Premier Rock Forum

Just saw straight story, don't really know what I think of it :/ .

Eierdiebe wrote:

tmidgett wrote:Lynch has changed the landscape of filmmaking significantly.

how so?

tmidgett wrote:I think hating on him has become sport to an extent.

sport, or people coming to their senses.

tmidgett wrote:It's sort of like hating on Jimi Hendrix--neither of them are gonna seem as over the top today, with so many imitators in their wake.

actually, i think Hendrix's best work has become more outstanding over time. mostly because he wasn't just a gimmicky guitar hero but also a very good singer and songwriter.

Name your top ten directors then. Or a random list.

Eierdiebe wrote:

tmidgett wrote:Lynch has changed the landscape of filmmaking significantly.

how so?

He--and he alone--has dragged surrealist filmmaking into the mainstream. He is responsible for applying those techniques to more-or-less conventional story arcs.

When he started fracturing those story arcs--Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr.--well, I was a big fan from the start, but that's when I think he really, really latched onto something awesome.

He takes from all sorts of other directors. Cocteau and Bunuel chief among them--La Belle et la Bete is pure proto-Lynch (and one of my favorite movies). But no one else marries such a mastery of technical filmmaking with such an advanced narrative technique.

He will twist a narrative until it breaks, then he'll put it back together to serve his themes, in a way that they would never have been served by a traditional story arc.

It still kinda boggles my mind that anyone signed off on Twin Peaks for network TV.

People try to do what he does in part, but you can't do 'that kind of thing' in part. They're just not up for it. They're too timid, too bound by their expectations of what film is, and they are not committed enough to their obsessions. Cronenberg gets there every now and then, and is always worth watching.

But that's about it, in my experience. Lynch is an original.

actually, i think Hendrix's best work has become more outstanding over time. mostly because he wasn't just a gimmicky guitar hero but also a very good singer and songwriter.

I agree, but if one focuses on the 'weirdness' of Hendrix, his music doesn't have the same shocking impact now due to legions of imitators. I think the weirdness of it is the least interesting thing about it.

The weirdness of David Lynch's movies, who cares about it. Do they work, or do they not? Did he make it play, did he make his point, or did he not?

I can make a detailed case for every one of his great movies--why they do what they do so well, and so much better than they would do it if they sopped to people's expectations. I don't have time to do this by typing here, unfortunately. I am not really in the business of convincing people how great things are--that's for history to decide, but I'm pretty sure I know what end of things David Lynch will end up on.

Ciao,

TM

tmidgett wrote:Great movies:

Mulholland Dr. (classic)
Lost Highway
Blue Velvet
The Straight Story

Good movies:

Fire Walk with Me
The Elephant Man
Eraserhead

Fair movies:

Wild at Heart

Not-so-good movies:

Dune

I would swap Elephant Man for Mullholland Drive, personally. I thought Mullholland was going to be his best movie ever, but kinda tired after the cabaret scene...perhaps that was my own tiredness. Anyway, I was exhausted. Saying that, the audition sequence between the old guy and Naomi Watts could well be one of the most intense and heightened things I've ever watched in a cinema; an intimate and engrossing(as well as dark) seduction.

The billowing clouds at the start of The Elephant Man and the nightmarish elephant are great too...it's as if Lynch is simultaneously imagining the fulminations of the mind--a story in development--as well as the eruptions of Merrick's deformity.

His esoteric canon is very strong, although his output has fluctuated.

Dune, I like...even though Lynch doesn't.

He also gives the best interviews.

Although I liked it the first time I saw it, I watched Mulholland Drive again last night, and it blew me away. Unfortunately, it was on LOGO, so lots of the "good parts" were pixillated. Still, that movie is not crap.

Mulholland Drive is the best Lynch film. What an amazing fucking work of art. I can't say enough good about Lynch's work on this film.

I am watching The Elephant Man right now, and it is still brilliant after all these years.

anarchyinthebronx wrote:Name your top ten directors then. Or a random list.

here's a nifty list cut and pasted from my aborted myspace page. it's in html, so i've minimized it. please keep in mind that i was never once a "film studies" major --- this list is comprised of largely extracirricular interests. it's not complete by any means, but it should do the trick for the time being. also, let it be known that there are many films i have yet to see. i'm a filmmaker, so natually my sense of taste, as a viewer, is somewhat distorted.


<a href="http://www.robert-bresson.com">Robert Bresson's oeuvre from <i>Diary of a Country Priest</i> onward</a> (I think <i>L'Argent</i>'s my favorite) :: <a href="http://wayney.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/zornslemma.htm">Hollis Frampton</a> :: <i>Pee Wee's Big Adventure</i> :: <a href="http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/cassavetes.html">John Cassavetes</a> (especially <i>Faces</i>, <i>Love Streams</i>, and <i>The Killing of a Chinese Bookie</i>) :: <a href="http://www.schizo-the-movie.com/"><i>Schizo</i></a> :: Mike Leigh (especially <I>Naked</I>, <I>High Hopes</i>, <I>Nuts In May</i>, <i>Career Girls</I>, <I>Life Is Sweet</I>):: Agnes Varda's <a href="http://www.criterioncollection.com/asp/release.asp?id=74"><i>Vagabond</i></a>; :: <a href="http://www.lhp.com.sg/nobodyknows/"><i>Nobody Knows</i></a>, <i>Distance</i> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113725/"><i>Maborosi</i></a> by Hirokazu Kore-Eda :: <a href="http://www.criterioncollection.com/asp/release.asp?id=218"><i>Le Cercle Rouge</I></a> :: Peter Watkins' <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E1NX90/qid=1141146151/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/104-3597122-0125557?n=130"><i>Edvard Munch</i></a> :: <a href="http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=PLM003087"><i>Time of the Wolf</i></A> :: <a href="http://www.filmgalerie451.de/d_set_frameload.htm?content/vertrieb/eierdiebe.html~content"><i>Eierdiebe</i></a> :: <i>Pierrot Le Fou</i> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002NDSV/sr=8-3/qid=1141222551/ref=sr_1_3/104-3597122-0125557?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance"><i>JLG/JLG</i></a> :: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106953/"><I>Jon Jost's Frameup</i></a> :: <i>It Happened One Night</i> and <i>It's A Wonderful Life</i> :: <i>Five Easy Pieces</i> and <I>King of Marvin Gardens</i>:: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008OSD5/104-3597122-0125557?v=glance&n=130"><I>L'Atalante</I></a> :: <a href="http://www.nostalghia.com/">Andrei Tarkovsky</a> (especially <i>Stalker</i>, <i>The Mirror</i>, and <i>Andrei Rublev</i>) :: Wim Wenders (mostly in the 70s) :: <a href="http://www.sci.fi/~solaris/kauris/">Aki Kaurismaki</a> :: Wallace and Grommit movies :: <a href="http://www.r12.at/arnold/">Martin Arnold</a> :: <i>Ashes and Diamonds</i> :: <i>Tron</i> :: <i>Winter Light</i> :: <a href="http://www.iamasexaddictthemovie.com/"><i>I Am A Sex Addict</i></a> :: Werner Herzog (especially <a href="http://product.half.ebay.com/Stroszek_W0QQprZ3366021QQtgZinfo"><i>Stroszek</i></a>, <i>My Best Fiend</i>, <i>Aguirre the Wrath of God</i>, and <i>The Enigma of Kasper Hauser</i>) :: <a href="http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=71"><i>Come and See</i></a> :: <i>Night and Fog</i> :: <a href="http://www.milestonefilms.com/movie.php/kilsheep/"><i>Killer of Sheep</i></a> :: <i>Spirit of the Beehive</i> :: <I>Mikey and Nicky</I> :: <a href=http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=KCH003036"><I>Signal 7</I></a> :: Francis Schmidt's <i>A Trip East for Color</i> :: <a href="http://www.mutualappreciation.com/"><i>Mutual Appreciation</i></a> :: Jim Jarmusch :: Carl Dreyer :: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206988/"><i>One Way Boogie Woogie</I></a> :: <i>That Obscure Object of Desire</i> :: Morgan Fischer's <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue5/filmicbermuda.htm"><I>Standard Gauge</i></a> :: <I>How to Get Ahead In Advertising</i> :: <a href="http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=RYK310010"><i>Wanda</i></a> :: <a href="http://www.bwtc-movie.com/buy.html"><I>La Vie D'Un Chien</I></a> :: Wong Kar Wai :: <a href="http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=HVD000090"><i>Le Trou</I></a> :: <i>The Shop on Main Street</i> :: <i>Trash</i> :: <i>Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance</i> :: <a href="http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=HVD000213"><i>Ratcatcher</I></a> and Lynne Ramsey's early shorts :: Rainer Werner Fassbiner :: Su Freidrich :: Jacques Tati :: "A Fistful of Yen" (from <i>Kentucky Fried Movie</i>) :: animation of The Brothers Quay :: Abbas Kiarostami :: <I>The Knack and How to Get It</i> :: Jem Cohen :: <i>Jeanne Dielman...</i> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071690/"><i>Je Tu Il Elle</i></a> :: <I>L'Avventura</i> :: <a href="http://www.blackfilm.com/20030307/reviews/shorteyes.shtml"><i>Short Eyes</i></a> :: <i><a href="http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=PLM003083">Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator</i></a> :: <i>What Happened Was...</i> :: <I>Man Bites Dog</i> :: <I>Read My Lips</I> :: <i><a href="http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=FLA005427">Brief Crossing</a></i> :: <i>The Idiots</i> :: etc.

tmidgett wrote:
He--and he alone--has dragged surrealist filmmaking into the mainstream.

ehh. i'll have to get back to you on this. for now though, amidst my semi-drunken stupor, i can only say that i think lynch has for better or worse become a lazy, shorthand indicator for quasi-surrealism in the indsutry; a shallow reference point for professionals who'd like to avoid coming off as overtly subservient toward the money-hungery, chicken-shit value system they've all but fully succumbed to.