A lonely chair at the backyard under a tree with a swing, a baby pool on the grass with a ball and a swaying toy-boat inside, a small white dog licking the water off the sprinkler. After taking a tour inside Lynch's imagination, these are the things that stay with you in the end, the quiet and dreamy, the tender and simple ones.
In another imaginary place, a small town near Seattle, fictional Agent Dale Cooper reveals how much he enjoys a good cup of coffee and a piece of cherry pie. An eccentric person that finds very simple pleasures in life. A notion that reflects his creator's works. They tend to be controversial, but you either like them, or not. It's as simple as that.
David Lynch rarely talks about his creations, but very often uses the word "abstract". How can you explain with words something that you are supposed to perceive through vision and sound? This idea that cinema is a form of art that just happens to involve motion might be very common for the European cinema fans, but for the Hollywood junkies, it must sound like snow in the middle of the summer. That instantly transforms this American director into a precious gem, at least through my eyes.
What I want to see in the movies I devote my time to is a little brains and soul. Lynch might not be a highly intellectual genius, but he has a sweet talent. Talent does not need time to be revealed. You can easily identify it at the very first artistic steps of a director. At this stage it still remains uncontaminated from the pressure of a possibly demanding producer. So the problems of funding are quickly transformed into an urge to do more with less. "Eraserhead" is the astounding directorial debut of David Lynch. It is the gate through which you enter this bizarre world that exists only in the mind of one person.
He is an heir of the so-called midnight movies. He is bound to stay odd, cult and in between the margin and the mainstream. Sometimes (see: Wild at Heart) you cannot really tell if his ludicrous characters are failing to perform, or if he has managed to derive this type of acting from them as a tribute to his ancestors. And yet by using his flair, he has the gift of gently drifting away from the rest of the grotesque movement.
He is a man obsessed with scrambled riddles. Most of the movies he has written have connections that do not unfold before the end. Watching his short series "Rabbits" you subconsciously gain an insight of the way he works. The rabbit family that lives in an eerie house has a dialog that seems to be shuffled. And yet if you try to put the phrases in the right order there will be no logic. The only thing that is certain is the mystery that is floating and the secret that is waiting to be revealed. Time seems to be going mesmerizingly slow. The creator himself does not know the outcome or the secret before the very ending, and yet the puzzled viewer is waiting patiently for it to happen. If you replace the phrases with incidents you instantly get the formula behind his surreal films (Blue Velvet, Mulholland drive, Lost Highway, Inland Empire). Supernatural events garnished with purity. Morbid situations, shocking murders, people with innocent souls that get caught in very bad situations. It all seems to be heading to a dead end until a divine intervention spreads light and we land back in heaven.
Back at imaginary Twin Peaks all the characters are slowly gaining substance. Ominous scenes interchangeably give their place to funny moments. A town that grows on you and stays in your heart. Pictures that are persistently repeated in your mind. The black lodge, the giant and the dwarf, the beautiful song of Julee Cruise. David Lynch refused to leave this place, and so did Agent Cooper. His plans of finishing the series with three movies collapsed after the release of "Fire Walk With Me". For me this movie was a very nice surprise and would have been even better had Kyle MacLachlan had his role as originally written. And so ended the era of Twin Peaks. Its outcome was unexpected and for some disappointing. David Lynch had managed to remind us yet again (this time unintentionally) to stop being obsessed with Ithaca and start enjoying the ride.
From then and until today, words are dying every day, giving their place to images. Meanings get lost and pictures become drugs. Generations get shaped with 3D, CGI and FX. Cinematographers find their destination and loose themselves. But if there are humans out there, then there must be some soul too. A wooden house is still burning at the end of the road...
interviewproject
In another imaginary place, a small town near Seattle, fictional Agent Dale Cooper reveals how much he enjoys a good cup of coffee and a piece of cherry pie. An eccentric person that finds very simple pleasures in life. A notion that reflects his creator's works. They tend to be controversial, but you either like them, or not. It's as simple as that.
David Lynch rarely talks about his creations, but very often uses the word "abstract". How can you explain with words something that you are supposed to perceive through vision and sound? This idea that cinema is a form of art that just happens to involve motion might be very common for the European cinema fans, but for the Hollywood junkies, it must sound like snow in the middle of the summer. That instantly transforms this American director into a precious gem, at least through my eyes.
What I want to see in the movies I devote my time to is a little brains and soul. Lynch might not be a highly intellectual genius, but he has a sweet talent. Talent does not need time to be revealed. You can easily identify it at the very first artistic steps of a director. At this stage it still remains uncontaminated from the pressure of a possibly demanding producer. So the problems of funding are quickly transformed into an urge to do more with less. "Eraserhead" is the astounding directorial debut of David Lynch. It is the gate through which you enter this bizarre world that exists only in the mind of one person.
He is an heir of the so-called midnight movies. He is bound to stay odd, cult and in between the margin and the mainstream. Sometimes (see: Wild at Heart) you cannot really tell if his ludicrous characters are failing to perform, or if he has managed to derive this type of acting from them as a tribute to his ancestors. And yet by using his flair, he has the gift of gently drifting away from the rest of the grotesque movement.
He is a man obsessed with scrambled riddles. Most of the movies he has written have connections that do not unfold before the end. Watching his short series "Rabbits" you subconsciously gain an insight of the way he works. The rabbit family that lives in an eerie house has a dialog that seems to be shuffled. And yet if you try to put the phrases in the right order there will be no logic. The only thing that is certain is the mystery that is floating and the secret that is waiting to be revealed. Time seems to be going mesmerizingly slow. The creator himself does not know the outcome or the secret before the very ending, and yet the puzzled viewer is waiting patiently for it to happen. If you replace the phrases with incidents you instantly get the formula behind his surreal films (Blue Velvet, Mulholland drive, Lost Highway, Inland Empire). Supernatural events garnished with purity. Morbid situations, shocking murders, people with innocent souls that get caught in very bad situations. It all seems to be heading to a dead end until a divine intervention spreads light and we land back in heaven.
Back at imaginary Twin Peaks all the characters are slowly gaining substance. Ominous scenes interchangeably give their place to funny moments. A town that grows on you and stays in your heart. Pictures that are persistently repeated in your mind. The black lodge, the giant and the dwarf, the beautiful song of Julee Cruise. David Lynch refused to leave this place, and so did Agent Cooper. His plans of finishing the series with three movies collapsed after the release of "Fire Walk With Me". For me this movie was a very nice surprise and would have been even better had Kyle MacLachlan had his role as originally written. And so ended the era of Twin Peaks. Its outcome was unexpected and for some disappointing. David Lynch had managed to remind us yet again (this time unintentionally) to stop being obsessed with Ithaca and start enjoying the ride.
From then and until today, words are dying every day, giving their place to images. Meanings get lost and pictures become drugs. Generations get shaped with 3D, CGI and FX. Cinematographers find their destination and loose themselves. But if there are humans out there, then there must be some soul too. A wooden house is still burning at the end of the road...
interviewproject
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