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Lost Highway

Started by Dirty Boy, October 27, 2018, 05:37:13 PM

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Dirty Boy

Any fans?

I was under the impression this was one of Lynch's lesser films, until a recent rewatch inspired by the mindblowing Twin Peaks update made me change my mind. I think it's certainly one of his darkest and don't think it's as impenetrable as a lot of reviews seem to think. It's certainly not as bent as Inland Empire as least.

"We've met before, haven't we?"
Christ, no one does creeping-pit-of-stomach-dread like Lynchypoos.

I love the whole time loop/moebius strip thing and keep meaning to give Triangle a watch. Any recs for other decent films using this device would be most welcome ta.

BlodwynPig

Something Wicked this Way Comes.

Dirty Boy

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrammstein!

Oh yeah, the soundtrack is superb an'all. I forget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx24Eiqbykw


greenman

I'd guess part of the reason it gets less attention than other Lynch is because its telling a similar kind of story to Mulholland Drive, wasn't the latter original intended to be a TV series so basically an attempt to tell a similar kind of story in a different form?

Blake being accused of murdering his own wife afterwards makes that performance even creepier.

Bhazor

Been meaning to give Lynch's filmography a rewatch. I honestly remember very little of Lost Highway apart from the scene with the telephone whereas I remember almost every shot from Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead. So yeah I guess for me its one of the lesser Lynch films.

Wet Blanket

I love it. It came out at a time when Lynch's critical stock was a bit low and I don't think it's ever got the plaudits its deserves. At a BFI screening they handed out an info sheet with Kim Newman's original review printed on it, where he suggests the film defies meaning and interpretation, but I think the plot is clearer and the various strands and timelines interact much more satisfyingly than Mulholland Drive.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Wet Blanket on October 27, 2018, 06:57:43 PM
I love it. It came out at a time when Lynch's critical stock was a bit low and I don't think it's ever got the plaudits its deserves. At a BFI screening they handed out an info sheet with Kim Newman's original review printed on it, where he suggests the film defies meaning and interpretation, but I think the plot is clearer and the various strands and timelines interact much more satisfyingly than Mulholland Drive.

That's how I feel about it too and am surprised by Newman's review, though I haven't respected him as a film critic for a long time now. I'm not sure if it's my favourite Lynch film but it's definitely in the top 3, and he's a man I have an enormous erection love for.

Emma Raducanu

After the phone call,I totally lost it and never got round to rewatching it. I've seen the straight story about 20 times though. Proper late night breeze with a cup of tea.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Lynch himself connects the story to OJ Simpson, and how Simpson had been able to disconnect himself from the murders (unless you're biggytitbo and believe he was framed) and to keep a smiling facade.

QuoteWhat struck me about OJ Simpson was that he was able to smile and laugh. He was able to go golfing with seemingly few problems about the whole thing. I wondered how, if a person did those deeds, he could go on living. And we found this great psychology term - 'psychogenic fugue' - describing an event where the mind tricks itself to escape some horror. So, in a way, Lost Highway is about that. And the fact that nothing can stay hidden forever.

greenman

Which I think explains the video camera aspect, Pullman states he doesn't like them as he prefers to "remember things his own way" but the mystery man confronting him with one is his own subconscious reminding him of his actions killing his wife.

Large Noise

It's brilliant, my favourite Lynch film. Maybe my favourite film film.

Glebe

The obligatory 'Guy Siner out of 'Allo, 'Allo!' pic:


grassbath

I've always considered it among Lynch's worst, though I've only seen it once, and not for a good few years. A dry run for concepts executed much better in Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, and the industrial-metal soundtrack and aesthetic a rare bit of Lynchian bandwagon-jumping.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: grassbath on October 29, 2018, 08:45:07 PM
I've always considered it among Lynch's worst, though I've only seen it once, and not for a good few years. A dry run for concepts executed much better in Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, and the industrial-metal soundtrack and aesthetic a rare bit of Lynchian bandwagon-jumping.

That was my opinion too, until I rewatched it last year. You should give it another go.

Thursday

It's definitely one I keep meaning to rewatch, I'd always put it mid-tier Lynch, which I can't see changing, but I'm sure I'll get something that I didn't get years ago.

Sean Ymphs

My favourite Lynch film, one that I can watch over and over again. I think it contains some of his most beautiful imagery, like that cabin in the desert. There are things in it that seem like Lynch is deliberately fucking with the audience (I know, no shit right?) that adds to the confusion in the film. Like the actors playing the detectives - it didn't occur to me for ages that they are two different pairs of actors in the Bill Pullman section and the Balthazar Getty section, as they are the exact same physical type.

While I see what some people say regarding some of the music choices (Rammstein etc.), on my most recent watch it felt sort of quaint, and worked in a similar way to some of the music in his other films.

There's apparently a deleted scene in which Lynch plays a mortician, which as far as I know has never seen the light of day (though I'd love to be corrected...).

David Foster Wallace wrote an essay on Lynch during the making of Lost Highway, which is worth reading and contains some interesting behind-the-scenes info :

http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html

In it he mentions Lynch's work being ripped off by Tarantino. Here is a video that suggests that a lot of Lost Highway is itself a reaction to films by Tarantino and in particular Oliver Stone that Lynch felt had ripped him off:

(NSFW) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAi2ehBBw7M

This is something Lynch would strongly deny, but looking at the evidence it definitely seems to be true, even having some of the same actors virtually repeating their roles.

saltysnacks

Never really understood the image of Lynch as this purveyor of byzantine obscurity. His films do operate on dream logic, and they do certainly defy a straight interpretation, but you always 'get' meaning from a first viewing. With Mulholland Drive, the depiction of hollywood as an unsafe place is obvious.

Dirty Boy

Pullmans wife's dead from the very beginning isn't she?

Has Patricia Arquette ever been good in anything? She always seems a bit wooden to me (maybe not so much in True Romance).

Dirty Boy

QuoteI love the whole time loop/moebius strip thing and keep meaning to give Triangle a watch. Any recs for other decent films using this device would be most welcome ta.

Caved in and bought this and Timecrimes. Hope they're good.

Wet Blanket

Quote from: Dirty Boy on October 30, 2018, 01:22:34 PM
Pullmans wife's dead from the very beginning isn't she?

Has Patricia Arquette ever been good in anything? She always seems a bit wooden to me (maybe not so much in True Romance).

She's good in this, fair play to her. And that bit where she walks in slow motion into the car to Lou Reed is as good as cinema gets as far as I'm concerned.

Norton Canes

Is this the one where...





No, forgotten. Sorry.

mjwilson

Quote from: saltysnacks on October 30, 2018, 02:17:57 AM
Never really understood the image of Lynch as this purveyor of byzantine obscurity. His films do operate on dream logic, and they do certainly defy a straight interpretation, but you always 'get' meaning from a first viewing.

Maybe not Inland Empire.

mjwilson

Speaking for myself anyway.

greenman

Quote from: saltysnacks on October 30, 2018, 02:17:57 AM
Never really understood the image of Lynch as this purveyor of byzantine obscurity. His films do operate on dream logic, and they do certainly defy a straight interpretation, but you always 'get' meaning from a first viewing. With Mulholland Drive, the depiction of hollywood as an unsafe place is obvious.

Lost Highway and Mullholland do obviously have plots that take some thought to understand but in terms of every last detail having some deeper meaning I'd agree a lot its there to set the tone. Its the same with Kubrick really, people end up claiming The Shining is actually about the gold standard or faking the moon landings or something rather than a abusive father and the legacy of American colonialism.

the ouch cube

As well as Robert Blake and his murder shenanigans, Lou Eppolito, one of the cops in the Fred sequence, had a parallel career as a Mafia associate and actual bent cop and is now jailed for life. Lynch seems to have an unwitting sixth sense for casting shady fuckers (if not a Guy Ritchie fanboyism of "tasty geezers")

great film, if a bit goth. But then, I basically am a goth.

Bhazor

Quote from: saltysnacks on October 30, 2018, 02:17:57 AM
Never really understood the image of Lynch as this purveyor of byzantine obscurity. His films do operate on dream logic, and they do certainly defy a straight interpretation, but you always 'get' meaning from a first viewing. With Mulholland Drive, the depiction of hollywood as an unsafe place is obvious.

Try Eraserhead or his short films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvY00r1AdWw

Quote from: greenman on October 30, 2018, 07:51:33 PM
Lost Highway and Mullholland do obviously have plots that take some thought to understand but in terms of every last detail having some deeper meaning I'd agree a lot its there to set the tone. Its the same with Kubrick really, people end up claiming The Shining is actually about the gold standard or faking the moon landings or something rather than a abusive father and the legacy of American colonialism.

If you want to make yourself really angry watch Room 237. Absolute bollocks. Great if you want to watch something that will make you yell at the screen.

The opening tune, "I'm Deranged" is one of Bowie's better songs from the 90s, lovely piano playing by Mike Garson on it.
As for the film, am I the only one who really, really likes the first 30 minutes and is a bit nonplussed by the rest? I went from being unable to watch the DVD in the darkness because I was so scared to being a bit bored, really.
Lost Highway and Wild at Heart are the only films of Lynch's where he's striving for effect a bit, and not really in control of the ideas, everything else he did seems more considered.  Arquette in Lost Highway and Nicholas Cage in Wild at Heart both act as if they've been told to pretend they can't act: obviously there's lots of instances of non-naturalistic acting in Lynch's other movies, but it doesn't work with Arquette or Cage because you can't tell where the woodenness ends and the deliberately mannered acting begins.

It is goth, and why would anyone favour goth over the genuine strangeness of Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead or (my favourite right now), Part 18 of Twin Peaks the Return?

hedgehog90

My first viewing was directly after Mulholland Drive, which is absolutely the wrong way to do it I think.
It just seemed like a less realised version of a superior film, and I was terribly disappointed by it at the time.

I recently rewatched it though and found it utterly mesmerizing.
I can probably attribute my new found love for Lost Highway to the third season of Twin Peaks, which enveloped and corrupted me like thick black Venom goop.
I love the dark space this film occupies, it's delicious, and the world it portrays makes my brain fizz and crackle with energy.
I now rank it a little bit higher than Mulholland Drive in terms of personal enjoyment, alongside Blue Velvet.

Quote from: Astronaut Omens on October 31, 2018, 12:31:10 AM
The opening tune, "I'm Deranged" is one of Bowie's better songs from the 90s, lovely piano playing by Mike Garson on it.

It's has to be my favourite opening credits sequences to a film.
Since rewatching it a few months ago, I've listened and relistened to that song countless times.
And the imagery of the fast moving road markings, headlights and darkness, needless to say, excite my weird little mind like nothing else.

saltysnacks

Quote from: Bhazor on October 30, 2018, 10:04:27 PM
Try Eraserhead or his short films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvY00r1AdWw

I actually think Eraserhead is one of his most straightforward films. Views like a very good horror film.

greenman

Quote from: Astronaut Omens on October 31, 2018, 12:31:10 AM
The opening tune, "I'm Deranged" is one of Bowie's better songs from the 90s, lovely piano playing by Mike Garson on it.
As for the film, am I the only one who really, really likes the first 30 minutes and is a bit nonplussed by the rest? I went from being unable to watch the DVD in the darkness because I was so scared to being a bit bored, really.
Lost Highway and Wild at Heart are the only films of Lynch's where he's striving for effect a bit, and not really in control of the ideas, everything else he did seems more considered.  Arquette in Lost Highway and Nicholas Cage in Wild at Heart both act as if they've been told to pretend they can't act: obviously there's lots of instances of non-naturalistic acting in Lynch's other movies, but it doesn't work with Arquette or Cage because you can't tell where the woodenness ends and the deliberately mannered acting begins.

It is goth, and why would anyone favour goth over the genuine strangeness of Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead or (my favourite right now), Part 18 of Twin Peaks the Return?

I would agree with you that the first 45 mins or so with Pullman's character are stronger than what follows(perhaps my favourite 45 mins of any Lynch film/show), at least until the last half hour or so builds back in the same kind of direction.

I always kind of felt that Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks were Lynch moving in a more individual/surreal direction working out his tools but only putting them to use in a more focused way with Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive. I would say those two films differ somewhat in that Lost highway feels more focused on pure atmosphere over performance were as Mullholland gives Naomi Watt's room to give a less mannered performance as well.