It's the inevitable and long-awaited DAVID LYNCH POLL

I really had a bad reaction to Mulholland Dr when I saw it. Sitting in an a college auditorium with a bunch of folks doing the whole "I love it cuz I have no idea what's going on" thing even though I could tell pretty easily Lynch had tacked on a Wizard Of Oz "and you were there and you were there and you were there and you were there and you were there" ending to the show pilot without removing the subplots that would have nothing to with Naomi Watts' dream logic

dude, all those subplots totally have everything to do with her character's dream logic! take the bumbling hitman character. basically, in her dream world this guy is incompetent because it allows her fantasy lover (who is apparently at least 2 people conflated into one, her real-life ex-lover and the actress who she was passed over the role for, who she also was in love and/or had a fling with) to escape her intended death (which she in "real life" apparently hired the hitman to carry out) and wander into her bathroom/heart/pants.

same with Theroux's director character, he's portrayed as a guy who is constantly ordered, pushed around or shit on by others (i.e. the studio, his wife, etc.) in watts' character's dreamworld this provides her the psychological explanation as to why she didn't get the role: it was a conspiracy involving the studio, mob, creepy midgets, and a supernatural cowboy (hey, it is dream logic after all), not the fact that director was sleeping with the other girl or something else as mundane.

makes sense. perfect sense. right? *shifty eyes*

anyway, does it really matter how much of these were unresolved threads from the pilot or not? in the end it only matters what the final edit conveys, and i think lynch mostly knew what he was doing by leaving those threads in there. even if it was in that intuitive, "happy accident" way kind of way in which he likes to work.

it's "daddy," you shit-head.

Are you talking to me?

Blue Velvet out of all of these has the best lines

Ha, Latebloomer I was just attempting to write a response similar to yours, but you said it way better.

MD was about 2/3rds new material shot specifically for the film. Lynch didn't make it a movie by tacking on an "it was all a dream" ending.

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ha, usually i'm the one that says that!

Jed: That wasn't my understanding at all. 2/3 new material? I understood that he shot very little new footage. A good deal less than a 1/4 of the film's total running time.

Yeah Jed, that's not what I understand at all. In fact early scripts of the pilot show it to be almost word for word the entire movie up to the hour and a half mark.

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yeah i don't believe he shot all that much new material. still, it doesn't matter much. it's all about editing.

Yeah but again the original pilot script is basically the first hour and a half of the movie with little to no modification.

I thought it was just the ending and the nakey lesbo scene.

Club Silencio and what came after being the new stuff.

you're right, it seems there's 45 minutes of new material in the film.

I have seen the tv pilot and it is basically word for word until when Rita cuts her hair and that is where the pilot ends. there were a couple of scenes cut, some added... but nothing too drastic.

That being said, if anyone thinks that its just a tacked on dream ending, you really need to watch the film more closely.

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Filming for the pilot began in February 1999. The pilot script balanced normal and surreal elements, much like Lynch’s earlier series Twin Peaks. The pilot laid the groundwork for story arcs, such as the mystery of Rita's identity, Betty's career, and Adam Kesher's film project. [2]

Plot points of the feature film's ending—the physical relationship between Rita and Betty, the bizarre trip to Club Silencio, the "alternate reality" and "identity swapping"—were written and shot after the pilot was completed. Lynch filmed most of the new scenes in October 2000, funded with money from French production company StudioCanal.

"That being said, if anyone thinks that its just a tacked on dream ending, you really need to watch the film more closely."

Oh no I think it's a very AWKWARDLY tacked on real ending which makes the pilot events a dream. It's still a good movie though.

MD is one of the rare films to get better as it goes along.

I believe that the new stuff that was added is the most brilliant realization of what noir films in the 40s and 50s wanted to do, but never could (mainly because of the censors)

the makeout scenes between Justin Theroux and Robert Forster, sadly, ended up on the cutting room floor.

even more sadly the subseqent scene where billy ray cyrus joined them for a threesome in a paint-filled hot tub weren't even filmed:-/

it was going to be a musical sequence over the end credits, a la Inland Empire

anyway, does it really matter how much of these were unresolved threads from the pilot or not? in the end it only matters what the final edit conveys, and i think lynch mostly knew what he was doing by leaving those threads in there. even if it was in that intuitive, "happy accident" way kind of way in which he likes to work.

Funny, I just looked up the script for "Fire Walk With Me" to find out what Gerard the One-Armed-Man was shouting at Leland in the smoking RV scene, and, among other things, he shouts "THE THREAD WILL BE TORN, MR. PALMER, THE THREAD WILL BE TORN!"
The only other mention of "thread" in the script is in the "Blue Rose" code scene with the red-headed woman. Stanley notices the different-colored thread in her dress, which Chet notes is Gordon's code for drugs. Thread - Alteration - Editing - Masking - Codes - Drugs - Death: these things all linked

this thread must have started as a pilot!

I'm starting to think the "quinoa" short on the IE DVD may be Lynch's most revealing work, esp. with respect to TP: FWWM. He basically making Garmonbozia (Pain and Suffering). The cigarettes, the attention to timing and mixing and material and darkness. The way he tells his assistant to tell him when to do things (paradox).

The Quinoa thing is great - I like that whenever he makes a gesture towards trying to show something to the viewer (like how much water to put in, or what the correct consistency is) it is actually not visible in the shot.

I like the ones without an id-like bad guy, so I like Mulholland Drive and The Straight Story.

I think Mulholland Drive was a good pilot and that the second season would have sucked.

I like the ones without an id-like bad guy, so I like Mulholland Drive and The Straight Story.

is there an id-like bad guy in Inland Empire...? There are various threatening figures, but that doesn't seem like the same thing.

Haven't seen it yet.

The bad guy in The Straight Story is Alvin Straight! He says it many times!

part of the film's irony is that this genial old coot was a fucking monster as a younger man.

The bad guy in Mullholland Drive is Naomi Watts! She's a hard, cold killer and crazy to boot!

I was gonna bitch about Eraserhead not getting enough love but then I rememberd mark s is repping for it so let the hollywood meta retreads with midgets get all yr love, whatevs.

the baby in Eraserhead=scariest thing ever

the phantom is the bad guy in inland empire, duhr

i just remembered the cowboy in mulholland drive and love that guy

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the phantom? who the hell is that?

surprised Inland Empire ranked so low here, given the posts

http://www.uneeda-audio.com/phantom/phantom5.jpg

Billy Zane was not the vilian, he's a cool dude.

http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/2001_Zoolander/Thumb/2001_Zoolander_207.jpg

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=phantom+inland+empire

shakey talking with authority all over this thread and doesn't even know who the phantom is! ha!

ha! ha!

oh gimme a break I saw the film once and I don't recall anyone being repeatedly referred to as "The Phantom" in it sooooo sorry. wtf

well, he's the phantom

also not aware of any "talking with authority" I may have done on this thread (outside of expressing my own personal preferences, I didn't offer much) but whatevs

blame Reagan.

yeah that's what i meant, personal preferences ;)