David Lynch: Room to Dream

[Wet Blanket]

I was a little bit disappointed to be honest. The early part is the most effective, as Lynch seems happiest reminiscing about his younger days and his chapters are as substantial as the 'proper' biographical ones. By the time you get to the film making he clams up. The very later chapters covering Inland Empire and Twin Peaks S3, which I'd most looked forward to as they come after the publication of Lynch on Lynch, only merit a few pages from the man himself. I know he's famous for not explaining the meaning of his films, but I'd have liked to hear a lot more about the creative processes and background - stuff he was happy to go into in detail when he had an interviewer to press him in the earlier book.

It also suffers from the usual 'authorised' biography flaw of skirting over any character flaws, although you can pick them out reading between the lines sometimes. Clearly the guy's a shameless womaniser for a start, and doesn't treat them all that well during the relationships - it ends with his current wife lamenting that he's moved permanently into a private room he'd created to write The Return. Isabella Rossellini is the only person to address how much he hurt her (and naturally he simply ignores this in his own follow up section).

Likewise there's hints he has a bit of a temper on him (which is actually apparent in the behind the scenes Twin peaks footage where he occasionally loses his rag) and he appears to freeze out friends or collaborators in a very mercurial way that's probably upsetting if you've been part of his circle.

Nevertheless it's diverting enough, if slight considering it's size. The big revelation to me was that he'd scripted and tried to get funding for an original film after Inland Empire but couldn't raise it.

[hedgehog90]

I'm about 3/4 through the book. I started it about 3 weeks ago but I've been taking breaks to watch some of his films before getting to them in the book, which has been a very rewarding experience.
I finally got round to seeing a couple that had evaded me all these years - Wild at Heart and The Straight Story.
Wild at Heart had its moments, I enjoyed the performances, but it didn't grab me, seemed pretty throwaway.
The Straight Story on the other hand was an unexpected joy to see for the first time, love-love-loved it.
Also re-watched Eraserhead, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, all of which I hadn't seen since I was a teenager.
I remember first seeing Eraserhead on a hot summer's day with my mum in the middle of the afternoon, with sunlight reflecting off the telly.
She fucked off after the first 20 minutes but I stayed until the end... Can't say I was too enamoured with it at the time. Re-watching it was very worthwhile though.
Somehow, on re-watching Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive my opinion of them completely switched places, which is kind of perfect.
Seeing Lost Highway again was a transcendent experience. When I first saw it I didn't connect with it at all, but it's got to be my favourite Lynch film now.
On the other hand Mulholland Drive - which I've been desperate to re-watch - just lacked something... I'd since heard about the backstory that it was supposed to be a TV pilot, perhaps that made me watch it in a different frame of mind, I don't know, but it didn't excite me half as much as Lost Highway. Not to say it wasn't great, just not as brain-fizzingly brilliant as I recall.

Has anyone else been going through the book like this? If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend doing it like this.

Isabella Rossellini is the only person to address how much he hurt her (and naturally he simply ignores this in his own follow up section).

Yeah that really bothered me too...

[Wet Blanket]

Somehow, on re-watching Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive my opinion of them completely switched places, which is kind of perfect.
Seeing Lost Highway again was a transcendent experience. When I first saw it I didn't connect with it at all, but it's got to be my favourite Lynch film now.

Lost Highway might be my favourite (although to be honest I love them all). It's ripe for critical reappraisal. It's funny how that was met with much bemusement while Mulholland Drive was hailed as a masterpiece when they're structurally and thematically so similar - and the various threads of LH fit together much more elegantly, in my opinion.

I saw it at the BFI a few years ago on a print that had burnt-in French subtitles, which only added to its delightful weirdness.

[hedgehog90]

I'd only ever seen the second half of Inland Empire before, figured it would make more sense with the first.
It didn't.
Has anyone got a good handle on this film?
I love the central idea behind it, that Laura Dern's character gets lost in the role and inhabits some strange meta film world... but that's as much as I could make out.
What's most frustrating is that I can see a conventional Lynch film underneath all that... stuff... and I'd rather have seen that tbh, as unadventurous as that is.

Sorry to digress the thread temporarily, didn't want to start a new one/resurrect an old one.

[grassbath]

I'd only ever seen the second half of Inland Empire before, figured it would make more sense with the first.
It didn't.
Has anyone got a good handle on this film?

No. Every analysis I've read has failed (IMO) to turn it into something approaching a total narrative. Unlike, say, Mulholland Drive, which is challenging initially but the 'dream' elements of which can be totally reconciled to a 'real-world' plot with some further understanding, IE's multiple worlds and plotlines are much more free-associative and seem to only hang together on pretty tenuous metaphorical threads.

I think the best understandings of the film are the ones that examine Lynch's use of digital and the idea that Hollywood, and by extension the traditional art of the movie, is in crisis; an idea borne out by Twin Peaks: The Return, which felt very critical of 21st-century technology, as well as presenting a landscape even more bleak and discombobulating than Inland Empire's.

[gloria]

The audiobook of this is a treat. I'm assuming Lynch's direct quotes in the text version are transcriptions of these recordings. After listening to it for a while you do find yourself beginning to talk like him.
"I. Had. A. Beautiful. Idea."

[colacentral]

I'd only ever seen the second half of Inland Empire before, figured it would make more sense with the first.
It didn't.
Has anyone got a good handle on this film?
I love the central idea behind it, that Laura Dern's character gets lost in the role and inhabits some strange meta film world... but that's as much as I could make out.
What's most frustrating is that I can see a conventional Lynch film underneath all that... stuff... and I'd rather have seen that tbh, as unadventurous as that is.

Sorry to digress the thread temporarily, didn't want to start a new one/resurrect an old one.

I don't, and have only seen it once, but there's a good documentary on the making of the film (I forget what it's called but last I checked it was on YouTube), that might be worth watching to get a better handle on it. One interesting part shows Lynch flicking through a Bible, and he says he often does that for story ideas. I think you can feel that quite strongly in Twin Peaks S3 with its abundance of religious and mythical references.

Also, as you say, you can see the less improvised version of Inland Empire within, with many quite typical post-Twin Peaks Lynch tropes in there: dream worlds; the demonic messenger who speaks in riddles (the cowboy in MD, the "I'm in your house" bloke in LH, Jeffries & the Fireman in TP S3, etc), sexual abuse etc. I expect you'd find a quite "typical" Lynch story in there if you went looking.

[BlodwynPig]

Watching Lynch films without an explanation is like falling through the air without a parachute. IE, especially, is dizzying, nauseating and wondrous in equal measure.

[hedgehog90]

Not sure why I wrote this, and I'm really tired so it might read like shit... anyway, in chronological order here are my favourite moments from Inland Empire:

- Grace Zabriskie's appearance at the beginning.
- The Rabbits scenes.
- Dern apparently rehearsing a scene, then suddenly spinning round in disbelief and saying 'this sounds like dialogue from our script!' - the reaction, her face, her confused face!
- Dern appearing from the dark, revisiting an earlier scene, watching another version of herself rehearsing, Theroux chasing after her, the creepy shot of the guy in the green suit behind a window staring at her.
- The Locomotion dance routine.
- Scary Dern slowly running towards the camera, speeds up as she gets closer, feels like she's about to climb out of the screen and get me!
- Dern with the prozzies on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Black Tambourine music cue.
- The scene after Dern's been stabbed, laying down near some homeless people, the Asian woman talking about torn vaginal walls and pet monkeys. I love her face, she has these beautiful puffy eyelids that remind me of a certain breed of dog. (OMG, I just googled and found out it's the same actress that played Naido from TP:TR!)
- Scary Dern face.

But between these moments I can remember very little specifically and it's not even a week ago that I saw it.
I've chosen to interpret this film as a slideshow of Lynch vibes. Some memorable, some not so much. I'll probably revisit it again one day, but I'm not in a hurry.

Now, returning to Grace Zabriskie's wonderful scene at the beginning, because it's important... I'd already seen it a few times on YouTube prior to watching it in context, so I've got parts of it pretty much memorized:
- A little boy goes outside to play, he opens the door and sees the world, as he goes through the doorway, a ghost/reflection follows, evil is born.
- A variation - A little girl goes outside to play, lost in the marketplace as if half-born. An alley behind the marketplace leads to the palace, but it isn't something you remember.
- Forgetfulness, it happens to us all... and me, why, I'm the worst one. [playfully] ooh, where was I?
- Brutal fucking murder! (I just love the way delivers that line)

There are echoes of Lynch's filmography in TP:TR, but this sequence really stands out. The alley behind a marketplace (the portal that Freddie enters) that leads to the palace (the Giant's home), something you can't remember (Black Lodge amnesia), a reflection/evil is born (Mr C), half-born (I don't know... Laura? Dougie? Sarah?)
I suppose the alley behind a marketplace could be a template for something in Lynch's mind.
I don't know the significance of this boy/girl story, but it's interesting to consider how the 2 versions relate (between IE and TP).
Also, it's funny Colacentral mentioned the bible, because those 2 stories sound to me like some long lost biblical scripture, particularly the second one, I imagine an Arabian marketplace from biblical times.

I don't, and have only seen it once, but there's a good documentary on the making of the film (I forget what it's called but last I checked it was on YouTube)

I think you're referring to a documentary simply titled 'Lynch', that follows him around during the making of Inland Empire, which is good. I particularly loved a bit in that when Lynch enthusiastically recants an old tale to some young assistants, about an encounter he had with a jack rabbit.

There's also 'More Things That Happened', which is 75 mins worth of deleted scenes from Inland Empire. I haven't seen it yet.

Again, sorry for continually misleading the thread with this Inland Empire jibber jabber.

[colacentral]

^ I also get the feeling that his penchant for the strange demonic messenger who speaks in riddles to a confused protagonist may stem from the Bible and other religious texts, what with the way that God and the Devil tend to frequently pop up in the same way to manipulate people (the serpent, the flaming bush, etc).

Also, reading back over what you quoted about the boy stepping outside, it seems an obvious metaphor, and it reminds me both of Lynch's interrupted story about his family moving house which he tells in "The Art Life", and of Leland Palmer talking about Bob living near his family's lakehouse: boys exploring outside, playing, apparently preyed upon (though Lynch doesn't finish telling us what Mr. Johnson the neighbour did).