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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Lynch's Things

  
 
rizla mission
12:13 / 06.03.02
Ok, I've been watching David Lynch movies A LOT in the last six months. In fact, combining the fact that several have been on TV, I've bought several on video and the fine local arts cinema has been showing almost the whole lot, I've been watching them a worrying amount.. I've gone from being utterly unfamiliar with his work to knowing all of it (bar Wild at Heart, which I haven't seen yet) pretty well..

So, for no particular reason, I've been making a list of all the recurring motifs and themes of his films .. all the things that make Lynch Lynch, as it were. And here it is:

quote:
Electricity – flickering signs, bulbs

Lamps – EVERYWHERE..

Soft furnishings becoming gothic & monstrous

Drab apartment building/hotel corridors

Curtains – suggestion of people hiding behind them

Scary use of the geography of rooms/buildings

1st person camera angles and slow, agonising descents into dark/unknown areas

Fetishistic props / ‘clues’ – reoccurring, often used as signifiers

The ‘camera disappearing down a black hole and emerging from a different one’ trick

Almost schizophrenic confusion between two women – variations on black/blonde, innocent/femme fatale dichotomies

Inappropriate, unsettling use of music – either familiar, naive music given dark new interpretation, or unfamiliar music appearing when we least expect it.

References to dreams

Flames / fires / ashes

Sinister, never introduced or explained men who appear to be ‘behind everything’

Loud humming and droning noises

Unexpected, fantasy-like sex scenes – often with disturbing power element

Protagonists are haunted by the idea of hurting/killing their partners

Strange, off-the-beaten-track cabaret’s and nightclubs – uncertain, threatening atmospheres

People being forced to go through joyless performances in front of unreceptive audiences

Highway footage, car headlights in the dark – journey’s where the passengers don’t know where they’re going

Passive/aggressive psychopaths with gangs of heavy’s who accompany them – with weird eccentricities/hang-ups

Strange sense of ritual whenever ‘weird’ things are taking place

The ever-present ‘scary’ character – dwarf, tramp, cowboy, whatever..

Dichotomy between the reassuring, everyday, normal world and the dangerous, confusing, malign underworld – inevitably the characters are drawn from the former into the latter. (This idea was developed in classic film noir, but it’s a lot more stark in Lynch films).


Anyone got anything to add to the list?

Any more observations / interpretations of his films?

Any other Lynch related ramblings?
 
 
Ethan Hawke
12:22 / 06.03.02
Does anyone have a membership to David Lynch.com? I'd be curious to know what his original projects for the web are like. And Dugpa.comsays Lynch is in the chat room there very often, adn likes to answer questions.
 
 
DaveBCooper
12:45 / 06.03.02
Maybe I’d suggest cut-off limbs/extremities etc ?

Reaching a bit, but I’m thinking about the ear in Blue Velvet, the hand and head in Wild at Heart, the dwarf (“I am the arm”) in Twin Peaks, the statues in the Black Lodge (I seem to recall Jennifer Lynch saying there was a statue of the Venus de Milo in the house where her dad grew up; and Boxing Helena would seem to suggest a similar concern)…

Just a thought –

DBC
 
 
rizla mission
13:30 / 06.03.02
Interesting. I'll stick that one the list..

I've never read any interviews with Lynch (never even seen a picture of him in fact), but the constant repetition of these two themes (and they seem to be in ALL of his films somewhere):


Almost schizophrenic confusion between two women – variations on black/blonde, innocent/femme fatale dichotomies

Protagonists are haunted by the idea of hurting/killing their partners


suggests to me that he's using the films to work out some pretty heavy personal 'issues'..
 
 
videodrome
13:31 / 06.03.02
I've got a Lynch.com membership. I've seen transcripts of Lynch in the chat room, but I can't really bear to leave it on all the time - it's just too, um, chat-room-y.

There's not much of the original film conetent yet, but there are a number of odd and inneresting little quicktime bugs floating around the site, as well as an intriguing video trail that works through a flash telephone interface. I like the site and am being patient for some of the content to develop. The fact that they immediately sold out the initial pressings of the Short Films DVD and the Blue Bob cd is a good sign.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
14:17 / 06.03.02
quote:Originally posted by Rizla Year Zero:
(never even seen a picture of him in fact)You've seen Twin Peaks, right?

He's GORDON COLE of the FBI! And he's WORRIED ABOUT COOP.

Actually, a cool interview and picture can be found here. He's a guitar effects man!

(shamelessly stolen from videodrome)
 
 
Bear
14:28 / 06.03.02
Anyone seen Straight Story, would be interested to see what you thought of it?
 
 
DaveBCooper
15:18 / 06.03.02
Seen it, thought it was very good – Elephant Man calibre; straightforward and emotional, but not in a schmaltzy way.

DBC
 
 
grant
17:34 / 06.03.02
My (Lynch fan) friend Garry just loaned videos of the first season of Twin Peaks to (Lynch neophyte) Bob, another writer here.
Every other lunch, we talk about the series. It's weird how much I remember.

The man with one arm knows....

Garry's now recording his laser discs of the second season onto VHS for Bob.

"Wild At Heart," for my money, is still the best of the movies.

And are you including "Dune" in your viewing list? Got access to the pilot of the failed sitcom (can't remember the name) about the 1950s TV station?

I'd be really surprised if Garry didn't have access to anything Lynchian on the net - he's pretty active on the Lynchlist.
 
 
ghadis
18:26 / 06.03.02
If you find yourself with enough Lynch things that move about try some that barely move at all

And when the hell is Channel 5 in the UK gonna carry on with its Twin Peaks re-runs!!! I counted seven then zilch!!
 
 
Rev. Wright
18:52 / 06.03.02

'What did I do?'
 
 
Ofermod
19:30 / 06.03.02
I'm finally going to get to watch Twin Peaks. I never watched it while it was on because I knew well enough that I didn't want to start in the middle. David Lynch can be tough enough to grasp without starting in the middle.

So I watched the pilot last week and should be borrowing the first season DVD from my buddy later this week. So tell me, what should I be looking for? I loved the pilot and can't wait to start in on the series.

And Wild at Heart to this day holds the most terrifying death scene for me from the car accident. (shudder)
 
 
Jackie Susann
20:40 / 06.03.02
I'd add to your list, scene transitions without establishing shots - i'm not sure if that's the right way to phrase it, but regularly he cuts to something and you can't work out why/what you're seeing. There's one in, I think, the season finale to the first season of TP where Coop et al are going to arrest Jean (?) Renault, and it cuts to a shot of some guys playing tennis. Then pans across to reveals the cops and agents with guns drawn. Or in Mulholland, there's a bit where it cuts to a woman in 50s dress singing, and slowly pulls back to show it's Adam casting his movie. I think it's a pretty common Lynch stylistic thing.
 
 
Warrington Minge
09:00 / 07.03.02
Rizla

Check out a book called Lynch on Lynch by Faber and Faber. Basically a whole book of interviews with Lynch discussing all his movies up to Lost Highway.

He actually talks about most of the things you mention in your list but be warned theres little in the way of an explanation for them.

He also likes Dirt by the way.

And if you think his films are scary just check out his paintings!!

-WM
 
 
Red Cross Iodized Salt
09:40 / 07.03.02
quote:Got access to the pilot of the failed sitcom (can't remember the name) about the 1950s TV station?

That'd be On The Air. The first (Lynch directed and written) episode is promising, but he passed on the directorial duties and it went downhill fast over the other six episodes. It actually got aired on the BBC a few years ago, and was popular in Japan. My girlfriend has VHS copies from the Japanese laserdiscs, and the subtitles only added to the strangeness.

My favorite apocryphal David Lynch factoid is that he is phobic of kitchens...anyone able to back this up?

[ 07-03-2002: Message edited by: Vote for Iron Man Wang ]
 
 
videodrome
09:55 / 07.03.02
I don't know about 'phobic of kitchens', but when I saw him on The Tonight Show during his Fire Walk With Me junket, he mentioned having a great distaste for cooking in the home as doing so "leaves, a...a, film, on the walls".
<rubs fingers together as he says this.>
 
 
ghadis
09:55 / 07.03.02
I've heard that his sister is phobic of peas and that he's eaten the same 2 meals every day for the last 20yrs (chicken soup and something i think)...

And he has re-constructive surgery every two years to hide his identity and that he's building an army!!
 
 
Robot Man Reformed
09:55 / 07.03.02
Rizla: "Electricity – flickering signs, bulbs"

I've always taken this effect as a link to the other "dimensions" - be it lodges, heaven, dream worlds or underworlds - but also, some of the beings that inhabit these places seem to be made out of the same stuff.

Have you noticed his mastery of sequence? He has an uncanny ability to get everything just right when he wants to, the colors, the music, the sounds, the acting, the words, the shapes, and rarely have I found such a rush that was Lost Highway.

Rizla: "suggests to me that he's using the films to work out some pretty heavy personal 'issues'.."

I think he reaches for a little more than that, the dream logic that often permeates within his work, including his art (anyone seen the German "Images" book?) and music, and the general allusions to mysterious things in certain obscure interviews suggests to me that he sees things.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
09:55 / 07.03.02
I haven't got the link to hand, but the food smells thing was mentioned in an interview with Lynch that ran in the Guardian a couple of months ago. Apparently, he dislikes the smell of cooking in a house, and this is what (apparently) broke up his relationship with Isabella Rossellini. His current wife (Mary Sweeney) mentioned that their kitchen isn't actually near the house at the moment...

[ 07-03-2002: Message edited by: The Return Of Rothkoid ]
 
 
grant
13:03 / 07.03.02
Note: in old Southern houses, it's common to find kitchens detached from the main house. Apparently the syndrome isn't as rare as you'd think.

Add to the list: head injuries.

(under nightclubs): Ribbon mikes (the old-fashioned, 50's style microphones) and spotlights. (thinking of Dean Stockwell with the lamp in Blue Velvet - apparently the lamp was an improvised touch Lynch fell in love with).


Also - the log lady from Twin Peaks was apparently an old friend of Lynch's. (Garry told this story over lunch yesterday.)
She was part of the crew on Eraserhead, and during a break in filming once, he told her he wanted to put her on TV with a log. The idea was it would be an educational program, so, for instance, for one episode she would take her log to the dentist, lay it in the chair, and the dentist would come out and show what all the dental tools and picks and drills did. Next show, it could be the log opening a bank account or something.

So he explains all this back in whenever Eraserhead was being made - 79? 80? - and then, almost a decade later, this woman gets this call... "I want you to be on TV. With a log."

Must've been great.
 
 
kid coagulant
13:47 / 07.03.02
Here's a link to an article David Foster Wallace wrote about Lynch for 'Premiere' before 'Lost Highway' came out. Wallace was on the set while Lynch was filming, gives some interesting insights into his processes.
http://www.geocities.com/~mikehartmann/papers/wallace.html
 
 
Margin Walker
17:12 / 07.03.02
quote:Originally posted by grant:
Also - the log lady from Twin Peaks was apparently an old friend of Lynch's. (Garry told this story over lunch yesterday.)
She was part of the crew on Eraserhead, and during a break in filming once, he told her he wanted to put her on TV with a log.

If memory serves, she plays Eraserhead's girlfriend (been a long time--besides I've never seen it without falling asleep).

As for the log thing, there's something similar playing here today:

"Little Otik": Director Jan Svankmajer based "Little Otik" upon a classic fairy tale about an unfertile couple who adopt a tree stump as their baby"
 
 
grant
19:06 / 07.03.02
One of Lynch's early shorts (student films, pre-Eraserhead) has a kid growing his dead grandmother back as a creepy tree.
The tree looks dead, too, but the kid goes into a knot in its trunk to animationland and visits gramma in it.
 
 
tSuibhne
19:52 / 07.03.02
quote:Originally posted by grant:
Note: in old Southern houses, it's common to find kitchens detached from the main house. Apparently the syndrome isn't as rare as you'd think.

This has more to do with the risk of fire in old homes, then the smell.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
22:39 / 07.03.02
About the electricity in Lynch films: It's always so dangerous. Everything flickers, sparks, and crackles; you feel that at any moment you could get fried by it. The "humming, droning" noises are connected here. They are like the buzz of a transformer, the threatening noise of a high-power line in heavy weather. Man-made lightning. Transmission. Transfixion. A pervasive presence, then a sudden shock.
 
 
rizla mission
22:39 / 07.03.02
quote:Originally posted by grant:
One of Lynch's early shorts (student films, pre-Eraserhead) has a kid growing his dead grandmother back as a creepy tree.
The tree looks dead, too, but the kid goes into a knot in its trunk to animationland and visits gramma in it.

'The Grandmother' - I saw it last week. Freaky Eraserhead-esque childhood trauma stuff.. he grows the tree on his bed, and it gives birth to his grandmother.. and his parents keep shouting 'MUD!MUD!Mud!' at him and rubbing his face in big orange stains...
 
  
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