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Comment by gordon_freeman

2 days ago

Start with "Eraserhead" and then go from there. Surreal is the word I associate with his movies and tv show (Twin Peaks) and I absolutely love watching such movies!

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gordon_freeman

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scoofy  2 days ago

Eraserhead is borderline unwatchable. I love David Lynch, sort of, but without telling people that they're about to sit down and watch an hour-and-a-half of what is effectively an unwatchable piece of avant-garde cinema, then they're not going to be able to appreciate it.

There is nothing worse than getting excited to see a famous director's debut film, thinking you're going to have a good time, and then getting Eraserhead.

  • monophonica  2 days ago

    If someone is not into art films, to not start with Twin Peaks is absolutely insane to me.

    First two seasons of Twin Peaks are his masterpiece IMO and his most watchable.

    Those are some of the best characters of any film/tv show ever.

    From there I would go to Lost Highway next for a stronger dose of the more out there stuff.

    • ascagnel_  20 hours ago

      Just start with the pilot first -- as it is, the US pilot is basically a feature-length film (it runs 1h25m), and features enough of Lynch's trademark juxtaposition of horrible and mundane, and piles on the warmth and love for his characters that set his works apart. The European cut of the pilot adds a few minutes to the end and originally aired as a TV movie, and may be worth it if you're not otherwise hooked by the show, since it features a definitive ending as well as the first appearance of the show's trademark "red room" (footage from the sequence was included in a later episode in the US).

      For me, the second step would either be The Elephant Man or Mulholland Dr. -- many of his works tackle very dark subject matter and include sexualized violence that can be downright disturbing to watch, but those two omit those elements. The Straight Story is much lighter, but largely lacks the surrealism Lynch is known for.

    • 4ggr0  1 day ago

      i tried watching Twin Peaks but my GenZ attention-hungy brain got really bored during the first episode. maybe i should give it another shot...

      it's not like i'm not used to watching long movies and i would call myself some form of cinephile, but for some reason Twin Peaks felt unbelievably slow.

      3 replies →

  • tjakab  2 days ago

    Eraserhead is highly watchable, but the first time you see it, it's best to just experience it without trying to process it too much. The nuance comes through on repeat viewings.

    • scoofy  2 days ago

      >Eraserhead is highly watchable

      It is a film explicitly designed to be unpleasant. This may be artistically interesting, but it's certainly no going to appeal to most people.

  • labster  2 days ago

    I rented Eraserhead and watched with some friends in college. I loved it, and so did the other Lynch fan. The other two, well, the first words spoken over the credits were “What the actual fuck was that?” Let’s just say it’s a divisive film.

kingstoned  2 days ago 

    When people say "surreal" they mean "real", it's just most of your life is not very real, just repetition and routine. - Norm Macdonald

jimbob45  2 days ago

Dune or Twin Peaks are probably going to be more accessible than anything else.

For Eraserhead, I understand the metaphor of how parenting can be larger-than-life and terrifying and I see how Eraserhead was trying to embody that but I very much didn't appreciate the highly pessimistic ending. It's an early movie that would have benefited immensely from an alternate ending on its DVD.

epolanski  2 days ago

Season 3 Twin Peaks is peak "I don't know what am I looking at".

  • Lio  2 days ago

    When it first came out I was so desperate to see it I watched the first episode twice without realising.

    I spent the whole time trying to work out what was different between the "two".

    I mean, it’s exactly the sort of thing he would do and I still loved it.

    Magic!