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

yeah that scene is sort of the thesis statement. it's a movie about movies. there's other stuff jumbled up in there too, but if you're looking for a "point," it's about how art works (and movie art in particular). "don't play it for real until it becomes real." "no hay banda." the singer lip-synching a song about crying, with a tear painted on her face, but rendering the song in a way that inspires actual tears in the audience. the necessity of artifice in breaking through to something actual.

like in this scene, just try to keep track of the layers and reversals of meaning, how much it does with so few moves in just a minute and a half.

i haven't seen every lynch film, but i loved blue velvet enough that i don't think i'm adverse to what lynch does. like, i like that the weird and semi-inexplicable elements in BV are balanced by the relatively straightforward plot, and i find the story and characters in that film a lot more compelling than the ones in MD. i guess the "crying" sequence in MD is as weird and creepy as the "in dreams" sequence in BV, but i don't find it as memorable because i don't feel any connection to the characters or care about the story. and so much of MD just seems so arbitrary and tacked-on — the whole subplot with the director, especially — whereas everything in BV feels necessary and vital and scary. i'm down with 'impressionistic dream logic' but i guess i just didn't get enough pleasure out of the surface of MD to care. i mean watts is ok i guess but does anyone think that she's as powerful and memorable in mullholland dr as isabella rossellini or dennis hopper was in blue velvet?

that said, i'm glad people are responding to this and i'll probably give MD a second chance eventually.

Did Lynch get into that Transcendental Meditation stuff before or after Blue Velvet?

not enough love for The Straight Story in this poll. would've voted for Blue Velvet myself though.
Dune and Twin Peaks are amongst the worst film ever though.

i thought Mulholland Dr was pretty cool, i always like art phenomenons that have websites with a zillion theories devoted about it.

Dune was a movie that I really disliked when I watched it, but found myself quoting and remembering fondly afterward.

THE WORM IS THE SPICE

Have seen two or three references to TM with Lynch's name attached in the paper lately. V odd.

is donovan the next-most-famous TM practitioner?

oh wait, macca's a fan too:

http://adventuresintranscendentalmeditation.blogspot.com/2009/01/paul-mccartneys-concert-for.html

George Harrison was the true believer. There's also Mike Love, Al Jardine...

Have seen two or three references to TM with Lynch's name attached in the paper lately. V odd.

odd why/how? he wrote a book on the subject.

Just recently watched the first episode of "On the Air" and it is AMAZING...

not enough love for The Straight Story in this poll

Seriously. I just teared up watching the scene between Farnsworth and the old guy sharing WWII horror stories.

still haven't watched. must rectify.

No problem ranking it third in my list.

Great, great film. Right there with Blue Velvet for me (and arguably a better film, albeit not nearly as historically significant).

Sissy Spacek's small work doesn't get enough notice either.

I really should watch The Straight Story. I'm generally only really taken by Lynch's early period (Eraserhead and his short films) and late period (MD & IE). Oh, and everything Twin Peaks. That stuff in the middle doesn't really speak to me as much. I'd avoided watching The Elephant Man until I bought the Lime Green set, which was stupid, because it's really a very lovely and affecting film. Utterly unlike most of his other work, but it definitely suggests that he also has potential as a director of straight (har har) films.

No problem ranking it third in my list

me too, after MD and Eraserhead. Really unlike any other 'G' rated film I've ever seen.

silencio

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/david-lynch-opening-paris-nightclub_1225481

My teenage son is getting very into Lynch. Mostly Twin Peaks, but we watched Eraserhead together over the weekend; his first time, my dozenth or so. Hadn't seen it in many years, but it still resonates with me. Hypnotic, disturbing, yet often extremely funny. Not only my favorite Lynch film, one of my favorite films ever.

word, Eraserhead is the shit

I had the chance to watch a restored print in March as part of the Miami Film Festival, and the audience was scared and amused at all the wrong moments. I still find it about ten minutes too long.

all the RIGHT moments, I should say.

what, if anything, would you say "Eraserhead" is about?

An ugly man looking for love in a black and white world.

sounds about right

nightmares

reconciling an overwhelming preoccupation with sexual desire and the responsibilities of fatherhood

alternately, a bunch of shit that passed through david lynch's head

philadelphia

It's about how awful old radiators were.

i always found it to be anti-children, in some way

like, I think Lynch had a kid around that type, and Eraserhead is just some nightmarish version of that , of suddenly becoming a father and losing so many of the things you treasured, or something? ok, i'm not really sure at all

there's an extra on the eraserhead DVD of lynch talking about the making of the film at length, it's pretty entertaining + engrossing for what is basically 90 minutes of this

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/dvd05.jpg

Ninety minutes of Lynch discreetly away from the microphone.

i could honestly listen to lynch rambling into an old-timey radio microphone all day

i wished his ranting on the inland empire dvd was as long as the movie itself

Lynch moves away from the microphone so he can breathe

btw y'all

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

I think my favorite story from that doc is how lynch had a paper route while making eraserhead and iirc he solicited money to finish the film from the ppl he delivered to

Ok, so speaking of Lynch DVDs - on the Short Films of Lynch DVD (and I think some other Lynch DVDs too) there's a "Calibrate Your Television" section where you're supposed to adjust the brightness of your set to the point where you can just see the "hidden image" on the screen.

So is my TV broken or is Lynch just fucking with me, because I can't see a thing no matter how bright I set it?

best part of the eraserhead doc is his talking about finding a dead cat at an abandoned industrial site while scouting locations for eraserhead and submerging it in a pool of oil for safe keeping, then returning like nine months later and filming henry dredging it up (still there!) and poking it with a hanger. ha ha. such a card.

reconciling an overwhelming preoccupation with sexual desire and the responsibilities of fatherhood

― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Tuesday, June 14, 2011 10:08 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

it's about working a shit job in a dead-end town, living in a crummy apartment and having a bad relationship with a girl you don't really understand. you meet her parents and feel hideously uncomfortable. they're weird and serve you bad food. you desire other women but are also terrified of your desire. you dream pointlessly as a way of evading your situation and responsibilities. eventually you have a kid without wanting one, and you hate that, too.

duh, lol, that was SUPPOSED to be a response to this:

what, if anything, would you say "Eraserhead" is about?

― anarcho-misogynist puppies (DJP), Tuesday, June 14, 2011 10:03 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

ranked order incl. major shorts/TV

Blue Velvet
The Grandmother
Eraserhead
Twin Peaks finale
Mulholland Dr.
Twin Peaks pilot
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Premonition Following An Evil Deed
Lost Highway
The Elephant Man
The Cowboy and the Frenchman
Dune
The Straight Story
Industrial Symphony No. 1
Wild at Heart

only thing i actively dislike is W@H.

oh hai put inland empire in there after TP:FWWM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLIxS7Bdz10

Your order just about works for me except that I'm not super crazy about Blue Velvet. I mean, it's a good film, but it falls short as an expression of the Lynch that I love. Your top nine (inc. Inland) is otherwise pretty spot-on. The Grandmother is excellent.

This is how I would rank them:

Lost Highway
Straight Story
Elephant Man
Lynch's Twin Peaks episodes
Mulholland Dr.
Blue Velvet
On the Air
Fire Walk with Me
Wild at Heart
Eraserhead
Inland Empire

Haven't seen Dune or any of the shorts. After a very good first 30 minutes, Inland Empire is a 2,5 hour snoozefest, and Eraserhead is a "film student film" with all the positive and negative things that implies. Everything else worth a watch, at the least.

Don't want to rank. I'll just continue telling everyone how gay I am for Inland Empire.