he learned a lot of lessons from Lynch's experience.
In the end, this was not Lynch's movie -- it was producer Dino DeLaurentiis' movie, and he had final cut. Lynch seems to have bitten off way more than he could chew here, but it led to good things in his career. Remember, this was only this third movie. Dino fully financed Blue Velvet, which didn't make much money, but Dino believed in Lynch, and of course it is a masterpiece, which I shall review next.
The movie is not SO bad, but I give it three stars. It does seem to fall pretty flat, and I suspect that all those moviegoers who had not read the book would probably get very little out of it. Anyway, it's worth at least one watch possibly, as it IS a Lynch movie, and the directing is extremely interesting.
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DividedQuantum
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Blue Velvet 10/10
This is the first "official" David Lynch film, in which he had total creative control. He wrote and directed, and his producer friend Dino DeLaurentiis fronted all the money for production and distribution, knowing full well the film wouldn't be a blockbuster. This would, I suppose, still be considered "early" Lynch, at a time before his films became totally distinctive and completely surreal like they did in the nineties and later. But as I said, this is Lynch's first that really had his stamp on it.
It is a mystery that is both conventional and very unconventional. Jeffrey Beaumont, played by Kyle MacLachlan -- who was very young at the time -- finds a severed ear in a field near his house. This leads him on a saga of rape, abduction, murder, abuse and mayhem that plays out over the course of the film. Laura Dern plays his girlfriend-to-be in the small town of Lumberton, and they conspire to investigate Dorothy Valens, played by Isabella Rosellini in her first major acting role, who is someone the police have been investigating. This investigation takes Jeffrey into Dorothy's world, as they have a brief but violent love affair, only to be discovered by Dorothy's abusive acquaintance Frank Booth.
Now, Dennis Hopper's portrayal of Frank Booth may be one of the great villain roles in cinema history. He is a totally vile, violent, utterly objectionable presence, who beats Dorothy in acts of brutal and twisted love plays, and no one could have played him but Hopper. David Lynch was warned before shooting even started to ditch Hopper and find someone else, because he was totally unreliable and flaky, as, at the time, he was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Everyone in the industry said, "Stay away," but Lynch felt he had no choice as Hopper was born to play the role, and Hopper was on his best behavior and turned in a classic performance.
The scene where Dean Stockwell lip-synched the Roy Orbison song is also a highlight, as it is just pure Lynch -- a somewhat surreal scene involving perfect acting, wonderful lighting and cinematography, and the right music. Frank Booth's gang, which also included Brad Dourif and Jack Nance, has that air of the silly and the sinister rolled into one.
Ultimately, the movie can be about many things. We have innocence meeting the real world, in which wholesome small towns play host to Satanic forces. It's like Lynch to explore dualities, and he did so throughout all his movies. He also mixes love and violence, which of course is a salient theme in history and in people's lives, with rituals based in dominance and submission -- power over others. Lynch also likes the whole small-town vibe, which he explored again with Twin Peaks. Light and darkness existing together in varying degrees is a very important motif for him. In the end, it's about how the experience feels, and for sure, Blue Velvet is unique in that department.
I must add that Sparky the Jack Russell Terrier makes an appearance at the beginning of the film, memorably interacting with a garden hose. This was David Lynch's dog at the time, whom he has described as, "The love of my life."
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DividedQuantum
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Wild At Heart 9/10
Another truly unique movie, as one comes to expect from anything by David Lynch, I find nothing wrong with the movie technically, but I give it a nine because of two things: I am not fond of love stories, and I do not like The Wizard of Oz. So, it's a purely subjective thing, but the movie is not precisely my cup of tea. However, as I said, technically it is flawless, he did things with it that had never been done before, and after all, it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1990. It is well appreciated.
The story follows young lovers Sailor and Lula from South Carolina, to New Orleans and then all the way to Texas, as they are simply adventuring and in a deep, pure state of blissful love. Amid spectacular directing, the characters of Sailor and Lula, played by Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, really burn up the screen in vivid portrayals. These really are unforgettable characters. Sailor has broken bail, and they're just throwing caution to the wind as they try to find their way to California. Of course, around about Big Tuna, TX, they run out of money.
Now, Lula's mother, played by the magnificent Diane Ladd (who is Dern's real-life mother), intends to have Sailor killed. She hires hitman Santos, with whom she has become unfortunately acquainted, to do the deed. Lynch's use of Eisenhower silver dollars is fantastic and spooky (and anticipates John Wick by twenty-five years). She hates Sailor, A. Because he has refused her advances; and B. Because he has knowledge of a crime that implicates her. But that is neither here nor there. The hit is out on Sailor, and he's in big trouble.
In comes Johnny Peru in a perfect acting performance by Willem Dafoe. I can't decide which role is better: Johnny Peru or Frank Booth. They're both historically great characters. Anyway, Dafoe has it down: The facial expressions, slick speech, eye movements, the works -- and Lynch had him wear some disgusting dentures that really bring his character full-circle. He's not on screen for long, but he's priceless.
In the end, after a slew of overt references to the Wizard of Oz, Glinda the good witch saves the day, and we have a happy ending. Lynch originally wanted to make the ending brutal, with deaths of principal characters, but was convinced that this would have been totally out of step with the rest of the film. He agreed, and we have, at the end, an Elvis serenade.
This movie is sort of like Pulp Fiction, in that when it came out no one had ever seen anything like it before. It is not one of my favorite David Lynch movies for the reasons given and maybe a couple of others, but obviously, they're all good. And if you like love stories, there is none better.
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Primal Glitch
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oooh nice thread! 
love lynch and there's a couple of these I haven't seen yet
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Brian Jones
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The Good Witch scenes in Wild at Heart seem a distraction. I don't think Johnny Peru is as good a villian as Frank Booth (the best) but Defoe is very good. And those teeth. J.E. Freeman as Marcellus Santos was effective. He's an even better gangster in the Coen's Millers Crossing. There is so much typecasting in the gangster drama, I'm surprised we didn't see more of this guy. Harry Dean Stanton is very good, as he nearly always is.
I think Wild at Heart was a response to the critical reception Lynch got from Blue Velvet. He had brought strangeness to a wider stage than with Eraserhead, so he decided to give us a real freak show.
The transformation of Laura Dern from the good girl in Blue Velvet to this was something to see, and I would rate this as a top five for Nic Cage.
David Lynch had to cut several scenes of violence and sex to avoid an X rating. Wild at Heart is a good and interesting movie, but not a great one.
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DividedQuantum
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I agree with everything you've said. Actually, the Good Witch scene was an ad hoc addition at the very end of the shoot. As I pointed out, Lynch originally wanted -- and what was in the script from the beginning -- was a devastating, brutally violent ending in which the main characters were killed. One of the producers told him, you've gotta do something else, this is completely out of step with the first 1:45. So with only a couple of weeks left to go of shooting, someone (it wasn't Lynch's idea) came up with the Glinda the Good Witch intercession there at the end. So, it stands to reason that you and I and others might see that as a flimsy resolution, because in reality that's just what it was.
Yeah, Freeman was fantastic, and he was sublime in Miller's Crossing. And yes, Harry Dean. Great actor, apparently a wonderful and very funny guy, too.
The Dern transformation is indeed shocking. She goes from all-American small town girl-next-door to, well, Lula. As I said, despite the movie's flaws, Sailor and Lula are quite well done characters, and Nicolas Cage is amazing. And he's amazing in lots of stuff.
As I said, I agree with your final assessment. Wild at Heart is not near the top of my list of favorite Lynch films, and it is not a great film, but it is very good and, as you say, cinematically interesting. I gave it perhaps a higher score than I would have subjectively for this reason -- I recognize its merits. But I would say that the formula of love story+Wizard of Oz theme cannot help but turn me off a bit. But Lynch is Lynch.
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Brian Jones
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It was Nicholas Cage's idea to use the snakeskin jacket. It was Laura Dern's idea for her and Nic to spend a weekend together before shooting to get the mood right. I wonder how that went?
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I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either.
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DividedQuantum
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Ha, yeah.
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DividedQuantum
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Twin Peaks Pilot 8.5/10
I am covering the one hour and 35 minute pilot, but not the whole series, for a couple of reasons. The main one is that Lynch considers the only really good parts of the earlier installments of Twin Peaks to be the pilot and the movie Fire Walk With Me, which I shall also comment upon. The other is the glaring fact that Lynch didn't direct the majority of the episodes, nor even write very many of them. He and Mark Frost (the co-creator, co-writer and co-producer) were only really relatively happy with the pilot and the first season, and for reasons having to do with network television, they both basically lost control and lost touch as the second season got going. The network ordered them to reveal the killer earlier than they wanted -- mid-season of season two -- and this bothered both of them a great deal. And of course after this revelation of who the killer/Bob is, most people stopped watching, the rest was pretty irrelevant (with the exception of the final episode), and the show was canceled.
Most of what Twin Peaks is about is contained within the pilot. I have previously seen both seasons of the show, and many of the developments, especially in season one, are interesting and important to the story. But as I said, Lynch sort of lost interest in the whole thing fairly early on (but thought the later movie was a fine bit of work). Now, this show was pretty avant-garde for network television at the time, but it was a TV show, subject to all sorts of limitations, which Lynch quickly soured on. This is another reason I'm not going to watch and review the whole series; it's not really relevant to this thread.
Many of you will have seen it, so no detailed synopsis of the plot is really required. Laura Palmer, the beacon of goodness and innocence, is found murdered, and everyone in the town of Twin Peaks is shocked and horrified. The show unfolds, MacLachlan enters as FBI Agent Dale Cooper (and he was spectacular in this role), and as we get more familiar with Twin Peaks and its citizens, we come to find out that Laura was involved with a lot of very dark and unsavory forces, and her friends didn't really know her at all. I'll go more into this in my post about the movie. The developing series does bring all this out and much more quite cleverly, and I recommend it for anyone who would like a good TV series to watch on video.
Of course, in the pilot we are not yet introduced to "Bob," but that's okay as he is everywhere in the follow ups, including "The Return" which imo is one of the best things Lynch ever did, but first things first. More will be said in my review of the movie, which is coming up next.
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DividedQuantum
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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 10/10
Despite its lukewarm reception, and its status as sort of a forgotten David Lynch movie, this one is one of my favorite movies of his, and Lynch himself feels it was one of his best. This one is kinda halfway between Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks: The Return in terms of his use of highly creative imagery -- some would call it weirdness. But what a lot of people see as weirdness in Lynch films, I see as very good artistic filmmaking.
It gives the backstory to Twin Peaks the TV series, and a lot of the actors involved were not eager to participate. They thought what already existed was enough, and that some sort of prequel would not in any way add to the story and the mystique. Kyle MacLachlan was one of them, and could only be convinced to play a very limited role. Also, Lara Flynn Boyle wouldn't do it, and we have another actress in her place. But Sheryl Lee is the star as Laura Palmer and man, was her acting good. She had to cry and act extremely emotionally, in highly complex ways, in seemingly over half of the scenes she's in, so it was a very demanding part, but she was great. Many of the other regulars from the show were there also, and all were very good.
The movie starts off right off the bat with some very strange and wonderful scenes, involving visions, bizarre symbolism, and essentially a supernatural motif. Chris Isaak was very good early on in the film. There is, indeed, a supernatural motif throughout the film, which became more and more characteristic of Lynch as his career progressed. Of course we have Bob, some sort of displaced evil spirit who infests people's souls and commits heinous crimes, and he is indeed scary. He was played by Frank Silva, who in reality was a prop master and set decorator on several of Lynch's films. One day while filming a scene for the TV series, Silva accidentally appeared in a shot in a mirror in Laura's bedroom, and Bob was born. He's perfect for the role. In any case, Lynch's use of the supernatural is what really draws me to his films, this one in particular. Of course, I'll get to some other examples of this as the thread progresses.
I think the whole Twin Peaks universe is a kind of exploration of the fact that small-town America, which symbolizes all of America, really, exists with a thin surface veneer of seeming tranquility and a sense that life is good and everything is really pretty much okay. Of course, as anyone knows, right beneath that surface is a roiling chaos of suffering and dysfunction, in which people are involved with all sorts of unsavory things and there's darkness spread over everything. Laura is seen as this innocent who could do no wrong, and Twin Peaks is perceived by its citizens to be a peaceful, perfect hamlet. But of course, Laura uses cocaine, prostitutes herself, gets in with drug dealers and pimps, etc., and this is more in line with the reality of life, albeit it's an extreme for the purposes of drama. This whole notion that we'll not worry about a thing, and have as many children as we want, and act like everything is fine to one another is at cross-purposes with the amount of suffering and destruction, on numerous levels, rampant in the world. I think Twin Peaks encapsulates that.
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DividedQuantum
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Lost Highway 10/10
This is a cool movie. When I first saw it, I was blown away, yes, but I felt stunned, not knowing what the hell just happened. But the secret of David Lynch movies is that, just as with excellent artwork, there is no wrong interpretation. I'm not sure Lynch even has a concrete explanation for it, and it's just as well, because with a movie like this, one's interpretation of it is likely to evolve over time. In any case, this is one of my favorite Lynch movies.
In a way similar to Kubrick, I think, Lynch gets performances out of actors that are truly unique, and different from anything else they have ever done. Bill Pullman is particularly good in this, and gives a somewhat taut, mysterious vibe to his performance, making one wonder what depths lurk behind this person. The acting is simply artful, and very memorable. But the acting is only part of this movie. Once again, Lynch employs a supernatural element in his narrative, and mysterious, otherworldly things transpire in the plot that seemingly have no explanation -- certainly none is given in the film -- and this is a huge part of the fun with Lynch.
The film begins with a cryptic message for Bill Pullman's character over his house's intercom: "Dick Laurent is dead." Neither he nor the audience has any idea what this means now or later. This actually happened to David Lynch -- someone came up to his house, whispered a similar message into his intercom, and vanished. That, and the idea of mysterious packages with anonymous videotapes, were the seed for the whole movie.
Anyway, some strange things start happening. Mysterious, unmarked videotapes start arriving at the protagonists' house, of some spooky videos taken from inside the house, even of the couple sleeping. We begin to meet some chilling characters. Robert Blake plays the mysterious evil guy, and I think he steals the show. He meets Bill Pullman's character Frank at a party, invites him to call his own house, where the weird videos have been shot, and Frank is talking on the phone to... Blake's character, standing right next to him. He is somehow in both places at once. A few minutes later into the film, a new videotape is left, and it depicts Frank brutally killing his beautiful wife -- played memorably by Patricia Arquette. (In these scenes she is a brunette). The audience knows he is innocent, and has been framed by the evil guy, but that doesn't help Frank.
So, Pullman's character winds up in prison, on death row. He begins having severe headaches, and at some point supernaturally morphs into... Pete Dayton, played by Balthazar Getty. Now, is this the same character, with the same soul? Or are they two different characters being manipulated by diabolical forces? We don't know. But Pete has total memory loss, goes home to his parents', and has no idea what is going on.
He works at an auto garage, and frequently works on the cars of... Dick Laurent. Laurent is known as "Mr. Eddie," and drives by one day with Frank's wife Alice, a blonde played by Patricia Arquette. They become quite romantically involved, which draws the ire of Mr. Eddie. Eventually, Alice and Pete are in Laurent's crosshairs -- literally -- and so they hatch a plan for a robbery. This is successful, and Alice and Pete drive out to a place "in the desert" where they can convert their loot into cash. At which time, Pete morphs back into Frank (Getty into Pullman), who kills Dick Laurent with the help of the evil guy Robert Blake. Then Frank goes back to his house to whisper into the intercom: "Dick Laurent is dead."
He then runs from the cops, after having weeks before mysteriously disappeared from his prison cell, and the movie ends with him on the run, morphing into... who?
That's just a very brief synopsis which does no justice to the actual experience of watching the film, obviously. But the nonlinear, supernatural narrative has become a trademark of David Lynch, and I love it. It seems to me that, given Robert Blake's character, some seriously malevolent forces are playing around with Frank and Pete, weaving a web only they understand, and to say this is easy, but the raw feel of the film conveys that evil more viscerally. There is in a sense a form of reincarnation going on, as Frank morphs into Pete, and later again back to Frank, and no explanation is ever given. Clearly, some very powerful entities are manipulating reality to achieve their ends. This is something that is fleshed out much more in the Twin Peaks Showtime sequel, which I will get to. But this is a dark movie of murder (of which Frank was framed), lust, organized crime, demons, infidelity, various forms of violence, pornography, etc. It is obvious that some sinister reality is lurking beneath the surface. Just what its nature is seems to be for the viewer to determine.
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Ryzo
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Huge Lynch fan.
Who do you all think are the top 5 closest descendants of Lynch today? /directors
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DividedQuantum
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Re: A David Lynch thread [Re: Ryzo]
#26518258 - 03/05/20 09:32 AM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Gosh, I don't know. I don't think anyone, that I've seen, is a whole lot like David Lynch. My favorite director of the somewhat younger generation is P.T. Anderson, and I would say he's more like Kubrick than Lynch. What directors would you name?
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DividedQuantum
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The Straight Story 8.5/10
This is easily the most un-Lynchian movie of any David Lynch ever made, even including The Elephant Man which contained a few flourishes. This movie has no flourishes. Lynch plays it absolutely straight here -- coincidentally (no pun intended). That said, the directing is as good as any you'll see, far higher than the level of most directors who usually make a movie like this.
It depicts the real-life story of Alvin Straight, who drove from Laurens, IA to a small town in Wisconsin (which is almost 300 miles) on his John Deere riding-mower at a top speed of 5 miles per hour. He went to see his estranged brother, played memorably by Harry Dean Stanton, who had recently had a stroke. He was very old and his vision was too poor for a driver's license, and he didn't want to be driven but to go himself, hence the lawn mower. This all really happened in 1996, and Straight was quite upset by the publicity it generated, turning down offers to appear on Jay Leno and David Letterman. Although this is not depicted in the movie.
Sissy Spacek sort of steals the show as Straight's autistic daughter, but Richard Farnsworth was great too and got an Oscar nomination for his role in this film. It's clearly well outside of the primary Lynch canon, but as I indicated, they wanted a good director and he wanted to do it, so they got one. He did not write or produce. His now ex-wife Mary Sweeney, however, co-wrote the script, and she was the editor of the film and several other of his films. She didn't even show the script to him until well after it was completed, for logical reasons, but he read it and said, "I want to do this."
For fans of David Lynch, this is somewhat of a curiosity, and many have probably not seen it. Like I said, there is not one Lynch-esque flourish in the whole film -- it's totally straight filmmaking. But I have to say, and as one might expect, it is very good and quite touching, without cheap sentiment of any kind. If anyone is interested in the story, I say see it.
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Ryzo
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Quote:
DividedQuantum said:
Gosh, I don't know. I don't think anyone, that I've seen, is a whole lot like David Lynch. My favorite director of the somewhat younger generation is P.T. Anderson, and I would say he's more like Kubrick than Lynch. What directors would you name?
I didn't think anyone either, but was hoping there was someone out there I missed.
Well that's depressing. 
Inland Empire is my favorite.
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DividedQuantum
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Registered: 12/06/13
Posts: 9,858
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Mulholland Drive 8/10
This is one of my least favorite Lynch movies, which is I guess strange because it's the favorite of so many. It's more or less about the shortcomings and corruption in the modern film industry, and while it makes a lot of sense for someone like Lynch to make a movie about it, it doesn't really interest me too much. I will say it's still good, and this is the role which made Naomi Watts famous, for good reason. In real life, she was a struggling actress when David Lynch stumbled across her and gave her a shot, and this performance literally made her career. She was exquisite, in a very demanding part.
The movie follows a young woman who was in a mysterious car crash in which organized crime was involved, and she is the only one to survive. She is running scared, but suffers amnesia and doesn't even know who she is, or why she has a purse full of cash. Naomi Watts' character Betty, a young aspiring actress from rural Canada, takes her in and helps her to try to figure out what is going on.
Justin Theroux plays a modern director, who is being strong-armed to cast a certain girl for a certain part. This obviously really happens, and Lynch was showing his disgust here. Later on, the two women tie in with this director, and we see a young actress morph into a jaded, foul-mouthed bitch who is mad at the industry and jealous of her starlet love-interest. It's all about Hollywood.
Now, while I am the first to acknowledge all of these dysfunctions in the film business, it just doesn't really interest me as the theme for a movie, even a David Lynch movie. It's much more specific to Lynch's world than an average audience's, and while, as one might expect, the production and directing are excellent, I just find this film too specific. But anyone who wishes to chime in with an opposing perspective is welcome and encouraged.
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Barnaby
Interesting lifetime
Registered: 12/13/17
Posts: 9,187
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What did Jack Do?
He voices the monkey as well. Short film and youtube doesn't do it justice. I just stream everything so if have it I would watch it that way. amusing, like he was talking to himself.
On Netflix. I have three of them. Got rid of cable as you just pay mainly for sports and bought hd bunnyears for local t.v. Have a great set-up here. And I pay extra for Hulu to not watch commericials. Amazing when one doesn't see commericials for a time then one does and is offensive to the mind and one just wants to just shut it out of ones consciousness. Would recommend it.
But it is worth watching the whole thing for a Lynch fan and I have seen all of his movies besides Eraserhead and not all the original made for t.v. edited Twin Peaks but it got the country thinking, which is strange thinking about what network t.v. is. How limited they were back then. But still garbage overall with the programming.
Edited by Barnaby (03/11/20 08:37 AM)
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illkelly
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Re: A David Lynch thread [Re: Barnaby] 1
#26534389 - 03/14/20 10:10 AM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Have you seen the short film on Netflix where he interrogates the monkey?
Dougie has to be one of my all-time favourite characters
But episode 8...wow.
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DividedQuantum
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Re: A David Lynch thread [Re: illkelly]
#26534761 - 03/14/20 12:52 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yeah MacLachlan was great as Dougie. I'll be getting to T.P. The Return in a bit. I haven't seen any of his shorts, so if you'd like to comment on it I'd be interested. 
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ChRnZN
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I recently saw the film which shares the same name as the brothel in Twin Peaks - One Eyed Jacks. Like many of Lynch's works, "...It is curiously surrounded by elements of creamed-cliché romance and a kind of pictorial extravagance..." (Bosley Crowther of The New York Times). It also shares a dreamy "skulking, scabrous" quality with Lynch's style that made me think it might belong in a thread of his films. Not to mention that David Lynch was a kind of lone cowboy purporting his own unique ideas as a director, to be facetious. Brando's later role in The Godfather shared some of the brutality of Laura's murder as well. I think these two people share more psychological aspects than I first thought.
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DividedQuantum
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Re: A David Lynch thread [Re: ChRnZN]
#26534916 - 03/14/20 01:52 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Interesting points. I read actually that Lynch and Brando were very well acquainted -- Brando would come to his house unannounced and help himself to whatever food Lynch had on hand. Apparently this happened somewhat regularly. Lynch said it didn't bother him so much, but that he did find it pretty peculiar. But then this fits with Brando's reputation, I suppose.
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Barnaby
Interesting lifetime
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And his girth. God that man was obese. Watching bits of his earlier films then seeing some of his later ones. Wow. takes a lot to crave food that much but we have to focus on addiction to "drugs".
Sorry, he was lazy and fat. Didn't even want to learn his lines and have people hold lines on cardboard with those written on them as he was just a fat, lazy, slob, that like Orwell just wanted to stuff his face all day and get the paycheck.
Yes I get to a degree why Lynch would find it peculiar. Also why he can smoke like he does and live as long as he does which I am glad for. Like Sean Penn.
Point being Brando just didn't give a shit about anything but food. To each their own. R.I.P. John Wayne lived off coffee and meat. His colon during the autopsy was amazingly horrid.
No judgements, just hero worshiping people is inane IMO. I hope Lynch lives to be over a hundred. I enjoy the majority of what he makes and researching his life it is an unique one in a good way. Glad for people like that in the world, keeps me sane.
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DividedQuantum
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Inland Empire 8/10
Now, I love David Lynch, and I love how far out his movies are. Indeed what I am going to review next time is the most far-out thing he ever did, and I love it. But Inland Empire is even a little much for me. It's three hours, which doesn't seem necessary. And it's extremely low-budget. And it's far out, way far out, but not so much in a way I resonate with.
The entire movie was shot on a Sony digital camcorder, with the same lens for every scene. I think Lynch was planning to go to a higher-quality camera, but found that he loved the look of the Sony for his purposes on this film. Frankly, I found it distracting at times. Now, if anyone can make an excellent movie with a $150 camcorder, it's Lynch. And the cinematography doesn't suffer. But man, it's almost like watching a VHS tape.
The movie is based on a supernatural curse of Polish gypsies that affects a particular script Laura Dern's character has been cast to act out in a major studio film. Several years earlier, two lead actors who were shooting the same script had weird things start to happen, and ultimately were murdered. The curse is back, and it's real. As I've said in previous posts, the supernatural elements in Lynch's films are my favorite part of his work. But somehow Inland Empire's supernatural theme is not as interesting or compelling as Lost Highway, Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk with Me AND The Return. All that I adore. In this movie, the action seems ponderous, disconnected and utterly impenetrable. Indeed, there is no real plot to speak of after the first thirty minutes.
As the curse unfolds things get very surreal, but the impenetrability, the camcorder and the whole atmosphere just don't agree with me very much. I gave it a little over three stars because I feel it is interesting and unique, but it just doesn't jibe with me, this one. I've seen mention of others in this thread who love this one, so if they'd like to chime in I'd love it.
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Barnaby
Interesting lifetime
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My favorite of all of his. Good choice. Two short scenes I love from the movie.
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DividedQuantum
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Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) Episodes 1 and 2 10/10
David Lynch took up this project because he had a lot of ideas, wanted to work with Mark Frost again, and because Showtime gave him total creative control and the budget he wanted. It is eighteen episodes, each an hour in length -- so it is basically an eighteen hour movie. I think it is the best thing he has ever done.
I have seen it once before, so that is what I base my assessment on. Episodes one and two are presented together as a feature-length movie to get the series kicked-off. This series is the most far-out Lynch has ever gotten, and as I say he had total carte-blanche over what he wanted to do. So it is very, very good. We see some of the old faces from the original Twin Peaks, which is fun. Lynch incorporates many elements of the supernatural, including spirits, the afterlife, reincarnation, time travel and acausality, and many other elements of the beyond. I love it.
I'm not going to go too far into the plot at this point, since I have to refresh my memory. But all I can say is: Watch it!
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DividedQuantum
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Twin Peaks: The Return Episodes 3 & 4 10/10
In this episode, we meet Dougie. As another poster has said, he is really one of the great characters I can remember. Agent Dale Cooper is ejected from the higher dimension (purgatory, heaven, whatever it is), and sent to a kind of transdimensional halfway house where we have very bizarre characters. We are led to suspect that he will replace the evil Cooper, and all will be right with the world. But some evil entity or force conspires to save the evil Cooper, and divert the real Agent Cooper into a body that has been manufactured for precisely this purpose. It is a testament to the imagination of David Lynch that he could suppose some evil higher dimensional entities could reach back in time and create Dougie Jones' whole life, just to prevent the evil Cooper from being dismissed from the Black Lodge and destroyed.
So Agent Cooper incarnates into Dougie, and must learn how to think and speak coherently, as well as how to eliminate the evil Cooper, or he himself will be permanently destroyed. Meanwhile, the evil Cooper has been apprehended by the police with cocaine and a machine gun in his trunk after a crash resulting from transdimensional phenomena, through which he was to be ejected from the Black Lodge, but was saved by the invisible forces. Agent Gordon Cole, played hilariously and well by David Lynch himself, travels to meet with this Cooper, who they think is the real Cooper. They realize something is very wrong with the manner and content of his speech. The plot develops much further, which I will continue to comment upon.
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DividedQuantum
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Twin Peaks: The Return Parts 5-8
I give the whole series a 10/10, for sure. In parts 5-7, we see Dougie's evolution to a great asset for his company and his family; we see the evil Cooper get out of prison and be risen from death; Gordon Cole and his team are quickly coming to the conclusion that the Cooper they have been dealing with is not the real Cooper; and things in Twin Peaks are taking a turn for the bizarre, as Deputy Chief Hawk discovers missing pages from Laura Palmer's diary, completely fulfilling the Log Lady's supernatural prophecies. I love it all.
In part 8, David Lynch outdoes himself. Armed with a budget and good special effects, he basically turns the episode into Erasherhead on acid. It's highly abstract, and definitely like nothing you've seen before. It begins with a shot (digitally recreated) of the Trinity explosion in New Mexico in July 1945, which leads the viewer on a dark odyssey through higher dimensions, different worlds, in which, among other things, Laura Palmer's soul is sent to Earth, Bob makes an appearance, and these truly menacing black beings kill off an entire town in the Southwest with a magical incantation. Great stuff!
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DividedQuantum
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Through episode 14, and there's just too much to describe. Suffice it to say that at this point, we've had two trans-dimensional portals and supernatural phenomena galore, coupled with one of the best filmmakers ever to live. Amazing!
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DividedQuantum
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I have completed the series. Absolutely wonderful; as I have said, imo this is the best thing David Lynch has ever done. To describe any events in episodes 15-18 would be to give too much away, but the poem by the one-armed man in episode 17 may provide a clue:
Through the darkness of future past,
The magician longs to see:
One chance out between two worlds;
Fire walk with me
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TheStallionMang
Do U know who yur fuckin with?
Registered: 10/18/17
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Quote:
DividedQuantum said:Through the darkness of future past,
The magician longs to see:
One chance out between two worlds;
Fire walk with me
In my younger days when I fronted a band, we wrote a song and put these lines in it..except we also used...
I'll catch you with my death bag
You might think I've gone insane
But I promise you, I will kill again...
Thanks for not posting much about TP season 3. It's the only thing he's done that I haven't seen
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DividedQuantum
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Quote:
TheStallionMang said:
Thanks for not posting much about TP season 3. It's the only thing he's done that I haven't seen
Yeah, I had in mind the fact that a lot of people haven't seen it. Also, if you do watch it (and I urge you to), you'll find that it can't really be put into words, anyway.
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TheStallionMang
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Yeah, I plan on it but you gotta pay to watch it so we're watching streaming shows and DVDs lately
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Brian Jones
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Registered: 12/18/12
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Quote:
DividedQuantum said:
I have completed the series. Absolutely wonderful; as I have said, imo this is the best thing David Lynch has ever done. To describe any events in episodes 15-18 would be to give too much away, but the poem by the one-armed man in episode 17 may provide a clue:
Through the darkness of future past,
The magician longs to see:
One chance out between two worlds;
Fire walk with me
That's from the original TV show.
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"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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DividedQuantum
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Yes I realize that. It does have special relevance in episodes 17 and 18 of the Return, though.
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