|
Welcome to the David Lynch Chat Lodge, where there’s always music in the air and the drapes are always red… This is a thread for discussing the work of David Lynch (b. 1946, Missoula, Montana). Lynch is an award-winning director of movies, television, commercials and music videos (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) as well as being an actor, writer, cartoonist, musician, photographer, painter and builder of lamps. Lynch is also a proponent of transcendental meditation and has a foundation which promotes the use and better understanding of TM. Lynch is currently married and resident in LA. Major films: Eraserhead The Elephant Man Dune Blue Velvet Wild at Heart Twin peaks: Fire Walk With Me Lost Highway The Straight Story Mulholland Drive Inland Empire Lynch’s work is so diverse, I don’t think there is any point in limiting discussion in this thread (with the exception of Twin Peaks, see below). I guess we’ll mostly be chatting about the movies but everything else he does is worth covering here, especially as I can’t see threads on his art, music, writing etc. gaining a critical mass on their own. Also, a lot of us are interested in many parts of his output, so it seems best to share it in one place. Posting of favourite images encouraged! Newbies are welcome, but please read this thread and check Wikipedia/Google before posting questions. Lynch fans are pretty chill and inclusive. Thread rules: There will be spoilers so newbies beware! It is up to posters itt to decide regarding spoiler tags but just assume that if you are reading there will be spoilers. Obviously, if a new movie comes out that will be spoiler tag material for a while. For any detailed chat regarding Twin Peaks TV series (S1 and S2 complete, S3 in development for autumn 2016 ( If you’ve met Lynch or his collaborators you are welcome to tell us about your experiences if it relates to projects, public events, conventions, etc. Nothing regarding people’s private lives, please. No stalking or internet detectiving. Vimeo, YouTube and any videos/clips on official sites are fine to post. It goes without saying, no Try to keep it polite. Links: DavidLynch.com is the official website. http://davidlynch.com/ David Lynch Foundation is his charity, largely related to TM. http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/ Forums: Dugpa: an excellent site with reviews, interviews and a very active forum http://dugpa.com/ Twin Peaks Gazette: an archived forum, defunct since 2012 and much missed. Still lots of stuff worth digging out. http://twinpeaksgazette.com/ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch Documentaries/Interviews: Pretty as a Picture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11nPUi5RWck 2014 interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuMYSuyDmM8 {Please feel free to suggest additional links! I will add to OP.} Josef K. Sourdust fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Jan 17, 2015 |
# ? Jan 16, 2015 23:00 |
|
|
# ? May 30, 2024 14:17 |
|
I love David Lynch but I still haven't seen about half his movies. Need to see: Elephant Man, Straight Story, Lost Highway, and Inland Empire (haven't seen Dune but from what I've heard about it I probably don't need to). Mulholland Drive is not only my favorite Lynch movie but might be my absolute favorite movie overall, I think it's a work of perfect genius. If I ever want to freak myself out for the rest of the day I just need to think about the guy behind the diner...great, now I've gone and done it. And now you have too.
|
# ? Jan 16, 2015 23:37 |
|
David Lynch is just about one of my favorite people ever. Though I love his movies and music (I own every movie and album he's made, plus a couple books of his photography) I know relatively little about the man himself. Eraserhead is my very favorite Lynch movie (and probably my second or third favorite movie PERIOD.) I saw it back in the 90s when I was 15 or 16 and it stuck with me, HARD. Burned itself into my brain. Bought a crusty VHS copy soon after I saw it. Just realized there's a Criterion edition (of course there is) so I'll pick that up pretty soon, I'm sure. Eraserhead is my friendship test film. We will sit and watch it, and if you enjoy it-- even if you never want to watch it again--you pass. If not, I know that I'm probably too weird to be friends with you anyways-- I'd annoy you to death before too long. I have an Eraserhead tattoo. (forgive the bad photo, it's difficult to take a picture of your own calf) As a general rule Lynch's work is slow and contemplative, but I enjoy his slowest, darkest work most of all-- on that vein, his short series 'Rabbits' is right behind Eraserhead as my favorite Lynch 'thing'. Blue Velvet is also way up there-- my husband and I love to quote Dennis Hopper's lines. They're appropriate in almost any situation. I bought Straight Story because of Lynch, and it is honestly an enjoyable movie-- but I would have never known it was his!
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 01:00 |
|
He also had a really fantastic cameo on Louie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwUmXT3RJCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qob3FTPJ7cM
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 01:01 |
|
Oh man I love David Lynch. Watching Mulholland Drive one night with my friends was what made me decide to concentrate in Cinema Studies. I have never before seen a movie so packed with symbols and meaning, and it really stuck with me afterwards. I watched Blue Velvet soon after and also really enjoyed it...I still have yet to watch the rest of his films though, but it's definitely on my list. Currently binging through Twin Peaks as well.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 01:45 |
|
Watching Mulholland Drive in the middle of the night as an impressionable 17 year old just getting into less mainstream fare was pretty much my defining moment as far as films go. I don't know that it'll ever leave my top 10. Just a small correction for the OP - Twin Peaks reboot will air on Showtime, not HBO
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 11:14 |
|
Bown posted:Just a small correction for the OP - Twin Peaks reboot will air on Showtime, not HBO Well spotted. Thanks!
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 12:19 |
|
After being told that my wife and I had gotten into Twin Peaks, my father in law decided to gift us a Lynch film. He gave us Inland Empire. I didn't hate it but I felt like I'd jumped from 0-60. It's a hosed up fever dream of a film and I really liked the way it basically operates on dream logic, amplifying little fears until they become the world. We watched Berberian Sound Studio not long after and it hit a lot of the same notes (although in a much more accessible fashion). I need to watch more Lynch.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 12:32 |
|
Party Boat posted:After being told that my wife and I had gotten into Twin Peaks, my father in law decided to gift us a Lynch film. Yeah, Inland Empire is probably Lynch's most divisive film. I'm not a fan myself, but if you can get through that then you can easily take on the rest of his filmography. Blue Velvet and Eraserhead are my personal favorites of his work, and The Straight Story is very good as well.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 12:34 |
|
I would say Blue Velvet is the best starting point for Lynch's movies. I started with Eraserhead and didn't have a good time before moving on to BV and Mulholland and properly getting into him. These days Eraserhead is my second-favourite film of his.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 13:33 |
|
Josef K. Sourdust posted:Welcome to the David Lynch Chat Lodge, where there’s always music in the air and the drapes are always red… Also, cartoon:
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 15:23 |
|
^^^ Very true! Family Guy, The Splendid Source, May 2010 - what season and episode is that? Current exhibition in the UK of DL's art: http://www.visitmima.com/whats-on/single/david-lynch-naming/
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 15:43 |
|
Party Boat posted:After being told that my wife and I had gotten into Twin Peaks, my father in law decided to gift us a Lynch film. That film is kinda like taking all the common themes and concepts from his previous work and indulging them as much as possible. So if you watch it again after the rest of his filmography it will probably be like a whole new experience.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 17:35 |
|
I recently watched a lotof his shorter works, and my two favorites were "The Cowboy and the Frenchman" and "Dumbland." They were both very silly, and I enjoyed them a lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8v0Deetag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYHOQ6AQ3Rc
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 18:16 |
|
The ant sequence in Dumbland is great.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 19:49 |
|
Josef K. Sourdust posted:^^^ Very true! Family Guy, The Splendid Source, May 2010 - what season and episode is that? He was a semi regular on The Cleveland Show as Gus the Bartender, though he did make a crossover appearance on Family Guy. Just to hear David Lynch tell a wooden sex doll "When I'm finished with you, you're going to be a canoe".
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 19:54 |
|
I would say that I love David Lynch, but it doesn't seem like I come from the most informed place, seeing as I've only watched Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man and Twin Peaks. Still, that's several hours of Lynch-stuff, and probably more then enough to figure out whether or not you like his style. I also heard his music before I'd even seen any of his films, and I quite like it, even though Lynch is an acquired taste as a singer. First Lynch film I saw was Mulholland Drive, and I think I was expecting Lynch's style to be more...body horror, like Cronenberg. I guess people had told me his work was nightmarish, and I interpreted nightmarish in the wrong way. But I loved the visuals and the sound design and it just stuck with me. I'm now a video reviewer of LGBT films - so if you're interested, here's my thoughts on Mulholland Drive (as it compares to Black Swan) and a little bit about Lynch in general, and then my thoughts on how gender and sexuality is treated in Blue Velvet. The latter link also features what's essentially Lynch cosplay, so if anyone finds a 20something year old woman dressing up as David Lynch amusing, there you go. If you like Lynch's visual style, I'd also recommend the work of Gregory Crewdson, the photographer. There's a great documentary about him on Netflix called Brief Encounters.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 22:19 |
|
I still don't know how Lynch can make even a simply furnished room so loving unsettling. He can create a certain mood out of NOTHING. Also, if you don't think the whole Silencio sequence in Mulholland Drive is the greatest thing in cinema history, you're basically dead to me.
|
# ? Jan 17, 2015 23:41 |
|
Wild at Heart is by far his most underrated movie. The fact that it won a Palme d'Or is both a wonderful and hilarious thing.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 00:44 |
|
If you love Angelo Badalementi's dark, spooky, sexy music from Lynch's movies, you should check out a band called Silencio, which takes its sound and visual style from Lynch and Badalamenti. Awesome stuff! http://www.delsilencio.net
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 02:34 |
|
This is a documentary/interview about the making of Eraserhead made in 2001 called "Eraserhead Stories" (1 hour 25 min long) http://liveleak.com/view?i=957_1367864296 I don't think I've seen an interview with Lynch this long but I found it drat interesting learning about the process of putting together that classic film and his insights. Lynch fans will love it.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 03:11 |
|
Why in the world is that on Liveleak?
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 04:22 |
|
I wouldn't know but I sure can't find it anywhere else. Other sites talking about it link to a dead YouTube page *shrugs*
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 04:35 |
|
If I like Lynch what other films/albums would I like? A lot of mainstream stuff that's suppose to be good like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad bores and disappoints me. I feel like Lynch is a gateway to a world of quality and artistic integrity. I'm enticed by stuff that's raw and evokes emotion.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 05:03 |
|
For some reason the first thing that comes to mind is either Punch-Drunk Love or A Woman Under The Influence, but only because they're both intensely emotional Los Angeles-based films that make me anxious, not because they really have anything to do with David Lynch.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 05:29 |
|
Lynch is cool. I like that one of his with the Rammstein song in it.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 06:46 |
|
Astrochicken posted:Lynch is cool. I like that one of his with the Rammstein song in it. Lost Highway is dope, yeah. Robert Blake is creepy as gently caress in that movie, and also in real life.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 07:03 |
|
While I think it is great, I cannot watch Eraserhead. I saw it a couple times long ago, and ended up having some major stress related dreams at the time that combined with night terrors to the point that even seeing still images of the woman in the radiator (including that calf tattoo above) freaks me out. It has become the embodiment of dread to me. But I love all of his stuff, and I think Inland Empire is the most amazing and intense movie I have ever seen, and have watched Twin Peaks more times than I can count.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 08:42 |
|
Alfred P. Pseudonym posted:Lost Highway is dope, yeah. Robert Blake is creepy as gently caress in that movie, and also in real life. I love the article David Foster Wallace wrote about Lost Highway. '... there are also some scenes of Bill Pullman looking very natty and East Village in all black and jamming on his tenor sax in front of a packed dance floor (only in a David Lynch movie would people dance ecstatically to abstract jazz)' his bit about what "Lynchian" means is pretty apt as well: quote:6. WHAT 'LYNCHIAN' MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 08:47 |
|
Ausmund posted:If I like Lynch what other films/albums would I like? A lot of mainstream stuff that's suppose to be good like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad bores and disappoints me. I feel like Lynch is a gateway to a world of quality and artistic integrity. I'm enticed by stuff that's raw and evokes emotion. Berberian Sound Studio. It's about a meek English sound engineer whose grip on reality starts to slip while working on an Italian horror film.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 09:50 |
|
I'm also recommending Mysteries of Love, the documentary about the making of Blue Velvet. It's a great insight into the film and the process of making it, although in a sense they didn't address something I wanted them to address. (Frank's sexual harassment and possible sexual assault of Jeffrey Beaumont.) It also didn't align entirely with my interpretation of the film, but that's fine. I think Picnic at Hanging Rock is a bit Lynchian. The way that Peter Weir makes inanimate objects and bland scenes become terrifying matches up, and the theme of the missing girls aligns pretty well with the themes and mood of Twin Peaks.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 09:50 |
|
Infamous Sphere posted:I think Picnic at Hanging Rock is a bit Lynchian. The way that Peter Weir makes inanimate objects and bland scenes become terrifying matches up, and the theme of the missing girls aligns pretty well with the themes and mood of Twin Peaks. In a similar vein, I thought Lake Mungo was pretty Lynchy. It already has some pretty direct nods to Twin Peaks, but the eerie mood of the film also struck me as very reminiscent of what you find in most Lynch films. It just occurred to me that Laura Dern's notorious face ... scare jump? in Inland Empire probably inspired a similar moment in Lake Mungo as well.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 10:26 |
|
I imagine that Eraserhead interview is the one that was on the special edition of Eraserhead 2000 DVD remaster.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 10:59 |
|
Not film but a lot of Haruki Murakami novels are really Lynchian. Especially like Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 11:25 |
|
Josef K. Sourdust posted:I imagine that Eraserhead interview is the one that was on the special edition of Eraserhead 2000 DVD remaster. I believe it is. It also is on the Criterion disc as well.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 14:15 |
|
And I'm sure everyone knows this already but just in case; check out the video game Deadly Premonition. It's essentially Twin Peaks: the video game, and has a lot of excellent Lynchian subtext floating around.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 14:55 |
|
I love Lynch, but I've been on the fence and waiting to watch Inland Empire for about 5 years now. There seems to be only two schools of thought from Lynch fans - it's either totally brilliant and horrifying and sticks with you, or it's a complete waste of time "up his own rear end" garbage. The fact that it's so long is probably the biggest barrier to me just sitting down and watching it, what's everyone here think about it?
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 15:21 |
|
Cromulent posted:I love Lynch, but I've been on the fence and waiting to watch Inland Empire for about 5 years now. There seems to be only two schools of thought from Lynch fans - it's either totally brilliant and horrifying and sticks with you, or it's a complete waste of time "up his own rear end" garbage. The fact that it's so long is probably the biggest barrier to me just sitting down and watching it, what's everyone here think about it? I think IE is two (or maybe three) brilliant memorable short films chopped up and diluted in one overlong, indulgent mess. (And he had already done Rabbits before, so why we needed it again, I don't know.) I don't think DL had a proper script and he edited it himself - which was fatal. Mary Sweeney did a great job on his previous films and DL needs some constraints to channel his work. He filmed too much because it was digital, so he didn't need to economise with film. That left him with too much material. IE lacks the humour, wit, memorable characters, approachability and balance that made his previous work great. I've watched IE two or three times and I can't remember a single character's name. You can't say that about any of DL's previous films good, bad or patchy. I am not anti-arthouse (Eraserhead is my favourite DL film) but IE is a mess. E: After IE there was a long period when fans thought he'll just promote TM and make art and never make another film. I said "If any more films are like IE then I'm glad he'll never make any more." And I'm a real hardcore Lynchian. That's how irritated IE made me. Josef K. Sourdust fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jan 18, 2015 |
# ? Jan 18, 2015 15:43 |
|
Infamous Sphere posted:First Lynch film I saw was Mulholland Drive, and I think I was expecting Lynch's style to be more...body horror, like Cronenberg. I guess people had told me his work was nightmarish, and I interpreted nightmarish in the wrong way. Cronenberg tends to ground the horrific in the mundane, whereas Lynch can make anything mundane seem nightmarish. Cromulent posted:I love Lynch, but I've been on the fence and waiting to watch Inland Empire for about 5 years now. There seems to be only two schools of thought from Lynch fans - it's either totally brilliant and horrifying and sticks with you, or it's a complete waste of time "up his own rear end" garbage. The fact that it's so long is probably the biggest barrier to me just sitting down and watching it, what's everyone here think about it? It's a culmination of everything he's worked on his whole career, but in a way that is totally uncompromising and unfiltered through other people's expectations or demands. To me it makes his movies since Twin Peaks seem like they take place all together in one universe. You sorta get to see how they're all telling the same story. Lord Krangdar fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Jan 18, 2015 |
# ? Jan 18, 2015 15:47 |
|
|
# ? May 30, 2024 14:17 |
|
Josef K. Sourdust posted:I think IE is two (or maybe three) brilliant memorable short films chopped up and diluted in one overlong, indulgent mess. (And he had already done Rabbits before, so why we needed it again, I don't know.) I don't think DL had a proper script and he edited it himself - which was fatal. Mary Sweeney did a great job on his previous films and DL needs some constraints to channel his work. He filmed too much because it was digital, so he didn't need to economise with film. That left him with too much material. IE lacks the humour, wit, memorable characters, approachability and balance that made his previous work great. I've watched IE two or three times and I can't remember a single character's name. You can't say that about any of DL's previous films good, bad or patchy. I am not anti-arthouse (Eraserhead is my favourite DL film) but IE is a mess. This is essentially how I felt about IE. I guess I'm glad it exists for the sake of comparison to other films, but it was just...too much for me. I'm not a fan of the digital look of the film at all either, and three hours of that was not enjoyable at all for me. Maybe that was also the point, but I don't know.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2015 17:13 |