David Lynch Thread

[seahorsegenius]

Can't believe there hasn't already been one of these yet. Well what's everyone think? It seems like I'm the only one, but Fire Walk With me is probably my favorite thing he's ever done. Basically sums up what I like about his films. It had all the cheesy dialogue that sounds ripped right out of a soap opera that I loved in Blue Velvet but still contained alot of the more comedic elements that was in the series. On top of that it's David Lynch at his most deranged and violent. The first, and only movie of his I would actually call a horror film.

Has anyone seen this new video? I still haven't seen most of his short films, and a video like this really makes me not want to. Please, don't let this be a scene from INLAND EMPIRE. It's kind of...ehhh:

Room To Dream

 

[the undisputed truth]

this is one of our tunes that samples David Lynch talking about transcendental meditation...

http://mp3.juno.co.uk/MP3/SF1200461-02-01-04.mp3

...apparently he's long time practitioner

buy it here...

HELL SCIENCE DEPT - WINTER MOURNING

 

[bruno]

no offence, hell_sd, but wouldn't that belong in the releases section? i will give it a listen, though.

 

[the undisputed truth]

shameless opportunism...

...kill 2 birds with one stone

sorry

 

[owen]

It seems like I'm the only one, but Fire Walk With me is probably my favorite thing he's ever done.

well i wouldn't go that far- but yes it is a very underrated film, incredibly menacing- starts a period of claustrophobia and horror also encompassing the similarly undervalued Lost Highway (which haneke has obviously copped an idea or two from) it was apparently totally hacked to pieces by the studio mind you (odd, as its already very long).

mind you it is obvious in many ways why its so unloved- the obscurity (you really do have to have watched the series first to make any sense of it), the tendency towards sexual violence, the inexplicable bowie scene...and not nearly enough of cooper

but the nightclub scene in fire walk with me is possibly my favourite thing in his entire work though- an astonishing barrage of seductive nastiness

 

[seahorsegenius]

it was apparently totally hacked to pieces by the studio mind you (odd, as its already very long).

I heard about this. Wish they would have put some extra scenes or something on the DVD. Instead they interviewed the cast, and pretty much everyone explained how they really didn't think it was that great and wish it were more like the series. You have to wonder if they even really respect Lynch at all. I kept wondering to myself if (the fact that they still decided to put the interviews on the DVD) it was really some statement to Hollywood that he really doesn't care what they think or it's not his job to please them?

 

[wonk_vitesse]

anyone seen this very David Lynch french film 'Lemming' with Charlotte Rampling, very odd, has some wonderful stills and dramatic moments.

 

[DJ PIMP]

Love the nightclub scene from Fire Walk. Another fave is Mulholland Drive where the two guys are in the diner.

"There's a man, in back of this place. He's the one who's doing it. I can see him through the wall. I can see his face. I hope that I will never see that face ever outside of a dream."

*shudder*

Best horror movies ever.

 

[IdleRich]

Mulholland Drive is great throughout. Actually the bit where the girls get together could fit into the "Erotic Movie" thread that someone started. There is something very - I don't know - nice about that. It seems just like a dream when everything is right but real and there is a very palpable sense of loss when it all changes.
I seem to remember Fire Walk With Me as being good but that was a long time ago. On the other hand I didn't enjoy Blue Velvet that much, perhaps it had been built up too much.

"this very David Lynch french film 'Lemming'"

I've read about this, sounds really good, I'll check it out when I get a chance.

 

[robin]

i agree that fire walk with me is extremely underrated,i watched it again recently...
visually its incredible,and the use of music and sound in it really blew me away as well.obviously its one of the more disturbing films i've ever seen,some of it is really really horrible...
what i find interesting about it is that,presuming you've seen the whole series,the film really does seem to be david lynch fucking with you-its like he's had 25 episodes to condition your pysche,and now he's going to really manipulate you...for example the painting of the house in the other world (or whatever it is)-before anything happens with that picture,just the look of it was truly terrifying,even though its just a picture of an empty room...
anyone know what i mean?
the whole film seems like the closest you could get to actually filming a nightmare

 

[ice bat]

The jagged pattern of the Red Room's floor in Fire Walk With Me is for me one of the most profoundly unpleasant and upsetting images in film. Such a powerful reaction to a relatively minor detail seems odd even to me, but there it is -- a prime example of Lynch's visual genius AFAIC.

The shooting script for Fire Walk With Me is available online at http://www.lynchnet.com/fwwm/fwwmscript.html. It's very different from the film as released, much more explicit and (to my mind) not effectively so.

Lynch's campaign to establish several new Transcendental Meditation centers and bring its practice into the mainstream of US education is worrying to me -- from what I've read TM sounds like a terribly unsound offshoot of Hinduism whose functioning could not unreasonably be described as cultlike. Ah well...

 

[mike]

what i find interesting about it is that,presuming you've seen the whole series,the film really does seem to be david lynch fucking with you-its like he's had 25 episodes to condition your pysche,and now he's going to really manipulate you...for example the painting of the house in the other world (or whatever it is)-before anything happens with that picture,just the look of it was truly terrifying,even though its just a picture of an empty room...
anyone know what i mean?
the whole film seems like the closest you could get to actually filming a nightmare

I think Zizek perfectly described Lynch's whole affect as "ridiculous sublime". The more terrifying scenes such as these always seem to be preceded by seemingly senseless, soap-opraesque drama and cheap dialogue about impossible love and hope, which is quickly destroyed by what follows. But I think the most bizarre thing I have ever seen in a film is that big angel at the end of Fire Walk With Me. I was really afraid when it ended with that. It looked like a big christmas ornament.

 

[Buick6]

Yeah that IS apparently a scene from INLAND EMPIRE taken off the Avid demo disc. I was a bit worried too as it look like he's trying to do a Von Trier 'Dancer in the dark' musical typoe shitck. I mean do we need more camp musicals, does Hollywood really REALLY need to be so gay-whipped? I mean how exactly is it improving culture when that happens?

 

[jed_]

"gay whipped"

Gay-whipped? what the fuck is that supposed to mean!? i take it it means that gays like musicals and like to turn films into them? that gays cntrol Hollywood? offensive and wrong, mate.

for one thing this clip , although it turns into a musical number, couldnt be further from a musical as you might expect it (actually my impresson of the scene went from "god no" to "um... what.. ok yeah!" as soon as the music started.) for another thing INLAND EMPIRE (which this may or may not be a clip from) is not a hollywood film, it is financed completely indepenently.


I've really never read anything that's offended me on Dissensus. i guess there's a first time for everything.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i saw inland empire at the weekend. i was indifferent to it when it came out but it seemed so much better this time. nothing new from lynch (i think he started to overuse the trademark industrial background noise from eraserhead too much starting with lost highway to the point of cliche almost but it works better here) but its everything i like about him, more experimental than mulholland drive which it pairs up with well (though MD pairs up easily with lost highway too) and even though its 3 hours, i didnt think it wasted any of the time.

my lynch top 5 imo -
wild at heart (easily his most visceral film)
inland empire
blue velvet
fire walk with me
eraserhead

(still not seen straight story or the short films, and i prefer 80s lynch to 90s lynch overall - its weird though, lynch is almost overrated these days)

 

[Bangpuss]

Currently watching Twin Peaks for the first time and really liking it. "You just uttered the magic words. I take it black as a moonless night." Someone really ought to mention this piece by David Foster Wallace he did for Premiere magazine where he visited the set for Lost Highway: http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html

It's my favourite D.F.W. piece of non-fiction (or maybe level with Tennis, Trigonometry, etc). Anyway, it's way long, and the most incisive thing I've ever read about films, Lynch or otherwise.

Anyone have a link to Lost Highway to watch online? LoveFilm doesn't even have the DVD...

 

[slowtrain]

I feel like Lynch the way I feel about Dali.

I do like both of them, but sometimes I get a snagging suspicion that they are missing something quite important.

 

[Benny Bunter]

(still not seen straight story or the short films, and i prefer 80s lynch to 90s lynch overall - its weird though, lynch is almost overrated these days)

you really should see straight story, its a beautiful film about old age that will melt your heart. Lynch is a big softie really...

That said I think Mulholland drive is his best. I felt utterly shellshocked coming out of the cinema after it. Surely this is his masterpiece? Lost highway is good but the soundtrack is a bit shit though innit?

 

[Leo]

yeah, i think "mulholland drive" was the last film that actually made me go "whoa, holy shit" a few times. and i immediately became a naomi watts fan for life.

 

[rubberdingyrapids]

i saw mulholland dr after it came out, when people were hyping it up a lot, so maybe thats why i didnt think that much of it. its not as filmic looking or as dark as his other movies (prob cos it was meant for tv - shame it never got commissioned, it could have been really good) and for some reason, i think its a bit gimmicky, the way it suddenly moves the timeline around in the second half. makes me think he was a bit tarantino influenced. actually i think that about lost highway too, eg all the stuff with mobsters. reminds me a bit of ghost dog too. might have to watch them again though, i have to be in a certain mood for lynch i find.