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

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

Well, you know, Sean Baker, so...

Love Sean Baker, one of only 2 directors I follow on twitter iirc

he's probably my favorite living American filmmaker lol wins otm xp

Sean Spicer is my favorite American.

gesundheit

Anita Baker is my favorite American.

Anita Cocktail is my favorite living American drag queen

caught up in the crapture

Giving You The Breasts That I Got

One thing to add about Lynch's works: they gain a lot from being seen in movie theaters. I feel very lucky to have been able to see Dune, Wild at Heart, FWWM, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire all during their original theatrical releases. I'd love to see Lost Highway again in the theater because I really struggle to get the right volume levels at home to be able to catch all of the brilliant creepy dialogue between Pullman and Arquette in the early scenes without then being walloped by Fred's crazy sax playing.

Inland Empire was a particularly intense and singular theater experience. The effect of being a captive audience in a three hour movie where coherence gradually melts away and spans of time start to lose all meaning was quiet powerful, like being trapped in a nightmare. It's not an experience I can copy at home where it's just way too easy to be distracted while watching it, it just loses that sense of total immersion.

otm. seeing Mulholland Drive in a theater in May blew me away, i had only seen it once before in 2007 at home & it just didn't click. but that was in preparation to see Inland Empire when it opened here. it only played for a week and i'm so glad i got to see it in a theater. i'll never forget that opening title sequence. i've gotta rewatch it soon - got a sweet Japanese blu-ray of it for like 10 bucks on Amazon.

also i've been fortunate enough to see FWWM in a theater twice - although the first time was five years ago with a crowd that was treating it like a MST3K thing, laughing at the 'awkwardness,' which... whatever, standard shitty crowd, but they kept it up through Leland's assault on Laura. I saw it at a different theater with a much smaller, more subdued crowd in July, and it was just devastating.

whenever there is a re-do of this poll - i guess when The Return ends in a few weeks - I'll probably vote Mulholland Drive, but I wish I could vote for the final episode of season 2. even though it's not feature length, imo it's the most spellbinding & powerful thing Lynch has ever done.

having said that, still need to see Wild at Heart, Straight Story, & the Elephant Man. stoked to see WAH in a theater next week on 35mm. lots of Lynch revivals this year! I'd love to see Lost Highway in a theater, the DVD i got looked like shit & I think I said this upthread but it really felt like a dry run for Mulholland Drive, with a much duller color palette, extremely dated soundtrack & aesthetics, and a depiction of evil/total absence of love that imo is much better explored in The Return.

a crowd that was treating it like a MST3K thing

oh good, it's not just NYC that needs the death penalty for this.

whenever there is a re-do of this poll - i guess when The Return ends in a few weeks

What's your hurry? Some of us didn't have the money to subscribe to Showtime.

also, not a film (notice there is no TP original series in the above poll).

Eraserhead, The Grandmother, Twin Peaks finale, Premonitions, The Return eps 3 & 8, The Alphabet

xxp it was part of a local series that usually screens 80s/90s blockbusters that could be read as camp but aren't like Manos: The Hands of Fate or whatever. along with FWWM, they've done Total Recall, The Shining, The Thing, Dead Man, RoboCop, Predator, Terminator 2, Groundhog Day, Point Break, Batman, Die Hard... those are just off the top of my head, and FWWM sticks out like a sore thumb in that group, besides maybe Dead Man and The Shining.

I was lucky enough to see Lost Highway the first time at the historic Tampa Theatre while on vacation, complete with organist before the film. Memorable evening, but I still don't care for Lost Highway much.

What's your hurry? Some of us didn't have the money to subscribe to Showtime.

also, not a film (notice there is no TP original series in the above poll).

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, August 17, 2017 2:38 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't have cable or a Showtime subscription. my TV gave me a 7 day free trial for Showtime, I watched all 14 episodes in 3 days and will pay for one month to see the last 4. and i absolutely think Twin Peaks should be included, all seasons separately. you could debate the merits of including the original series because it wasn't all directed by Lynch, but The Return is an 18 hour movie.