Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

..and why not?

"Lost Highway", 'Mullhullond Drive" and "Inland Empire"

don't make a lick of sense.
1
25%
make perfect sense
1
25%
are an artistic statement where "sense" doesn't really matter
1
25%
my dog won't stop licking it's balls
1
25%
 
Total votes: 4

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Sneelock
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Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Sneelock » 01 Mar 2018, 19:30

this writer says no.
http://brightlightsfilm.com/asking-wron ... phTu2ct0SI
and he thinks it's important that they don't.
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The Modernist
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby The Modernist » 01 Mar 2018, 19:36

Be honest Snee, you didn't read all that did you?

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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Goat Boy » 01 Mar 2018, 19:46

I was gonna say, tl;dr

I think Mulholland Drive and, to a lesser extent Lost Highway do make "sense". By sense I mean you can discern a story but the former works better and is more rooted in reality whereas Lost Highway is more feverish.

Inland Empire....I'll get back to you on that one.
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Sneelock » 01 Mar 2018, 19:53

The Modernist wrote:Be honest Snee, you didn't read all that did you?

Yeah! It’s great. I “grazed” certain specifics because i’ve Only seen “lost highway” to my satisfaction. I’ve tried to watch M.Drive more than once but talking, uninterested people have kept me from feeling like i’ve processed it properly. I love “lost highway” and I’ve always felt like it made a certain amount of sense.

I think it’s a fun read and has whetted my appetite to finally get around to the other two.
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Snarfyguy » 01 Mar 2018, 20:11

Mrs. SG remarks that I "always" know what's going to happen in the movie we're watching, even when it's the most formulaic, convention-bound, clumsily-foreshadowed film you can imagine. Once you've seen 50,000 or so movies it becomes pretty clear that there ain't nothing new under the sun, which is why I really like David Lynch movies. I feel like a kid watching them.

ANYTHING could happen. And it might NOT MAKE SENSE! I'm all for it.

Having said that, I couldn't make head or tail out of Inland Empire, although I do look forward to another viewing.

Thanks for the link, sneelock. I'm looking forward to reading the article.
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Sneelock » 01 Mar 2018, 20:21

I think I have a tendency to want to "make sense" of things when it comes to movies. Even "Art Films" I try to parse them so that they make sense to me. I want the dunes in "Woman in the Dunes" to represent something. I want "Blow Up" to be a Schrodinger's Cat sort of thing. In a museum you can look at a painting and just see if it does anything for you or not. I think we have a certain "narrative need" with film. In the old days they could watch a trolley go down the middle of the street and it was exciting because it was new. it wasn't long before audiences wanted the films to SAY something - to mean something.

when I saw "Blue Velvet" I thought it meant something. I took it as a statement on where America's head was at during Reagan. there was undeniable weirdness and sickness but our Hero made his peace in his artificial environment. He would deal with this weirdness and sickness by ignoring it. Now, I seriously doubt that's the way David Lynch saw it but that film really hit me in a special way.

when I saw previews for "Inland Empire" it looked like a throwback to "Eraserhead" in terms of just being straight up "artistic" but, even "Eraserhead" demands to be explained in my head. I get a kick out of the idea that these things DON'T need explaining. in fact, in theory I agree. in practice I think I want to explain things in a way that makes sense to me. Is Henry killing the crying thing to put it out of it's misery? Is the guy in "Lost Highway" guilty even though he thinks he isn't?

I think I feel a major David Lynch kick coming on. He really is a one of a kind movie maker.
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Dr Markus » 01 Mar 2018, 20:30

Never seen inland empire, any good?
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby jimboo » 01 Mar 2018, 20:42

It's , interesting Markus , let's just say that.
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby echolalia » 02 Mar 2018, 11:52

Interesting article! Not that I know anything about Buddhism, and perhaps his analysis is a little too schematic (real/not real, time and space etc.) but it’s full of stuff to sink your mind’s teeth into all the same. I liked what he says about Fred and Renée’s house in Lost Highway with its scarcity of doors and its hallways full of fuzzy shadow. And that still of their house seen from outside, with its curious fenestration of vertical, loophole-like slots: the corner window when it’s lit up by indoor lightning is a kind of weird foreshadowing of Andy’s grisly coffee-table fate, in my view.

I’ve only seen Inland Empire once, and long ago, and although I liked it it felt kind of anti-climactic after Mulholland Drive. But I’ll give it another go at the weekend if I can find it somewhere. As for Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, they’re two of my favourite things. The first time I saw Lost Highway was late at night on TV and I lay awake all night afterwards thinking about it, absolutely fucking blissed out of my mind. It was the way people turn into other people at the drop of a pin.

What he says about our need to make sense of things is true, I think. Or at least I really enjoy the “puzzle” aspect of certain films – The Spirit of the Beehive is good for this. In the case of Mulholland Drive, I think it does make sense. I mean you can tease a linear narrative out of it all – the “exploded moment” interpretation. But Lost Highway absolutely does not make sense, thank you very much. What Lovat says about looking through a knothole in a fence and how it applies to Inland Empire also applies to Lost Highway – Fred becomes Pete when the guard looks through the window of his cell.

All that “doubles” stuff – one person playing two characters, or possibly two persons playing one character and so on – obsesses me. If, when people die in films, they don’t really die, then they don’t really live either. There are fascinating parallels with Vertigo, like when Stewart’s tailing Novak and follows her out of a back alley and into the rear entrance of a department store – that’s a “knothole” moment. Obviously much is made of Novak’s characters’ ambiguous identity but the man played by Stewart is equally puzzling. Possibly dead. “What the fuck is your name?” would be a good question to ask him too.

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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 03 Mar 2018, 05:03

Inland Empire's about bunnies, duh
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 04 Mar 2018, 17:20

Sneelock wrote:I think I have a tendency to want to "make sense" of things when it comes to movies. Even "Art Films" I try to parse them so that they make sense to me. I want the dunes in "Woman in the Dunes" to represent something. I want "Blow Up" to be a Schrodinger's Cat sort of thing. In a museum you can look at a painting and just see if it does anything for you or not. I think we have a certain "narrative need" with film. In the old days they could watch a trolley go down the middle of the street and it was exciting because it was new. it wasn't long before audiences wanted the films to SAY something - to mean something.


I was talking to my brother about David Lynch yesterday. I’m not a big fan, but not because his films are hard to make sense of. I’m fine with fins that make you rethink your expectations of films. What puts me at an arms length from him is that the mystery in his films all seems a bit too overt to me. So instead of having a section proceed with dream logic, it will proceed with DREAM LOGIC!!! For me, deconstructing the tropes just becomes another trope. This I find him most effective in films like Tve Straight Story, in which his forays into wonder feel more the way we actually experience them in life. Strange little moments bookended by things we think we understand.

But getting away from Lynch (I accept that my ambivalence to him is my own limitation) - I totally get what you are saying above. I think the dunes MUST mean something. How could they not? But it isn’t all that important that they mean the same thing to me that they meant to Teshigahara. The best filmmakers leave you some room to collaborate with them. To find something of your own in them. That’s clearly one area where Lynch excels. He makes ink blots. You can see a butterfly or your uncle in a hockey mask. Up to you.
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Re: Do These David Lynch Films "Make Sense"?

Postby Quaco » 05 Mar 2018, 21:53

Snarfyguy wrote:Mrs. SG remarks that I "always" know what's going to happen in the movie we're watching, even when it's the most formulaic, convention-bound, clumsily-foreshadowed film you can imagine. Once you've seen 50,000 or so movies it becomes pretty clear that there ain't nothing new under the sun, which is why I really like David Lynch movies. I feel like a kid watching them.

ANYTHING could happen. And it might NOT MAKE SENSE! I'm all for it.

Totally knew you were going to say that from the first sentence.
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