A film which until a recent cinema screening I had avoided seeing, but now rather glad I have and on the screen as it was meant to be seen. (I felt much the same about seeing the Maltese Falcon on the big screen a few weeks back, although in that instance it was a film I know inside out and backward. Just nice to see it in the medium it was intended for. But I digress.)
Certainly an interesting film but, as with my limited experience of Lynch's work (this, Dune, and Twin Peaks), there is little substance beyond the imagery. The plot - if such it can be called - is little more than an excuse to bring a certain sequence of visuals to the screen with a tattered thread of a story, and the rather odd-ball rendition of a little violent sex and addiction is more to upset and provoke a response from the curtain-twitchers of upright middle-America than to convey any solid critique or understanding. The most charitable interpretation is that Lynch was, to use a phrase I offered during the after film discussions, tweaking the nipple of sleepy America just for the sake of stirring them up - some to be upset and some finding their interest piqued enough to explore for themselves. It is almost as if there's an attempt at subtlety that failed. But then (as I also said) this is a film by an American director for an American audience. This is the same America that needed a noiresque voice-over added to the original Blade Runner because they couldn't fathom the plot without it.
Some shots pay homage to the true noir of the 1930s and '40s, and some to the seedier more cynical reinvention of the crime film for the '60s and '70s, (a Dodge Charger being a direct link to the legendary Bullit) but the imagery is disjointed. Without giving too much away, it is interesting that the film circles back to its own beginning almost as if to indicate that whilst life-changing events have taken place for our protagonists nothing has really altered in the world. And in the grand scheme of things, that is probably true.
Certainly an interesting film but, as with my limited experience of Lynch's work (this, Dune, and Twin Peaks), there is little substance beyond the imagery. The plot - if such it can be called - is little more than an excuse to bring a certain sequence of visuals to the screen with a tattered thread of a story, and the rather odd-ball rendition of a little violent sex and addiction is more to upset and provoke a response from the curtain-twitchers of upright middle-America than to convey any solid critique or understanding. The most charitable interpretation is that Lynch was, to use a phrase I offered during the after film discussions, tweaking the nipple of sleepy America just for the sake of stirring them up - some to be upset and some finding their interest piqued enough to explore for themselves. It is almost as if there's an attempt at subtlety that failed. But then (as I also said) this is a film by an American director for an American audience. This is the same America that needed a noiresque voice-over added to the original Blade Runner because they couldn't fathom the plot without it.
Some shots pay homage to the true noir of the 1930s and '40s, and some to the seedier more cynical reinvention of the crime film for the '60s and '70s, (a Dodge Charger being a direct link to the legendary Bullit) but the imagery is disjointed. Without giving too much away, it is interesting that the film circles back to its own beginning almost as if to indicate that whilst life-changing events have taken place for our protagonists nothing has really altered in the world. And in the grand scheme of things, that is probably true.
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