RIP David Lynch

 

David Lynch, who only last year announced that many years of smoking had left him with emphysema so serious he could no longer leave the house, has died.

As a lifelong movie fan, I have had something of a love-hate relationship with the work of David Lynch. When I was studying film in college, and had grandiose aspirations of becoming a film auteur myself, I was a big fan. In retrospect, that wasn’t based on much: at that point, he had only two features to his name, Eraserhead and The Elephant Man. But for a teenaged film buff with an interest in the avant-garde, Eraserhead was a masterpiece, a singular vision like nothing else. And The Elephant Man was brilliantly atmospheric, adapting the grim and unsettling tone of the earlier film and packaging it into something that was almost, but not quite, mainstream.

My artistic friends and I were disappointed when we heard that Lynch had been offered, but had declined, the opportunity to direct Return of the Jedi. We thought (and I still believe today) it probably would have been a better film had he done it. Instead he directed Dune, and I remember going to a theater in Columbia, S.C. with my friend Raymond to see it when it opened. We had both read the book and were both fans of Lynch, so we expected greatness. I don’t actually remember what I thought of the film at the time, but I probably defended it at least halfheartedly.

Later came Blue Velvet, which put Kyle MacLachlan to better use, and then Twin Peaks, which was a phenomenon you had to be there to understand. Nothing remotely like it had ever been on TV before. It was appointment TV for me; when our VCR died, I immediately went out and bought a new one — despite being an impoverished grad student — because I had to record Twin Peaks. After each episode I went online, reading endless discussions on alt.tv.twin-peaks that dissected every shot and every cryptic line of each episode looking for clues as to who killed Laura Palmer.

But Lynch disappointed me. He lost interest in Twin Peaks and stepped away, and the decline in the show’s quality was immediately apparent. It was a show that lost its way and meandered, and in retrospect, I wished it had ended when the Laura Palmer mystery was solved. (Or, better yet, that it had ended without ever solving the mystery, which was Lynch’s original plan.) Ultimately the show ended on a cruel cliffhanger, with a mess of unresolved plot threads and the show’s hero possessed by a demonic being. The feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me didn’t make things any better; instead of continuing and resolving the story, the film was a prequel that just compounded the frustration.

The disappointment of Twin Peaks stuck with me, and I was so annoyed with Lynch that I pretty much stopped following his work. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve seen any of his later feature films, except one: The Straight Story, which is as un-Lynchlike a film as you could imagine. Rated G, it’s a beautiful and heartwarming story, full of likable characters, kindness, and nobody being murdered. It made me wonder what else Lynch might be capable of if he had such range.

After many years, I was excited when I heard that David Lynch was going to return to Twin Peaks. Eighteen new episodes, all of them written and directed by Lynch himself. I was hopeful that we would finally get to see Agent Dale Cooper rescued from limbo, all of the questions answered, and everything wrapped up.

But of course that’s not how Lynch operated. The new Twin Peaks series was maddening and brilliant in equal measure. Once again, it was a TV show the likes of which had never been seen before, particularly the legendary Episode 8, which opens with an extended sequence that is as experimental and bizarre as anything in Eraserhead, and maybe more so. As I had been in the ’90s, I was riveted by every episode … and once again, the last episode was like a slap in the face. This time it seemed quite deliberate: Lynch went out of his way to resolve nothing, to answer no unanswered questions, and to give nobody (especially the viewer) what they wanted.

And yet I rewatched the series a couple of years later. And I’m sure I’ll watch it again someday. Like so much of Lynch’s work, you might not like what you’re seeing, but you can’t look away.

Lynch made a memorable and delightful cameo appearance in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, playing director John Ford. I didn’t realize when I saw it that it was the last I’d see of Lynch. Despite how much he sometimes frustrated me, I am sorry that we don’t get to see what David Lynch might have done next. It might have been brilliant, it might have been confusing, or (like The Straight Story) it might have been surprisingly beautiful. No matter what, it certainly would have been interesting.

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    The SNL “Twin Peaks” bit was pretty good, unfort. there’s no clip I could find on YouTube.

    • #1
  2. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Oh, here we go:  (make it a link yourself, so it doesn’t autoplay.)

    dailymotion.com/video/x7o2ca

    • #2
  3. Susan Quinn Member
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    I wasn’t a fan of his, didn’t follow him, but your post is beautifully written.

    • #3
  4. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Eraserhead haunts me whenever I think of it.

    • #4
  5. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    A lot of my artistic friends viewed him as a genius.

    I’d watch his stuff, and I just didn’t get what was so brilliant.

    I figured that I just didn’t get it.

    Which is probably right.

    • #5
  6. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    I knew long ago that I wasn’t ever going to see Eraserhead.

    Videodome, I could tolerate, once.  Maybe just because of Debbie Harry.

    Eraserhead?  No.

    • #6
  7. Orange Gerald Coolidge
    Orange Gerald
    @Jose

    I saw Eraserhead once.  Not sure I will ever watch it again, but it was memorable. Jack Nance’s hair was a lot more bizarre at that time than it is now.

    I liked Lynch’s version of Dune.

    When I was stationed in the UK Twin Peaks aired on, probably, ITV.  I don’t remember anyone else who watched it, but my wife and I were devoted fans.  It was so weird, and there was always something completely unexpected.  I’m thinking a backwards talking dwarf. It was great fun.

    Years later I watched the new Twin Peaks series and it was fun, but not as engrossing. Lynch playing the deaf FBI guy was a hoot.

    • #7
  8. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Orange Gerald (View Comment):

    I saw Eraserhead once. Not sure I will ever watch it again, but it was memorable. Jack Nance’s hair was a lot more bizarre at that time than it is now.

    I liked Lynch’s version of Dune.

    When I was stationed in the UK Twin Peaks aired on, probably, ITV. I don’t remember anyone else who watched it, but my wife and I were devoted fans. It was so weird, and there was always something completely unexpected. I’m thinking a backwards talking dwarf. It was great fun.

    Years later I watched the new Twin Peaks series and it was fun, but not as engrossing. Lynch playing the deaf FBI guy was a hoot.

    Hated what they did with Kyle McLachlan in that. Almost no actual Cooper screen time.

    • #8
  9. W Bob Member
    W Bob
    @WBob

    I was hoping for a Frank Booth origin story but I guess that’s off the table now. 

    • #9
  10. Addiction Is A Choice Member
    Addiction Is A Choice
    @AddictionIsAChoice

    And, sadly, the story of Jack Nance’s death is as wild as his hair!

    Great post!

    • #10
  11. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    I haven’t seen much of Lynch’s work.  Overall, I liked his Dune, but would have liked it better if there were less Lynch-like weirdness.  I know a book, a movie, a comic book, and a TV show are all different things, and any adaptation is going to have some differences from the original source material.  But making changes just for the sake of disgusting weirdness is a turn-off for me.

    I also saw Mulholland Drive.  As I recall, we thought most of the movie was pretty good.  The scene with Rebekah del Rio singing a Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison’s Crying was particularly memorable.  But after about the three-quarter mark, the movie felt like it was meant to be watched while high on drugs.  The latter part of the film was either high art or just a bunch of ridiculous garbage, depending on the sensibility of the viewer.

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    I wasn’t a fan of his, didn’t follow him, but your post is beautifully written.

    Agreed!

    • #11
  12. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    The latter part of the film was either high art or just a bunch of ridiculous garbage, depending on the sensibility of the viewer.

    Doesn’t that often mean that someone had a great idea for how to start a movie, but no clue how to end it?

    • #12
  13. The Girlie Show Member
    The Girlie Show
    @CatIII

    People overlook two of the more notable aspects of Lynch’s work: his humor and his sincerity. He didn’t include all that small town Americana to undermine it, to lay bare the lie of suburban America. He liked white picket fences and nuclear families and 50s rock ‘n’ roll. Watching Blue Velvet or Lost Highway you wouldn’t expect the happy go lucky man behind the camera.

    Even his persona was playful in a way. He refused to explain Eraserhead, but it was obviously born from his anxieties of becoming a father. He liked to play up the inscrutable artist, but in a genuine, warm way. He couldn’t help but be David Lynch.

    Lynch was one of my gateways to avant garde cinema. I didn’t like everything he’s done, and the last few projects I caught were frustrating. I was so close to liking them. Maybe on next watch. His movies deserve a second watch.

    He will be missed.

    • #13
  14. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    But Lynch disappointed me. He lost interest in Twin Peaks and stepped away, and the decline in the show’s quality was immediately apparent. It was a show that lost its way and meandered, and in retrospect I wished it had ended when the Laura Palmer mystery was solved. (Or, better yet, that it had ended without ever solving the mystery, which was Lynch’s original plan.)

    And I think he was wrong about that. As the post-resolution episodes showed, it all devolved into quirky-folk-in-an-overcast-town soap without the twin pistons of Laura and Bob driving the story. It would have been lots of James driving around being gloomy, campy department store guy swanning around, cutting to Audrey being moody while the same music cues played. I mean, you’re right to say it should’ve ended in the cell where Coop urges Leland to go to the light, but that would have deprived us of the ultimate show finale, which was insane, and set up the story for its eventual return 25 years later.

    As I had been in the ’90s, I was riveted by every episode … and once again, the last episode was like a slap in the face. This time it seemed quite deliberate: Lynch went out of his way to resolve nothing, to answer no unanswered questions, and to give nobody (especially the viewer) what they wanted.

    I’ve watched Return three times, and it just gets better. The first time is hard, because you’re waiting for Cooper to show up – the Lynch / Frost decision to withhold the heart of the entire story is agonizing and maddening on first view, but less so on subsequent viewings, because you know. (Waking from the walking Dougie-coma does result in one of the greatest fist-pump moments in his entire  oeuvre, though: “I am the FBI” is just . . . tremendous.)  On first viewing, you naturally think that everything must mean something, when it doesn’t – sometimes a Roadhouse conversation is just a Roadhouse conversation. You expect the last episode will explain things. You think you’re going to be given what you want, because you’re a true fan, and you get this, and you’ve earned this. But you don’t get it. I wish it had a happy ending. But I think about it a lot, because it didn’t.

    YouTube and Reddit abound with people intent on answering all the questions, and while they may construct perfect interlocking theories and explanations, they fall into the trap of using logic to explain dreams, of mistaking narrative completion for emotional resonance. The heart of Twin Peaks was always about the tenuous intersection between our reality and a place, a realm, a concept that manifested itself in ways that were both familiar and incomprehensible to us, and its similarity to our dream states gave it the presence of some underlying reality in which we believe, or intuit,  but consciously reject. 

     

    • #14
  15. Joseph Stanko Coolidge
    Joseph Stanko
    @JosephStanko

    James Lileks (View Comment):
    YouTube and Reddit abound with people intent on answering all the questions, and while they may construct perfect interlocking theories and explanations, they fall into the trap of using logic to explain dreams, of mistaking narrative completion for emotional resonance.

    My favorite theory/interpretation is that the whole series was (among other things) a critique of the whole trend of reboots and revivals that plagues Hollywood these days.  Agent Cooper tries to go back and rewrite the events of the original story, to give it the ultimate happy ending, but that’s what causes everything to go horribly wrong, because of course you can’t rewrite history.  But that’s exactly what Lynch felt like he himself would be guilty of, if he tied up all the loose ends and gave us all the happy ending we wanted: rewriting his original story.

    • #15
  16. Joseph Stanko Coolidge
    Joseph Stanko
    @JosephStanko

    The Girlie Show (View Comment):
    People overlook two of the more notable aspects of Lynch’s work: his humor and his sincerity. He didn’t include all that small town Americana to undermine it, to lay bare the lie of suburban America. He liked white picket fences and nuclear families and 50s rock ‘n’ roll. Watching Blue Velvet or Lost Highway you wouldn’t expect the happy go lucky man behind the camera.

    Completely agree, I listened to his audiobook and the man is so different than what you might expect from his work.  This is a quote I transcribed from that book:

    When people are in fear they don’t want to go to work, so many people today have that feeling.  Then the fear starts turning into hate and they begin to hate going to work, then the hate can turn into anger and people can become angry at their boss and their work.  If I ran my set with fear I would get 1% not 100% of what I get, and there would be no fun going down the road together, and it should be fun, in work and in life we’re all supposed to get along, we’re supposed to have so much fun like puppy dogs with our tails wagging.  It’s supposed to be great living, it’s supposed to be fantastic.

    • #16
  17. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    But Lynch disappointed me. He lost interest in Twin Peaks and stepped away, and the decline in the show’s quality was immediately apparent. It was a show that lost its way and meandered, and in retrospect I wished it had ended when the Laura Palmer mystery was solved. (Or, better yet, that it had ended without ever solving the mystery, which was Lynch’s original plan.)

    And I think he was wrong about that. As the post-resolution episodes showed, it all devolved into quirky-folk-in-an-overcast-town soap without the twin pistons of Laura and Bob driving the story. It would have been lots of James driving around being gloomy, campy department store guy swanning around, cutting to Audrey being moody while the same music cues played. I mean, you’re right to say it should’ve ended in the cell where Coop urges Leland to go to the light, but that would have deprived us of the ultimate show finale, which was insane, and set up the story for its eventual return 25 years later.

    As I had been in the ’90s, I was riveted by every episode … and once again, the last episode was like a slap in the face. This time it seemed quite deliberate: Lynch went out of his way to resolve nothing, to answer no unanswered questions, and to give nobody (especially the viewer) what they wanted.

    I’ve watched Return three times, and it just gets better. The first time is hard, because you’re waiting for Cooper to show up – the Lynch / Frost decision to withhold the heart of the entire story is agonizing and maddening on first view, but less so on subsequent viewings, because you know. (Waking from the walking Dougie-coma does result in one of the greatest fist-pump moments in his entire oeuvre, though: “I am the FBI” is just . . . tremendous.) On first viewing, you naturally think that everything must mean something, when it doesn’t – sometimes a Roadhouse conversation is just a Roadhouse conversation. You expect the last episode will explain things. You think you’re going to be given what you want, because you’re a true fan, and you get this, and you’ve earned this. But you don’t get it. I wish it had a happy ending. But I think about it a lot, because it didn’t.

    YouTube and Reddit abound with people intent on answering all the questions, and while they may construct perfect interlocking theories and explanations, they fall into the trap of using logic to explain dreams, of mistaking narrative completion for emotional resonance. The heart of Twin Peaks was always about the tenuous intersection between our reality and a place, a realm, a concept that manifested itself in ways that were both familiar and incomprehensible to us, and its similarity to our dream states gave it the presence of some underlying reality in which we believe, or intuit, but consciously reject.

    That sounds suspiciously close to saying you found it a waste of time but don’t want to admit that you got suckered into watching it.

    Or…  well, I can’t find a YouTube clip of “Vogon Poetry” where Arthur and Ford describe how much they like the captain’s rendition.

    • #17
  18. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Great post, BXO!

    A trivia note about that scene in The Fabelmans. When Sammy Fabelman finally gets a lone reply to his letters to film studios, the dry irony is the future director of Schindler’s List was invited in for a job interview for Hogan’s Heroes.

    My eye caught the return address: Radford Avenue. For nearly sixty years, that’s been CBS Studio City, a small but versatile film lot where a lot of popular TV shows have been filmed. That’s why the offices of Hogan’s Heroes, a CBS show, were there.

    But before the Eye Web bought the studio lot, it was the longtime home of Republic Pictures, king of quality westerns, never one of the major studios but arguably the king of the minor ones. In The Alamo, John Wayne pays an inside compliment to his former home: “Republic! I like the sound of that word.”

    And that’s why, improbably, the guy who is interviewing Fabelman/Spielberg can just cross the hall and introduce one of the greatest directors of all time; because John Ford always kept his old-timey office on the Republic lot, even after it was sold to CBS in 1959. Lynch’s “look” and portrayal  as Ford are perfect.

    David Lynch was a graduate of the American Film Institute’s film school. At that time (pre-1980), AFI was located in Beverly Hills on a grand estate, including a former stables, then a garage, where Lynch used to surreptitiously sleep overnight, lacking the money for anything better. He was everlastingly good to the AFI, showing up for major events like launching the film festival in 1987. He had enormous presence but no ego. So many people are the other way around.

    • #18
  19. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    The Straight Story is a great film. Blue Velvet is worth watching once and not a bad film, but not what I would call great either. The first season of Twin Peaks was about the best TV of its era. Thanks for the post.

    • #19
  20. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    The latter part of the film was either high art or just a bunch of ridiculous garbage, depending on the sensibility of the viewer.

    Doesn’t that often mean that someone had a great idea for how to start a movie, but no clue how to end it?

    Lynch liked to produce provocative thought pieces disguised as narrative dramas. The WTF was the effect he relished, a satisfying ending, or even clear narrative, was the stuff of mundanity.

    • #20
  21. Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr. Coolidge
    Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr.
    @BartholomewXerxesOgilvieJr

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    I’ve watched Return three times, and it just gets better. The first time is hard, because you’re waiting for Cooper to show up – the Lynch / Frost decision to withhold the heart of the entire story is agonizing and maddening on first view, but less so on subsequent viewings, because you know.

    Agreed. As infuriated as I was the first time around, I decided to watch it again because I knew what to expect, and therefore couldn’t be disappointed. And if you go into it without any expectations of spending time with Dale Cooper, it’s much easier to just enjoy the ride.

    Somebody somewhere pointed out that the title Twin Peaks: The Return could be taken not to refer to the return of the show, but rather the return of Cooper, and then it makes more sense: the whole show, all eighteen episodes of it, are the story of Cooper’s painful and protracted escape back to reality. His final awakening is the payoff of the whole story.

    Joseph Stanko (View Comment):

    My favorite theory/interpretation is that the whole series was (among other things) a critique of the whole trend of reboots and revivals that plagues Hollywood these days. Agent Cooper tries to go back and rewrite the events of the original story, to give it the ultimate happy ending, but that’s what causes everything to go horribly wrong, because of course you can’t rewrite history.

    I think that’s exactly right, and it’s one reason why I saw the end a little more positively on a second viewing than on the first. Cooper was in some ways a proxy for the audience, and what he tried to do in that last episode was a metaphor for those of us in the audience who wanted the show to do something it couldn’t do (or would be unwise to do).

    My main problem with it is that the ending so deliberately inscrutable. I can handle a story with a downer ending, as long as the ending makes sense. But on the other hand, this is Twin Peaks we’re talking about, a show that was always inscrutable, so I’m not sure why I expected anything else.

    • #21
  22. Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr. Coolidge
    Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr.
    @BartholomewXerxesOgilvieJr

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    I haven’t seen much of Lynch’s work. Overall, I liked his Dune, but would have liked it better if there were less Lynch-like weirdness. I know a book, a movie, a comic book, and a TV show are all different things, and any adaptation is going to have some differences from the original source material. But making changes just for the sake of disgusting weirdness is a turn-off for me.

    I think my main reaction to Dune at the time was that it was cool to see a bunch of scenes from the novel realized on the screen, but that as a movie it didn’t make much sense. That was OK for me because I had read the book, so I knew the story anyway. But I wondered whether anybody who hadn’t read the book could have made sense of the movie.

    Indeed, I thought maybe Dune was unfilmable, but then Denis Villeneuve came along and made his version. When I saw that film it had been decades since I’d read the book, and I no longer remembered the story very well; but it didn’t matter, because Villeneuve’s film works as a movie. Whether it is a good adaptation of the book I can’t say.

    • #22
  23. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    kedavis (View Comment):
    That sounds suspiciously close to saying you found it a waste of time but don’t want to admit that you got suckered into watching it.

    If it was a waste of time I wouldn’t have watched it again and again. And I’ll watch it a fourth time, probably.

    • #23
  24. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Joseph Stanko (View Comment):

    My favorite theory/interpretation is that the whole series was (among other things) a critique of the whole trend of reboots and revivals that plagues Hollywood these days. Agent Cooper tries to go back and rewrite the events of the original story, to give it the ultimate happy ending, but that’s what causes everything to go horribly wrong, because of course you can’t rewrite history. But that’s exactly what Lynch felt like he himself would be guilty of, if he tied up all the loose ends and gave us all the happy ending we wanted: rewriting his original story.

    I’ve heard that, and I think there’s something to it – there’s a reason FWWM starts with a violent attack on a TV set. The guy reads waaaaay too much into everything, though. 

     

    • #24
  25. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Joseph Stanko (View Comment):

    My favorite theory/interpretation is that the whole series was (among other things) a critique of the whole trend of reboots and revivals that plagues Hollywood these days. Agent Cooper tries to go back and rewrite the events of the original story, to give it the ultimate happy ending, but that’s what causes everything to go horribly wrong, because of course you can’t rewrite history. But that’s exactly what Lynch felt like he himself would be guilty of, if he tied up all the loose ends and gave us all the happy ending we wanted: rewriting his original story.

    I’ve heard that, and I think there’s something to it – there’s a reason FWWM starts with a violent attack on a TV set. The guy reads waaaaay too much into everything, though.

     

    But isn’t that the signature trait of the Lynch fan? He weaves enigmas and they read whole years of Weird World News and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers into them.

    • #25
  26. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Bartholomew Xerxes Ogilvie, Jr. (View Comment):

    My main problem with it is that the ending so deliberately inscrutable. I can handle a story with a downer ending, as long as the ending makes sense. But on the other hand, this is Twin Peaks we’re talking about, a show that was always inscrutable, so I’m not sure why I expected anything else.

    True, and every time these confusions come up I feel like Special Agent David Bowie enters the room and says “we’re not going to talk about Mark Frost.” Who knows how much of the obscurantism came from his pen, whether the last ep was collaborative, or provided a framework for Lynch to invent and obscure. It’s possible to read everything after Green Glove Yob punches Bob Orb to oblivion as a dream, because IIRC  Coop’s blank face is superimposed on what follows, as if he’s watching the story. “It was all a dream” is the worst cop-out except in Lynch – you go into his stuff expecting it all to be a dream. 

    I should also note that we did get a happy ending. Two of them. Ed and Norma, the best quarter-century slow-burn in TV, and Dougie returning to his family, seemingly imbued with all the best of Coop. 

    • #26
  27. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Sisyphus (View Comment):
    But isn’t that the signature trait of the Lynch fan? He weaves enigmas and they read whole years of Weird World News and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers into them.

    I’m as big a fan as you’ll find, but I’m inclined to say “sometimes a boy in a suit with a dish of creamed corn in his lap is just a boy in a suit with a dish of creamed corn in his lap” and leave it at that. 

    • #27
  28. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    I haven’t seen much of Lynch’s work. Overall, I liked his Dune, but would have liked it better if there were less Lynch-like weirdness. I know a book, a movie, a comic book, and a TV show are all different things, and any adaptation is going to have some differences from the original source material. But making changes just for the sake of disgusting weirdness is a turn-off for me.

    I also saw Mulholland Drive. As I recall, we thought most of the movie was pretty good. The scene with Rebekah del Rio singing a Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison’s Crying was particularly memorable. But after about the three-quarter mark, the movie felt like it was meant to be watched while high on drugs. The latter part of the film was either high art or just a bunch of ridiculous garbage, depending on the sensibility of the viewer.

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    I wasn’t a fan of his, didn’t follow him, but your post is beautifully written.

    Agreed!

    That weirdness to me was not only bizarre, but vulgar and even demonic.  High on drugs – maybe. That would make sense. I read an interview once on him after seeing some of his movies and he said that he received a lot of material when he was doing transcendental meditation………  Now there are some that say this opens a gateway to the demonic.  All I am saying is after watching some of these movies once, that is what I thought of and would not watch them again.

     

    • #28
  29. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    The latter part of the film was either high art or just a bunch of ridiculous garbage, depending on the sensibility of the viewer.

    Doesn’t that often mean that someone had a great idea for how to start a movie, but no clue how to end it?

    Mulholland Drive was conceived and shot as a TV pilot. The network said “hmm. No.” So Lynch took the pilot, fiddled with it here and there, and shot the “latter part” to turn the story inside out. What began as a series of disconnected mysteries and plots that would keep the viewers tuning in from week to week became the nightmare of a woman who had done a very bad thing, and could no longer live with what she’d done. 

    • #29
  30. Barfly Member
    Barfly
    @Barfly

    RIP David. I’ll never tire of re-watching Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive

    But I do wish the intelligent artists would quit dying on me. Rene Magritte in ’67 and now David Lynch. Moan.

    • #30
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