2012-04-23

Top Films of David Lynch by LMdC


One of the most interesting filmmakers of Cinema. His Films are amongst the most bizarre and profoundly meaningful around. Entering a Lynch movie is like going to the asylum where nothing and everything makes sense.

"Lynch uses the cinema to express non-rational energy in tangible form (visually and aurally). This energy is familiar to us all, but has been repressed in us by language, rationality, and education. This is one reason why Lynch's films seem to be nonsensical, but nonetheless evoke powerful feelings. It is easy to make nonsensical films that don't evoke any feelings at all, because they don't engage with the non-rational energy that Lynch evokes." - Thomas Elsaesser & Warren Buckland, Studying Contemporary American Film: A Guide to Movie Analysis


1. Blue Velvet (1986)
2. Mulholland Dr. (2000)
3. Inland Empire (2006)
4. Eraserhead (1976)
5. Lost Highway (1996)
6. The Elephant Man (1980)
7. Wild at Heart (1990)
8. Dune (1984)
9. Twin Peaks: Fire Walks With Me (1992)
10. The Straight Story (1999)

6 comments:

  1. Hmmmm... That's an interesting quote. I'm going to be thinking about that for a while!

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    1. I really liked this quote and it been haunting my thoughts for some time. It is interesting to read about different point of views about Lynch's films and I thought this one was smart.

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  2. I'm a bit like the child who cries out that the emperor has no clothes on when it comes to Lynch's films. I'm not a believer that he really has the stories all worked out in his head. I believe that his fans come up with what they think his movies are about and then he agrees with them afterwards (offering "hints" to keep them talking about them.) To me this is just being lazy.

    As such, I would have The Elephant Man and The Straight Story as my top 2 Lynch films - because he actually took the time to come up with a plan for the movie before shooting it.

    I like Mulholland Dr., but so much energy has been expended trying to understand the symbolism of why Lynch used Watts for two different roles and they overlook the obvious: Lynch liked her. She was part of the failed TV show pilot that became Mulholland Dr. When he added the flashback he wanted to continue to use her. He simply cast her as the second character because he wanted to continue to work with her. There is no deeper meaning behind it.

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    1. I understand your POV Chip. And Lynch always had the magician never tells his tricks attitude towards his films. Personally, I see him more as an artist than actually a film director. He's more looking into textures, images, lighting than plot stories when I read interviews with him. However, I love his films and even if it's not done on purpose, the core of their symbolism holds so muchmeanings and they offer a multi-layered material to it audience.

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    2. "I see him more as an artist than actually a film director. He's more looking into textures, images, lighting than plot stories"

      I agree.

      By the way, don't get me wrong - I like at least half his films; I just don't try to find any deeper meaning in them. He taught me not to do that with the TV show Twin Peaks. The first "season" was fantastic, and if it had ended as a mini-series it would still be remembered as one of the best things ever put on television. Unfortunately, it was turned into an ongoing series and the second season revealed that Lynch didn't have any larger plan for the story and it went downhill fast. The show went from being the highest rated - to cancelled - in less than a full season.

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    3. I have to find this first season! This is the only thing he did that I haven't seen.

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