David Lynch (1946-2025)

[domino harvey]

Wild Palms was indeed widely derided at the time as a Twin Peaks wannabe

[The Curious Sofa]

...which I thought was a poor Twin Peaks wannabe, unlike Lars von Trier's Riget, which was an excellent Twin Peaks wannabe.

Twin Peaks was influential not just in introducing quirky or weird shows, but more importantly, from then on US TV became more cinematic than before.

[colinr0380]

Which also showed on BBC2 in the UK, in 1997, along with The Kingdom II in 2000! It could be plausibly argued that Twin Peaks kind of defined BBC2's ethos for the whole of the 1990s, including when they picked up The X-Files, which was initially deemed 'too quirky' for the mainstream BBC1 channel for its first couple of seasons.

[beamish14]

...which I thought was a poor Twin Peaks wannabe, unlike Lars von Trier's Riget, which was an excellent Twin Peaks wannabe.

Twin Peaks was influential not just in introducing quirky or weird shows, but more importantly, from then on US TV became more cinematic than before.

I’m a big defender of Wild Palms and the Bruce Wagner universe in general. Its focus on augmented reality and the threat of techno capitalists was prescient, and each director really brought their own unique stamps to the scripts. Kathryn Bigelow is great in a guest appearance (which is not in the episode she directed). “The rhinoceros is in the swimming pool”, indeed.

I wish all of Wagner’s Details magazine sequential art stories that formed the basis for the series were widely available. I have a German-translated collection, which I think is incomplete

[The Curious Sofa]

I got to Blue Velvet last night. In retrospect, it feels like one of Lynch's most straightforward films, with the surreal touches all in the details. Apparently Hannah Schygulla was the first choice to play Dorothy, and it's easy to see how Fassbinder influenced the heightened acting style in Lynch's films. I'm sure Molly Ringwald would have been fine as Sandy, but just as he pushes Frank's depravity as far as he can, he does the same with Sandy's wholesomeness, and Laura Dern is so attuned to Lynch's sensibility.

I've never watched the Lost Footage before. Makes you wonder how long Lynch thought we needed with Jeffrey's backstory before he gets to the mystery, although there is a fun spin-off about Aunt Barbara in there. I didn't recognize Megan Mullally as Jeffrey's not-so-sweet high school sweetheart till I saw her name in the credits. The scene where Dorothy tries to jump off the roof is the one scene that could have stayed, it makes sense of Jeffrey's claim that she's suicidal and gives context to her mental and emotional decline.

If I had to choose which one is my favorite Lynch, this is probably still it, but it's a tough choice.

[hearthesilence]

For the few of us (if any) who have seen the bulk of Lynch's film work, but have never seen so much as a single episode of Twin Peaks or any of the features associated with it, perhaps someone(s) on the site has a recommendation for which of the available Twin Peaks multi-disc blu-ray discs is the one to buy. I hadn't realized what a slew of them were available. I'm not a completist when it comes to Lynch, so it's the core Twin Peaks works I'm interested in. Thanks -

Z-A likely is the one to get, partly due to the inclusion of UHD's (only for the pilot and the great eighth episode of The Return), but if you have no interest in UHD's, consider picking the one with the best packaging.

IIRC, the UK edition of the series that pre-dates The Return (what was then titled The Complete Mystery) is most user friendly thanks to well-manufactured digipaks that hold the discs properly and release them properly. The one real downside they had for me was the encoding of Fire Walk with Me - some really bad artifacting would occasionally pop up, especially during dissolves or dark parts of the screen. The Criterion BD isn't completely free of this, but it's a substantial improvement.

I used to have that and The Return, and they sit on the shelf very nicely next to each other, but unfortunately, The Return has no trays. Instead, you shove the discs into tight pouches that are part of the cardboard panels, with no protection whatsoever (inner sleeves would've made a huge difference), so the discs end up getting scratched. A shame because the box's outside design of The Return is really cool.

There's also The Television Collection, and I got this only because my copy of The Return got completely trashed. I sold The Complete Mystery and sprung for The Television Collection because it was cheap and upgraded Fire Walk with Me to the Criterion edition. However, there are a couple of lengthy extras that will be missing - the one that I can remember (maybe the only one that's a substantial loss) is a documentary shot on handheld standard-definition video cameras. It was made without Lynch's involvement, which may be why it was dropped, but they interview virtually every living cast member involved in the series, and at the time they made it, it was not long after Fire Walk with Me, so I think Jack Nance was the only one who was deceased. It's pretty poignant to watch because they've all moved on with their lives and they think the show has definitely run its course - I guarantee you none of them thought it would grow even bigger decades later with Lynch making a bigger budget revival. They're all shown in casual environments, usually their own homes, and it's wonderful seeing people like Coulson alive, healthy and happy. Miguel Ferrer makes it sound like he and MacLachan liked to goof around on set, often at Dana Ashbrook's expense - my favorite is when they go up to him and say "hey man, we get what you're doing! William Shatner, right?" "Huh?" "You're trying to be your generation's William Shatner! 'I....LOVED....HER!' (with exaggerated hand and facial expressions)" After that, Ferrer acts out Ashbrook's horrified expression.

Big downside of The Television Collection is that it stacks the discs on spindles. I recommend looking for photos online, but it makes taking out discs a complete pain in the ass. Some say it damages the discs, and while I haven't had that problem yet, it's truly a shitty design - the spindles basically leave like a millimeter of space between discs, so technically they're not touching, but that's banking on the discs staying perfectly perpendicular the entire time.

Z-A reportedly uses pouches just like The Return....I'm hoping that's not the case with the reissue. Either that or they improve the design somehow.

[beamish14]

I've never watched the Lost Footage before. Makes you wonder how long Lynch thought we needed with Jeffrey's backstory before he gets to the mystery, although there is a fun spin-off about Aunt Barbara in there. I didn't recognize Megan Mullally as Jeffrey's not-so-sweet high school sweetheart till I saw her name in the credits.

She’s technically in two Criterion titles, as she is visible in a handful of shots in Risky Business as one of the sex workers brought to Tom Cruise’s home

I’ve wondered how radically different the script of Blue Velvet that disgusted Val Kilmer and Molly Ringwald’s mother/agent was

[domino harvey]

Z-A reportedly uses pouches just like The Return....I'm hoping that's not the case with the reissue. Either that or they improve the design somehow.

Based on the link I posted on the previous page, it'll be in a plastic case, probably similar to other recent Paramount complete series sets

[The Curious Sofa]

SpoilerShow

I've never watched the Lost Footage before. Makes you wonder how long Lynch thought we needed with Jeffrey's backstory before he gets to the mystery, although there is a fun spin-off about Aunt Barbara in there. I didn't recognize Megan Mullally as Jeffrey's not-so-sweet high school sweetheart till I saw her name in the credits.

She’s technically in two Criterion titles, as she is visible in a handful of shots in Risky Business as one of the sex workers brought to Tom Cruise’s home

I’ve wondered how radically different the script of Blue Velvet that disgusted Val Kilmer and Molly Ringwald’s mother/agent was

Schygulla also refused to be in the film because of its content, and she was around Fassbinder for over a decade (though admittedly, unlike many of his other actors, she wisely kept her distance).

I don't think the script had to be that much more extreme for actors to get cold feet, this was strong stuff in the 80s, and as mentioned before the film was controversial when it came out. Kilmer was after Hollywood stardom and probably turned down all art house stuff. Ringwald found success as a wholesome teen queen, so this was about protecting the brand. Schygulla would probably have benefited the most. Instead of Blue Velvet, she chose a Chuck Norris movie as her Hollywood debut the year she was offered Blue Velvet and while working with some notable art house directors, never went on to a career to match her work with Fassbinder.

[ftsoh]

SpoilerShow

Z-A likely is the one to get, partly due to the inclusion of UHD's (only for the pilot and the great eighth episode of The Return), but if you have no interest in UHD's, consider picking the one with the best packaging.

IIRC, the UK edition of the series that pre-dates The Return (what was then titled The Complete Mystery) is most user friendly thanks to well-manufactured digipaks that hold the discs properly and release them properly. The one real downside they had for me was the encoding of Fire Walk with Me - some really bad artifacting would occasionally pop up, especially during dissolves or dark parts of the screen. The Criterion BD isn't completely free of this, but it's a substantial improvement.

I used to have that and The Return, and they sit on the shelf very nicely next to each other, but unfortunately, The Return has no trays. Instead, you shove the discs into tight pouches that are part of the cardboard panels, with no protection whatsoever (inner sleeves would've made a huge difference), so the discs end up getting scratched. A shame because the box's outside design of The Return is really cool.

There's also The Television Collection, and I got this only because my copy of The Return got completely trashed. I sold The Complete Mystery and sprung for The Television Collection because it was cheap and upgraded Fire Walk with Me to the Criterion edition. However, there are a couple of lengthy extras that will be missing - the one that I can remember (maybe the only one that's a substantial loss) is a documentary shot on handheld standard-definition video cameras. It was made without Lynch's involvement, which may be why it was dropped, but they interview virtually every living cast member involved in the series, and at the time they made it, it was not long after Fire Walk with Me, so I think Jack Nance was the only one who was deceased. It's pretty poignant to watch because they've all moved on with their lives and they think the show has definitely run its course - I guarantee you none of them thought it would grow even bigger decades later with Lynch making a bigger budget revival. They're all shown in casual environments, usually their own homes, and it's wonderful seeing people like Coulson alive, healthy and happy. Miguel Ferrer makes it sound like he and MacLachan liked to goof around on set, often at Dana Ashbrook's expense - my favorite is when they go up to him and say "hey man, we get what you're doing! William Shatner, right?" "Huh?" "You're trying to be your generation's William Shatner! 'I....LOVED....HER!' (with exaggerated hand and facial expressions)" After that, Ferrer acts out Ashbrook's horrified expression.

Big downside of The Television Collection is that it stacks the discs on spindles. I recommend looking for photos online, but it makes taking out discs a complete pain in the ass. Some say it damages the discs, and while I haven't had that problem yet, it's truly a shitty design - the spindles basically leave like a millimeter of space between discs, so technically they're not touching, but that's banking on the discs staying perfectly perpendicular the entire time.

Z-A reportedly uses pouches just like The Return....I'm hoping that's not the case with the reissue. Either that or they improve the design somehow.

I sold my Twin Peaks Blu-ray a while ago, hoping for a eventual UHD release since the Z to A set included a couple of UHD episodes.
With Lynch's passing, I wish Criterion will have a definitive David Lynch Complete Movie/TV/Shorts UHD Collection.

[The Curious Sofa]

Like many at the time, I found Wild at Heart a disappointment after Blue Velvet. It felt as if Lynch had thought, "What if every character in this is Frank Booth?" The violence and sex that lurked in the dark undergrowth of Blue Velvet were dragged out into the daylight here. Now I think it's one of his most fun films to revisit, his take on a romantic comedy. Nic Cage is at his most Nic Cage here in a role that helped define his persona, and Laura Dern, that rare actress who dares to go big and weird, matches him step by step, emerging as the more interesting character along the way. It still feels like Blue Velvet's, "why does evil exist?" is a major theme here, my favourite scene being the one where Dern can only find lurid news stories on the car radio and is freaking out. Then they find some music and dance in the desert.

This road movie doesn't always hold together the way Blue Velvet did, and the Wizard of Oz references still feel shoehorned in, but the film is full of great individual scenes and moments (that camera move in on Dern's feet on the bed, cutting to her dancing at the Road House)


Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me was my third attempt to get to grips with a film that has seen a revaluation among Lynch's films, but which never quite worked for me.

There are a couple of great scenes, the MR James-inspired painting of the door leading to the Red Room and the Road House sequence with Badalamenti's droning score drowning out the dialogue. When I saw this in the cinema there were no subtitles, and the scene worked much better when you had to strain to follow the dialogue. The subtitles take away from the dark red design and are distracting, having to strain to hear the lines was what made the scene interesting.

My main bone of contention, however, is Sheryl Lee's much-lauded performance. It's not that she's bad, she really gives it her all, but in the end, she's a TV actress, lacking in experience, who can't hold the screen in the way a Laura Dern, Naomi Watts or Isabella Rossellini can. In her mid-20s, she also looks way too old to be playing a teenager. None of the actors playing characters in their teens and twenties make much of an impact in what is supposed to be a dark drama. They fit their lighter roles into the quirky, self-conscious soap opera of Twin Peaks because that is the kind of actor that is cast in them. With age, they become more interesting performers in The Return. Only Moira Kelly, the recast Donna, feels like a teenager and has some depth in her few scenes, she is vulnerable and makes you care about her.

As for the rest of the film, having always been more of a Lynch fan than a Twin Peaks fan, I don't mind that it has a different feel to the series, but it suffers from the fate of the prequel, there is no suspense because you already know about the events that take place. It does, however, set the stage for The Return and, incidentally, if Kyle McLachlan is a more gonzo version of Lynch, Harry Connick Jr. also bears a striking resemblance as a dashingly handsome movie star version of Lynch.

One thing I love unreservedly is the score, Badalamenti's best. Even before the film was released, this was one of my most listened to soundtrack albums of all time.

[colinr0380]

Matthew Harris on David Lynch's adverts

[mfunk9786]

My main bone of contention, however, is Sheryl Lee's much-lauded performance. It's not that she's bad, she really gives it her all, but in the end, she's a TV actress, lacking in experience, who can't hold the screen in the way a Laura Dern, Naomi Watts or Isabella Rossellini can. In her mid-20s, she also looks way too old to be playing a teenager. None of the actors playing characters in their teens and twenties make much of an impact in what is supposed to be a dark drama.

This is certainly a take. It might be one the best ever performances in a feature film, so to hear it dismissed as an unexperienced TV actress out of her depth is unfortunate.

[The Curious Sofa]

If I had to pick the best performance in a Lynch film I would have to go with Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive, there is a reason she became a star after that. As for a 'best performance ever', her audition scene is one of the best acted scenes of all time.

[colinr0380]

The SpaceHunterM channel, which does random tiny clips of lots of things had a bit of a Lynch period a few months back and put up a couple of videos about the cue marks signifying film reel changes that occurred in Dune and Lost Highway. I'm trying to remember where I heard it (perhaps on the Fight Club commentary, since they use cue marks in a cheeky manner), but there was apparently an art to the placement of such marks because the change over between reels led to a 'harder cut' than normal. So they usually were timed to occur at a particularly significant moment or the end of a major scene to sort of subliminally underscore the moment.

(EDIT: I also like the "blue velvet but only when they say blue velvet" video from the same channel!

[aox]

I love David Lynch as a person. I'm completely enraptured watching him speak and reading about him. But, I don't like his work outside of The Elephant Man. However, I watched The Straight Story last night and was completely taken. I didn't even know this movie existed. Farnsworth is just a tour de force. It has every hallmark of a Lynch film, without the nonsensical surrealism I have never understood though I have spent hours reading about it in my own feeble attempt to understand. That opening dolly shot for example is straight out of Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks. But what follows is a real humanist movie not bogged down by Lynch's flourishes. My only issue with it is the cinematography, but that seems to be evident with all of his post-Dune work where his films look like a porno/1988 ABC afterschool special. Why did this man never work with someone like Roger Deakins or Vittorio Storaro?

[The Curious Sofa]

I just spat out my soup while reading that. You honestly think Blue Velvet or Lost Highway look like porno/after school specials? Having just rewatched them, I still think they are among the most beautiful looking films of their time. The Straight Story was shot by Freddie Francis, in my book one of the greatest cinematographers ever. He also shot The Elephant Man and Dune.

[aox]

You honestly think Blue Velvet or Lost Highway look like porno/after school specials?

Yes. Please add Mulholland Drive to that list. It's distractingly ugly to me. This isn't a comment on the movies themselves.

Apologies for the hot take.

[The Curious Sofa]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of The Straight Story, it's strikes me as similar to many "warmly received at Sundance" movies and that's not what I come to Lynch for. I get why it's the film for people who otherwise don't like his work. I must confess that I skipped it on my recent retrospective even though I promised myself to rewatch all of his movies, so its still on my to-do list.

[The Curious Sofa]

As for cinematography, evoking Roger Deakins or Vittorio Storaro as the great masters is in itself a cliche by straight going for the two most famous names. A Lynch movie shot by Benoît Debie? Now that would have been interesting.

Lynch's films have a particular aesthetic, a kind of dark glow with a faux-Technicolor or "bruised" color scheme and he kept working with the same cinematographers because he collaboratively achieved that look with them. If you look at other movies shot by Francis, like The Innocents for instance, you can see why he was perfect for Lynch.

[aox]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of The Straight Story, it's strikes me as similar to many "warmly received at Sundance" movies and that's not what I come to Lynch for. I get why it's the film for people who otherwise don't like his work.

Unfortunately, that is me.

As for cinematography, evoking Roger Deakins or Vittorio Storaro as the great masters is in itself a cliche by straight going for the two most famous names.

Of course. I was spitballing.

Lynch's films have a particular aesthetic, a kind of dark glow with a faux-Technicolor or "bruised" color scheme and he kept working with the same cinematographers because he collaboratively achieved that look with them. If you look at other movies shot by Francis, like The Innocents for instance, you can see why he was perfect for Lynch.

Besides purposely dark scenes (eg cigarette lighting at the beginning of Lost Highway), are there any shadows in Lynch's work? Highlights to 110%.

Bring in Anthony Dod Mantle if that helps.

[beamish14]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of The Straight Story, it's strikes me as similar to many "warmly received at Sundance" movies and that's not what I come to Lynch for. I get why it's the film for people who otherwise don't like his work.

Unfortunately, that is me.

As for cinematography, evoking Roger Deakins or Vittorio Storaro as the great masters is in itself a cliche by straight going for the two most famous names.

Of course. I was spitballing.

Lynch's films have a particular aesthetic, a kind of dark glow with a faux-Technicolor or "bruised" color scheme and he kept working with the same cinematographers because he collaboratively achieved that look with them. If you look at other movies shot by Francis, like The Innocents for instance, you can see why he was perfect for Lynch.

Besides purposely dark scenes (eg cigarette lighting at the beginning of Lost Highway), are there any shadows in Lynch's work? Highlights to 110%.

Bring in Anthony Dod Mantle if that helps.

Some of the most iconic moments in The Elephant Man are all shadows

[aox]

Some of the most iconic moments in The Elephant Man are all shadows

Which is why I prefaced with "post-Dune".

[The Curious Sofa]

When I watched Lost Highway last week, I puzzled over Patricia Arquette casting a shadow on a wall while being questioned by police in her home which was geographically impossible, till I realised I got the relationship between the rooms all wrong from the way the shot was framed. So yes, shadows. Blue Velvet has lots of them.

[Mr Sausage]

Doesn’t Laura Dern’s character in Blue Velvet famously walk out of the shadows into the light of a streetlamp in her introduction?

Maybe what aox is remembering is Lynch’s habit of contrasting very bright scenes with very dark ones to create that sense of opposites colliding that he loves so much—except aox is only remembering one half of that. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for this just bizarre series of claims, anyway.