wild at heart is easily his best film.

not crap overall, over-rated, but interesting sometimes.

No matter what one thinks of Lynch's recent films, (which I'm not very fond of either) it would really be difficult to deny the guy Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. Both pieces are original cinema and stand the test of time of being great art and good movies too.

Ever tried to make a film? It's unbelievably difficult; damn near impossible in fact. I guess after going through it myself I cut more slack to artists and directors, plus Lynch is a very nice, ethical guy, I was around him once and he was not a phony, which is unusual in LA. He is in film-making for all the right reasons, unlike many of his peers.

His work resonates with a lot of people, some of them annoying I'm sure but he can't help that, he can't hand-pick his 'fan base.'

Dave/Eksvplot wrote:

ergo space pig wrote:And what lazy choices are you talking about?

Well, for instance, Mullholland Drive seemed very obviously cobbled together. Much of that film is soap-opera-grade-bad. It was no surprise to find out that a good deal of the film was culled from a failed TV pilot. Those opening shots/jumpcuts from behind the limo, for instance, are indeed cringeworthy. As is the "Silencio!" ending, and the cliched send-ups of Hollywood, and... I could rip this fucking film to shreds but it would require me to view it again and I dread the mere notion of doing that.

You could "rip the film to fucking shreds" and it would not ruin my enjoyment for the film at all, nor change my opinion that it's one of the best films to come out in the past 10 years. It would be even too easy to do that - all of the "flaws", if you want to call them that, are very much on the surface. The idea behind Lynch's stuff is to get people to respond on an emotional level, not a rational one. I'd be the first to admit that Lynch is sort of campy, but that's always been the language he's done things in and it's the one he's very good at. Like I said, it's very derived from old Hollywood films and is only appropriate given that the subject matter is Hollywood. He speaks to a much different tradition than a lot of other directors, but that doesn't mean that his is any less valid.

What do you think I might be getting out of it? I personally think the numerous "unlockings" of the film on the internet are pretty interesting, but not particularly insightful. Ultimately his films aren't there to be unlocked, I don't believe. I think Mulholland Dr. is much more interesting when you see it as a story about a woman trying to escape from her crappy life by inventing in her head a sappy tale of a young actress. That's what movies have traditionally been in America - escapism and entertainment. I think it's very insightful. Not all of it makes complete sense, but to me it covers the scope of Lynch's image of Hollywood pretty well.

I also want to note that the very heavy emotional response that I got was all apparent on my first viewing of the film, before I read any interpretations.

The thing I would say about Mulholland Drive is this: imagine working your ass off for however long it took to shoot a two-hour pilot, with the intention of releasing it as the beginning of a series on a major TV network, only to have that network decide they want to go in a different direction (the person who made this decision was fired soon thereafter). Now, instead of the introduction to a story, it had to be re-shaped into a finished piece in under two hours.

Luckily he retained the rights to the footage he shot and walked away with the negative. Now the task at hand is to turn this footage into something releasable as a feature- length film. Out of his own pocket he finances re-shoots, does a story change and some editing and comes up with a picture he could release and re-coup the monetary investment and the time and energy put forth into the original project, not to mention salvaging and in the case of Naomi Watts, launching careers. This of course involves assembling an acting cast and production crew a year after the fact and trying to make the footage match. It was a herculean task and it's miraculous that the guy was able to make anything of it at all.

Lynch and the TM creeps equals big time crap though....

etch wrote:Lynch and the TM creeps equals big time crap though....

I still don't know how to feel about him and TM. I think it's great that he's into but it has come off to me as creepy before too.

but yeah, agreed with all the stuff you said about Mulholland Dr.

ergo space pig wrote:

...I think Mulholland Dr. is much more interesting when you see it as a story about a woman trying to escape from her crappy life by inventing in her head a sappy tale of a young actress. That's what movies have traditionally been in America - escapism and entertainment. I think it's very insightful. Not all of it makes complete sense, but to me it covers the scope of Lynch's image of Hollywood pretty well.

I also want to note that the very heavy emotional response that I got was all apparent on my first viewing of the film, before I read any interpretations.

Bravo, especially the bit about the emotional response. That has been so widespread amongst friends I know who've seen it. A collegue of mine saw it recently and said she was so upset by MD after an initial viewing but was unsure why , later she spoke to me about it and read a couple of interpretations. I remember my own response was equally powerful.

IE had a similar effect. I still think that this is Lynch's most important, if somewhat flawed, film. I'm less keen on Blue Velvet or Wild at Heart which seem artistically tame by comparison.

I just watched Fire Walk With Me. I thought it was great, but upon reading about it, I discovered that the original intention was to make more films from the Twin Peaks universe.
I find it hilarious because there is no fucking way that the movie was going to make enough money to justify a sequel. Although I don't understand why the critics were so brutal. Perhaps some of the critics were not familiar enough with the series to understand parts (although even a fan is left scratching his head at some moments).
It is damn depressing that no other films were made, because I think they would be fascinating. I think I could watch a whole film just devoted to scenes from the Black Lodge.

Regarding Lynch's "campiness," I think that makes his films so better. The dark, terrifying moments are only enhanced by the cloying moments.
I think the music of Angelo Badalamenti perfectly complements Lynch's filmmaking style. When I first head the Twin Peaks theme music, I thought it was slightly cheesy and found the production to be really dated. And the "jazzy" Audrey/Great Northern song seemed slightly ridiculous. But the more I watched that show, the more perfect the music seemed. And as the series gets into darker places, the music gets more fucked up. There is one scene later in the second season where I think his music almost sounds like Shostakovich. The super fucked up music is complemented by the "cliched" music.

I love all of the Lynch films I've seen.
Lost Highway is probably my least favorite, but I have not yet watched Dune, The Elephant Man, The Straight Story, or Inland Empire.
I can say with certainty that Mulholland Drive is one of my favorite films of all time.

We'd be so much worse off film-wise without him. Not Crap.