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News & ArtsThursday, January 12, 2012
Film Starting Tomorrow at SIFF: The David Lynch Film Festival
Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 10:34 AM
That is correct: Commencing tomorrow at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown is In Dreams: The Films of David Lynch, featuring every feature film Lynch has made except one (Inland Empire, so who cares?).
I have loved David Lynch even since I was twelve and went to see The Elephant Man, and the first 30 minutes were so terrifying I tried to get a ticket refund but they said no so I went back in and watched and was of course blown away. Later came Blue Velvet (the Never Mind the Bollocks of cinema, for those of us who came of age during the Eighties arthouse boom) and what's seen as the key Lynch ouvre, some of which I love (Mulholland Dr.!), some of which I love and hate at the same time (Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), and some of which I've never seen (Dune, Lost Highway, The Straight Story). Here is my and everyone else's opportunity to immerse themselves in big-screen Lynch. Full info here.
To celebrate, a quiz:
1
I just want to point out that David Lynch's entire resume reads (or used to read) 'Eagle Scout, Missoula, Montana' and that is a special sort of awesome.
2
You really should see Lost Highway (especially if you like MD, they are very similar in concept.) The Straight Story is a beautiful movie and tugs the heart strings as much as Elephant Man. Dune doesn't really work, but it's the least "Lynchian" movie he's made, and he had a bunch of backseat drivers helping him direct. Suprised you don't like Inland Empire if you liked MD. LH, MD, and IE are kind of a trilogy of the fucked up kind, and all worth seeing. I'm having a hard time voting for his greatest film though, I guess Elephant Man, just because it's so powerful and touching.
3
I was in my late '20s, when a midnight showing of eraserhead left me shaking so badly I had to be taken out for pizza.
Elephant Man is my favorite Lynch of those I've seen, perhaps because surrealism in feature-length films bores the shit out of me.
Elephant Man is my favorite Lynch of those I've seen, perhaps because surrealism in feature-length films bores the shit out of me.
4
I forced myself to sit through Eraserhead once, and won't ever do it again. Was after I had seen most of the other Lynch films.
5
i voted 'the straight story' because it's like lynch's 'mona lisa'
( the da vinci one ).. it's intoxicating on first viewing , but becomes lovelier the longer you gaze at it
( the da vinci one ).. it's intoxicating on first viewing , but becomes lovelier the longer you gaze at it
6
5: Okay, full disclosure: I tried to watch 'The Straight Story' on DVD once but was so put off my Sissy Spacek's performance I had to turn it off. (Riz, did I give up too soon?)
8
I picked Dune just to be contrary.
A better question is which Lynch film is most deeply flawed? Because all of them are flawed, many times by Laura Dern.
Naomi Watts should have won an Oscar for Mulholland Dr.
A better question is which Lynch film is most deeply flawed? Because all of them are flawed, many times by Laura Dern.
Naomi Watts should have won an Oscar for Mulholland Dr.
9
please stop giving lynch attention. He's a rabid right-winger; and a truther as well. Plus; I think he might be a smoker.
10
I'm with you, riz - The Straight Story has so much love for the world it put me to shame, in a good way.
11
I feel like Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire were pale echos of Lost Highway. Lost Highway was a masterpiece, where Lynch managed to get the world of reality and dreams on the screen at the same time. It also had the best line in David Lynch history "Give me back my phone."
13
@ 11, nah, Lost Highway almost but doesn't quite work. Mulholland Drive gets it all correct, and if it isn't Lynch's best film, it certainly belongs in the top 3 when rating his work. Inland Empire is probably too self-indulgent to be a success, but Laura Dern's performance makes it worth viewing.
16
@4,
I was so bored by it, I fast-forwarded through it on DVD (thus avoiding the fast-forwarding picture distortion you'd get on ye olde VHS). Since it had virtually no dialogue, I doubt I missed a thing.
I was so bored by it, I fast-forwarded through it on DVD (thus avoiding the fast-forwarding picture distortion you'd get on ye olde VHS). Since it had virtually no dialogue, I doubt I missed a thing.
17
Does anyone know if these screenings are 35mm or digital?
FWIW, FWWM is totally underrated, and my likely favorite film of his after BV, MD, and Eraserhead.
FWIW, FWWM is totally underrated, and my likely favorite film of his after BV, MD, and Eraserhead.
18
"Since it had virtually no dialogue, I doubt I missed a thing."
That sentence tells me all I need to know about you.
That sentence tells me all I need to know about you.
19
@18,
What? That I'm not riveted by dancing chickens? I suffered through at least 40 minutes of that heap of shit before I started fast-forwarding it. No, I didn't miss a thing, except the time I wasted watching it.
What? That I'm not riveted by dancing chickens? I suffered through at least 40 minutes of that heap of shit before I started fast-forwarding it. No, I didn't miss a thing, except the time I wasted watching it.
20
I have such a soft spot for Wild at Heart. A young Nic Cage, a weirdly romantic plot, and a road trip. It's gotta be in my personal top ten.
21
It was a toss-up between Elephant Man and The Straight Story. Coincidentally (?), the only two Lynch films I've watched--or would care to--with one or both of my parents.
22
@13- Well artistic judgment is inherently subjective, but I feel confident that you're completely wrong and I'm 100% correct. Perhaps even 110%.
23
@ 22, all my opinions are objectively correct, as evidenced by the choir of angels which appears every time I give one.
24
@8 is correct.
I love Laura Dern as an actress but many people don't.
Naomi Watts nailed it in Mulholland Drive, and was cheated out of an Oscar by an actress who should have won it for her prior film, not the one she got it for.
I love Laura Dern as an actress but many people don't.
Naomi Watts nailed it in Mulholland Drive, and was cheated out of an Oscar by an actress who should have won it for her prior film, not the one she got it for.
26
Give The Straight Story another chance. If Sissy Spacek bothered you that much (and I'm not sure why it would), just know that she's off the screen for most of the movie once the old man gets going.
27
Eraserhead is the only movie that ever triggered flashbacks for me. Worms! Chickens! Birth! The birth of worm-chickens, no bigger than your fist! But they're NEW! Gah...*runs away screaming*
Naomi Watts had a couple of moments in Mulholland Drive that are simply some of the best acting I've ever seen, from anyone. She was staggeringly good. And my husband fell madly in love with Rebekah del Rio after seeing that movie. He love love loves her version of Crying (Jurando).
Naomi Watts had a couple of moments in Mulholland Drive that are simply some of the best acting I've ever seen, from anyone. She was staggeringly good. And my husband fell madly in love with Rebekah del Rio after seeing that movie. He love love loves her version of Crying (Jurando).
28
I disagree that Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire are meant as a trilogy, but I definitely see IE as a darker counterpoint to Mulholland. I don't think you can fully appreciate one without seeing the other. And I don't think IE is "indulgent". I think it's more like Mulholland in overdrive.
30
@13: Yeah, what you said.
Although, I was surprised to see that Inland Empire received any votes at all. Pity votes, perhaps?
Although, I was surprised to see that Inland Empire received any votes at all. Pity votes, perhaps?
31
30: I know someone who called Inland Empire the best Lynch film, and his name rhymes with Blawn Blelson.
32
@24 but the Oscars are all about rewarding the right people at the wrong time.
Blue Velvet was so spacey to me that I didn't even notice a naked Isabella Rossellini in one scene!
Blue Velvet was so spacey to me that I didn't even notice a naked Isabella Rossellini in one scene!
33
@ 30, what surprises me is how many votes Dune is receiving. I'd guess that those people never read the books.
34
I picked Dune because it's the only movie of his that I've actually seen. (And after reading the comments, I'm sure as hell not going to watch Eraserhead.)
Do a Google image search for "sting dune" and tell me you're not intrigued.
Do a Google image search for "sting dune" and tell me you're not intrigued.
35
Blue Velvet is the kind of "classic" that ages really poorly. Nowadays it just looks like a museum piece of self-involved neo-hipsterism (or maybe it's just me and my distaste for Dennis Hopper).
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is the funniest piece of shit ever made, which is a shame, because the best thing Lynch has ever done is the TV series; in fact, I think that series, flawed as it was, might mark the exact moment when TV became a better, more serious, more thoughtful, more visually interesting and more entertaining medium than film, which it has been ever since (not just in Lynch's work).
I voted for Eraserhead, of course. Eraserhead and Pere Ubu's "The Modern Dance", which came out the following year, are forever twinned in my mind. The same decayed industrial provenance. Or maybe it was Jack Nance's hair.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is the funniest piece of shit ever made, which is a shame, because the best thing Lynch has ever done is the TV series; in fact, I think that series, flawed as it was, might mark the exact moment when TV became a better, more serious, more thoughtful, more visually interesting and more entertaining medium than film, which it has been ever since (not just in Lynch's work).
I voted for Eraserhead, of course. Eraserhead and Pere Ubu's "The Modern Dance", which came out the following year, are forever twinned in my mind. The same decayed industrial provenance. Or maybe it was Jack Nance's hair.
37
How could Naomi Watts be robbed of an Oscar for Mullholland Drive by another nominee when she herself wasn't nominated? Should she have been? Sure. But that's like saying the Cleveland Browns were robbed of the Super Bowl when they didn't even qualify for the play-offs.
I went with Wild at Heart. It is like a fever dream after watching a triple bill of Love Me Tender, The Wizard of Oz, and The Fugitive Kind.
I went with Wild at Heart. It is like a fever dream after watching a triple bill of Love Me Tender, The Wizard of Oz, and The Fugitive Kind.
38
Also forgot to add @9 is full of shit. It is known that Lynch has endorsed the Natural Law Party in past elections and largely doesn't follow politics.
40
@24 wants us to do our homework and I think what he's saying is that Halle Barry should have gotten an Oscar for Swordfish, which was her movie before her winning performance in Monster's Ball. Am I following?
42
I wish I were in Seattle this week, Lost Highway is my favorite Lynch film and I'd love to see it and the Straight Story up on the big screen again.
Blue Velvet was my favorite before Lost Highway, but as Fnarf says, it really hasn't aged that well. It's still useful as a sybolic rosetta stone for his later dream films (LH, MD, ILI) though as his symbolic obfuscations are much less...well obfuscated..in BV and if you can tease them out there, the later films are more understandable..
Blue Velvet was my favorite before Lost Highway, but as Fnarf says, it really hasn't aged that well. It's still useful as a sybolic rosetta stone for his later dream films (LH, MD, ILI) though as his symbolic obfuscations are much less...well obfuscated..in BV and if you can tease them out there, the later films are more understandable..
44
ha ha Jack Nance's hair, I love that post, there is something to be said for love for it's own sake, and that for me, is what Eraserhead was. Sure there are dancing chickens, and silent weirdos, but ultimately love wins out, doesn't it? Naomi Watts was nominated for an Oscar for Mullholland Drive, and she didn't win it because the right people never win it.
Is anyone else on here amazed that the same man made The Elephant Man, Mulholland Drive, and The Straight Story? and Eraserhead. and by the way whoever on here dissed Laura Dern, shame on you. Inland Empire should more than prove you wrong, not to mention Blue Velvet, and Wild at Heart. Am I the only one who needed therapy after Inland Empire? but the whores were lovely. seriously though, I cannot tell you what happened in most of his pictures, but I went somewhere, and haven't been the same since. Not a lot of other film makers offer that kind of journey. Okay, I'm done now, and how come all the fun stuff always happens in the Northwest?????
Is anyone else on here amazed that the same man made The Elephant Man, Mulholland Drive, and The Straight Story? and Eraserhead. and by the way whoever on here dissed Laura Dern, shame on you. Inland Empire should more than prove you wrong, not to mention Blue Velvet, and Wild at Heart. Am I the only one who needed therapy after Inland Empire? but the whores were lovely. seriously though, I cannot tell you what happened in most of his pictures, but I went somewhere, and haven't been the same since. Not a lot of other film makers offer that kind of journey. Okay, I'm done now, and how come all the fun stuff always happens in the Northwest?????
45
If you want to get some news about David Lynch, I recommend the Lynchland FaceBook page : www.facebook.com/lynchland
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