David Lynch - Classic or Dud

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.

- Lynch the American

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/people/stam/suomi/stam/pics/duck_rabbit.gif

(x-post)

No, but maybe a little daffy.

Fuckin covid

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco - the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them - but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is…

— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) August 5, 2024

It's hard seeing so many cigarette guys (Lynch, Hitchens, Amis, Auster) suffer from the consequences. But Lynch is 78, so has had a good run so far. He'll find a way to do more with his restrictions.

Very sorry to hear it, tho as he acknowledges he smoked a whole lot for a long time. (And enjoyed it a lot, at least.)

I remember catching The Art Life in a theatre with friends and one of my takeaways was that he was way too into the whole ritual of smoking.

This isn't the first time Lynch has mentioned health issues that developed from smoking - IIRC, there's at least one interview from a couple years back where he said he was quitting smoking because of symptoms that sounded like the early stages of emphysema - but it's definitely the first time he's been upfront about how it will impact his directorial work. Really sucks, but at least he's quit smoking and doing what he can now to keep himself together. (It'll get worse over time, but it sounds like he's fully committed to slowing down the progression.)

I mean, he’s 78, he got decades of enjoyment from smoking, it doesn’t seem like a bad trade. (I don’t smoke, but I have this same thought about drinking.)

I am a current smoker of about 25 years and feel the exact same way about tobacco. Absolutely love it. That being said, I think I’ll use this as motivation to quit. Unlike Lynch, I have kids

The youngest of lynch’s kids is still quite young I think?

Oh my bad

She's 11 or 12, her name is Lula. She was in the Art Life documentary which was pretty good.

People.com tells me that Lynch is recently divorced after 14 years of marriage.

I am a current smoker of about 25 years and feel the exact same way about tobacco. Absolutely love it. That being said, I think I’ll use this as motivation to quit. Unlike Lynch, I have kids

― Heez

nobody remembers _boxing helena_!

It’s funny because everything about him seems so self centered, even the healthy habits like his meditation. But particularly his art. I guess that’s how you end up not being the best dad.

nobody remembers _boxing helena_!

Watched The Cowboy and the Frenchman last night with the kid.

God bless Harry Dean Stanton.