"I'll see you in my dreams" Essential 5: David Lynch

  "My movies are film-paintings - moving portraits captured on celluloid. I'll layer that with sound to create a unique mood -- like if the Mona Lisa opened her mouth, and there would be a wind, and she'd turn back and smile. It would be strange and beautiful." - David Lynch

David Lynch is the rare artist capable of making the non-rational… digestible… maybe even understandable, and even if we can’t articulate that understanding, we can approximate it. Discussion inevitably turns to the darkness inside us all or the hidden face of seemingly idyllic communities. He often visualizes the fractured psyche, perhaps as a metaphor for society, or individuals, or even himself. Machines are a common motif, often juxtaposed with less ordered, organic imagery like physical deformities, fire, and waterfalls. All of this is true of Lynch, but beside the point. Few film authors are so visual, and none are quite so focused on evoking instead of explaining. Critics love to over-analyze Lynch, and I’m no exception.

For me at least, watching Lynch is like being under a spell. I’m mesmerized by the images, the story, and most of all by what it’s doing to me. Intellectual exercise is generally strenuous, and requires a great deal of conscious thought. With Lynch, though, you feel as if it is your subconscious getting the work-out. After I am done I feel as if I understand myself better or perhaps that I am more comfortable with myself in a way that is impossible to describe. Is intellectualism possible if it eludes your consciousness?

           

I’m going to resist the urge to delve deeper into the state Lynch puts me in. Nothing is more boring than someone else psychoanalyzing themselves. So, here are the essential films of David Lynch. His films taken together create a rich interconnected body of work that is best considered together. But you have to start somewhere and inevitably some make easier entrance points than others. If you are interested in this (very) important filmmaker I recommend starting here:

1)     1) Blue Velvet

Lynch’s breakout film has everything that is great about his work: hidden worlds just beneath the surface, corruption of every sort, love of the transcendent variety, love of the lust variety, and most of all a dreamlike pall that give every action multiple meanings. Dennis Hopper is undeniably great in the film, and his recent death gives just one more reason to watch this fantastic film.

2)   2)   Mulholland Drive

This is probably Lynch’s greatest film yet it none-the-less benefits from seeing Blue Velvet first. The film is set up like a puzzle: with scenes contradicting each other, characters changing names and dispositions, and seemingly random surrealism peppering the narrative. There is an “accepted” solution to many of these ambiguities but the film is better if you don’t know it. Many of Lynch’s later films are set up this way, with puzzles we are never intended to fully solve. I think that the simple act of trying is part of what draws you into these films and is one of reasons why he is as popular as he is.

3)   3)   Twin Peaks

I have touched on Twin Peaks in the past here. Unlike everything else on this list, this is a TV show and not a film. It lasted two seasons for a total of 30 or so episodes. Including something of this length in a list about introducing anything is probably a little naïve on my part but its quality speaks for itself. The show is often uneven but rarely uninteresting. The format of a TV show is an optimal place to really get to understand (as much as one can) an artist like David Lynch who can slowly develop themes and motifs that are important to him.

4)    4)  Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

A prequel to the aforementioned Twin Peaks, this should under no account be watched before watching the series. Although it takes place in the same ‘universe’ as the TV show, this film feels like a different animal. This is David Lynch’s darkest work. So dark in fact that it is often difficult to watch. It is enlightening though, and profoundly moving.

5)    5)  Lost Highway

Other than Eraserhead, this is Lynch’s most difficult work. It is rewarding though, and has some of the best scenes he ever filmed. For instance, in a profoundly creepy scene a mystery man played by Robert Blake is both talking to Bill Pullman in person and on the phone at the same time… and that’s just the start of the weirdness that pervades the film. Patricia Arquette gives a typically fearless performance and despite the misgivings of many critics who are incapable of surrendering to the pleasures of the film, this is remarkably entertaining.