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

wouldn't be surprised if the return would win in a redo, assuming it ends as well as it's been going

haha, i already posted this on alfred's facebook comment thread, but might as well post it here too:

Twin Peaks: The Return (even if the last 4 episodes are Dr Jacoby / Amp spray painting his shovel I’m comfortable with this ranking)
Mulholland Drive
Blue Velvet
Eraserhead
Inland Empire
Twin Peaks
The Elephant Man
Lost Highway
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Straight Story
Wild At Heart (I recognize it is somewhat disliked but I love it)
Dune

(i wrote the parenthetical to wild at heart early on in my ranking when i thought it would be near the top and needed some sort of halfassed justification, but it still holds. also i fully recognize that any list that is this long and includes the words "love" on the second to bottom ranked item is easily dismissable as fanboyism, but you know what, fuck you! FUCK YOU)

Twin Peaks: The Return (even if the last 4 episodes are Dr Jacoby / Amp spray painting his shovel I’m comfortable with this ranking)

otm

doesn't matter what happens now, it's already won

My problem with IE is he seems to have lost -- temporarily, on the evidence of the new Twin Peaks -- the ability to know when a scene runs too long.

there are many scenes in The Return that some would say run too long, so hold on to your butts

but yeah... besides the return, it's still mulholland drive

there are many scenes in The Return that some would say run too long, so hold on to your butts

― Karl Malone, Thursday, 17 August 2017 14:56 (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

people who complain about that are not reading the series 18 hour movie correctly imo. people don't go to an art gallery and criticise an artwork for not doing enough.

still, hold on to your butts

yeah, you need to be prepared to just go where it takes you.

also i want to be specific about a principal character's presence but can't spoil, so will say this: twin peaks revolutionised tv; the return isn't a trip down memory lane, it's not fan service, it's revolutionising tv again. lynch has incredible things for cinema, but imo he's never turned the whole of cinema upside down.

Alfred, curious why you've not watched the new TP beyond the first episode. Did it disappoint or is it just a time thing? Or are you waiting for the box set?

so far, i would rate The Return above everything else he has done. it really feels like the culmination of a life's work.

I don't have Showtime! I watched the first two episodes because a friend sent them

I don't agree with Alfred at all but it's maybe notable that inland empire is Lynch's first self-edited feature since eraserhead

jed otm, & depending on the day I might be that premonition following an evil deed voter, one of my favourite films ever

people who complain about that are not reading the series 18 hour movie correctly imo. people don't go to an art gallery and criticise an artwork for not doing enough.

― rove mcmanus island (Autumn Almanac),

A film is not an art installation though.

tv doesn't have to be starsky & hutch either

i just mean the return is a show to let happen. there's no correct way to watch it, it is what it is, it succeeds at being what it's meant to be imo.

I can't wait to watch it!

it's… very hard to explain without spoiling something critical

there's a scene in which nothing happens for almost two minutes, so in effect it's like one of his paintings come to (sort of) life. it's sequenced in such a way that it's quite jarring. some people were convinced lynch was trolling them.

I for one was fairly impressed that MacLachlan could sustain a belch for an entire two minutes (oops, spoilerz).

the return is incredible and one of my favorite things he's ever done but at the moment i'd still rate it under fire walk with me. idk i think fire walk with me is one of the most empathetic works of art ever and whenever i watch it i end up crying through most of it. the return isn't (yet) working on this level for me (which i'm guessing it probably isn't meant to)

i agree w/ the erstwhile KJB this much: some of you should find more than one, or three, filmmakers to worship.

that would be off topic though

Yes, you should do a search for the 'shouting at strawmen' thread, Morbs.

I worship one filmmaker and one filmmaker alone: Chris Marker. I cherish dozens and dozens of others.

Not convinced the nexus of those loving Lynch/Kubrick and fanboys for Nolan/Innaritu/Darabont is as vast as all that, or that Dunkirk-fellating zombies are also chomping at the bit to get into lengthy discussions about Barry Lyndon.

fair 'nuff, you don't hafta prove yr bona fides to me, E.

But, also, if Lynch is one of your *only* favorite filmmakers, try harder, et al.

Dunkirk-fellating zombies

Lynch is too much (and too easy) of a gateway for fanboys to stop with his films.

But, also, if Lynch is one of your *only* favorite filmmakers, try harder, et al.

For the life of me I have no idea who the "et al" addressed here are, maybe they'll show up itt soon tho idk

I'm not sure I even know any other filmmakers. Did Lynch do the Dukes of Hazzard movie? If not, I worship that guy, too.

Truly a huge problem right now is the monopolization Lynch-only fanboys hold over American culture.

Ime the overlap is more that Kubrick-fanatics will spend day and night shouting about how Nolan is no Kubrick. It's really, really important to them.

Why am I even here? The gay threads died years ago.

you're misinterpreting me, guys. what i meant to say is

suck it

That was very suck-cinct.

It's funny, Lynch has cycled in and out of being my favorite active filmmaker since I was 17 and saw Blue Velvet. It's hard to rank or compare him against other people from 2000 on, say, because his output in that time has been so sporadic. But Mulholland Drive/Inland Empire/TP:TR is an amazing late career run.

It's dumb imo to get hung up on his fanboys. I'm sure there are blinkered Tarkovsky stans too. Lynch is a virtuosic and imaginative artist and I'm happy to be alive while he's doing his thing.

It'll probably be hard to argue against TP:TR being his greatest thing once it's done, just in the sheer scope and creative freedom of it. But for non-18-hour work, I'd go:

Mulholland Drive
Inland Empire
Blue Velvet
Eraserhead
TP:FWWM
The Straight Story
Wild at Heart
The Elephant Man
Dune
Lost Highway

Of those, I only count the last two as failures. And they're both still worth seeing.

I'm sure there are blinkered Tarkovsky stans too

me

j/k i've only seen five movies all by david lunch

sooooo sensitive, Brad! ;) plz go to something in this series with me.

http://metrograph.com/series/series/107/gotta-light

kudos to the programmers, I wish there was more stuff like that here

Apologies (mainly to myself) for continuing down this avenue because it is simply too dumb to bother with but I guess it might be true to say that lynch brings along more non-cinephiles than a lot of filmmakers in the same vague area maybe, by virtue of being American and having made a tv show? Just from peeping reactions to the new TP there are ppl for whom lengthy shots/scenes are insane and revelatory in & of themselves (I think even ~those ppl~ prob have a lot of faves tho so idk let's just leave this stupid convo)

morbs, i'd really love to see kiss me deadly in a theater but unfortunately it's in dreaded dcp

yeah, I've seen it on film before so i wouldn't do that. More likely the shorts programs.

i'm def down for one of the shorts programs and possibly 2001

I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, but Wild at Heart started out as way overrated and FWWM was way underrated. These days, I think the opposite is true. Also, I love Lost Highway way more than most people on here. Dune was the first Lynch film I saw and I'll always love it, even though it is extremely flawed.

Here's my list:

Blue Velvet
Mulholland Drive
Lost Highway
Inland Empire
Eraserhead
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Dune
Wild at Heart
The Straight Story
The Elephant Man

Breakaway is a great 5 minute seduction.

I guess it might be true to say that lynch brings along more non-cinephiles than a lot of filmmakers in the same vague area maybe, by virtue of being American and having made a tv show?

That was def true with the OG TP, not sure the new one is having the same effect. I'd say it's not only because he's worked in TV, but also because he's totally immersed in pop culture, or at least some corners of it, so he gives some relatively accessible (or accessible-seeming) handles to people in a way that Hou Hsiao-Hsien or Joanna Hogg or etc do not. Once people grab hold of those pop references, they may be confused by what happens next. But he's pretty approachable on the surface. (See also Wong Kar-Wai, e.g., compared with someone like Tsai Ming-liang.)

Re thread subject, dunno if I've done already. I don't really enjoy ranking things so I'd cop out and go for a four-way tie of fwwm/md/ie/ss as features I love p much equally; I also love the elephant man, and eraserhead & blue velvet are near-perfect formally imo. The Gifford ones I connect with least although I like lost highway a lot more than I used to (I'm sorta suspicious of an opinion about lynch that I suspect to have gone unrevised over the years)

I continue to reserve judgement on dune until the day I stay awake through the whole film.

xp yeah that too

There was a thing going around on twitter with people saying their favorite films of 77, and seeing Eraserhead along films like That Obscure Object of Desire and The Devil, Probably, is so weird. Lynch has kinda made at least one masterpiece in five decades in a row now, and that's probably as good a reason as any to have him as a favorite filmmaker. He's not mine, though, far from it.

He might be my favourite living American one, if I had to pick, which I don't, and neither do you