Inland Empire (2006, David Lynch): Rating 8/10
We see hazy images. Then two figures appear but their faces are blurred. They talk in some foreign language but the subtitles allude to the relationship between the man and the woman – customer and prostitute. The black and white film gives way to colour as the young prostitute awakes alone in a hotel room. She watches images flash on the tv in front of her – 3 adults in rabbit suits are engaged in mundane dialogue in a sitcom of sorts. Everytime when one of the women in the rabbit suit speaks some meaningless lines, one hears canned laughter from a non-existent audience.
We are thoroughly confused. But after a few more images, a narrative of sorts is finally formed – a linear story indicates that Laura Dern is playing a wealthy actress (Nikki) in anticipation of a big role. Her supposed neighbour tells Nikki that tomorrow she will get the role and what Nikki will be doing when she learns the news. And just like that, we jump a day advance in time. From that point on, we have left one time field and are moving in another time plane. It is about 30 minutes into the film that we learn the foreign language spoken at the start of the film is Polish and that is when things start to make sense. We might be able to link everything from the start of the film upto this point, but another time jump throws things into more confusion.
Worm holes, time travel, multiple characters, dreams, imagination, Lynch’s subconscious mind and Laura Dern’s magnificent face which stretches to whatever emotion is required of her. How does one begin to explain something that one does not understand? Put simply this movie feels like the essence of Mulholland Drive drugged with the time travel element from Lost Highway with a tiny dash of bizarre from Twin Peaks. It is complicated but never dull or boring. Yes it is inaccessible and makes Mulholland Drive look like a straight forward film. In Mulholland Drive drive, we could clearly draw a line between the dream and reality. But in Inland Empire we are dealing with multiple versions of dreams and reality which are further complicated by the aspect of time and space. Laura Dern appears to exist in both dream and real state in one space-time field (streets of Hollywood) while another version of her character appears in Poland working the streets. However, the young prostitute at the start of film might be the real character whose imagined life is being lived by Laura Dern.
Near the film’s end, the happy music and brightly lit images indicate that Laura Dern’s character is finally coming out of the wilderness back home. We also see two realities reduce to a single truth as Laura Dern’s character and the young prostitute merge into one. In addition, the film also starts unwinding from the different time planes back to a point of origin. But one can’t help wonder if there is single thread which connects all the images or we are dealing with separate abstract images? Given how the film was shot without a script, there is plenty of room for interpretation. A simple analysis I feel is that this is a movie which is like hyperlinks on the internet – we jump from one link to another and so on. Eventually, near the end of the movie, we are simply hitting the ‘back’ arrow on the browser and are returned to our starting page. Along the way, we find related links and stories but they are all different. Or the movie is reels projected across David Lynch’s mind acted out by Laura Dern whose face is a guide to what we should be looking for.
Either way, this is a tough film to judge. One can only react to it – like, dislike or confusion. There are plenty of scenes which demand a reaction, be it fear, tension, anger or even tranquility. I didn’t react with the same enthusiasm as I did for Mulholland Drive but overall I found Inland Empire to be an engaging and satisfying way to spend three hours. After the afternoon screening, it was strange to walk out into the sunlight and the dull real world!
Showing posts with label David Lynch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Lynch. Show all posts
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Director profile continued: David Lynch
Two weeks ago, I saw 3 David Lynch features over 2 nights. This time, I doubled that tally -- 6 features & short collections over 2 days. Since I saw Dune and Mulholland Dr. previously, I am done going through all the works of Lynch that I wanted to view. Now, I am throughly ready for Inland Empire.
So here are the films in order of viewing:
The Straight Story (1999): Rating 9/10
This has to be the most straight-forward (no pun intended) David Lynch film out there. In fact, if one didn't look at the credits, then one would never know that David Lynch was behind this work. Atleast Elephant Man included a few dream sequences which hinted at the director's familiar arsenal but The Straight Story is a clean and emotional journey. It was also the last work of Richard Farnsworth and this is clearly his movie from the first frame. Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight, a man who undertakes a 300+ mile journey on a lawn-mower to see his brother, Lyle. Alvin has not talked to Lyle in almost a decade after a falling out, but after Lyle has a stroke, Alvin decides he needs to make this journey on his own terms to set things right.
We get to see the wide open road, beautiful fields & shining stars as Alvin makes his brave journey. Along the way, he encounters an interesting collection of people (a runaway teenager, competition cyclists, a deer-loving woman who is agonized by deers hitting her car on a weekly basis) and wins everyone over (except the deer loving woman who is in too much grief) with his straight forward no-nonsense approach to life. Personally, I am a sucker for journey films and this story is as improbable as any journey film out there -- it is based on a true story but even if it was not, that would not have lessened this film's sincerity. The Straight Story is well acted and leisurely paced so that we can soak up every minute of clean country air.
The Short Films of David Lynch (2002)
This diverse collection goes through Lynch's first animation feature, his first short and even has clips of a mini-tv show episode he did. Lynch gives us the background story before the start of each short and that is useful in giving a road map of his work. We can see how his first animation allowed him to get money to buy his own camera with which he was able to make future works, which led to him getting a grant and eventually headed towards his first feature. Also, along the way, we get to see elements which would feature in his latter films like Eraserhead, Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr..
Six Men Getting Sick -- This 1966 quick-draw animation started it all for Lynch. Although the title tells all there is to know about the animation, Lynch's purpose with this effort was to experiment with moving pictures. The animation is basically a one minute segment repeated 4 times -- 6 men get their stomaches upset and throw up. The repeating annoying siren sound is highly distracting and combined with the images, achieves the intended purpose of causing distress and frustration in the audience. By today's standards there is nothing remarkable about the animation itself but this was his experimental effort back in 1966. It cost Lynch $200 to make this animation.
The Alphabet (1968, 4 min) This combination of animation and film gives the first glimpse of Lynch's recurring dream motif used in many of his works. The idea for this came to David when he heard of his wife's niece having a recurring nightmare where she repeatedly uttered the alphabets. So Lynch uses that to craft a semi-horror effort about a girl's constant torment with her nightmares. A significant technical leap forward from his first effort.
The Grandmother (1970, 34 min) This work was made with the help of a grant and marks Lynch's first feature short. A boy is abused and tortured by his parents. One day, he finds a bag of seeds in an unused bedroom in the house and plants the seeds on the bed -- the seeds grow into a weird plant which gives birth to a caring and compassionate grandmother. Is the grandmother real or a figment of the boy's imagination? Did the boy craft this scenario to escape his tortured life? One can see the seeds of Eraserhead in this short and even imagine that the boy would grow up into the lead character in that film. Also, the birth of the grandmother is accompanied by the plant oozing mud, similar to the blood and other liquids which gush out of the chicken and the baby in Eraserhead.
The Amputee (1974, 4 min) Nothing grand about this but just an interesting experiment. A woman is busy writing a letter and caught up in her emotions while a nurse is removing the bandages on her amputated leg. Suddenly blood starts gushing out from her wounds and even the nurse is at a loss to stop the flow. But the woman is so busy in her thoughts of jealousy and muted anger that she hardly notices anything. We are trying to listen to the woman's voice-over narration while trying to keep focus on the action happening in front of us. Eventually, the actions over the blood loss on her amputated leg takes precedence and we don't care about her letter or voice anymore.
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988, 25 min) David Lynch did this mini-series after Blue Velvet and as part of a TV series called "The French as seen by..". Different directors were asked to interpret the French in their own way and Lynch managed to combine "two cliches" in one film (as per the producer's words). Harry Dean Stanton plays Slim, a stone deaf cowboy who notices a strange manly creature heading towards his farm. His two assistants capture the creature and they all try to determine what this person is. When they open this man's bag, they find items such as bottles of wine, baguettes, snails and some cheese. Still they are clueless to his identity. But when they pull out a plate of french fries, they finally figure out that their strange capture is a Frenchman. This short packs typical cliches and is amusing for the first 10 min or so but after that ends up being dry & dull.
Lumière and Company (1995, 52 seconds) In order to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the original camera used by the Lumière brothers, various film directors were asked to submit a film shot in the same manner as it would have been made in 1895. That meant using the original camera, restricted to a length of 52 seconds and using only synch sound and original light. Needless to say, Lynch packs a lot in his 52 seconds -- a noir style mystery & a strange lab with a naked woman in a cylinder. Unfortunately, I was unable to give this a second viewing but Lynch seemed to have used up his precious few seconds quite well.
Blue Velvet (1986): Rating 9/10
I finally managed to watch this sublime effort in its entirety. Almost 10 years ago, I saw bits and portions of it. Back then I had caught some of the critical scenes in the first hour -- the severed ear in the field, Frank Booth's (Dennis Hopper) bizarre entrance to Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) apartment. But now, all the pieces were tied up. The movie starts and ends up in a happy white picket fenced town. But between those scenes, we are introduced to a "strange world" where evil people lurk in the night-time. The film is really about the loss of innocence. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is an innocent young man who finds a severed ear in the field one day. He dutifully heads down to the police station and gives it a detective (detective Williams). But he is curious to know who the ear belongs to. Detective Williams tells him that he can't give answers as it is too early in the investigation. But the detective's sweet and innocent daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern) gives a few clues to Jeffrey. From then on, Jeffrey's curiosity gets the better of him and leads him down a dangerous collision with Frank and the town's evil underbelly. Jeffrey & Sandy's innocent view of the world is changed forever and they are forced to grow up. Even in the end, when the nightmare is apparently over, Jeffrey may never be the same again. The dreamy music in the ending has shades of the music used in Naomi Watts dream episodes in Mulholland Dr. but in this case, Blue Velvet ends on a happy note and does not give any clues to any lurking evil.
Superb and brave performances all around with Rossellini convincing as the abused jazz singer, Hopper playing the perfect madman (a role he seems to cherish) and MacLachlan & Dern going through the range of emotions as they gradually lose their innocence. And the haunting title song is enchanting and inviting.
I really should have stopped my screenings here because it went downhill from here on....
Twin Peaks:Fire Walk with me (1992): Rating 5/10
The first sign of trouble appeared in the opening minutes -- David Lynch appeared playing a semi-deaf cop. He can't really act and his poor acting raised fears about the film's possible averageness. But that minor worry was temporarily put to rest as Kiefer Sutherland and Chris Isaak looked convincing playing two detective investigating a murder in Twin Peaks. However, all hopes of the movie making a full recovery vanished when Chris Isaak's character vanishes after he finds a green ring during his investigation. We next encounter Kyle MacLachlan as a detective who can enter a dream realm world and use that ability to solve his cases and predict future crimes. But after David Bowie makes a quick meaningless entrance, the movie really starts to sink. We are then returned to Twin Peaks a year into the future when another woman (Laura Palmer) will be murdered.
The second part of the film centers on Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The green ring makes its appearance in her story as well, as do some strange dreams. In a way, the green ring and the dreams have the same mystery appeal as the blue box in Mulholland Dr. but the problem here is that we solve the mystery too soon. Very early on, it is clear who the murderer is and what is going on. Yet, the movie continues to add subplots while slowing down to include needless scenes of nudity, drugs, alcohol and sex along the way. At a running time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, this movie was sheer torture to watch. The only positive is that mistakes in this feature and Lost Highway eventually led to a polished effort such as Mulholland Dr.
Wild at Heart (1990): Rating 4/10
It was a huge mistake to watch this film after Twin Peaks. I still can't believe this horrible mess won the main prize as Cannes. Sure, there are some worthy acting performances but the story is cliched. Or maybe it seems so in the year 2007. Right off the bat, the film's title rings true. A few minutes into the movie, Sailor (Nicolas Cage) kills a man because he threatened Sailor. Sailor is madly in love with Lula (Laura Dern) but Lula's mother does not approve. After serving his time in jail, Sailor and Lula escape on a cross country road trip. They pass their time having wild sex, talking and drinking. But Lula's mom wants Sailor dead and sends contract killers after them. And sure enough, there are some strange characters thrown in for fun, along with semi-nude women added as decoration. Yawn. Sorry, seen that.
Hotel Room (1993)
A 3 episode tv series with Lynch directing two efforts. All 3 episodes are set in the same New York city hotel room, #603, in different time periods. And in all 3 episodes, the same bellboy and hotel maid are used.
Tricks: Rating 8/10 -- This is the best of the 3 episodes. It takes place in 1969. Moe (Harry Dean Stanton) brings a prostitute (Darlene, played by Glenne Headly) to room 603. Just as Darlene is about to get undressed, there is a knock on the door. The unwanted visited is none other Moe's bothersome nemesis/friend, Lou. It seems no matter Moe says, Lou ignores him. And Lou is more confident and suave with Darlene than Moe. But things are not as what they seem and we are given some clues at the start to help us untangle the mess. The segment keeps our attention throughout and is well acted by Stanton.
Getting Rid of Robby (Director James Signorelli): Rating 6/10 -- Set in 1992, this one is at odds from the other two Lynch episodes. Sasha (Deborah Unger) and her two girlfriends gossip about men and relationships while Sasha waits to dump her boyfriend, Robert. But it turns out that one of her friends had a fling with Robert a long time. That leads to some arguments and a predictable climax when Robert arrives. Of all the three shorts, this one is brightly lit and much more playful in tone than the other two. Near the end, it attempts a darkish end but even that feels like more like a comic effort.
Blackout: Rating 7/10 -- Set in 1936, this one relies on an intense conversation between Danny (Crispin Glover) and Diane (Alicia Witt), a young couple who have come to New York because of Diane's medical problems. Danny is 22 and Diane is 20 and they two have been in love for 17 years. As they two talk in darkness because of a city wide blackout, slowly we are given clues as to the exact nature of Diane's medical problems. Not as impressive as the first episode.
So here are the films in order of viewing:
The Straight Story (1999): Rating 9/10
This has to be the most straight-forward (no pun intended) David Lynch film out there. In fact, if one didn't look at the credits, then one would never know that David Lynch was behind this work. Atleast Elephant Man included a few dream sequences which hinted at the director's familiar arsenal but The Straight Story is a clean and emotional journey. It was also the last work of Richard Farnsworth and this is clearly his movie from the first frame. Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight, a man who undertakes a 300+ mile journey on a lawn-mower to see his brother, Lyle. Alvin has not talked to Lyle in almost a decade after a falling out, but after Lyle has a stroke, Alvin decides he needs to make this journey on his own terms to set things right.
We get to see the wide open road, beautiful fields & shining stars as Alvin makes his brave journey. Along the way, he encounters an interesting collection of people (a runaway teenager, competition cyclists, a deer-loving woman who is agonized by deers hitting her car on a weekly basis) and wins everyone over (except the deer loving woman who is in too much grief) with his straight forward no-nonsense approach to life. Personally, I am a sucker for journey films and this story is as improbable as any journey film out there -- it is based on a true story but even if it was not, that would not have lessened this film's sincerity. The Straight Story is well acted and leisurely paced so that we can soak up every minute of clean country air.
The Short Films of David Lynch (2002)
This diverse collection goes through Lynch's first animation feature, his first short and even has clips of a mini-tv show episode he did. Lynch gives us the background story before the start of each short and that is useful in giving a road map of his work. We can see how his first animation allowed him to get money to buy his own camera with which he was able to make future works, which led to him getting a grant and eventually headed towards his first feature. Also, along the way, we get to see elements which would feature in his latter films like Eraserhead, Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr..
Six Men Getting Sick -- This 1966 quick-draw animation started it all for Lynch. Although the title tells all there is to know about the animation, Lynch's purpose with this effort was to experiment with moving pictures. The animation is basically a one minute segment repeated 4 times -- 6 men get their stomaches upset and throw up. The repeating annoying siren sound is highly distracting and combined with the images, achieves the intended purpose of causing distress and frustration in the audience. By today's standards there is nothing remarkable about the animation itself but this was his experimental effort back in 1966. It cost Lynch $200 to make this animation.
The Alphabet (1968, 4 min) This combination of animation and film gives the first glimpse of Lynch's recurring dream motif used in many of his works. The idea for this came to David when he heard of his wife's niece having a recurring nightmare where she repeatedly uttered the alphabets. So Lynch uses that to craft a semi-horror effort about a girl's constant torment with her nightmares. A significant technical leap forward from his first effort.
The Grandmother (1970, 34 min) This work was made with the help of a grant and marks Lynch's first feature short. A boy is abused and tortured by his parents. One day, he finds a bag of seeds in an unused bedroom in the house and plants the seeds on the bed -- the seeds grow into a weird plant which gives birth to a caring and compassionate grandmother. Is the grandmother real or a figment of the boy's imagination? Did the boy craft this scenario to escape his tortured life? One can see the seeds of Eraserhead in this short and even imagine that the boy would grow up into the lead character in that film. Also, the birth of the grandmother is accompanied by the plant oozing mud, similar to the blood and other liquids which gush out of the chicken and the baby in Eraserhead.
The Amputee (1974, 4 min) Nothing grand about this but just an interesting experiment. A woman is busy writing a letter and caught up in her emotions while a nurse is removing the bandages on her amputated leg. Suddenly blood starts gushing out from her wounds and even the nurse is at a loss to stop the flow. But the woman is so busy in her thoughts of jealousy and muted anger that she hardly notices anything. We are trying to listen to the woman's voice-over narration while trying to keep focus on the action happening in front of us. Eventually, the actions over the blood loss on her amputated leg takes precedence and we don't care about her letter or voice anymore.
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988, 25 min) David Lynch did this mini-series after Blue Velvet and as part of a TV series called "The French as seen by..". Different directors were asked to interpret the French in their own way and Lynch managed to combine "two cliches" in one film (as per the producer's words). Harry Dean Stanton plays Slim, a stone deaf cowboy who notices a strange manly creature heading towards his farm. His two assistants capture the creature and they all try to determine what this person is. When they open this man's bag, they find items such as bottles of wine, baguettes, snails and some cheese. Still they are clueless to his identity. But when they pull out a plate of french fries, they finally figure out that their strange capture is a Frenchman. This short packs typical cliches and is amusing for the first 10 min or so but after that ends up being dry & dull.
Lumière and Company (1995, 52 seconds) In order to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the original camera used by the Lumière brothers, various film directors were asked to submit a film shot in the same manner as it would have been made in 1895. That meant using the original camera, restricted to a length of 52 seconds and using only synch sound and original light. Needless to say, Lynch packs a lot in his 52 seconds -- a noir style mystery & a strange lab with a naked woman in a cylinder. Unfortunately, I was unable to give this a second viewing but Lynch seemed to have used up his precious few seconds quite well.
Blue Velvet (1986): Rating 9/10
I finally managed to watch this sublime effort in its entirety. Almost 10 years ago, I saw bits and portions of it. Back then I had caught some of the critical scenes in the first hour -- the severed ear in the field, Frank Booth's (Dennis Hopper) bizarre entrance to Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) apartment. But now, all the pieces were tied up. The movie starts and ends up in a happy white picket fenced town. But between those scenes, we are introduced to a "strange world" where evil people lurk in the night-time. The film is really about the loss of innocence. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is an innocent young man who finds a severed ear in the field one day. He dutifully heads down to the police station and gives it a detective (detective Williams). But he is curious to know who the ear belongs to. Detective Williams tells him that he can't give answers as it is too early in the investigation. But the detective's sweet and innocent daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern) gives a few clues to Jeffrey. From then on, Jeffrey's curiosity gets the better of him and leads him down a dangerous collision with Frank and the town's evil underbelly. Jeffrey & Sandy's innocent view of the world is changed forever and they are forced to grow up. Even in the end, when the nightmare is apparently over, Jeffrey may never be the same again. The dreamy music in the ending has shades of the music used in Naomi Watts dream episodes in Mulholland Dr. but in this case, Blue Velvet ends on a happy note and does not give any clues to any lurking evil.
Superb and brave performances all around with Rossellini convincing as the abused jazz singer, Hopper playing the perfect madman (a role he seems to cherish) and MacLachlan & Dern going through the range of emotions as they gradually lose their innocence. And the haunting title song is enchanting and inviting.
I really should have stopped my screenings here because it went downhill from here on....
Twin Peaks:Fire Walk with me (1992): Rating 5/10
The first sign of trouble appeared in the opening minutes -- David Lynch appeared playing a semi-deaf cop. He can't really act and his poor acting raised fears about the film's possible averageness. But that minor worry was temporarily put to rest as Kiefer Sutherland and Chris Isaak looked convincing playing two detective investigating a murder in Twin Peaks. However, all hopes of the movie making a full recovery vanished when Chris Isaak's character vanishes after he finds a green ring during his investigation. We next encounter Kyle MacLachlan as a detective who can enter a dream realm world and use that ability to solve his cases and predict future crimes. But after David Bowie makes a quick meaningless entrance, the movie really starts to sink. We are then returned to Twin Peaks a year into the future when another woman (Laura Palmer) will be murdered.
The second part of the film centers on Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The green ring makes its appearance in her story as well, as do some strange dreams. In a way, the green ring and the dreams have the same mystery appeal as the blue box in Mulholland Dr. but the problem here is that we solve the mystery too soon. Very early on, it is clear who the murderer is and what is going on. Yet, the movie continues to add subplots while slowing down to include needless scenes of nudity, drugs, alcohol and sex along the way. At a running time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, this movie was sheer torture to watch. The only positive is that mistakes in this feature and Lost Highway eventually led to a polished effort such as Mulholland Dr.
Wild at Heart (1990): Rating 4/10
It was a huge mistake to watch this film after Twin Peaks. I still can't believe this horrible mess won the main prize as Cannes. Sure, there are some worthy acting performances but the story is cliched. Or maybe it seems so in the year 2007. Right off the bat, the film's title rings true. A few minutes into the movie, Sailor (Nicolas Cage) kills a man because he threatened Sailor. Sailor is madly in love with Lula (Laura Dern) but Lula's mother does not approve. After serving his time in jail, Sailor and Lula escape on a cross country road trip. They pass their time having wild sex, talking and drinking. But Lula's mom wants Sailor dead and sends contract killers after them. And sure enough, there are some strange characters thrown in for fun, along with semi-nude women added as decoration. Yawn. Sorry, seen that.
Hotel Room (1993)
A 3 episode tv series with Lynch directing two efforts. All 3 episodes are set in the same New York city hotel room, #603, in different time periods. And in all 3 episodes, the same bellboy and hotel maid are used.
Tricks: Rating 8/10 -- This is the best of the 3 episodes. It takes place in 1969. Moe (Harry Dean Stanton) brings a prostitute (Darlene, played by Glenne Headly) to room 603. Just as Darlene is about to get undressed, there is a knock on the door. The unwanted visited is none other Moe's bothersome nemesis/friend, Lou. It seems no matter Moe says, Lou ignores him. And Lou is more confident and suave with Darlene than Moe. But things are not as what they seem and we are given some clues at the start to help us untangle the mess. The segment keeps our attention throughout and is well acted by Stanton.
Getting Rid of Robby (Director James Signorelli): Rating 6/10 -- Set in 1992, this one is at odds from the other two Lynch episodes. Sasha (Deborah Unger) and her two girlfriends gossip about men and relationships while Sasha waits to dump her boyfriend, Robert. But it turns out that one of her friends had a fling with Robert a long time. That leads to some arguments and a predictable climax when Robert arrives. Of all the three shorts, this one is brightly lit and much more playful in tone than the other two. Near the end, it attempts a darkish end but even that feels like more like a comic effort.
Blackout: Rating 7/10 -- Set in 1936, this one relies on an intense conversation between Danny (Crispin Glover) and Diane (Alicia Witt), a young couple who have come to New York because of Diane's medical problems. Danny is 22 and Diane is 20 and they two have been in love for 17 years. As they two talk in darkness because of a city wide blackout, slowly we are given clues as to the exact nature of Diane's medical problems. Not as impressive as the first episode.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
David Lynch
Director Profile: David Lynch
Waiting for Inland Empire. But it will be a long wait. I have given up on seeing this in a theatre but hopefully the DVD comes out by summer. In the meantime, I have decided to go back and watch all of Lynch's features & shorts so that I can be fully prepared to tackle Inland Empire. Another reason for going through all his cinematic effort is because even though I have heard of every single Lynch film, I have only seen a handful of his movies. So that record needed to be set straight.
Eraserhead (1977): Rating 9/10
A cinematic treasure!! A true measure of a film is that it transcends time and remains fresh no matter which decade it is watched in. It is hard to believe that Eraserhead was released almost 30 years ago. Even today, very few films can match the cinematic richness that David Lynch offered with this flick. This black and white film is one of those works that are tailor made for film studies courses -- hours can be spent discussing the lighting, the dreamy imagery, the haunting background score and the abundant symbolism. For example, the alien baby that Henry and his pseudo girlfriend have provides enough material for dissection -- the baby represents an alien creature who imposes on the life of this couple and alienates them further. That the baby looks like an alien only reinforces the idea. This is a film that needs to be watched with all the lights off and is a work that one can easily be lost in.
The Elephant Man (1980) : Rating 8/10
I still can't believe this is a David Lynch film. With the exception of the opening and closing scenes, the rest of the film is a linear humane story. On top of that, the locale is Victorian England, not America. However, this Black and White feature seems an appropriate follow-up to Eraserhead. Both The Elephant Man and Eraserhead start with images of birth -- in Eraserhead, we see an alien life form taking shape whereas in The Elephant Man, we see how a woman's child will be disfigured and take on the title of Elephant Man. The performances of Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt are top-notch and the screenplay is highly touching. Even though the story is inspired by a real tale, the movie had shades of the The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Now, both this movie and Eraserhead contain elements that appear in other Lynch films, especially Mulholland Dr. -- the stage theatre and chilling dreams. On the stages of Eraserhead, I almost waited to hear the words "Silencio" echoed so hauntingly in Mulholland Dr.
Lost Highway (1997) : Rating 7.5/10
Out of the darkness and into the light! After 2 black and white films, the color of Lost Highway threw me off. Despite being initially blinded by the color, I could still see all the foundations for Mulholland Dr. in Lost Highway. I am glad that I saw this movie almost 10 years after it was made and after having seen the fascinating puzzle of Mulholland Dr. and the chilling terror of Caché. Because Lost Highway starts off like Caché did. In both films, a couple gets video-tapes where someone has recorded their home from the outside. However, in the Lost Highway the spy physically enters the couple's home and tapes them sleeping. However, in Caché, the spy does not physically enter the couple's home but penetrates the main character's psyche.
I was quite surprized to see that Lost Highway was slammed by critics. Ofcourse, those same critics then went on to praise Mulholland Dr.. And now, those same very critics have called Inland Empire a masterpiece. In that sense, maybe Lynch has completely developed his dreamy version of life in L.A that he started in Lost Highway? I won't be able to judge until I see Inland Empire. But I truly enjoyed Lost Highway. Ofcourse, I was trying to compare it with Mulholland Dr. and finding common ground. Both movies have ample puzzles and have mysteries which need to be unlocked. Lost Highway plays with the concept of time and space more than Mulholland Dr.; it is also more loose in terms of plot and has plenty of extra scenes that are thrown in for no real purpose. Whereas, everything in Mulholland Dr. was connected and wrapped up in one mysterious blue box! One negative of Lost Highway is that none of the performances stand out. There is no Naomi Watts to light up the screen!
In conclusion, it was a real pleasure to lock myself in David Lynch's world for 2 nights! I will revisit Blue Velvet and tackle Twin Peaks along with a few of his short films in upcoming weeks.
Part II of the profile -- The Straight Story, collected short films, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart and Hotel Room.
Inland Empire.
Waiting for Inland Empire. But it will be a long wait. I have given up on seeing this in a theatre but hopefully the DVD comes out by summer. In the meantime, I have decided to go back and watch all of Lynch's features & shorts so that I can be fully prepared to tackle Inland Empire. Another reason for going through all his cinematic effort is because even though I have heard of every single Lynch film, I have only seen a handful of his movies. So that record needed to be set straight.
Eraserhead (1977): Rating 9/10
A cinematic treasure!! A true measure of a film is that it transcends time and remains fresh no matter which decade it is watched in. It is hard to believe that Eraserhead was released almost 30 years ago. Even today, very few films can match the cinematic richness that David Lynch offered with this flick. This black and white film is one of those works that are tailor made for film studies courses -- hours can be spent discussing the lighting, the dreamy imagery, the haunting background score and the abundant symbolism. For example, the alien baby that Henry and his pseudo girlfriend have provides enough material for dissection -- the baby represents an alien creature who imposes on the life of this couple and alienates them further. That the baby looks like an alien only reinforces the idea. This is a film that needs to be watched with all the lights off and is a work that one can easily be lost in.
The Elephant Man (1980) : Rating 8/10
I still can't believe this is a David Lynch film. With the exception of the opening and closing scenes, the rest of the film is a linear humane story. On top of that, the locale is Victorian England, not America. However, this Black and White feature seems an appropriate follow-up to Eraserhead. Both The Elephant Man and Eraserhead start with images of birth -- in Eraserhead, we see an alien life form taking shape whereas in The Elephant Man, we see how a woman's child will be disfigured and take on the title of Elephant Man. The performances of Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt are top-notch and the screenplay is highly touching. Even though the story is inspired by a real tale, the movie had shades of the The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Now, both this movie and Eraserhead contain elements that appear in other Lynch films, especially Mulholland Dr. -- the stage theatre and chilling dreams. On the stages of Eraserhead, I almost waited to hear the words "Silencio" echoed so hauntingly in Mulholland Dr.
Lost Highway (1997) : Rating 7.5/10
Out of the darkness and into the light! After 2 black and white films, the color of Lost Highway threw me off. Despite being initially blinded by the color, I could still see all the foundations for Mulholland Dr. in Lost Highway. I am glad that I saw this movie almost 10 years after it was made and after having seen the fascinating puzzle of Mulholland Dr. and the chilling terror of Caché. Because Lost Highway starts off like Caché did. In both films, a couple gets video-tapes where someone has recorded their home from the outside. However, in the Lost Highway the spy physically enters the couple's home and tapes them sleeping. However, in Caché, the spy does not physically enter the couple's home but penetrates the main character's psyche.
I was quite surprized to see that Lost Highway was slammed by critics. Ofcourse, those same critics then went on to praise Mulholland Dr.. And now, those same very critics have called Inland Empire a masterpiece. In that sense, maybe Lynch has completely developed his dreamy version of life in L.A that he started in Lost Highway? I won't be able to judge until I see Inland Empire. But I truly enjoyed Lost Highway. Ofcourse, I was trying to compare it with Mulholland Dr. and finding common ground. Both movies have ample puzzles and have mysteries which need to be unlocked. Lost Highway plays with the concept of time and space more than Mulholland Dr.; it is also more loose in terms of plot and has plenty of extra scenes that are thrown in for no real purpose. Whereas, everything in Mulholland Dr. was connected and wrapped up in one mysterious blue box! One negative of Lost Highway is that none of the performances stand out. There is no Naomi Watts to light up the screen!
In conclusion, it was a real pleasure to lock myself in David Lynch's world for 2 nights! I will revisit Blue Velvet and tackle Twin Peaks along with a few of his short films in upcoming weeks.
Part II of the profile -- The Straight Story, collected short films, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart and Hotel Room.
Inland Empire.
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