David Lynch - Classic or Dud

Did anyone ever see that interview he did for scene by scene - i loved the bit where he's talking about "the eye of the duck" to describe the key scene in his films.

Also i highly recommend the book "Lynch on Lynch" - so much fun!

Umm. This movie is two years old. Why are we speculating on its award chances?

*waiting for backlash*

crosspost

Yeah, quite right. I read the book a year before the movie came out so my timing was perfect there...

although, N. has had my copy of the cinema one for nearly a year, now.

cremaster's opulent mythboredom reminded me a lot of dune

absolutely. it's funny how the production design seems to be the central concern of the film for much of its length, but unlike other well-appointed films, the design is actually so rich it actually sustains interest.

this movie redeems dino dilaurentis's reputation from all the europudding he's made. (well, this movie and "blue velvet.")

the last half hour is a mess, yes, but it's compelling for being so incomprehensible. the ending, if you haven't read the book, is just quizzical--all the more so for being so terrifically bombastic and theatrical.

FWWM, like Dune, does have a lot of extra footage still sitting there. As a fan of fractured, difficult art I'm not too bothered about seeing it restored. Pretty much all the series cast shot scenes.

Err, Lynch incidentally is brain-crushingly classic.

There's a much better book out there if you can find it at all -- The Making of Dune by Ed Naha. He was hired to essentially hang around on site during the entire length of filming and write a book about it all and did a fantastic job, I thought. While essentially uncritical about the final product itself, it actually doesn't talk about that so much as just the filming itself. Also laden with tons of photos.

Here's ten, in order of "classicness":

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Eraserhead
3. Blue Velvet
4. Wild at Heart
5. Elephant Man
6. Twin Peaks
7. The Straight Story
8. Dune
9. Fire Walk with Me
10. Lost Highway

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Blue Velvet
3. Eraserhead
4. Elephant Man
5. Lost Highway
6. Fire Walk with Me
7. Twin Peaks
8. Dune
9.The Straight Story

sorry, jaymc, my aside has troubled you, AND i used the wrong tense in one sentence!
and it revived a discussion, how about that ?
but huh ?, you haven't commented on Princess Anne and the BAFTAs, which was what i was getting at. Or anything else beyond the semantics of said paragraph. What do YOU THINK ?

I'm not sure I'll ever get round reading the book so could somebody please summarize what it adds to the movie?

David Lynch: Well, you know, nature can teach us a lot of things, and there's
something about, in painting, you're working within a certain shaped
canvas and there's many things that you, you know, one does
intuitively, to move the eye, you know, there's repetition of shape,
there's repetition of colour, but when you start looking at a duck,
you see your eye is moving in a certain way, and you see textures and
colours and shapes and you start wondering about a duck, what it can
teach us about, you know, any kind of abstract, you know, painting, or
proportions or even sequences, scenes, and it always is interesting
that the eye is in the perfect place - if you move it to the body, it
would get lost, if you move to the leg or the beak, it's two, kind of,
fast areas competing, even though the eye is the fastest, it's the
little jewel.

DL: Well, there's slow and fast. An empty room is a certain speed,
and a person standing there is another speed, and that proportion is,
you know, can be beautiful, if the room is a 2 and the person is a 7.
I think a person is around a 7; fire and electricity can go up to a 9,
for instance, or really intricately designed, you know, decorative
room is pretty disturbing, sometimes - it's too fast. But then if you
put something slow in it, it could work beautifully. A busy room and
a person, they fight each other. So...

MC: Is this to do with how fast our eye moves to scan it, to see
what's happening?

DL: It's a relationship thing, I think. Fast and slow areas.

MC: OK. What is the eye of the duck scene in Straight Story?

DL: I haven't thought about it. I have to think about it. I can't
just jump in and think, but I believe every film has the eye of the
duck scene. But, it can fool you. You know, which one it is - it
could be the scene we were talking about, I don't know.

MC: What's the eye of the duck scene in `Blue Velvet'?

DL: I used to know.

MC: Is it the `In Dreams' song.

DL: It's the eye of the duck, that's the eye of the duck, yes, yes.

[clip `in dreams']

MC: And what's the eye of the duck scene in Elephant Man?

DL: (laughs) I used to know.

MC: Is it the scene where he goes to the theatre? Near the end?

DL: No, I think, strangely, the eye of the duck scene is the ending.

I knew I sensed the work of Henry Rollins in Lynch's films

he also had Behold A Pale Horse by Bill Cooper, the conspiracy theory book linked to anti government militias sometimes

Henry Rollins told some great stories on his podcast about working with Lynch on Lost Highway

Yeah, they traded a lot of music, much to Rollins and Lynch's delight. (They were mutual fans.)

Also gave some insight into how someone like Lynch can feasibly make movies - they may get name stars but they have very tight budgets.

His compound's up for sale - $15 million asking price.

I hope the buyer preserves his workshop, at least in a way that can allow it to be recreated if they have no interest in keeping it intact and in use. Wouldn't be unprecedented - in the last few years, I was stunned to see Martin Scorsese's original family home's living room reconstructed from the original furniture (which he preserved) and a recreation of Hal Willner's studio at the NYPL.

(Willner's studio was also put together from his actual belongings, of which there were MANY since it was his working studio until his untimely death from COVID.)

Yeah they should turn it into a museum.

Link to the Zillow listing for pics, etc.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7017-Senalda-Rd-Los-Angeles-CA-90068/20803620_zpid/

Am I wrong in thinking that's a low listing price?

I can contribute 5k to the ilx crowdfund

We failed to buy the silverdome let’s not make the same mistake twice

Michael Jordan's former mansion sold for less than $10 million after languishing on the market for a long time. Given the location (and as part of that, the cost of upkeep and insurance) for Lynch's compound, I think $15 million may be a bit optimistic.

Yeah, take out the "Lynch" factor and this is a very optimistic price.

Am I wrong in thinking that's a low listing price?

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Saturday, September 13, 2025 7:26 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

as someone on the market to buy in LA now, though at a tiny fraction of that sticker price, $1364/sqft is pretty high. obviously with the amenities and history I understand why it’s a bit inflated

but the market is really bad for sellers right now. If it closes any time soon I doubt they’ll get the asking price

yeah, i was going off memory of an old friend trying to sell their Washington Heights place some 5-6 years back and forgot about market changes/wildfires/etc.

It looked like a lot of cement rooms (and per the description more bathrooms than bedrooms) - I kind of wonder if it was more suitable to turn it into a school or some kind of arts center or artist studios rather than to use it as another home.

It's 3 separate houses, with some outbuildings. I wonder if it'll be divided back into 3 properties and re-sold individually.

Even though this seems high from a real estate perspective, I was just looking back over his estate sale, and every last item was bid up massively over the expected price, which makes me think $15M is totally reasonable or possibly way less than what it will end up selling for.

Market is bad for sellers across the board, or just LA? Last I saw something like 30% of all house sales are cash, which is insane. Everyone I know that recently sold in Chicago sold at or over asking in just a day or two.

think it’s across the board. had read that sellers vastly outnumber buyers to a degree that hasn’t been seen in a while. and if you’re on Redfin a lot it’s pretty obvious — houses/condos on the market for months, closing price frequently below asking etc

I think I must just live in a particularly heated market.

We sold our house in LA at list price in June in about 3 1/2 weeks, and everyone I tell that to is shocked.

15 million is a lot for that, I think as far as the location goes it’s iconic in a Lynch sense but it’s not necessarily the most sought after area either. Not just bc these days people are more likely to reflect on the possibility of a fire sweeping through the hills, but also it’s just not the best use of 15 million if you’re lucky enough to have it. Being Hollywood adjacent is not the lure that a lot of people might imagine it to be, not in 2025 anyway.

The fact that it's a "compound" with 3 houses may give a "sum is worth more than the parts" aspect to some buyers, but a famous ex-owner doesn't give that much of a boost.

With estate sale auction items you can put them on the wall/bookshelf/counter/music room without upending your life by moving.

Apparently the main building was designed by Lloyd Wright. Son of Frank Lloyd Wright. Which raises the question of whether Frank Lloyd Wright's grandson was just called Wright. But alas no, he was Eric Lloyd Wright.

There's a bunch of photos of the place from when Lynch was alive, and they seem to have tarted it up since he's left. In particular the exterior doesn't look great when it's damp:
https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/11g9dkx/david_lynchs_la/

The screening and editing rooms are interesting. I wonder if they still have the equipment, or if it was auctioned off? It raises the question of whether he used the screening room to have final say on the picture quality of his films, or if it was just for fun. It's a pretty substantial room:
https://i.redd.it/snxgjakgtrof1.png

There's a bunch of photos of the place from when Lynch was alive, and they seem to have tarted it up since he's left. In particular the exterior doesn't look great when it's damp:

I'm not a structural engineer or anything, but is it a cause for concern over the long run when water reveals so many cracks in the cement?

Nm, found this: https://www.a1concrete.com/concrete-repair-learning-center/concrete-crack-types