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Here's my analysis that I posted on the WEF a while back:
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LOST HIGHWAY is one of those films that leaves a great deal to personal interpretation, so take this with a grain of salt - however, I think most of the following "explanation" was intended by Lynch and Gifford.
It's important to recognize that almost nothing in the fim is literal or "real" - we see the entire story through Fred Madison (Bill Pullman)'s eyes. Fred Madison is completely insane and his perception is distorted.
When the film begins, Fred's wife is ALREADY DEAD. The first third of the film is a memory constructed by Fred to block out the terrible fact that he murdered his own wife. The videotapes left on their front step represent his subconscious trying to break through the fantasy that he's constructed for himself - video cameras tell the "truth", as indicated by the following exchange:
Renee: Fred doesn't like video cameras.
Detective: Why is that?
Fred: I like to remember things **in my own way, instead of how they actually happened.**
The Mystery Man is the embodiment of Fred's repressed emotions (fire represents rage, passion, etc. We see a shot of a cabin - Fred's mind - exploding in reverse. All the fire is sucked into it - bottled up - and we then see The Mystery Man emerge from the cabin.). Fred created him - "It is not my custom to go where I am not invited."
As the final "video tape" (suppressed memories, remember?) is delivered to the house, finally showing Fred standing over the dismembered corpse of his own wife, we flash to Fred in an interrogation room, being worked over by the detectives. This is arguably the only "real" scene in the film - Fred momentarily snapping out of his delusion to say "I didn't kill her - please tell me I didn't kill her..."
And so he's condemned to death by the electric chair. On death row, and with no *physical* means of escape, Fred retreats into his mind and creates an entirely new identity for himself - Pete the mechanic. The whole of "Pete's" story is occurring in Fred's mind as he sits awaiting execution. Occasionally his subconscious memory intrudes into the fantasy, such as when we hear Fred's saxophone music blaring from the radio in the garage - "Pete" shuts it off, saying it gives him a headache - he's deliberately repressing his true identity.
And then "Alice" shows up - Pete/Fred has conjured the perfect fantasy girl for himself; she looks just like his dead wife and isn't unfaithful like Renee was - in fact, in the fantasy, "Pete" is the one cheating on his girlfriend, a construct of his mind designed to give him the power in the relationship since in his "real" identity he's impotent.
Phew. You following this?
And so it goes, with his mind not quite able to shut out reality. The fantasy begins to break down and in it he's driven to kill again - this time the victim is Andy, the man Fred suspected of sleeping with his wife. I'm hazy on what happens next, but eventually there's the sex scene between "Alice" and "Pete" where he repeatedly tells her he wants her, to which she replies "You'll never have me." Because, of course, she's dead and he's responsible - he can never live Happily Ever After with Renee. At this revelation and subsequent confrontation with The Mystery Man (subconscious trying to shock him back to reality: "What the fuck is your name?!?"), "Pete" once again becomes Fred.
And then it all begins again - Fred goes back to his house (not literally, he's still in prison as this goes on in his mind) and speaks into the intercom: "Dick Laurent is dead," which is how the film began, signifying that he's lost in the maze of his own mind, going round and round and round again. As he flees from the police at the film's end one of two things happens - he starts creating yet another identity for himself, or, my preferred interpretation, he's finally sitting in the electric chair; his body starts to burn and distort (earlier in the film we hear the Mystery Man say "In the Far East when someone is sentenced to die they are sent to a place from which there is no escape" - his mind - "never knowing when the executioner will come up behind them and pull the trigger."). The film closes as Fred's mind and body finally die.
Obviously this is just skimming the surface - watch it again with all this in mind and you'll start to piece it together.... |
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