So much to write about, and so little time!
Here’s a fun exercise that I did manage to complete, prompted by an IMDB thread, of all things!
Rank the Lynch films (giving a few reasons along the way)–and then tack on 5 favourite non-Lynch films.
This is what I came up with:
1. Mulholland Dr.
I wrote so much about it here that I’m afraid to do anymore. Suffice it to say: it’s my favourite film, and the most compelling examination of the divided nature of the self ever created in any medium… Naomi Watts is astonishing… it also delivers some of the best laughs in the Lynch canon
2. Inland Empire
absolutely unnerving, touching and metaphysically sublime–the ultimate fuck you to the people who waste their time worrying about what’s “real” and what’s a “dream” in Lynch’s work… it’s ALL real and all a dream… just like our own lives… the Grace Zabriskie stuff, the chase through the sound stage, Laura Dern on the street(“Where am I? I’m sca-yared.”), the facial transformation in the theatre near the end… it all lives in my subconscious as if it had always been there
3. Lost Highway
The best thing about Lynch is that he nearly always hits you with the full spectrum of emotion and thought at once… this one is quite exceptional in that regard–presenting the horror of desire (“you’ll NEVER have me”) without giving us much in the way of the euphoria generated by those fleeting victories over abjection and alienation…still, deeply, deeply compelling… and a real breakthrough in terms of narrative structure… a declaration of independence from linear plotting
4. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (including the episodes)
Amazingly empathetic examination of the physical and psychological trauma inflicted upon Laura Palmer–whom I like to think of as the Christ of modern America… her suffering is more typical (of life under patriarchal late capitalism) than anyone would like to admit
5. Wild at Heart:
Amour Fou. this is what the surrealists were trying to do
6. Blue Velvet:
this would be any other director’s best film… it IS amazing–and really establishes the pattern for Lynch’s meditation upon life in America… it is both the most optimistic and the most nihilistic of films–just as America is the most optimistic and nihilistic of cultures… it doesn’t flinch from the American Dream or the American Nightmare–both are absolutely real
7. Eraserhead
astonishingly great–and already shows an artist near the full possession of his worldview–but not in dialogue with the history of cinema (and of America) in the way that most of his subsequent films are… if the truest cinema plays like the collective dream of its audience, this one still seems more like a dramatization of the artist’s own personal dreams
8. Elephant Man
Another extraordinary piece–alternately cruel, objective and heart-breakingly empathetic in equal measure… this is #8–and it too would be most directors’ best film
9. Straight Story
have only seen this one once (when it was released)–it IS wonderful–but (by design of course) lacks the ability to infect the viewer’s dreams
10. Dune:
did not like this when I saw it as a kid–some day I will have to give it another try
5 Non-Lynchian favourites: VERTIGO, PORTRAIT OF JENNIE, SCARLET STREET, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, BLOW OUT
Do let me know if you decide to make your own list!
bonne apres midi
Dave
You distracted me with this one. My list.
“Wild at Heart” is my favorite David Lynch film and was actually the inspiration for some really bad prose poems that I wrote a while back.
I think I remember hearing that Lynch was writing bits of “Inland Empire” as they filmed and when asked about the film, no one in the cast knew what it was about. I appreciate that kind of honesty.
DUNE was deeply disappointing when I saw it back when it was first released, its shortcomings may have had to do its producers, Dino and his daughter Raffaella. I think they were trying to produce something along the lines of a mega-blockbuster, the type of film that Lynch just isn’t suited for at all. And I remember thinking at the time (and now) that anyone who places the music of Brian Eno and Toto in the same film JUST DOESN’T GET IT.
on second thought, I think Fire Walk With Me ought to 3rd (bumping Lost Highway down to 4th)
and Guy, you’re right, there is no place for non barking Totos in a good film
Just discovered your blog and am really enjoying it. Thanks for keeping it up, and I am especially looking forward to the Vidor series.
I know I’m very late to this particular post, but I just wanted to say that if you haven’t seen “Peter Ibbetson,” you should give it a try sometime. Given your list of favorites (all of which I very much like too) I think you’d find it fascinating. The movie is available in that Universal Gary Cooper “Signature” set – which is very reasonably priced, and has some other fine films in it – including Lubitsch’s “Design for Living” (where Cooper proves to be an unexpectedly – to me – adroit Lubitsch player) and the irresistable “Beau Geste.” In fact I enjoyed everything in the set, but “”Ibbetson” was the revelation, and thematically it makes a nice fit with your list.
It’s possible you written about “Ibbetson” in the past, in which case, pardon this newbie for rambling.
thanks Eric–I’m excited about the Vidor, and I hope the posts will generate some good discussions!
re: Ibbetson–I love that movie (for the astral projection stuff, of course–but also for the amazing scene between the two protagonists as children–possibly the greatest child-actor showcase of all time!)
I ‘ve never written about it though–I should!
that Universal Cooper set IS a real treasure trove–Lewis Milestone’s THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN is also fantastic… very innovative use of the screen–and features Cooper’s memorable Popular Front parable with the tourist and the matches…. Milestone is another director that no one ever talks about these days–the guy made some great films during the 1930s and 1940s
Agreed on” General Died at Dawn” – totally enjoyable, and I understand what you mean about the innovative use of the screen. For a guy who made as many remarkable movies as Milestone did on the Thirties alone, (“All Quiet…” “Rain,” “The Front Page,” “Hallelujah I’m a Bum,” “General,” etc.) he really is puzzlingly underappreciated. Maybe some intrepid blogger will devote a series to him some day – ahem!
Milestone seems to have produced less interesting stuff, as a whole, in his later career, though I am fond of MARTHA IVERS.
Returning to “Peter Ibbetson” for a sec – I had heard a bit about it, but before I picked up the set I’d never had a chance to see it, and what little I’d read didn’t prepare me for the experience. What a strange, lovely, lovingly strange experience it was. I was entranced even before the startling third act – the sets, the lighting, the sublimely drifting camera movements, all in the “rational” world of the first two thirds of the film, marked it as something unusual in my experience of Thirties Hollywood film. And the visionary third act – the notion that years were passing while Cooper and Ann Harding were essentially rendered immobile but sharing a twinned dream life – is there anyting in a Hollywood movie of that period comparable in its oddity, its visually arresting quality and its emotional impact? Henry Hathaway directed some fine movies – but nothing else (that I know of) like “Ibbetson.”
Who knew?
Ibbetson seems to me an interesting precursor to “Mulholland Drive” and “Lost Highway” – other movies where a character’s psyche is so battered that (s)he “splits” psychologically and leaves reality for a dream world – or vice versa in “Mulholland Drive” – and where the movie boldly, and beautifully, follows. Which is why it came to mind while reading your post.
I note that Cooper plays an architect in “Ibbetson” – I like to think of it as his warm up for his later architectural operations in “The Fountainhead.” Which brings me back to your pending series on King Vidor. I’m looking forward to that – and especially to when you get around to “Fountainhead,” which will be rich fodder for a lot of the subjects you’ve mentioned you are interested in. I’m not a fan of Ayn Rand’s writings (the phrase “nuttier than a fruitcake” comes to mind) but what Vidor did with the material is really something – his late period masterpiece, maybe?
I’m looking forward to your thoughts on it.
oh yes–Vidor did an amazing thing by turning an Ayn Rand book into a film worth talking about!
it’ll be wonderful to have you aboard for the project!