Comment by diggan
2 days ago
Sad to hear. Personally I think I've only seen Mulholland Drive before, but long time ago. I enjoy surreal movies in general, so kind of weird I haven't seen more of Lynch's work. What personal favorites do other HNers have, of what he'd done?
My best Mullholland Drive experience: A couple of years ago a local arthouse cinema showed the movie again. It was brilliant, just like I remembered it.
After the showing, the projectionist came into the room and apologized for the confusing movie: "I must have mixed up the reels..."
She didn't.
I love Lost Highway. But, you have to watch the whole thing confused. Then have someone explain what's happening in the last scene. Then watch the whole thing again amazed. Also, the soundtrack was one of the first produced by Trent Reznor --long before he made a hobby of collecting Oscars.
And, I grew up watching Lynch's Dune over and over until it made sense :P
The soundtrack to Lost Highway is one of my top albums, all categories. Equally as fascinating, weird, violent and beautiful as the film itself. The tracks are masterfully sequenced, often blend into each other and form a complete work in itself.
It has long been my testbed for gapless playback on various hardware and software, often to my disappointment. (I'm not sure the experience is even available on streaming platforms, where things are normally playlists of disparate blobs of data, where perhaps "this track is not available in your region".)
As well as soundtracks, Lynch is a huge figure in sound design generally. He is a pioneer and master of several techniques that have entered the standard repertoire now, like foreshadowing, looming, use of rhythmic leitmotifs. A very creative pioneer. Will be missed. RIP.
To me that was his movie that made most sense. It seems a perfect allegorical depiction of what it means to have bad conscience.
If you enjoy surreal movies then definitely Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. Just don't watch them with your kids. (Or parents...)
They are not 'normal', which is something I always admired about David Lynch. He had a very personal style and vision, and stuck with it.
Random anecdote along those lines: I got along great with my manager at my first full-time job, but was surprised when he mentioned one day that he wasn't interested in independent film at all. As an indie film lover myself, I asked him why.
He grew up in a very straight-laced conservative community, and he said that he and his friends tried to watch an independent film once, but they all found the film was far too disturbing. So after that he never tried again.
I asked what film they watched, and he answered Blue Velvet, and suddenly his perspective made a lot more sense to me!
The Straight Story is not at all surreal, but rather simple and heart-warming, and somehow still somewhat weird.
Straight Story is such a pleasure to watch
Twin Peaks is the best TV show ever made
The first season is a masterpiece. Second season goes off the rails and loses direction fairly early on
But it's very much redeemed by the third season, which is every bit as good as the first season, albeit rather different in tone.
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Last few episodes are great again, and then we got Fire Walk With Me which is awesome. Also check out the feature-length The Missing Pieces composed of scenes cut from Fire Walk, if you haven't.
Frankly I find even the "bad" stretch of S2 better than more than half of allegedly-good TV, anyway.
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What Did Jack Do? (netflix)
His PS2 commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laf9vpJMDjA
Rabbits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drjQfQtv2BQ
Aside from his films, I'd also suggest his still art (here's a video of him walking through an exhibition of his work at his alma mater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmkJ3ff22gI). He's also got his music (I should note, the video was not directed by Lynch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IugOfDBWcGc
Inland Empire is my favorite film of his, followed by the Twin Peaks movie, but I'm not sure the movie stands on its own without the TV show.
I recommend starting at the beginning with Eraserhead. He hasn't made anything I would classify as less than brilliant.
Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart are my two personal favorites. And as stated before, Twin Peaks is one of the greatest shows ever made.