David Lynch - Classic or Dud

Did anyone ever see that interview he did for scene by scene - i loved the bit where he's talking about "the eye of the duck" to describe the key scene in his films.

Also i highly recommend the book "Lynch on Lynch" - so much fun!

Umm. This movie is two years old. Why are we speculating on its award chances?

*waiting for backlash*

crosspost

Yeah, quite right. I read the book a year before the movie came out so my timing was perfect there...

although, N. has had my copy of the cinema one for nearly a year, now.

cremaster's opulent mythboredom reminded me a lot of dune

absolutely. it's funny how the production design seems to be the central concern of the film for much of its length, but unlike other well-appointed films, the design is actually so rich it actually sustains interest.

this movie redeems dino dilaurentis's reputation from all the europudding he's made. (well, this movie and "blue velvet.")

the last half hour is a mess, yes, but it's compelling for being so incomprehensible. the ending, if you haven't read the book, is just quizzical--all the more so for being so terrifically bombastic and theatrical.

FWWM, like Dune, does have a lot of extra footage still sitting there. As a fan of fractured, difficult art I'm not too bothered about seeing it restored. Pretty much all the series cast shot scenes.

Err, Lynch incidentally is brain-crushingly classic.

There's a much better book out there if you can find it at all -- The Making of Dune by Ed Naha. He was hired to essentially hang around on site during the entire length of filming and write a book about it all and did a fantastic job, I thought. While essentially uncritical about the final product itself, it actually doesn't talk about that so much as just the filming itself. Also laden with tons of photos.

Here's ten, in order of "classicness":

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Eraserhead
3. Blue Velvet
4. Wild at Heart
5. Elephant Man
6. Twin Peaks
7. The Straight Story
8. Dune
9. Fire Walk with Me
10. Lost Highway

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Blue Velvet
3. Eraserhead
4. Elephant Man
5. Lost Highway
6. Fire Walk with Me
7. Twin Peaks
8. Dune
9.The Straight Story

sorry, jaymc, my aside has troubled you, AND i used the wrong tense in one sentence!
and it revived a discussion, how about that ?
but huh ?, you haven't commented on Princess Anne and the BAFTAs, which was what i was getting at. Or anything else beyond the semantics of said paragraph. What do YOU THINK ?

I'm not sure I'll ever get round reading the book so could somebody please summarize what it adds to the movie?

David Lynch: Well, you know, nature can teach us a lot of things, and there's
something about, in painting, you're working within a certain shaped
canvas and there's many things that you, you know, one does
intuitively, to move the eye, you know, there's repetition of shape,
there's repetition of colour, but when you start looking at a duck,
you see your eye is moving in a certain way, and you see textures and
colours and shapes and you start wondering about a duck, what it can
teach us about, you know, any kind of abstract, you know, painting, or
proportions or even sequences, scenes, and it always is interesting
that the eye is in the perfect place - if you move it to the body, it
would get lost, if you move to the leg or the beak, it's two, kind of,
fast areas competing, even though the eye is the fastest, it's the
little jewel.

DL: Well, there's slow and fast. An empty room is a certain speed,
and a person standing there is another speed, and that proportion is,
you know, can be beautiful, if the room is a 2 and the person is a 7.
I think a person is around a 7; fire and electricity can go up to a 9,
for instance, or really intricately designed, you know, decorative
room is pretty disturbing, sometimes - it's too fast. But then if you
put something slow in it, it could work beautifully. A busy room and
a person, they fight each other. So...

MC: Is this to do with how fast our eye moves to scan it, to see
what's happening?

DL: It's a relationship thing, I think. Fast and slow areas.

MC: OK. What is the eye of the duck scene in Straight Story?

DL: I haven't thought about it. I have to think about it. I can't
just jump in and think, but I believe every film has the eye of the
duck scene. But, it can fool you. You know, which one it is - it
could be the scene we were talking about, I don't know.

MC: What's the eye of the duck scene in `Blue Velvet'?

DL: I used to know.

MC: Is it the `In Dreams' song.

DL: It's the eye of the duck, that's the eye of the duck, yes, yes.

[clip `in dreams']

MC: And what's the eye of the duck scene in Elephant Man?

DL: (laughs) I used to know.

MC: Is it the scene where he goes to the theatre? Near the end?

DL: No, I think, strangely, the eye of the duck scene is the ending.

I like that movie, but the Lynch cameo is basically the cherry on top.

My mother in law was visiting the other week, and we were trying to pick out a movie. I had her whittle down some ideas to give me a better idea of what she wanted to see, and she goes "oh, what was that weird movie about the small town? There's a lounge singer, and a teen, and it's really strange." "Blue Velvet?" I ask. "Yes!!!" "Well, we're not watching that," I say (thinking, "...you weirdo"). But I picked "Straight Story" and of course everyone loved it.

we have Mark Harris to thank for Lynch in The Fablemans. Spielberg and Tony Kushner were discussing possibilities, and Harris (Kushner's husband) suggested Lynch.

I wish Lynch did more acting, but I'm to sure sure if that was due to a lack of opportunities or if he was really particular about which films/shows to do (or maybe both). His guest role in Louie C.K.'s show was brilliant - it's now overshadowed by the revelations about Louis C.K., but those episodes aired a few years before that happened and at the time, everyone I knew absolutely loved Lynch's performance.

I think he was pretty uncomfortable with it. Isabella pushed him into the role in Zelly & Me and he was terrified. I’ve never seen that movie, but all of his acting that I have seen are entertaining, of limited range, and are best in small doses.

i think he knew his limitations and wasn’t interested enough in the craft to become a Real Actor. Eventually he got by simply by being David Lynch, in the same way that Werner Herzog has.

Hertzog was the first person that jumped to mind.

xp

Ugh, that first sentence is a mess, I'll try to do better in the future

I'd have liked to see a buddy movie starring Lynch, Herzog and Cronenberg. 3 of my favorite actors.

add spielberg and make it a sitcom set in a florida bungalow

swap spielberg for scorsese

Nah, gotta have Spielberg as the straight man.

Nah, I think you need more of an awkward/odd couple dynamic. Something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhJPwzlyZ2Q

Werner Herzog as David Lynch.

Maybe throw in Judd Apatow just to have sarcastic wisecracks to himself.

Lynch, Herzog, Cronenberg and ... Sydney Pollack? Or Albert Brooks!

sydney pollack surely the best directors acting performance

xp!

Ha, I thought of polling Best Directors Who Act. Pollack would be near the top.

In other Lynch news, Wild At Heart did serious numbers in Bologna last night. I'm amazed that such a big audience turned out for it.

https://bsky.app/profile/davidlynchsworlds.bsky.social/post/3mov4aa3o222m

xps Albert Brooks, YES - in all seriousness, I'd put his greatest films on par with Lynch, Herzog and Cronenberg's. Can't say the same about Pollack or Apatow's best work, and Brooks is funnier too.

uh Tootsie is absolutely on par with Lynch, Herzog, and Cronenberg's best.

Pollack's one scene was a highlight of Death Becomes Her.

Lynch, Herzog, Cronenberg, Spielberg

Spielberg would be Mike, but who would be Vyvyan, Rick and Neil?

tootsie isnt much good for any of the parts where tootsie exists tbh

what are albert brooks good movies

tootsie isnt much good for any of the parts where tootsie exists tbh

― Wichita Referee's Assistant (darraghmac)

Shame on you, you macho shithead!

uh Tootsie is absolutely on par with Lynch, Herzog, and Cronenberg's best.

Sorry, cannot agree. Mixed feelings about that film.

Oh, I know all its flaws but love it anyway, whereas Herzog is a director who makes fiction films I never wanna watch again.

Herzog's documentaries are generally better than his fiction films, but honestly I don't think most of his films live up to the myths he builds around them. However, a few that do are incredible - among his fiction work, Aguirre towers over every other scripted film he did.

One of my favorite Herzog films isn't even one he directed: Les Blank's Burden of Dreams.

otm on both counts