tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post4530829282022886181..comments2024-03-28T06:25:00.013-04:00Comments on Cockeyed Caravan: Rulebook Casefile: Overcoming Liabilities with Unique Imagery in Blue VelvetMatt Birdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-17075217855635032902014-04-02T22:03:17.942-04:002014-04-02T22:03:17.942-04:00Good distinction between liabilities (especially i...Good distinction between liabilities (especially if, in this case, it's mostly in terms of perceived liablilities -- "how do we sell this?") than deficiencies.<br /><br />It's really too bad that there aren't more daring producers in Hollywood like Mel Brooks who can see how Lynch's talent can complement more mainstream subject matter. I mean, Lynch didn't just make THE ELEPHANT MAN, but he hit it out of the mainstream park twice. I'd say the G-rated THE STRAIGHT STORY is probably the best (even the most family friendly, since that's literally the subject) live action film Disney ever made, but the suits simply shrugged at it, perhaps without even watching a cut and dumped it in a few theaters because, wtf, David Lynch directed it.<br /><br />We'll have to disagree about what's wrong with RED ROAD and/or Andrea Arnold. I think she's a talented director who's actually better at making images then telling stories. She's got a strong feeling for actors and locations, just not enough of a sense of how to spin them into stories worth watching for 90+ minutes.j.s.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-63700464540471966972014-04-02T21:40:21.321-04:002014-04-02T21:40:21.321-04:00Ha! I've always gotten the two Deans mixed up...Ha! I've always gotten the two Deans mixed up. <br /><br />There's a big difference between liabilities (of which he has many) and deficiencies (of which he has none). I am referring only to potential marketing liabilities, such as a disturbing subject matter, alienating hero, or off-kilter tone. <br /><br />Every movie has a few marketing liabilities (you'll get in trouble if you're so bland that you don't) but they all need to be offset by marketing assets, such as unique, vivid, beautiful imagery. <br /><br />Compare this to a movie like Andrea Arnold's Red Road which is about ugly events and is also ugly to look at. It won't meet the viewer halfway.<br /><br />Lynch uses the power of his imagery to lure in viewers who would normally avoid disturbing movies, winning himself a wider audience, many of of whom are surprising to find out that yeah, they are ready for more thought-provoking fair. <br /><br />On the other hand, if Red Road was the first non-Hollywood movie you'd ever rented, I don't think you'd ever rent another. Matt Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-35498640184680384392014-04-02T21:09:09.921-04:002014-04-02T21:09:09.921-04:00That lipsyncher with the work light would be Dean ...That lipsyncher with the work light would be Dean Stockwell, not Harry Dean Stanton.<br /><br />But yeah, that's part of why Lynch is not just an exceptional filmmaker, but truly a great director. His openness allows initially good ideas to become infinitely better in the moment on the set, where that light just happened to be and Dean Stockwell thought it was put there for him by somebody (it wasn't). Lynch saw how amazing it looked and smartly opted to keep it.<br /><br />Same with the nitrous tank instead of helium which was Lynch's idea originally. Frank's ridiculously high post-huffing voice would have deflated all his menace and Dennis Hopper knew this and argued for nitrous oxide instead, which also had the benefit of being a more procedurally accurate choice for a drug for use/abuse during sex.<br /><br />Or the "soft explosion" of that building behind the Mystery Man in LOST HIGHWAY's night desert, which only turned out that way because Lynch hadn't been planning an explosion and his practical FX guy didn't bring enough explosives.<br /><br />I don't buy the kind of false dichotomy thesis of this post, though, that Lynch's so-called narrative deficiencies are somehow overcome by snazzy imagery. It makes him sound second rate, like Danny Boyle.<br /><br />Lynch also isn't making weird cerebral art films with striking yet impenetrable images like Peter Greenaway. I'd argue that he's a great storyteller, who pretty consciously works out of a tradition of mainstream Hollywood and European art cinema, with influences like Kubrick and Fellini but also, almost equally, Billy Wilder and just about any American noir. Even if the stories can get a little bit complex, as in ERASERHEAD or his two most recent features, they're pretty solidly narrative.j.s.noreply@blogger.com