David Lynch - Classic or Dud

1997 was a great year for flicks. Starship Troopers should have won best picture but for some reason it wasn't even nominated, i think maybe the screeners got lost in the mail.

I love Lost Highway, think it's underrated, although it would benefit from shaving some of the endless scenes of him stumbling around long hallways near the end. Replaying that whole sequence along with the Rammstein tune is a bit much.

I didn't like it as much second time but I still prefer it to all those listed films that I've seen so far (even though Irma Vep may be better). The Bowie/road credit scenes completely knocked my socks off first time I seen it, even though not much is happening.

I love Robert Blake in this, especially the way he says "ask me". Booth is good, but I'd actually like to be Blake's character. Who wants to be Booth except guys who endlessly quote tough guy assholes in movies?
Has anyone here read Blake's autobiography Tales Of A Rascal: What I Did For Love? I've heard it's brilliant and quite dark itself.

I once read someone complain that Booth is simply a rehash of an earlier Hopper character.

Hopper once claimed that Booth is what Billy The Kid from Easy Rider would have become in the '80s had he not been (SPOILER) killed.

I know he got off on an acquittal but I can't enjoy LH anymore knowing Blake (or one of his goons) knocked off his wife.

I'd actually like to be Blake's character

really

My favorite 1997 film is the relatively obscure Too Many Ways to Be No. 1, an early Milkyway joint. Probably the most echt-90s film I can think of too - Kieslowski/Tykwer-style alternate timelines, camerawork that wants to out-Doyle Chris Doyle, direct lifts from Takeshi Kitano (hey wasn't Fireworks also 1997?).

Second fave is Boogie Nights. Favorite from Alfred's main list is Grosse Point Blank: sneakily subversive take on the hitman genre. Probably the only Tarantino wannabe that was bearable.

I remember my friend and I were soooo psyched to see Lost Highway at the time, my friend doubly so since he absolutely adored Reznor and Manson, and after we watched it, we just sat there, deflated: "Um, that's it?".

As for Wild at Heart, I haven't seen the deleted scenes, but I read the script and there was more of the random peripheral violence/accidents that you get just a taste of in the final film. The script made it feel like Lynch and Gifford were trying to make their own version of Godard's Weekend, except with a central couple in love rather than falling apart.

Speaking of Weekend, has any other Lynch film been so heavy-handed in its references? The Wizard of Oz, Sherilyn Fenn looking for her handbag seemed to come from Weekend, the dog with the severed hand from Yojimbo. I don't remember Lynch typically being so obvious, usually it's more along the lines of the bird in Blue Velvet maybe being a Kuchar reference or something obscure like that.

Checking the festivals of 1997, it's also the year that Hana-bi won the Golden Lion. That's a good one as well.

I just checked, Paul M Sammon claimed that the character and even certain scenes in Blue Velvet are very similar to Out Of The Blue. But he was also complaining that Lynch was selling out and was becoming too crassly pornographic (this was 1992), most of arguments points weren't very convincing.

Οὖτις- in the same way I want to Count Orlok or the creep in Khanate's "Skin Coat".

want to be

oh well that all makes sense then

I haven't seen LH in a long time, I should rewatch it. But one of the biggest problems with it is that it's so dark, meaning, the lighting in it is just dark, that it doesn't translate well to my TV which is 10 years old (and the last time I actually watched it was on VHS on a tube TV which was terrible looking). It looked good in a theater. I'd guess that a blu-ray on a better TV would look great. If Lynch was holding out for Criterion that's too bad.

haven't seen it since it was released but on the They Shoot Pictures website Lost Highway is still the highest ranking film from 1997, even above Happy Together and Taste of Cherry

Tim Lucas offers up his blocked Lost Highway commentary: https://videowatchdog.blogspot.com/2019/07/hear-my-lost-lost-highway-audio.html

(sorry, who is Tim Lucas?)

film critic, publisher of Video Watchdog, author of Throat Sprockets, Bava biographer, professional DVD commentary track guy whose commentary was blocked by Lynch from the Lost Highway blu-ray discussed extensively in this thread evive

yeah i have to imagine that Criterion wants to put out all the Lynch films they can and he's just waiting out until they're able to (at least a year considering they just put out Blue Velvet). I'd prefer an Inland Empire reissue, not because it needs to be 'restored,' it's just very hard to find these days. the region 1 dvd has been out of print for years.

Henry Rollins talking about Lynch's working process on Lost Highway, and hanging out with him off-set, on a 2017 podcast episode

(there's five minutes of chit-chat between Rollins and his long-time office manager / co-host at the beginning)

This is good stuff

I’m re-watching the return now and it’s so mind-blowingly good

lol that megaphone story in Rollins podcast is beautiful

I never wanted The Return to end, so I put off and put off watching the last two episodes... and still haven’t. Love having them out there to watch sometime when the mood takes me

Last two episodes are both equally nuts, but in very different ways

I've heard a couple of people say More Things That Happened is just as good or better than Inland Empire and I cant wrap my head around that. Only two scenes particularly grabbed me. One was the short scene at the end with Dern sitting among the girls in a living room with warm light. The other is the longer part for Karolina Gruszka, in which she subtly twitches with curiosity and fear while talking to the "phantom" watch seller. I might have a lookout for more Gruszka (mostly polish films).

I love More Things Happened because it further destabilizes Inland Empire, which I mostly love for how impossible it is for me to get my head around. But no, it's not better, of course not.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2nTQV1n7CC/

new short up on Netflix!

wait what

you heard me

new Lynch film is always excellent news

'A detective interrogates a monkey who is suspected of murder.'

Nice.

and it's lynch's birthday today too

"it was the ape in the rue morgue with simian frenzy and a chimneypiece"

I'd like to see this monkey team up with Babu Frick for some serious hijinks.

this is great; i love that the monkey's mouth/voice is so clearly lynch

i'm shocked he didn't drop this in advance of the oscars so he could pick up a short subject nom (yes i know it's old but this should count as a new release)

"i would lay my life on the line for any chicken or rooster"

oh lord the musical number

Amazing. This kind of thing feeds my soul.

hardboiled noir answers from that little guy.

ARE YOU A STRONG ARMED MAN?

Please let this be true

David Lynch creating new
limited series at Netflix with Laura Dern & Naomi Watts..... https://t.co/VEmsHlnup6

— Amanda (@DuganAmanda) March 11, 2020

Oh

Boy

Protect mr lynch from Coronavirus at all costs

this had better fucking be true!!!

holy moley

My sources are telling me that Dern and Watts will be wordless cameos. 99% of screentime is going to Chrysta Bell.

xxxp Lynch got very sick working so hard on The Return so yeah, be careful.

That’s fine xp

Chrysta Bell is a pretty terrible actress tbh. Those line readings! That awkward demeanor! Then again probably gonna be perfect for this.

There was a scene in The Return where she spends about 2 minutes just looking at a computer screen and clicking her mouse as she tries to match fingerprints. And watching her efforts to convey emotion was no joke one of my favorite things about the entire season.