David Lynch - Classic or Dud

I like how confusing the geography of the house is, simultaneously small yet labyrinthine

Reading the Premiere story by David Foster Wallace and about what a shit Getty was didn't help lol.

Roffle. I remember reading that at the time and thinking "Well this guy's a tool."

I've always found following the clues in a Lynch film as missing-the-pointish as it would be in Antonioni or other pure vibes types. Guess according to the man himself I'm the one missing the point, lol.

Like let's say that Fred did kill Renee, and dissociates/imagines the rest in prison. Who was leaving the videotapes at their house (assuming that "really happened")? Was Fred doing that himself, even though there's no indication of such a thing? Did he really meet the Mystery Man at the party (whose face he had previously seen in a dream), or was that a hallucination? The host, Andy, also sees him, and says he's a friend of Dick Laurent's. Who said "Dick Laurent is dead" into the intercom?

If all of that is also somehow part of a retroactive "dream," you're left with the absolute barest-bones sketch of a marriage to hang the rest on. And if those things are real (as I think they're meant to be), what clues are we supposed to follow to understand it all?

I am almost sure I’ve bought more copies of LH than times I have watched it

Oh I guess I saw it at the cinema too

Watching a making-of doc… Pullman actually learned to play saxophone for his role, and memorized his two “pieces.” (I assumed it was dubbed!)

The Mystery Man is Fred's conscience. "Call me," I'm in your head right now.

He's the one making the tapes, leading Fred a few steps at a time back into the bedroom to face the truth.

Huh, thx, I’ll think that through…

Interestingly (to me), I recall having a similar reading of the role of the elderly couple in Mulholland Dr. (one of those few “extra pieces of the puzzle” in that film).

I did end up seeing Wild At Heart earlier this week. I thought it was a very enjoyable comedy. I've seen over-the-top Nic Cage a million times, but Laura Dern was absolutely boiling over as well and they clicked so well together. The rest of the cast were amazing too - Grace Zabriskie, Willem Dafoe. Jesus, what a memorable film!

One thing that I noticed throughout the movie that brought me down though, was I really feel like it used black actors as props. Of course, you have the absolutely ultra-brutal scene in the beginning where Sailor bashes his assailant's brain in. Later, in New Orleans, there is a scene where the camera just trucks across the face of an unusual-looking, older black woman who you don't see before or after. The feeling I got was "here's this weird-looking black woman - see how strange New Orleans is?" There's also a scene where they're getting gas and Lula is preening for this old black man sitting in a chair outside of the service station, and he's kinda just there to smile and show increasing excitement about how hot Lula is.

It's not the only time I've felt this about a quirky indie comedy (thinking about a lot of Coen Brothers films here), so I'm kinda halfheartedly writing it off as "those were the times..." But overall, the works of David Lynch that I'm familiar with are very white and don't engage much with race. The one exception off the top of my head is in Twin Peaks, in which you have Josie and a few other Chinese characters in her storyline, as well as Catherine Martell's undercover guise of Mr. Tojamura, both of which are pretty cringey.

Not trying to cancel Lynch here or anything. Just a few hang-ups that stood out to me in an otherwise compelling and entertaining movie. Interested to see if anybody has more charitable readings than I have.

Of course, you have the absolutely ultra-brutal scene in the beginning where Sailor bashes his assailant's brain in

I’m admittedly squeamish, but when I first watched the film (VHS rental from Hollywood Video!) I turned it off at this scene because I found it too gratuitous, in an "edgy ’90s" sort of way. Didn’t end up finishing it until I did a Lynch retrospective a few years ago in the lead up to the new Twin Peaks season.

in which you have Josie and a few other Chinese characters in her storyline, as well as Catherine Martell's undercover guise of Mr. Tojamura, both of which are pretty cringey.

Fortunately, the character of “Naido” in S3 solved this problem… NOT!!

One thing that I noticed throughout the movie that brought me down though, was I really feel like it used black actors as props.

What say you about Richard Pryor's casting in Lost Highway?

I've only seen Lost Highway once and had completely forgotten about Pryor. Can't remember what his role was. There's a good chance I'll go out to see it this Tuesday. Will keep that in mind.

can't say i've read much good writing on lynch in regard to race but i enjoyed this:

https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/david-lynch-racial-politics.html

yeah lynch is a white guy who does best just dealing with white people, frankly. Hawk is a problematic character all over the place, just native trope after native trope (made worse by the fact that Michael Horse isn't native). I mean I still love TP obviously but these elements are all cringetastic.

Horse isn't native?

it's disputed. his mother is swedish, his adoptive father is german. he has claimed to be Yaqi (from Mexico), but he's not enrolled in any tribes nor do any tribes claim him. So if he is Yaqi, that comes from his father, but he hasn't elucidated that relationship.

yikes bro.

Meantime, next week's episode on You Must Remember This in the "Erotic 90s" season will, in fact, be about Lost Highway (plus at least some discussion of Jennifer Lynch's Boxing Helena I gather.)

Finally rewatched Lost Highway, long classified in my head as my least favorite Lynch. I liked it better the second time, was reminded how many great shots and scenes it includes. It really is gorgeous. But yeah, still pretty much my least favorite Lynch — cold and uninvolving, imo, except for a legitimately great performance(s) by Patricia Arquette. Bill Pullman and Balthazar Getty remain more or less inert. Such a mid-'90s film, in that gritty '90s bummer way — very little of the warmth and humor that balances the horror in most of his other work.

BUT also, in retrospect it seems to me like the first in an L.A./Cali noir trilogy, followed by Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. There are ideas and motifs in Lost Highway that show up more fully realized in both of those films, almost like he had ideas he was wrestling with and Lost Highway was a sort of first draft. So, totally worth seeing but not one of his greats. (imo, ymmv)

New interview with Isabella Rossellini on Blue Velvet: https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/isabella-rossellini-responds-roger-ebert-blue-velvet-review-1234968621/

(I don’t think I was aware of the Ebert review…)

https://deadline.com/2024/04/david-lynch-animated-movie-snootworld-netflix-addams-family-edward-scissorhands-writer-caroline-thompson-1235877710/

“I don’t know when I started thinking about Snoots but I’d do these drawings of Snoots and then a story started to emerge,” Lynch told us in a rare interview. “I got together with Caroline and we worked on a script. Just recently I thought someone might be interested in getting behind this so I presented it to Netflix in the last few months but they rejected it.”

Lynch was philosophical about the reasons for that decision: “Snootworld is kind of an old fashioned story and animation today is more about surface jokes. Old fashioned fairytales are considered groaners: apparently people don’t want to see them. It’s a different world now and it’s easier to say no than to say yes.”

Lynch was coy about which project may be his next or which is taking up most of his time, cryptically noting: “I can’t talk about those things right now.”

Well at least this keeps hope alive...

An interesting Q&A with Sabrina Sutherland, touching on a variety of topics – including "Unrecorded Night," and whether there may be more Twin Peaks (she says "David has more ideas for another season"):

https://tulpaforum.com/threads/members-q-a-with-the-one-and-only-sabrina-sutherland.491/