David Lynch has died

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

RIP. He’d made so many masterpieces. Just finished Twin Peaks this year and it was of course incredible.

 

[Kazin]

This fucking sucks.

 

[Adrenaline]

10 movies ranging from amazing to interesting-at-worst and one of the best TV shows ever. RIP

 

[Johnny Unusual]

He's not explaining his movies in heaven, now

 

[Voncaster]

10 movies ranging from amazing to interesting-at-worst and one of the best TV shows ever. RIP

Agreed.

I never understood exactly what was going on his movies and TV shows, but I was always captivated.

There are a lot of great things about David Lynch's work. I always appreciated his humor and amazing sound design.

We're blessed that his work crossed over into the mainstream. It seems incredible when you consider work like Eraserhead or Inland Empire.

RIP to one of a kind.

 

[lincolnic]

One of the most important directors/creators of our time. It's weird to think of a world where people are making art and David Lynch isn't one of them. The world is smaller without him.

 

[Exposition Owl]

One of the defining artists of our time. What a loss.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I'm just gonna miss his weather reports

 

[Kazin]

I watched Eraserhead for the first time today. There's nothing out there quite like David Lynch... Wild movie, start to finish. Like all his work, I don't know how I feel about it and I'm still thinking about it hours later.

 

[YangusKhan]

What started out as watching a "random" episode of Twins Peaks that Lynch appeared in resulted in picking season 2 episode 7. This was the last episode he directed before stepping away from the show, and I didn't realize that until about halfway through.

It's such an incredibly good episode, and beyond that it's a perfect distillation of the themes and mood Lynch was going for with this show. Just an absolutely beautiful piece of television. My friend called David Lynch a Bodhisattva somewhat flippantly, but... she's also right, you know? What an incredible human being.

 

[lincolnic]

Like all his work, I don't know how I feel about it and I'm still thinking about it hours years later.

 

[Kazin]

I watched The Elephant Man last night for the first time. I cannot believe Mel Brooks watched Eraserhead and thought, yes, that's the guy I want to direct The Elephant Man. He was right - it's a beautifully done movie - but wow.

 

[Issun]

I had never seen a David Lynch anything before, so I watched Blue Velvet the other day and man, I definitely understand why he is so legendary. This is one of the most beautiful bits of dialogue I've ever heard.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I've watched Eraserhead, Inland Empire, and Lost Highway now, to round up some of his works I haven't seen. I appreciated Eraserhead and Lost Highway a lot, but Inland Empire was just a big fucking mess and learning a bit about its production makes me realize it was never anything but a random collection of stuff.

Eraserhead is relatively straightforward - fears and anxieties about fatherhood and loneliness in a dilapidated nowhere-world and longing for the embrace of death. Very much an early "art film" stage of his life. Lost Highway is a little less on the nose, but is very Lynchian still; it shows more experience and moderation while still being incomprehensible in its surreality at times. Weird-ass soundtrack that doesn't really fit the movie, though.

 

[Kazin]

I got 40 minutes into Dune last night and had to shut it off. It was all exposition and was dull. I imagine it might be more interesting if I were familiar with the book? I dunno. I can see already why Lynch was unhappy with it.

 

[Adrenaline]

I would say Dune is his only real failure, though there's a lot of interesting bits and images in it.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I got 40 minutes into Dune last night and had to shut it off. It was all exposition and was dull. I imagine it might be more interesting if I were familiar with the book? I dunno. I can see already why Lynch was unhappy with it.

The original showing came with an explanational pamphlet. Clearly, it didn't help.

There was also a colourings book. It was wild.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I kinda like Dune, but not because it's a good movie.

 

[Kazin]

Yeah... So I finished Dune today while watching the phones at work and we were super slow. A bunch of stuff happened in Dune, but I could never figure out why I should care. People would just say stuff seemingly at random, and prophecies would be uttered and fulfilled, but the movie was like 90% a solid wall of empty exposition. It is safe to say I didn't like it! It didn't even interest me enough to want to watch the recent Dune movies with Zendaya or whatever, which I expected at the very least lol

 

[Voncaster]

I'm re-watching Twin Peaks. I will for sure go through season 1. Not sure if I'll re-watch season 2 or the return.

Rewatching the pilot last night I can't imagine how ground breaking the original run must have been. Did a quick google search of 1990s shows. At the top of the ratings are Cheers, the Cosby Show, a Different World (a spin off of the Cosby Show), and Rosanne. Twin Peaks is nothing like those shows.

I really like the cast and tone of Twin Peaks. The show is a mostly serious drama but the comedy of the show really works for me. There are a lot of great characters with interesting relationships. I love the entire police department.

 

[zonetrope]

I respect Inland Empire for its sheer inscrutability, that one shot of Laura Dern's face (if you've seen it, you know the one), and for being just about the last movie I would expect to end with a dance party.

 

[Voncaster]

I remember watching Inland Empire on DVD and thinking it was inscrutable. I watched it once and forgot about it.

I was going through my DVDs one day and I looked at the back of the box for Inland Empire. There is a second disc with 211 minutes of "more things that happened." How did I miss this the first time around? Maybe it will give some insight as to what is going on with main film. I watched it immediately.

Not only did the more things not help with the main film, it may have left me even more baffled.

David Lynch walks a fine line between explaining the story explicitly and obscuring the story but giving the viewer enough interesting pieces to put together their own interpretation of the story.

Inland Empire was so obscure I felt I didn't have pieces to begin to puzzle together a narrative. But its been a while for me since I watched it. Its not a film I'm rushing to revisit.

Its also early digital camera and to my eyes pretty ugly. I feel the same way about 28 Days Later.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Dune was worse than I remembered. It's just... it's not good. The exposition is insane, as mentioned earlier, all the inner-voice monologues are clunky, the dialog is clunky, the pace is just absolutely fucked (there are like three or four scenes between Paul joining the Fremen and the end of the movie). It's a glorious mess and I love it because of the Dune meme group I'm in so at least I can watch it for fun, but yeesh. Maybe it was the cut they had on HBO; one of these days I do need to check out the spicediver cut (or do I?).

Blue Velvet was still good. A good look at picture-perfect Americana and the seedy underbelly hiding in the shadowy corners, and the darkness inside people.

 

[Issun]

From what I've read, Lynch himself was not proud of Dune.

 

[lincolnic]

From what I've read, Lynch himself was not proud of Dune.

I know the studio forced him to cut a ton of stuff and to add the triumphant ending, but I can't remember if his original plan was to make two movies or to just have it be even longer.