David Lynch

steveland?

I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm prompted to find out peoples opinions recently since my friend is about to force me to watch the Twin Peaks tv series.

Are there any fans of David Lynch out there? I honestly can't stand the man. His movies all just seem horribly pretentious to me like he's just trying far too hard to be weird/controversial.

The one movie of his I did enjoy was Dune, which I find odd cos everyone else I speakto about Lynch says they love every movie EXCEPT Dune.

Now I've only seen a few David Lynch movies so I'm hardly an authority on him: Eraserhead, Mullholland Drive, Dune, half of Blue Velvet.

Mullholland Drive was the worst I've seen tbh. Apparently it began as a pilot for a TV show he wanted to make but half way through he decided to make it into a movie and what it seemed to me he did was he realised the movie wasn't going to be popular so he just threw some lesbians into it...

Eraserhead now I enjoyed a little more. I still found it horribly pretentious but it was at least watchable, and if you keep in mind he was trying to show how for this man EVERYTHING in life goes wrong...

Blue Velvet looked interesting, mainly because Dennis Hopper is one of my favourite actors, but I couldn't get around to watching it because something came up while I had the DVD on so I haven't really formed an opinion on it.

Anyways, that's just my two cents and I'd be interested in hearing others opinions on Mr. Lynch

gre_soul

Eraserhead for me sucked big time dunno why its got such a cult following! i did like mullholland drive though!

Karl Hungus

The man's a double-edged knife as far as I'm concerned, and while I certainly enjoyed some of his abstract work myself, I wouldn't rush out to see more of it, so I can't begrudge you for not enjoying that side of his work. But as you mention Doom, lets not forget The Elephant man, another magnificent film to his credit that isn't exactly that abstract and pretentious, not by a long shot. He's certainly an excellent director, no matter how you look at it, or at least that's my €0.02 on it.

steveland?

I actually spent most of today watching Twin Peaks season 1. We've only 3 episodes left to watch but I gotta say I'm enjoying it a lot.

Kyle McLaughlin is brilliant in it and it's actually very funny

pickarooney

I envy you watching Twin Peaks for the first time
Lynch is a bit hit-and-miss with me, I like most of his stuff, though I have to watch his films a couple of times, or rewind a lot.
If you want to watch another film of his which isn't at all weird, (well, it's weird in that you keep thingking "Is this really a David Lynch film?"), I'd recommend the Straight Story.

He made another couple of TV series - Rabbits and On The Air. Both of them did my head in fairly quickly, though I might try watching them again at some stage.

Etain

I liked Dune! I enjoyed Twin Peaks-- so quirky-- it had good characters and an interesting story.(Who could forget the"log lady"?) Elephant Man was a moving story in itself.
It does seem to me that Lynch sometimes tries too hard to be controversial and loses sight of telling a good story. Sometimes weird is just weird, and not necessarily interesting.

ixoy

Now I'm a Lynch fan, even when he's being a bit weird. Big fan of Twin Peaks (I'm over halfway through Season 2 currently) as well.

You could argue there's a certain amount of pretension in his work. Something like 'Mulholland Drive' may seem confusing, for the sake of being confusing. I personally find it adds to the story-telling as you have to engage your brain to pick up all the clues left behind. I also think the man is very good with his use of sound (and not just through the Badalamanti score) - the harsh breathing of Hopper in "Blue Velvet", the skipping of a record in "Twin Peaks". Sure characters in his movies sometimes seem ciphers, muttering cryptic phrases without actual any development (Cream Corn Kid offhand) but it's something a bit different.

He also seems though to be able to handle more regular story telling fare equally well. I loved "The Elephant Man" and "The Straight Story" - both very emotional and affecting tales.

I'm just waiting for him to finally and properly announce his next project...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I liked mulholland drive, and Hotel Room... Hotel Room was... weird, but interesting enough that I watched all three.

mulholland drive was just weird, and that's the only reason i watched it.

BolBill

With regard to Mulholland Drive: this isn’t a film to be followed in the traditional sense; it’s one to let wash over you, one to wallow in. And if taken on its own terms, it will reward you with an intense and haunting experience. It has all the seductive, terrible power of a dream. Being an “art” movie the usual rules of “how to read a movie” are rendered redundant-it’s an experience rather than a movie and as such needs to be felt rather than watched. Just surrender to Lynch’s masterpiece of colour, sound and imagery and be rewarded with a terribly beautiful vision of a dream that has died.



Incidentally, Naomi Watts gives one of the greatest performance of recent memory.

steveland?

Having finished Twin Peaks series one yesterday I can conclude that David Lynch isn't as crap as I'd first believed.

Twin Peaks is clever and funny but apparently goes seriously downhill after series one... Time shall tell

ixoy

SteveD wrote:

Twin Peaks is clever and funny but apparently goes seriously downhill after series one... Time shall tell

Ah the first few, from season two, are good but then there's a couple of crap ones before some nice plot arcs kick back in. One of the problems is that certain characters, and their stories, are just completely uninteresting but we have to follow them rather than some of the very nifty ones. I reallly liked (and please don't read this unless you've seen S2)

The whole Katherine/Andrew/Thomas Eckhart/Josie plotline. Incredibly evil and delicious!

.

There's some real highlights in S2, particularly 2x07 (including a scene that still freaks me out), 2x15 (

Hello Shelly!

), and the finale with one of my all time favourite season (and series) endings.

mewso

Eraserhead is my all time worst film and yet I have liked most of Lynch's other work, particularly Mulholland Drive. MD held my attention while Eraserhead had everything I dislike about pretentious cinema - black and white just to be different/silent pauses while we listen to strange banging sounds and so on. Arrrgh just thinking about it annoys me.

RonanC

ixoy wrote:

Now I'm a Lynch fan, even when he's being a bit weird. Big fan of Twin Peaks (I'm over halfway through Season 2 currently) as well.

Do you mind if I ask where you managed to get hold of this?

I've been waiting patiently for S2 on dvd and have only come across the mediocre Spanish set. FWWM is still resting unopened on my shelf.

And to keep the thread back on track, The Short Films of David Lynch is one of the most incredible dvds I've come across from both an aesthetic and qualitative point of view.

ixoy

RonanC wrote:

Do you mind if I ask where you managed to get hold of this?

I've been waiting patiently for S2 on dvd and have only come across the mediocre Spanish set. FWWM is still resting unopened on my shelf.

Well I'm waiting too but got impatient - I wanted to see them and there was no story on when we'd get them thanks to the crappy dispute between owners of the material.

So the ones I have were taken off some airing on the Scream channel awhile back. The quality isn't good (maybe on a par with those Spanish DVDs, maybe worse) but it's all I can get for now until they let me access the proper set.

pickarooney

Both series were released on VHS a good while back, that's the format I watched them in.

Cactus Col

SteveD wrote:

Having finished Twin Peaks series one yesterday I can conclude that David Lynch isn't as crap as I'd first believed.

Twin Peaks is clever and funny but apparently goes seriously downhill after series one... Time shall tell

Saw it for the first time on dvd recently too, class, although a lot of lynch's other work sounds like ****.

Heard that Twin Peaks Season 2 might not be released on DVD as there wasn't a huge demand for the first season.

Hopefully that's not true, but, it has been a while since the first one was released.

steveland?

Unfortunately it is true...

No chance really of it being released which is fairly ridiculous...

You can sign a petition online but somehow I SEVERLY doubt this'll make a difference

http://www.petitiononline.com/tpdvdnow/petition.html