Arturo: I was going to put that “creepy couple” coming from under the door in my pick, but you beat me to it. I have no idea what that was all about – does anyone have any theories/speculations? That blew me away, as I couldn’t see it coming and had no idea what it meant in the context of the film. Is it hallucinatory? Is it real? That’s what is so unique about the best Lynchian moments – they are so unexpected.
The suicide scene in MULHOLLAND DRIVE keeps coming to mind as well as the fainting singer lip synching… For the very reason Bob stated… caught me completely unawares.
The Smiling Father, scene in Eraserhead
Candy Colored Clown. Dean Stockwell doing Orbison. So surreal.
Robert Blake telling Bill Pullman face to face: “I’m in your house, right now,” and to prove it, handing over the cell phone (still so awkward and foreign to a viewing audience at that time), “Call me.”
my favorite isn’t exactly Lynchian, but just a great scene in general. When Diane meets Camilla at this party and Camilla and the director announce their engagement while Diane is completely humiliated. It really hits me.
I can’t share the sentiment about the old people coming under the door, though. It turned me off a lot at first (I do like it more now). But when they torment Diane immediately after is great.
the scene Ben mentioned in Lost Highway is up there. and the scene Riley mentioned from Blue Velvet is a great one too. and I would mention the scene Julian did from Eraserhead. I guess all of those really stick out of those films, in a good way.
@Bob Stutsman
I think the Old couple are supposed to symbolize the pressure to succeed, which Diane feels as failure since her Jitterbug Competion-induced dreams have crashed. Betty arrives in LA, so happy, ready to become a star. Irene tells her that they’ll be looking for her on the big screen. Diane is probably ashamed of where her career has gone and the thought of the old people expecting her to succeed led to her suicide. (That’s my interpretation).
Anyways—- My favorite scene is in the Series finale of Twin Peaks in the Black Lodge, where the singer is singing “Sycamore Trees” while the strobe lights flash. And then it just grows more and more insane. I know that’s not a movie, but I think it’s better than any scene in his movies.
For me it had been a number of things in Lost Highway, like, Blake’s face on the pillow (fucking goosebumps, with that one); or “now give me back my phone”; or “Dick Morant is dead”…But post-Inland Empire one that really sticks with me – because it accompanies a kind of roller-coaster-like flip, is Laura Dern just yelling out “I’m a fucking whore!” as she’s transported to the sidewalks of Hollywood Blvd.
Thanks for that, Jim. I need to see it again to get the context.
The ending of Elephant Man is probably my favorite. It’s probably the most spiritual/emotional I’ve felt from a film, ever. I know its just art, but it basically confirmed my feeling that death is not a final end, and that love is perhaps eternal.
The end of Inland Empire when the Polish Poem song is playing. That song is so beautiful and even though the film was confusing, it seemed like that song tied it together.
The beginning of Eraserhead sucked me in like no other movie has.
In Blue Velvet I like the scene where Jeffery sneaks into the apartment and she comes home and he hides in the closet… the tension was so perfect and true, it’s the kind of thing you’d daydream about “what would it be like to sneak into someone’s house?” I also like the slow dance scene with the song by Juilee Cruise (I think its her, I could be wrong).
In Mullholland Drive I love the scene where the guy is talking about a dream and they go to the back of the restaurant, it’s terrifying. The “Crying” scene is also a favorite for sure.
In Wild at Heart I like where they are driving down the road and Nicolas Cage does this funny little dance with his hands, hilarious.
Diane Ladd drinking her martini, WILD AT HEART.
The laughing baby, ERASERHEAD
The demise of Blue Velvet’s terrifying villain, Frank Booth, played by Dennis Hopper.
Hopper, hopped up on gas (ether? nitrous oxide?) stalks around Isabella Rossellini’s apartment, searching for Kyle McLaughlin — all the while telling him via walkie-talkie that he’s going to kill McLaughlin. But in a satisfying turn of the tables, McLaughlin hides in the closet, remerges for just a second to retrieve a dead cop’s service revolver (doubling the supense), then returns to his hiding place.
The infuriated Hopper narrows his search to the closet, yanks open the door and — blam! — gets ventilated through the forehead.
For a brief moment he registers astonishment and a tornado-like wind can be heard on the soundtrack for just a second.
Amen.
Frank Booth is one of the most frightening villains in history, all the moreso because he is completely unhinged and unpredictable.
Blue Velvet is still disturbing (especially because it is heavily flavored with satire and black comedy) nearly 23 years later.
Cheers,
Steve
cinemauprising.blogspot.com
Well there are 3 spine-tinglers in Mulholland Dr- Naomi Watts’ kissing audition (what a performance she gives! and credit to Lynch for making that scene so alive and erotic too); when she gets amorous in bed with Laura Harring; and the Crying scene, which certainly has something of Celine and Julie go Boating about it, well as does the film as a whole, though darker. Not the only time Lynch makes brilliant use of Roy Orbison; another favourite scene is In Dreams/Candy Coloured Clown in Blue Velvet. Well, the musical scores are often excellent in his films. Seeing Mulholland Dr at the cinema i felt like i was being engulfed and swept away on a beautiful wave with Crying, the sound was superb- but by then all 12 people in the rows in front of me had already walked out, would you believe it? Their loss.
the robert blake phone scene in lost highway
Soo many!
Dean Stockwell singing Roy Orbison in ‘Blue velvet’
The weird flash to the monster in ‘mulholland drive’
the last shot in Twin peaks ’’HOW’S ANNIE ? HOW’S ANNIE’’?
His character in TP Gordon Cole..
Robert Blake phone scene
Winkies scene
and the murder in twin peaks episode 14.
Jesse’s right, there are so many.
the scene where Dorothy Valens says to the Kyle MacLachlan character, “I looked for you in my closet last night.”
the scene where the cop says “That’s a human ear all right.”
the dialogue between Cage and Diane Ladd in the men’s room – “do you think I’d let my daughter be with a piece of s-h-i-t like you? Kid, youi belong in one of these toilets” – cut to a close-up of a turd floating in the bowl
of course the audition scene in Mulholland Drive
The moment that Jeffrey walks out of Dorthey’s apartment and Frank walks up in Blue Velvet. One of my all time favourite scenes.
As of now the endings of Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire; the beginning of Eraserhead; Club Silencio scene in MD; the “In Dreams” karaoke scene in Blue Velvet; and every scene in IE with Karolina Gruszka.
The scene in Blue Velvet:
“No kiss for Frank? Ok fuck it! Lets hit the fucking road”! Lets fuck! ill fuck anything that moves"!
Blue Velvet – “Heineken! Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!”
Wild at Heart – Sailor: “Peanut, you brought me my snakeskin jacket! Did I ever tell you this jacket here is a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom?” Lulu: “About a million times.”
Eraserhead: The scene in which the lady in the radiator sings “In Heaven.”
Any and every use of Harry dean Stanton
Fire Walk With Me: When Laura comes home during the day and finds “Bob” hiding behind her dresser. Makes my skin crawl.
@Alex K
Exactly, including the scene where Laura watches the masked boy and woman approach her from the picture in her room. Completely unsettling.
haah Lester indeed, that Blue Velvet one was exactly the one that comes to mind personally. Dennis Hopper is such a freak.
That one-minute sequence in Lumiere and Company, titled “Premonition Following An Evil Deed.”
Lynch distilled. It is exquisite.
That little boy has seen something he wasn’t supposed to see, and we are seeing something we are not supposed to see.
Walker Percy would have had a fit.
Sailor and Lula on the road and he drives and talks while she sees the witch in the sky.
- The naked chubby girls in Wild at Heart.
- The first meditating sequence of The Straight Story where Lauren’s Walk begins to play
- Willem Dafoe’s head exploding
- David Bowie’s fucked up cameo in Fire Walk With Me.
- Kiefer Sutherland telling the waitress that cafiene’s a drug, nicotine’s a drug, etc.
- Credit dance scene at the end of Inland Empire
- The moment the opera singer stops singing in Mulholland Drive
- John Merrick talking about his mom to the doctor’s wife.
Arturo
the “what do you faggots want” part at the end of Wild At Heart is a personal fave.
also the old creepy couple coming from underneath the door in “Mullholland Drive”