i was going to just post this in the LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED topic but i thought it might make for an interesting discussion, so i'm putting this here. at worst it'll make this place look a little more busy.


i had never seen a david lynch film before(elephant man doesn't fucking count at all), so i watched lost highway last night. interesting movie, and a pretty enjoyable experience. it really is the ultimate neo-noir, and i'm usually very skeptical when i hear people apply that term to films nowadays. it's a good watch if you want something that literally functions like a nightmare, which is a trait that i usually appreciate in films. it's refreshing seeing filmmakers who do their own fucking thing, regardless of what anybody else expects of them. i really dig welles' the trial and the work of franz kafka, so it's pretty natural that i would appreciate the work of lynch, assuming this film is a good example of his work.

i do think i take the exception with lynch that a lot of people do, namely in his being a little too abstract, a little too GUTTURAL(if that makes sense) with his concepts. lost highway is a bright film, but i felt like it didn't have enough knowable substance behind the surreal presentation itself. kafka and lynch are really similar stylistically, but at no point is kafka ever needlessly artsy, whereas that's sorta what lynch's deal is to an extent. i don't feel like i can relate awfully well to the inner workings of his works, like his convictions are more scientific in nature.

i think lynch is ultimately a really good example of post-modernism at work. i never cared much for that rationale and approach to film/literature, which is probably why i feel a little distanced from him. i find him a little difficult to really rally behind, despite being an absolutely exceptional filmmaker. i feel like he drifts a little too closely to the style over substance route, which always turns me off a bit. it's like he's more about portraying instinctual understanding rather than knowledge and educated perceptions of the universe. i could be wrong though. i'm basing this off of one film, what i know about the guy, and scattered things i've encountered that he was behind.

i'm still utterly fascinated with the guy, though, despite my knowing better. anybody have any opinion of what the BEST lynch work is? anybody have a good idea of what the fuck this guy's deal is? this is the official DAVID LYNCH TOPIC so talk about this fucking guy already.

also i want to say that robert blake's character in lost highway is one of the most unbelievably ironic things i've ever seen in a film. i couldn't believe i was seeing him play that character. talk about getting IN CHARACTER

I like David Lynch, but I haven't seen Lost Highway yet. I had it a while ago but it disappeared from my hard drive at some point. My favourite thing I have seen from him is Mulholland Drive, and I also like Twin Peaks quite alot. The thing with these things though is that I cannot remember much about them other than the way things looked and the atmosphere of them. Like in Twin Peaks, there is a soundtrack of about three different themes and they each play pretty much constantly through each episode and it just creates this ridiculous atmosphere about the whole thing. In Mulholland Drive, obviously, there is the whole last half hour but the atmosphere leading up to that is similar to Twin Peaks.

He finds quiet places in America, takes the inevitable feelings of jealousy and paranoia you find there, and then makes all those fears real. Then he throws in some nightmare aspect, like a midget who talks backwards, and he's got himself a story. I still remember his line about the only thing you need for a film is 'a woman in trouble', which I'm not sure if I really like but he probably wasn't serious even if he thinks he was.

Maybe Blue Velvet is best, I think it's usually considered best, but I can't remember much about it right now because I haven't seen it in a few years.

The thing with these things though is that I cannot remember much about them other than the way things looked and the atmosphere of them.

oddly enough, i almost wonder if that's his intention. lost highway has had that effect on me, after only a couple days. it was like a nightmare that i couldn't really remember completely(maybe because i was sleepy when watching?????????????)

He finds quiet places in America, takes the inevitable feelings of jealousy and paranoia you find there, and then makes all those fears real. Then he throws in some nightmare aspect, like a midget who talks backwards, and he's got himself a story. I still remember his line about the only thing you need for a film is 'a woman in trouble', which I'm not sure if I really like but he probably wasn't serious even if he thinks he was.

yeah this is why i called his movies not a lot more than instinctual. i kinda look at what these movies are about and wonder IS THAT ALL? i think i'm expecting too much kafka, which is an unfair comparison for anybody ever.


i'm not sure which one to watch next. i'll probably watch mulholland drive. you have said good things about it, and i remember my best professor in college made some big deal about how much he liked it, and he introduced me to a lot of the incredible shit i've raved to you guys about.

my brother told me to never see blue velvet ever, and i remember him saying something to the effect of silent hill 2 being effectively the same story, but doing a better job of it. idk what to think of that because i didn't really give too much of a shit about silent hill 2. i think he's just too comfortable in his khaki pants to embrace the madness.


also by the time i got to this point in the post i decided to watch mulholland drive next. ever since i watched primer i have found my interest in film rekindled, so i've been catching up on all the stuff i never got around to seeing when i was younger. i just need to remember which ones i had always intended to watch.

For a film student, it might not be pleasant to admit that the only David Lynch movie I've seen is Dune. But Dune is awful. I can't express with English how awful it is; I have never felt such active displeasure while watching a film. I feel now like I can't trust a David Lynch to be enjoyable because he made something like Dune and thought "this is quality cinema".

But everyone says Mulholland Drive is really good so I should get on to watching that.

Mulholland Dr. is absolutely his best movie because it has the most substance and feels the least "needlessly artsy" out of all his movies (not including The Straight Story or The Elephant Man, and maybe Dune but I was on shrooms when I watched it so actually it was awesome). 

also holy shit I gotta punch your bro in the face.  The reason he's saying it's "basically Silent Hill 2's story" is because the Pyramid Head rape scene was inspire by Blue Velvet.  but that's it!  just that one scene.  tell him he's wrong and dumb and if Mulholland Dr. isn't his best then Blue Velvet is.

david lynch? more like kane and lynch, because the intelligence of its followers is questionable heh heh.

i haven't seen lost highway but i was put off lynch after inland empire. his stuff doesn't seem artsy or postmodern to me , his goal seems rather to invoke a feeling and he does it well. but it's the feeling of idk anxiety and he does it with WEIRD STUFF and AWKWARD PAUSES and INDUSTRIAL NOISE IN INAPPRORIATE PLACES and it all feels a little too slow-motion-folk-music-hug-scene for me. it gets lame fairly quickly and this seems to be his BIG THING, and it's not just a trademark it's more like a gimmick. here are some other horrible things he uses too often:
-dream sequences/explanations. this got dumb after it was first used on rugrats
-naomi watts

i came to the realisation the other day that i's unlikely to have a film maker that's incredibly knowledgable on any other subject than film making, and even more unlikely that they're a genius director and a genius in another field or in general as well. as such i've been demanding way too much but still, there's genius and then there's not choking on your own spit.

the dune movie was amazing. i loved the fat guy who levitated around.

i've only seen eraserhead. i had no idea what to expect, going into it.

it only left me thinking 'wat'

There's a point where Lynch's work stops being art and starts being too fucking abstract to be entertaining.

two movies out of 10 climbtree, and it was only her voice in inland empire

gw loves mulholland drive. it's a good movie but it was pieced together from lynch's cancelled television project, and you can really tell. it's kind of annoying because it would have probably been the best show ever, but as a movie some parts don't make sense and if you didn't know it was meant to be a television series you'd think it was lynch being surreal just for fun again. I don't think it's his best movie.

I have only seen eraserhead, blue velvet, twin peaks, and mulholland drive. they're all worth watching except for twin peaks after the episode where you find out who killed laura

she was the lead in mulholland drive and that is overusing her. other examples of her being overused include king kong and eastern promises. if movies were dishes and actors were dishes naomi watts would be one of those ingredients you can't add too much of otherwise it overpowers all the other flavours. like arsenic.

also i saw it when i was fairly young but i remember the dune movie being pretty magnificent. i also remember overwhelming music at inappropriate times though but that may have just been our copy (VHS)

she was pretty good in eastern promises. king kong was garbage though

you don't have to respond to that, climbtree has only irrational opinions to express when it comes to davey lunch. it's a parody of lynch's style of directing.

I heart huckabees was good too.

she was pretty good in mulholland drive...for obvious reasons

somehow I've never seen a david lynch film... I mean I pretty much AM David Lynch maybe I just don't have anymore to learn

well I also thought I'd find somebody selling them, I don't buy movies from stores really

Venetian Snares has a track called Make Ronnie Rocket

I like Naomi Watts, but I want to have sex with her so maybe she is not as good as I think.

I only saw inland empire and hated it, I might check out blue velvet or muholland dr. and get back to this topic but Inland Empire was just too strung out for me.

his stuff doesn't seem artsy or postmodern to me , his goal seems rather to invoke a feeling and he does it well.

i don't know what you're basing this on, but lost highway is both artsy and postmodern. i don't mean either of those labels to be a compliment either(i believe the opposite, actually), i'm just stating a fact.

in general i don't see how lynch can be called anything but artsy. a director is artsy when they do nothing but weird, awkward shit, in order to evoke unusual feelings. the entire wikipedia article for art film is littered with references to david lynch films. doesn't mean their selection of movies is any good(i think it's extremely shitty), but that's what lynch is, by definition.

other than that, i'm not going to defend david lynch. lost highway has proven to me that he is an outstanding filmmaker, but i can't fault people for not getting anything at all out of his work. that's my gripe about him thus far anyway.

i came to the realisation the other day that i's unlikely to have a film maker that's incredibly knowledgable on any other subject than film making, and even more unlikely that they're a genius director and a genius in another field or in general as well. as such i've been demanding way too much but still, there's genius and then there's not choking on your own spit.

or maybe you just watch too many shitty movies? i could compile a pretty long list of filmmakers that are clearly knowledgeable about things unrelated to film making, many of which rely heavily on that knowledge when they make their movies. you aren't going to find many like this in hollywood, but these people have existed and still continue to. you just need to look a little harder for them. that's the way it is with all worthwhile art.

i don't even really look at the clowns in hollywood, or anyone making typical high concept bullshit, as being real filmmakers. most of them don't even know anything about filmmaking.

I like Naomi Watts, but I want to have sex with her so maybe she is not as good as I think.

yeah she is pretty mediocre, sometimes ranging towards dreadful. usually her performances are just forgettable, although she really went out of her way to try ruining the international. typically sub-par i guess, not like cate blanchett or renee zellweger dreadful.

but i'd like to have sex with her so whatever

i'm basing most of my judgements on mulholland drive, inland empire, the amputee and eraser head as i've seen them and they're his weirder ones. the weird stuff in these didn't seem postmodern it just seemed different, the weird stuff wasn't to criticise what film is or make some broader statement, it was there to weird out the audience. it's like a gruesome death in a horror film, to call him artsy or postmodern at the very least implies he's doing something new or innovative with the medium whereas it seems like he's doing the same old thing, tell a story evoke emotion.

or maybe you just watch too many shitty movies? i could compile a pretty long list of filmmakers that are clearly knowledgeable about things unrelated to film making, many of which rely heavily on that knowledge when they make their movies. you aren't going to find many like this in hollywood, but these people have existed and still continue to. you just need to look a little harder for them. that's the way it is with all worthwhile art.

i don't even really look at the clowns in hollywood, or anyone making typical high concept bullshit, as being real filmmakers. most of them don't even know anything about filmmaking.

maybe 1 in 10 of the movies i watch are good, not including MEET THE SPARTANS stuff. i couldn't name a single film maker with a phd that wasn't honorary, though i'm not too BIOGRAPHY when it comes to film makers or any other celebrity really so that's not saying much. also i wasn't saying that directors with other interests or other areas that they're knowledgable don't exist (certainly loads know about economics heh hehheh) just that they're rare. directors are people too and they're not going to research everything and they're gonna muddle concepts or mess up ideas accidently and this is pretty understandable. quentin tarantino is a disgusting moron though