Blue Velvet is full of bizarre surreal moments as well. The only film of Lynch’s that breaks away from his usual style is The Straight Story and perhaps Elephant Man.
I do agree that Lynch should do more films like “The Straight Story” when he leaves his usual bells, whistles, and gimmicks behind he can still spin a really compelling and human story.
Blue Velvet has SOME surreal elements, but on in understandable level, the movie isn’t one straight surreal story, just bits and prices of it are. I think it is more generaly a suspence story than typical Lynch.
A third option, I suppose, would be the Barry Gifford David Lynch—Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and “Hotel Room.”
I prefer the David Lynch that I used to think was sincere, the one before he apparently bought too much into the Lynchian hype. I think that guy has disappeared. If anyone finds him, tell him I miss him.
That’s kind of what my theory is on Inland Empire…it’s Lynch being way to into Lynch.
I think if Lynch got deeper into “real” Lynch I think we’d see better films. I think he got way into “fake”, “cliche” David Lynch. The one who’d say, “yeah I’ll do that ‘Locomotion’ scene yeah that’s my kind of thing yeah”, rather than be honest….
@ OP, no!!! Eraserhead/Mulholland Dr. are the best. INLAND EMPIRE was just a little too sprawling, or even just grainy visually, I know I missed his beautiful colors and mise-en-scene.
Blue Velvet is a very good movie, but never blew me away. I dunno. It’s too straight-forward and pulpy.
Lynch, ranked:
Mulholland Dr.
Blue Velvet
Wild at Heart
Lost Highway
Eraserhead
The Straight Story
The Elephant Man
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Inland Empire
Haven’t ever seen Dune :(
I’d like to say: I really do like the Twin Peaks film a lot! But I won’t deny that by itself, it doesn’t stand up too well against Lynch’s other work. And as much as I like Lynch, I found Inland Empire to be a ponderous exercise. I’m not one for experimental works, and again, say what you will, but up against his other work, it doesn’t stand up too well.
The Straight Story is more of a Mary Sweeney (Lynch’s wife) film. It’s written by, edited by and produced by her. I feel Lynch is mainly there for moral support.
@ Jesse: Just curious as to which Lynch you see as the “sincere” Lynch. Do you have particular films in mind—the The Grandmother and Eraserhead Lynch perhaps? To me there’s always been a schizm between the surrealist/transcendental meditation Lynch and the ’50s nostalgia/ buttoned-all-the-way-up-to-the-collar moralist Lynch and that split is where a lot of the energy in his work comes from . . . and, as far as I can tell, Lynch sees both sets of impulses are sincere.
Blue Velvet is one of my top five films…one of the reasons i love it so much is for its pulpy feeling, i want to see Lynch attempt another Blue Velvet, or even Mulholland Dr. (another in my top five) seeing as how that had traces of pulyness as well, and a perfect balance of Lynch’s surreal style, as with Blue Velvet.
Here’s a doozy: The Straight Story felt really radical to me and Inland Empire seemed conventional. I love both.
And by that I mean: their surfaces are obviously the opposite of those descriptions; but I’m thinking more of what he was getting at with each.
Like for instance The Straight Story: how odd to use conventional road trip and old-man-learns-about-life movie to really do none of that and tell such an aesthetically basic and stripped down story about terminal or extreme fixation. Like how the movie just stops when he parks his mower in his brother’s lot.
Or like for instance Inland Empire: jumbled up narrative for sure, but a really usual story from Hollywood — starlet tries to seek answers and destroys her old self to become reborn. A lot of the bunnies and Polish prostitutes weren’t red herrings but they didn’t demonstrate the bulk of what the movie is about. Roger Ebert, who is very smart about picking up on this stuff, said something in his review about how each scene plays with a typical movie convention and its ordering and design is an upsetting of those conventions; by the end a family is reunited, a happy ending is reached, and the heroine has triumphed after being reborn.
But my larger point is: David Lynch, since Dune, has made movies he’s wanted to make. Some are misguided and make foolish choices (Lost Highway) and some have been acclaimed universally (Mulholland Drive) but none of them I think are insincere. His images and characters feel pressingly real to me — like they had to be up on the screen for their creator to be satisfied.
Saying “he doesn’t mean what he’s doing” is kind of a futile argument: even if he didn’t mean, say, Eraserhead or Wild at Heart, doesn’t mean that either are bad movies or good. The movies themselves still have to stand on their own two, um, reels, and work without the biographical crap and legend of that David Lynch guy himself.
Blue Velvet
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Wild at Heart
Mulholland Dr.
Eraserhead
Lost Highway
Dune
The Straight Story
Inland Empire
The Elephant Man
Well, Lynch has quenched my cinematic thirst with two films: Wild at Heart (which satisfies my more conventional tastes) and Eraserhead (which satisfies my more unconventional side). Yeah, I liked Blue Velvet too, as well as Twin Peaks (season 1 and Fire Walk with Me), but I haven’t watched Lost Highway since it was first released so that one might possibly be added to my “best of” Lynch list. I remember liking it in a vague way, but I just didn’t spend enough time “absorbing” it. The Elephant Man was really good, Dune was really bad, Inland Empire was self-indulgent bollocks (though there were moments of brilliance!), and Mulholland Drive has never had much of an impact on me, it just didn’t impress me.
Lynch is at his best when he’s able to communicate clearly that everything he’s doing is “intentional”. That’s something which is really up to question in Inland Empire because there’s no attempt made at all to make the story accessible, and I’m not a fan of films that defiantly deny any explanation at all. Even Eraserhead, for me, was a difficult film to understand at first, but god, I got such a strong impression of Lynch’s confidence throughout the film (something that only occasionally resurfaces now) that it felt worth it to rewatch it until it made sense – because at that point I felt that there WAS something to be revealed instead of the feeling of futility and doubt that pervade a lot of Lynch’s later work.
I prefer it more when Lynch is restrained, such as Blue Velvet or Wild at Heart. I feel he got a bit carried away with Lost Highway, Eraserhead, and especially Inland Empire. I believe he even stated himself that he likes being restrained as opposed to going all out.
My top lynch film is a tie between Blue Velvet and Eraserhead. I can’t choose between the two, it’s impossible.
My ranking of his movies http://www.theauteurs.com/lists/6028
I just love Lynch all around, Each of his movies I love in a different way. Aside from straight story, really liked it, but it’s just not a side of Lynch I really care to see more of.
Also, I haven’t seen Fire Walk With Me yet. I wanna sit down and re-watch twin peaks again marathon style and top it off with the movie. I’m looking forward to it.
@ Matt
Well, Lynch’s stuff felt very sincere to me all the way through Lost Highway (which I think except for questionable choices for cameos like Henry Rollins and Marilyn Manson and poor music like Rammstein, is his best film). He is completely unapologetic about the mysteries of the film, and doesn’t insult the audience by talking down to us with answers (which is one of the enormous problems with Mulholland Drive). The Straight Story I think is good, but there’s something that feels a little forced about the Sissy Spacek character.
Mulholland Drive had great moments- I love all the stuff with Justin Theroux. The “silencio” stuff I thought was absolutely horrible and embarrassing, like someone came in and began aping a David Lynch film. The worst though was in the scene where we were told all the answers. He never did that before, and I found it to be very insulting.
Inland Empire seemed to lack any inner truth, it felt entirely to me like Lynch just going through the motions, but somehow never really connected to what he was showing us- and the Locomotion scene was the worst of the worst- it really made me angry- I used to love his films, I started making films after being inspired by what I saw as truth in his films.
This of course is a very difficult thing to discuss, because when these kinds of films work, it’s because they are working on an intuitive level, much like with Tarkovsky. Once you start over-analyzing filmmakers like Lynch or Tarkovsky, you’re sunk. When these people work properly, they’re not using things as simplistic as symbols….
The problem i have is that i feel Lynch will never go back to being restrained now that he has discovered DV. Theres an interview with him say how he has found an immense love for mini DV cameras and has sworn off film….this might be good and bad sign, good because this allows Lynch to make whatever he wants whenever he wants. Bad because he now is working with poor quality witch makes everything he does look like Inland Empire.
^ that’s your opinion. films can be enjoyed three ways in my world. analyzed, experienced, or both.
Jarrod, yeah mini DV has some issues, but the quality of DV and HDDV has exploded and filters that can be used in the edited process have really really pushed the envelope on what is film and what is DV, plus using film is a low budget film killer.
Read up on DV and you’ll learn a great deal about where film is going.
@Kelvane well yeah, obviously, these are all opinions. In my world, analyzing a film is very easy, but unsatisfying because it takes the joy out of it.
Yea I admit I still don’t really like the cheap DV look in inland. But I got used to it pretty quick.
At some point it’s an artisic decision, I think the look of Inland Empire is based on artisic decisions.
The lost highway david lynch.
Interesting. Thanks, Jesse. Lost Highway is actually my favorite of Lynch’s films as well.
Ulicain, I myself use HDDV for my shorts and know the amazing capabilities of it, but the problem seems to be that Lynch dosent now. I have a DCD of all of his most recent short film and the ALL look like Inland Empire…this worries me because I fell like he might be captivated by the style.
DVD* : p
Wild at Heart…my first Lynch and my favorite
Wild at Heart was the closest thing i can think of to Blue Velvet.
Jarrod Goolsby
I would have to say I prefer Blue Velvet Lynch as opposed to Inland Empire/Eraserhead Lynch…don’t get me wrong, I like Eraserhead and Inland Empire, but I want to see Lynch doing more straight forward suspence.