Twin Peaks What are your favourite other David Lynch movies?

Willie Oleson

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There are various DVD boxsets but the European versions only have European (German/French) sub titles, and the UK box has none.
It looks like I have to buy the separate movie DVDs but where do I begin? All of them, maybe in chronological order?
 

James from London

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I have Eraserhead and Dune, but shamefully I've never got round to watching them. But I plan to include them as part of my new "Re-watching Everything" project. The Elephant Man is deeply beautiful*, but the Peaks-iest films are probably Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. There are some interesting thematic and casting overlaps between those and Twin Peaks.

*The Elephant Man is perhaps to Lynch's ouvre what Rebecca is to Hitchcock's -- the most conventionally satisfying of his films, but the least typical, due to it being an adaptation rather than an original idea conjured from his fevered brain.
 
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Mel O'Drama

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The Elephant Man is perhaps to Lynch's ouvre what Rebecca is to Hitchcock's -- the most conventionally satisfying of his films, but the least typical, due to it being an adaptation rather than an original idea conjured from his fevered brain.

Gosh. I had no idea at all The Elephant Man was a David Lynch film.

I've been aware of - and curious about - it since I was young and read the back of the VHS at an indoor market, but have never actually seen it. Funnily enough it came back onto my radar in the last couple of weeks as it's been mentioned several times in behind-the-scenes stuff I've been watching relating to The Silence Of The Lambs (Jonathan Demme pursued Anthony Hopkins to play Hannibal Lecter based on his performance as the kindly doctor in The Elephant Man).
 

James from London

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I had no idea at all The Elephant Man was a David Lynch film
Oh it's wonderful, and chockfull of British character actors, everyone from John Geilgud to Pauline Quirke to Hannah Gordon to a tiny Dexter Fletcher.
 

Willie Oleson

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I thought Elephant Man was a movie with Cher. Why am I thinking that?

but the Peaks-iest films are probably Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway.
Great! I have a hunch that it's not a great idea to start with Dune, but that also feels like making a rule and now I want to break it.
 

James from London

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I thought Elephant Man was a movie with Cher. Why am I thinking that?
That's Mask! Also great, but kinda different. Actually, they would make a great double bill.
 

Willie Oleson

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The first one that arrived is LOST HIGHWAY so that's where my journey starts.

Btw, this video has some good recommendations for Twin Peaks fans
(I apologize for the Irish accent :lol: "Happy Tuun"??)

From that list I've watched The Prisoner, Happy Town, Carnivale and Pushing Daisies. All great.
I'm intrigued by ATLANTA and I also found WILD PALMS on u-know-where (must avoid evil algorithm). I've watched a little of it and it looks interesting.
Dana Delany: "I've watched all your movies!".
Bebe Neuwirth: "I've used all your bathrooms!"

Also starring Angie Dickinson as glamorous society bitch.

Maybe I should buy the DVD because the upload quality is not so great.
 

Willie Oleson

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LOST HIGHWAY was very good.

"Dirk Laurent is dead" feels similar to Annie's message from the future: "Cooper is in the black lodge".
It's nasty, sexy and has a very peculiar death scene. Patricia Arquette is a great as the femme fatale noir.
The next one is going to be BLUE VELVET.
 

Willie Oleson

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The next one is going to be BLUE VELVET.
Hm.
Since Lynch's movies usually relies heavily on atmosphere and the personal experience I don't think this is one of his best works.
It's good, and maybe even more groundbreaking than 1990s Twin Peaks, but I think there's too much going on and at the same time not enough.
The style appears to be a potpourri of 1950s Americana although I'm not convinced that the story actually takes place in that decade, and the additional European touches doesn't really help to create a dominant fantasy to sink one's teeth into.
I'm sure someone could make the counter-argument that this is what makes it so interesting. And maybe I wouldn't disagree with that but ultimately it's all about the final result i.e. what the movie does for me, or should I say does to me.

If I had to come up with an interpretation of the story then I'd say it's about Jeffrey discovering his lust for edge and perversion, and then feels guilty about it.
My question is: when is perversion too perverted? Personally, I have no problem with people's kinky and dirty fantasies and since most of us have them there isn't much you can do about it anyway.
And in that regard I think the movie is holding back a little. I like to think that "Frank" is a part of Jeffrey that Jeffrey wants to explore, the mystery not being what's happening to all these characters but simply the fascinating idea that these perverse desires can exist despite his prudish American upbringing (and maybe that makes the dirty European touches more relevant).
To cut a long interpretation short: he wants to rape blue velvet girl Sandy, in every position and opening possible.

But maybe that's not what this is all about.

As for Dennis Hopper's much celebrated performance, it's all true, except that this type of psycho-criminal starts to look a little bit too familiar - and not just in David Lynch's movies. Think of Boardwalk Empire's Gyp Rosetti or Breaking Bad's Tuco Salamanco.
From a chronological point of view it doesn't seem fair to apply this observation to BLUE VELVET's "Frank", but I'm not watching all this in chronological order so I can't help feeling the way I do.
 

James from London

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From a chronological point of view it doesn't seem fair to apply this observation to BLUE VELVET's "Frank", but I'm not watching all this in chronological order so I can't help feeling the way I do.
Yes, I wondered whether going from Lost Highway to Blue Velvet might be a bit jarring as there does seem to be a sort of steady progression/descent into weirdness with each of Lynch's films, with Twin Peaks Season 3 the culmination of all that has come before. But as you say, you shouldn't have to worry about that.
 

Willie Oleson

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Blue Velvet might be a bit jarring as there does seem to be a sort of steady progression/descent into weirdness with each of Lynch's films, with Twin Peaks Season 3 the culmination of all that has come before
Right. Even though I adore the 90s Twin Peaks series, it's not impossible that I'd feel a tiny bit underwhelmed if I'd watch this right after The Return series or Fire Walk With Me.
 

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This is all very gloomy and twisted and it looks like one of those continuous loop tricks but somewhere inside that loop there's a crack that disconnects the circles.
It's both remembered and forgotten, like a fading echo, but those who care to listen can still hear it.
The movie has a beautiful score, colourful characters and the few creepy scenes are very effective.
 

Willie Oleson

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I couldn't stop thinking about this movie and I think the only way this story could have happened is if Rita/Camilla didn't survive the car crash.
And then it becomes a combination of their respective afterlives, hence the mystery and confusion. Kinda like THE OTHERS perhaps?
 

Willie Oleson

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The penultimate title in my Lynch movies watch is WILD AT HEART
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According to Time Out (but it could have been anybody) it is "funny, scary and brilliantly cinematic".
I can't disagree with any of that and yet, despite watching this movie in two installments, it felt as if it was never going to end.
Had it been my introduction to Lynch cinema I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more.
Laura Dern gives a bold and caricature-esque performance as "Lula" but Nicolas Cage's deadpan delivery of hilariously misplaced poetic insights is criminally underused imho.
The movie made it very difficult for me to fall in love with these characters, and the crime aspect in the story only scratches the surface.
All the usual suspects make a guest appearance and Jack Nance really makes the best of his 70 seconds on screen.
I would nominate the filthy scene between Dern & Dafoe for a Most Erotic Movie Scene Top 10. Someone ought to remix it into a 10 hour youtube video.
But again, these highlights were too sparse for my liking.
Laura Palmer arrives in a bubble, could it be the bubble that was sent from the White Lodge?

I do not regret watching this movie, it's definitely my cup of tea, but I've seen much better road movies (e.g. Freeway 1996).
 

Willie Oleson

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The penultimate title in my Lynch movies watch is WILD AT HEART
Excellent choice, because the last movie simply had to be the last movie on my list.
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Instead of Twin Peaks The Return it looks like David Lynch Movies The Return, and just like Twin Peaks it's going out with a bang.
For the most part it's quite incomprehensible, to me it looks like remake/mirror versions spinning out of control. But it never feels random or nonsensical and that's because every character seems to understand why he/she is there, doing this or that.
There is one thing that David Lynch can't afford to do, and that's not getting the best out of the actors. Well, no fear of that in Inland Empire.

There's a scene between two homeless characters (while Laura Dern's character is dying between them!) and it's almost as if the movie is about them.
These actors have no story context, it has to come from absolutely nothing and it's so great to see this being performed in such a compelling fashion.
The movie has a great soundtrack and the score is simply out of this world.
A bit of hooker talk explodes into the Locomotion song, like the Shangri-Las on acid.
A long movie that proved to be unstopwatchable because there was always a "what's going to happen next", and the overall experience was like watching the final episode of THE PRISONER.

And the winner is...

1. Fire Walk With Me
2. Inland Empire
3. Mulholland Drive
4. Lost Highway
5. Blue Velvet
6. Wild At Heart

Btw, this video has some good recommendations for Twin Peaks fans
Yippee, the WILD PALMS has arrived and I've also discovered the episodes of NOWHERE MAN so I'm not quite out of the Peaksy woods yet.
 

Willie Oleson

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and I've also discovered the episodes of NOWHERE MAN
This series is heralded as a 90s version of THE PRISONER and I think the first two episodes are intriguing enough in a TWILIGHT ZONE kind of way.
But in the third episode it becomes a photographer-turns-action hero fugitive story, and it looks like a cheesy TV show from the 1980s.
I'm not saying that every THE PRISONER episode was absolutely perfect but it was never cheesy.
Initially, this third episode of NOWHERE MAN looked like it was going to do some American Dust Bowl gothic with a psychic kid travelling show, but it's all overshadowed by the "alternative" military conspiracy plot which moves these characters from location A to B to C and then it ends without any story progress.
The cinematography, performances and various characters are nothing more than what's required for the plot and it doesn't help to elevate the series to its so-called cult status.
Bruce Greenwood's hair always looks fresh and I'm sure it still looks fresh in the 25th and final episode. I'm just going to believe that and save myself a lot of time.
 

Willie Oleson

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It is simply exquiste and I don't think it could have looked better if it had been made 40 years later.
Even though it is a moving story for all the obvious reasons it carefully avoids becoming a tearjerker, and in some parts I even felt a bit of envy because of the fulfillment he managed to find.
Of course, from the beginning of the story things could only get better, but it isn't only about the appreciation thereof but also his gift to see beauty, and that part of him is the man John Merrick, not John Merrick the creature.

It's not a suspenseful movie, not even a freak show, but I found it very tense nonetheless. I sat back and folded my hands like I often do, and after 45 minutes when I got up to get something to drink/etc I almost couldn't unclutch my fingers.

Perhaps the only thing more beautiful than the film's photography is the soundtrack, and I don't mean songs but the sound of everything. There was a big oven or fireplace or something like that and it actually made me feel warm, too warm.
And then there's the stellar cast ensemble led by Anthony Hopkins who's looking quite dashing with facial hair. They could have made a sequel but this time as an Agatha Christie story.

Updated Best Of:
1. Fire Walk With Me
2. Inland Empire
3. Mulholland Drive
4. The Elephant Man
5. Lost Highway
6. Blue Velvet
7. Wild At Heart

Let's see what he's done with DUNE....it's not my kind of entertainment so I'm going to watch it with zero expectations.
 
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