Lynch. David Lynch’s case is really strong. Lynch has made ten (10) features- I have nine of the ten films in my archives. I’ve given Dune a few chances and probably have another one left in me but it’s pretty bad. His filmography ranks him 22nd overall and he’s a style-plus director. He creates his own cinematic world- surrealism- a nightmare of a world. He’s wildly stylish and concerned with reoccurring imagery (both in-film and throughout his oeuvre) which plays so well formally. There’s still potential upside with me even if Lynch never creates anything else worthy of the archives. I’ve got him as #18 all-time despite being much lower than lower on Eraserhead and Inland Empire – I’m itching to get to them and Lost Highway again to revisit and evaluate.
Best film: Blue Velvet. Man, this is close with Mulholland Drive For now I’ll say Blue Velvet still.
total archiveable films: 9
top 100 films: 2 (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive)
top 500 films: 7 (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Wild At Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, The Elephant Man, Eraserhead)
top 100 films of the decade: 7 (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Wild At Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, The Elephant Man, Eraserhead)
most overrated: Eraserhead– It’s #278 of all-time (his 3rd ranked film) and I’m just not there yet (I’ve only seen it once- not enough). I have it as his 7th best film. Inland Empire is also overrated by TSPDT at #531 all-time—I hope the next viewing for me is a major revelation because I can’t figure on what planet this is better than Cuaron’s Children of Men.
most underrated : Fire Walk With Me at #1000 on TSPDT is a travesty. I have it at #423 and that feels underrated- haha.
gem I want to spotlight: Wild at Heart is about as good a time as you can have watching a movie. Nic Cage at his Nic Cageyest (or nearly), a Laura Dern matching him step for step, Willem Dafoe and other supporting actors wonderfully chewing scenes (Diane Ladd and Harry Dean Stanton among others), David Lynch doing his own nightmare remake of The Wizard of Oz?
stylistic innovations/traits:
Lynch often explores the gulf between the seedy underworld and the hokey veneer or small town (or small town embodied like Watts in Mulholland). Voyeurism (Hitchcock), surrealism, transformation and role switching—often doppelgängers (Bergman’s Persona) are also pet themes and as I said he makes absolutely beautiful films (less so his television work and Inland Empire). His world often has reoccurring (firm form) shots of people driving or behind cars, people on stage or holding a microphone singing, the lines in the street while driving, red fabric rooms, the blurring/distortion of objects, close-up of objects (ears), back of heads during dialogue.
top 10
- Blue Velvet
- Mulholland Drive
- Lost Highway
- Wild at Heart
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
- The Elephant Man
- Eraserhead
- The Straight Story
- Inland Empire
By year and grades
| 1976- Eraserhead | HR |
| 1980- The Elephant Man | MS |
| 1986- Blue Velvet | MP |
| 1990- Wild At Heart | MS |
| 1992- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me | MS |
| 1997- Lost Highway | MS |
| 1999- The Straight Story | HR |
| 2001- Mulholland Drive | MP |
| 2006- Inland Empire | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
What’s a good place to start with David Lynch?
I am intrigued from a viewing of Mulholland Drive (2001) from a few years ago.
I might even revisit that one but aside from that one what’s a good starting point?
Suggestions from anyone are welcome
Blue Velvet > Mulholland Drive > Wild at Heart > Lost Highway > Eraserhead has been my Lynch journey so far.
@James Trapp- three ways to go about a Lynch study in my eyes… First off, I’m always in favor of going of the chronological arc of the auteur– so start at the beginning if you’re going to do them all. That’s ultimately the way to go. If you are only going to do 2-3 or something go with the best- Blue Velvet, Mulholland, Lost Highway…. if you’re looking to ease into Lynch, I’d recommend The Elephant Man actually. I think it is sort of a gateway drug to the bizarre world of David Lynch
@ Zane and @ Drake
– appreciate the input, watched Blue Velvet last night and was very impressed, I think I’m going to do the entirety so might go to the beginning and work my way through.
Yeah Mulholland Drive is a great sort of Capstone to an exploration of Lynch’s work. I’m not sure about The Straight Story which I haven’t yet seen but I’d probably go straight from Lost Highway to Mulholland Drive due to the large amounts of connective tissue between those films. On a similar note, I probably won’t be seeing Fire Walk With Me for some time due to my desire to finish Twin Peaks’ 2nd Season… which will happen one of these days… one of them…
On a last note, are you planning to rewatch Blue Velvet as you go along, or go straight from The Elephant Man to Wild at Heart?
@Zane – I’ll rewatch it along with Mulholland Drive, I was just curious to see Blue Velvet given it’s extremely high ranking on so many lists (including this site) but after that and Mulholland Drive I am convinced in giving a full viewing of the Lynch Filmography. Excited…
Straight Story is, IMO, a nearly perfect film. It just seems atypical for David Lynch, so it tends to get shunted to the side. Paradoxically, it’s the oddball in his output because it’s the least oddball.
Of course, it isn’t all *that* atypical. He loves small towns; he loves the road; he loves stubborn old eccentrics (he is one now), and he’s been tender elsewhere in his handling of characters in physical decline and near the end (e.g., Merrick in The Elephant Man, The Log Lady in TPTR).
If you read the anecdote in his book about his hospital visit with Fellini two days before Fellini died, and the talk they had, you get a sense of where this film comes from, why he chose to direct Ms. Sweeney’s script himself. As Alvin says to the bicyclist, “The worst thing about being old is remembering when you was young.”
Watched Inland Empire finally along with rewatches of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive last night and here’s my list:
1. Mulholland Drive – MP
2. Blue Velvet – MP
3. Lost Highway – MP
4. The Elephant Man – MP
5. Eraserhead – MS/MP
6. Inland Empire – MS/MP
7. Wild at Heart – MS
Inland Empire can be pretty difficult for a while though, the low-resolution digital cinematography starts out pretty ugly, though eventually Lynch shoots mostly in close-ups that make the bad resolution much more tolerable. I’m admittedly leaning towards MS because of the poor camera quality (I think this goes above Lost Highway if he shoots this like he shot Mulholland Drive), and there ARE parts where the film just fucking dies – two scenes at 100 and 145 minutes (long movie) of shot-reverse shot conversations that last far too long – but the brilliant formal moments such as the reveal of the camera at the end of that second conversation (somewhat excuses its poor style) and not to mention that “holy fuck!” formal atom bomb of Dern finding Room 47 that I just can’t ignore.
I wasn’t expecting to move Lost Highway from MS to MP, I thought it was too flawed to make it and there are periods (most of the first half of the second act with Balthazar Getty) that are kinda empty stylistically but the high points, like the transitions from Pullman to Getty and back, not to mention the formal repetition (such as the repeated image of the titular road) are hard to shake. Reminds me a lot of fellow David director Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch in a lot of ways actually.
Mulholland Drive… I was actually caught off guard by this one with a second watch. I wasn’t prepared for so much of the film to be so… feeble. I was getting to the point of putting Blue Velvet ahead of it but I had some assurance that the final 30 minutes (when they find the cube and enter it) would bail out the rest of the film and I definitely think it did. There were moments where the form didn’t hit me the same way it had with the first viewing, because I knew the film really well and everything that would happen, like that Betty is Diane and Rita is Camilla and many other things of course, something that didn’t really happen to me with Lost Highway (though the “Dick Laurent is dead” had less impact than the first time), but overall that ending, the last 10 minutes especially are some of the best cinema you will ever watch, even if the rest of the film can be a bit of a chore to get through.
I think I might be underrating Wild at Heart at this point and of course I still haven’t seen Fire Walk With Me or The Straight Story; really itching to get to those now.
@Zane- this is excellent work! No Dune? haha
Haha. I mean the reception of it is so bad that I’m a bit scared to invest my time into watching it, but I might just do it eventually anyway (not for some time though) since I love Lynch and Kyle MacLachlan. I’m really excited for Villeneuve’s film actually but I had to read the book for 10th grade and I just hated it back then, though I remember segments from the book that I think I would appreciate a lot more now.
My br0ther and I b0th l0ved Dune ! And as I recall Frank Herbert liked the film and Harlan Elliss0n l0ved it !
Not to be rude, but do you have an issue with your O key?
So I watched Eraserhead last night and I think it’s a very low-level MP. Not unlike The Night of the Hunter, it shows a lot of imperfection from a first-time feature film director but you also clearly see the birth of a great talent. At times it notably feels more like Cronenberg than Lynch as well. I do think I could go down to MS upon a rewatch in a few years though but I’m certain it’s no lower than that. I’m conflicted about whether to rank it as his 3rd or 4th because I’m fairly certain it’s better than Wild at Heart (which I love) but I can’t say for sure if I think it or Lost Highway is his #3.
My ranking for Lynch films would be (didn’t include Dune because I think it’s terrible):
1. Lost Highway (MP)
2. Mulholland Drive (MP)
3. Blue Velvet (MS)
4. The Elephant Man (MS)
5. Eraserhead (MP)
6. Wild At Heart (MS)
7. TP: Fire Walk With Me (HR)
8. The Straight Story (R)
9. Inland Empire (R)
I think Blue Velvet is kind of overrated, but not bad, very good actually. The dialogue I think is kinda cheesy at times and the story is nothing new and it feels like a familiar story with a murderer/psychopath/criminal in it. Acting in it however is great, Dennis Hopper gives an Oscar worthy performance (and in my opinion he should have been nominated and rewarded the best supporting actor that year) and I have nothing bad to say about the other cast. The movie is also beautifully shot and performed.
How is Eraserhead a MP and his 5th best? Also I do disagree with you on Blue Velvet, it is absolutely a MP and I think one of the 50 best films of all time. Just look at the mise-en-scene pictures above and, as one example of this film’s excellence (and there are many), the scene where Ben sings “In Dreams,” ending with the jump cut. You can say the story is nothing new, but it’s not about the story; it’s the direction that’s important. And stories about psychopaths and murderers are some of the best; so captivating. Is Aguirre a bad movie because Klaus Kinski’s character is insane?. Furthermore, I think you overrate Lost Highway, it’s an excellent film but it’s not his best; it’s a very imperfect film and I think MS is a great rating but I could get behind MP on a second viewing, but I cannot get behind it being his best film; Mulholland Drive (my #1 choice) and Blue Velvet both are too much better.
Eraserhead is a MP because in my opinion it’s the second best film of 1977 which i have seen (after Star Wars, haven’t seen Annie Hall yet and some other films that are in the archives). I think Eraserhead is one of it’s kind. It’s in my opinion a masterpiece of cinematographic work, Jack Nance’s performance as Henry Spencer is masterful and the mixed themes in it are great, so is the surrealism.
You got me kind of wrong. No, stories about psychopaths and murderers are very good in my opinion too (Taxi Driver, Zodiac, Se7en, Natural Born Killers, Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men for example), but Blue Velvet wasn’t anything unique in my opinion, compared for example to Se7en and Silence of the Lambs.
Yes, I agree that the mise-en-scene scenes in Blue Velvet are great, but mis-en-scene scenes, cuts and camerawork etc. in movies aren’t the most important thing for me. Dialogue, the story, pacing (which is great in Blue Velvet and other Lynch films), music and good characters etc. are more important to me. Don’t get it wrong, i don’t dislike slow-paced films, for example Once Upon a Time In America is one of my favorite films althrough it’s not fast-paced. It has great music, story, dialogue and characters in it. Movies don’t need action etc. to be good, for example Glengarry Glen Ross is a great film, and what makes it great is the dialogue and characters in it.
And no, Aguirre is not a bad film because of Kinski’s character is insane, the movie is a masterpiece and Kinski gives a masterful performance in it.
Nice to see that we’re on the same page with Mulholland Drive. If Blue Velvet is in your top-50 and you have Mulholland Drive above it, it’s common sense that Mulholland Drive is in your top-50, right? I have it in my top-50 too.
I think Lost Highway is a perfect film. The story is perfect, so are the performances, characters and the themes in it. The story in it about split personality, human imagination and jealousy is masterful, the performances are all great in it, especially Arquette and Blake and Badalmenti’s music is once again great, like in other Lynch films. I think it has overall the best and the most interesting characters compared to other characters in other Lynch films. It deals greatly with the darkest aspects of the human mind: jealousy, anxiety, fear and it masterfully views feelings tinged with anxiety. (Sorry for short analysis why i think Lost Highway and Eraserhead are great, i’m not good at explaining why I like some movies more than other movies, why I don’t like some movies and why I think some movie is a masterpiece etc.)
(And by the way, sorry for possible misspelled english, as it’s not my native language)
I disagree 100% . A movie is not defined by its uniqueness , its defined by its ability to give you an experience and man everytime i watch blue velvet it takes me on a ride like nothing else. It’s completely a director’s show because the leads kyle and laura dern have simple straightforward characters so its the direction that takes you on a journey.
**Dennis hopper’s frank booth (or sometimes by mistake i say frank booth’s dennis hopper) is arguably my favorite performance/ character of all time.**
Really appreciate your love for Lynch and glad to see him get this much love on your rankings. However, I think in some ways he could (and should) be even higher. I will start off by saying that I am definitely biased as he is my favorite director of all time. Having said that I will offer my case for why he should be higher. First, I think you have Mulholland Drive ranked way too low. I love Blue Velvet but I don’t think it comes close to Mulholland Drive, that’s just how incredible of a movie it is. I don’t know if you saw but on the most recent rankings by TSPDT they have Mulholland Drive all the way up to Number 50 and even more impressive is that it is ranked as the 3rd highest movie on the list after 1981 and the 2nd highest of the 21st Century. I think that it will only continue to climb as time goes by and appears even more incredible with age, much like some of his works from the 90s have as well. My second point is a little bit of nitpicking but you gave Elephant Man a higher rating on your scale (MS) than Fire Walk With Me (HR) but have Fire Walk With Me ranked higher on your list of his movies. I’m glad to see you like Fire Walk With Me, I think it is criminally underrated and that too is only starting to be more appreciated as time goes by. It is definitely an MS scale movie and I have it as his 4th best movie, ahead of Wild At Heart, and honestly it approaches Lost Highway on my list too although I would give the slight nod to Lost Highway. My final critique is that you haven’t seen or talked about Twin Peaks: The Return, which I know other people have also talked about in the comments. The Return is absolutely incredible and it was shot as one 18 hour movie and then broken up into 18 hour parts. Because of this there are other critics who have argued that it counts as a movie and have gone as far as to the say that it is the best “movie” of 2017 and even one of the best movies of the 2010s. I have seen you yourself make a similar argument that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is really one movie instead of 3 because it was shot together. So I think you definitely have to watch The Return and review it and count it among his filmography, which would also move his ranking up. Part 8 in particular has been hailed as the single greatest “episode” of television of the 21st Century and is among one of the greatest things that Lynch has ever directed. Hopefully this didn’t come across as arrogant. I’m a huge Lynch fanboy and I agree with a lot of the things you said. But wanted to bring these things to mind!
@Matthew- this is great- thanks for visiting the site and the comment. You don’t come across as arrogant- you are passionate and I think make some good points. Thank you for pointing out the error on The Elephant Man vs. Fire Walk With Me. It is my error– it should be “MS” for Fire Walk With Me. My records have it correct- I even have it rated as such here https://thecinemaarchives.com/2017/11/03/1992/ but for some reason it was an HR here on Lynch’s page. I fixed it. Thanks again.
That’s great to hear! I was just wondering: What are your thoughts on TDSPDT having Mulholland Drive so high? It’s never gotten as much love as it has before their new 2021 update and they usually have a bias towards older movies so I was pleasantly surprised.
@Matthew Teti- I support the ranking for sure. I have it in my top 70 myself.
You have a typo in your most overrated section here: “I have it ass his 7th best film”
@Harry- thank you for the cleanup
Got to Lost Highway—incredible!—I guess I can’t really say I don’t understand why it was so hated upon release, though I do disagree with that opinion very strongly lol. Not convinced it isn’t a masterpiece but I am almost certain it plays a third wheel to Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Anyway it felt to me plotwise like a mixture of his 3 other films I’ve seen: the two above and Wild at Heart, not that I’m complaining of course since I love all those movies and this one. Dying to see more of his stuff, would probably watch Fire Walk With Me next but I haven’t finished (or really even started, just seen the first episode) the second season of Twin Peaks and I don’t know about watching FWWM until I see it. Next film of his I see will probably be Eraserhead but it could just as easily be The Elephant Man.
I notice that since you don’t seem to have GIFs on your site that a lot of the images that are in motion in the films are stills on the page. The picture of the “Lost Highway” in Lost Highway is a great example of this. Watching it in the film you’re focused on the rapid movement down the road and since you can’t really see the darkness move you don’t focus on it very much but looking at a still of the road creates a different atmosphere entirely, since the lack of movement forces the mind to take a different perspective of the image. Very interesting and striking imagery from Lynch.
So I watched Wild at Heart tonight and really enjoyed it except for the first 10 minutes or so, which I felt was so tonallg inconsistent with the rest of Lynch’s work I’ve seen so far (Twin Peaks Seas. 1, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) I almost stopped watching the movie there, and I also just thought that bit was badly directed, but finished and was happy I did since the rest of the film was absolutely wonderful. Anyway, I was wondering why you haven’t done any Lynch retrospectives yet? No articles on any of his films, just a director’s page. I would love to hear your thoughts on some of his films unless you’re deep in other years and directors at the moment.
To clarify, I assumed from that first scene that the entire movie was going to be Nicolas Cage beating people grusomely to death as heavy metal weirdly played in the background, which didn’t sound too terribly interesting to me. Of course, that was not the case, and as an opener I actually think it’s pretty fun but misleading.
@Zane– I’m glad you stuck with Wild at Heart— yeah- so just sort of a coincidence I haven’t had a chance to catch up with any David Lynch films in the past few years. I’d like to get to him soon– there are just so many films and filmmakers. I did run my final numbers and I watched 619 movies (including rewatches) in 2020. I hope I can keep that pace or increase in 2021– and hopefully have a few Lynch films in there!
just did a lynch marathon today of mulholland drive, elephant man, wild at heart. take back what i said about mulholland drive – its a masterpiece, not as good as blue velvet though, and i dont really understand it if there were really 2 girls or if it was only naomi watts and she was imagining her, even if i understood it blue velvet would be better still, frank booth is one of my favorite characters. i still don’t like his other movies, and i dont understand how he could go from blue velvet to wild at heart, big drop in quality, and true romance is a way better version of it imo of course! i really want to try Twin Peaks one day, i’ve only seen the pilot a while ago, apparently its one of his best work, and Lost is my favorite tv show and twin peaks influenced it. i think theres a big gap between his big 2 masterpieces and his other movies. i will watch the straight story, fire walk with me and inland empire soon. hopefully i wont need Twin Peaks knowledge to understand fire walk with me
Ok so inland empire was long, stupid and a waste of time, the straight story is boring also. Fire walk with me was incredible and i will definitely be watching twin peaks when i start watching tv series again, how the hell does lynch come up with this stuff?
@dylan- very happy to hear it on Fire Walk With Me– thanks for sharing
I wish there were at least other 30 David Lynch’s movies out there. Is there really no one else with that dreamy/nightmarish imagery elsewhere? Some may say Buñuel but i don’t think it applies
@Alejandro – certainly Lynch is a one of a kind– a true original. I know he respects the work of Kubrick, Fellini and others but he’s just so different as you said. Maybe a little Jonathan Glazer?
No filmmaker is defined by that sensation as much as Lynch. I think you can find that dreamlike/nightmarish quality in films like Apocalypse Now, Eyes Wide Shut, and Black Swan, but it’s a remarkably rare thing.
Drake, have you heard that a new David Lynch series is being brought to Netflix? The title is Wisteria. I don’t really know any of the details about it but it’s more Lynch content so that’s more than enough to be excited about.
@Zane- I saw the article as well. I’m thrilled. Hope it comes to fruition.
David Lynch is quite famous for his unique worldbuilding. His Lynchian (having your own adjective is a good sign you are unique) twisted mysteries, nightmares, and situations are not something one can find anywhere else.
Who are some other filmmakers especially proficient in creating a cinematic world? I think of Gilliam, Wes Anderson, Kubrick, and Ridley Scott right away. Over the decades I might mention Murnau, Dreyer, Welles, Carol Reed, Bergman, Fellini, Antonioni, Leone, Bertolucci, George Lucas, Malick, Tarkovsky, Coppola, Greenaway, Fincher, Spielberg, Aronofsky. and Cuaron as some who have done incredible worldbuilding in one or more films. I could mention a myriad of other great filmmakers, but there comes a point where I would just be listing everyone regardless of whether their worldbuilding is a major strength. Who are some that I have missed or those for whom you enjoy the worlds they create?
@Graham– great share here- thanks. I certainly get what you mean- if your list gets too big then it seems like you’re just listing good filmmakers. haha. Certainly you hit Wes Anderson, Malick, Fellini– some of the big ones. I’d maybe add Tati, Michael Mann, Tarantino, Roy Andersson feel like filmmakers in which the world looks different than anything else.
@Dylan some great movies in there. I rewatched for like the twentieth time t2 judgement day recently and that movie is great. I remember just smiling during the bad to the bone scene remembering this movie defines badass
Dylan what are your favorite films may i ask? My favorites are a wide range of films like star wars, blue velvet, 2001, ferris bueller, la strada, and jurassic park.
fight club, seven, the departed, terminator 1+2, pulp fiction, american history x, blue velvet, apocalypse now, the dark knight, heat, american beauty, eyes wide shut, nightcrawler, both blade runners, die hard, boogie nights, there will be blood, LOTR to name a bunch
How weird is it that I think Blue Velvet is the best film of the 80s (along with Die Hard and Blade Runner), and I’d put it in my top 10 or top 20, but I absolutely can’t stand any of his other movies? I haven’t seen Dune, Twin Peaks, Inland Empire, or the straight story though. Anytime I try lost highway or mulholland drive or wild at heart I can’t stand them, I’d say The Elephant Man is his 2nd best to me, but I didn’t care for it when I saw it, but I could atleast stand to watch it. Blue Velvet by far his best film, for me. I do think mulholland drive is a lot better than lost highway though, even though I didn’t like either
Don’t agree with you bashing everything lynch has made but definitely agree on blue velvet being a masterpiece. Thst has got to be roger ebert’s worst opinion on film, along with hating clockwork orange, raising arizona, and rope.
I hated raising arizona and Rope myself, but not a fan of hitchcock or coen’s (other than NCFOM). I have a clockwork orange in the top 3 of the 70’s though (Apocalypse now/Taxi driver).
@Aldo- others may disagree but I think you can fire away with Fire Walk With Me without seeing the series. One, it is technically serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the series– and two, Lynch isn’t a director where “understanding” anything or everything is possible or even, haha, encouraged — again- my two cents
Okay, since we’re talking about Peak this is my chance to ask.
In my theater they have Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With me, but from what i have read in the comments on this page i must see the series before the movie (thing that i have not done)
My question is, can i watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With me without having seen the series? or i won’t understand anything
Drake, have you seen the twin peaks television show. i’ve seen that you have some miniseries in the archives and long form television by an auteur counting as a whole film. i wonder what you think of peaks. i am watching it and almost done with season 2 and it is great for sure. the melodrama like blue velvet (one of my favorite movies) and hokeyness always makes me smile because it is obviously intentional. the writing acting and directing are excellent and so is the music. kyle maclachlan among others is brilliant. do you think you’ll ever archive it as one movie. to me it is already the best television show and i’d rank it most assuredly as a masterpiece. the lighting alone makes for a spectacular lynchian ‘film’
@D.W.Griffith– I’ve caught most of twin peaks– I’ll get to it again when I do a Lynch study– look forward to it. I’m a big admirer of Lynch’s work but am not as high on the miniseries and Inland Empire as many critics.
Hell, I should have seen his warning before, today i saw Dune
for the premiere of the new Dune, i saw it was from Lynch and i was excited, but i agree, it is very bad.
@Cinephile and Chief Keef– thanks for sharing. I would encourage you to see Fire Walk Me With. It’s vastly superior to the television show– season 1 or 2.
I’ll try again at some point to see The Return (season 3). Appreciate your thoughts. I had a hard time getting past the first few hours. Maybe it is because I watch so many feature films that are 2-4 hours long max— when I’m that far in and haven’t seen much cinematically– i have a hard time plowing through.
@Drake— Yep, I completely understand you. I also don’t watch tv series in general but when something is directed by freakin David Lynch I think I must see it. It’s true that the visual power is rare and i think that made you lose interest. As I said I believe the storytelling and form to be the main attraction of the film/TV Series ( I think it’s a combination of film & TV series, It’s a category of its own). I think to appreciate the storytelling and form you need to see the show till the end while the visual beauty is visible from the start, but I think if you finish it it’s a rich and rewarding experience. Only then you see the scope, ambition and formal prowess.
@Drake & Chief Keef— This is a chance for me to “sneak” into the discussion here since I revisited Twin Peaks: The Return during the quarantine period, which I believe is one of the most challenging and groundbreaking pieces of moving – image art the medium has witnessed in the past decade. I’d have to say that it features arguably a use of storytelling and narrative mastery that challenges the viewer as few have in the past years. It experiments with visual splendor and inventive imagery, it features scenes and sequences of pure Lynchian auteurism and exercises formal execution that still blows my mind, I’d go as far as to say that it’s one of the most interesting uses of film form I’ve seen in the last years. I’d add that there are some impressively striking compositions. The 8th episode is up there with the best Lynch has ever directed and I’d encourage anyone to see it, even without watching the others, it’s up there with the most surprising and visually awe-inspiring hours from 2017. Without overrating the film at all, I want to say that the finale is one of the best I’ve seen, ever.
@Cinephile
Yeah I share the sentiment although I think the narrative is even stronger than the visual aspect. Lynch showed a high level of self awareness and understanding of the human nature. I remember not liking the show in the beginning because I was expecting the same things I liked about the original but felt like a fool later when I understood that he is mocking that mindset. I feel that’s exactly what he wanted to achieve and it’s a brilliant storytelling. I wouldn’t go as far as you in your praise but it’s a great work.
Obviously, you are only focusing on feature films in these rankings, but I don’t know if that’s fair to somebody like Lynch because “Twin Peaks” is possibly his best work. I totally understand that it is a different field and if you argue not to mix apples and oranges, I wouldn’t say you are wrong. It just seems off not to include such a big part of somebody’s work, especially when it’s about his place in history. I’ve seen that you consider “Dekalog” and “Scenes from a Marriage” feature films which certainly makes way more sense, but if we are being honest it’s still kinda cheating, at least in my opinion. Now, if “Dekalog” didn’t count, I suspect that would make Kieslowski go way down in the rankings, but on the other hand, if you count every episode as a separate film, which you easily can, that would make Kieslowski’s filmography very, very strong. I guess my point is that a metric choice shouldn’t decide somebody’s greatness and I would try to somehow include everything when making an evaluation. Luckily these situations are not that frequent so the list is not affected in a major way, but it’s for sure not in favor of somebody like Lynch. 18th all time sounds about right though, but I don’t have enough knowledge to be overly confident.
@ Chief Keef– thanks for the comment. I’ve seen both Twin Peaks but wouldn’t put it on the level of Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive or even Lost Highway– so it wouldn’t change his rankings much..
There’s a visual stylistic focus in Lynch’s features that isn’t there in his television work. I’m open to revisiting the television work but if an auteur is working in television and essentially making a longer movie- I’m in.
@Drake Ok, that makes things easier haha. Of course, I disagree and I would put only Mulholland Drive above it. I don’t know what exactly you are aiming at visually because I think it’s very strong visually. The whole aesthetic, cinematography, use of light and color, visual symbolism, soundtrack. It’s TV so there’s some filler and it can’t be as saturated with weirdness as his other work, Why do you think Blue Velvet is better? I would argue there are some similarities both thematically and visually.
@Chief Keef– It would be tough to break down as I didn’t put it in the archives and didn’t take notes- sorry but I think the “filler” is the problem. I was hours in and don’t remember being impressed with much visually. The weirdness is there- and I love that — clearly this could only come from the mind of David Lynch- haha.
I will, at some point, give it another shot and may reconsider. Have you seen the original tv series and movie Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me?
@Drake
Yeah, by “Twin Peaks” I mean the whole thing, although most of the season 2 was really bad due to Lynch leaving because studio made him reveal Laura’s killer. It’s actually one of the best examples to show importance of a director because the difference was so noticeable. What’s funny is that I didn’t think much of the film and remember thinking that it doesn’t work on its own if you never watched the series. Haven’t seen it in a long time though.
@Matt Harris– I’m confident it’s at least that. I’m not confident it isn’t a masterpiece. When doing the Lynch page I was actually struck by how many of Lynch’s greatest images were from Lost Highway (a trait shared by Ikiru and Playtime by the way)
Ikiru snow scene may be the most beautiful and best scene in cinema history. It sticks with you days after.
Shimura close ups triggered by the song also form really nice images/scenes.
It’s a good moment along with Vertigo kiss scene, ending of 2001, ending of cinema paradiso, ending of in the mood for love, Do the Right thing racist chant scene and many many more.
This question is for all the readers on the blog. What are some of your favorite scenes in movies?
@Azman – that’s a hard one to narrow down but I guess there are a few that come to mind. The dancing scene in Pulp Fiction, Anna Magnani running after that vehicle while yelling “Francesco” in Rome Open City, Jeanne Moreau wandering around Paris in Elevator to the Gallows, the museum chase in the Grand Budapest Hotel, the finale of Chinatown, Dustin Hoffman calling out Mrs. Robinson for trying to seduce him in the Graduate, nearly every scene in Manhattan (especially the ending), definitely the ending of the Marriage of Maria Braun, Amelie in its entirety, the café philosophical conversation in Vivre sa Vie, the ending of Dogville, the reunion scene in Sounder, “Give my daughter the shot!” from Terms of Endearment, the monologue in which Bibi Andersson describes her and her friend’s sexual encounter with two strangers in Persona, the 17 minute uncut dialogue between Michael Fassbender and Liam Cunningham in Shame, the “faith and chance” scene from Possession (as well as the possession scene from the same film), absolutely the finale of the Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover, and many more that I probably can’t recall right now. Actually I just realised that I didn’t narrow it down at all, haha.
This is list is perfection. Loved Chinatown, Vivre sa vie (the dance scene and the prostitution narration scene are also great) and your other mentions too..
How about the ‘cool’ and ‘spiritual’ Matrix finale? The final moment of anagnorisis/realization for Neo when he stops the bullets and realises he is ‘the one’. The fight with the agent at the end and the epic warning to the machines with the song ‘rage’ playing in the background…. incredible.
I saw Matrix recently and I can’t get it out of my head. It was a phenomenal movie experience.
Obviously there are many more cinematic moments missing too!
@Azman – definitely Matrix has some iconic scenes and moments – great choice! I guess the one with the bullets and the pills should be my favourite, though I haven’t watched the movie in quite a long time and I probably need a revisit. There are just so many unforgettable moments in cinema history, it’s incredible what awe a film or simply a scene can inspire!
I think Lost Highway might be underrated here and may be a masterpiece too, but I’d have to watch it again to make certain. Are you confident in its MS status?
@m — he is absolutely a genius- agreed. But no- I haven’t sought out his other forms of art– I think he’s a musician and he paints, too I believe.
hell this mans a genius. i know this isnt film but have you heard or acquired an opinion on his musical ventures.