Mulholland Drive

Dave Monroe davidmmonroe at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 23 01:55:29 CDT 2001


I largely agree with Mike (via Woody Allen) here (have
even accomodated myself to Dune, am still trying to
get those Brad Dourif as Piter de Vries gestures
down), but ...

--- Thomas Eckhardt <thomaseckhardt at yahoo.de> wrote:
> David Monroe wrote, about "Mulholland Drive",
> 
> > Convince me.  
> 
> I am afraid this can't be done. A work of art
> usually either works for you or it doesn't, and I
> think this is especially true for the movies.

I'm pretty open to suggestions, it's been done ...

> What I like about Lynch's best movies is that they
> fill me with a sense of wonder. He forces me by
> means of his craft to suspend my disbelief
> ("unwilling suspension of disbelief" anyone?) and
> enter a slightly parallel universe. These are
> cliches but, yes, I am thinking of "confounding
> expectations" and narratives resembling dreams - not
> totally incoherent but also not making complete
> sense to the waking mind. See also "Vertigo" and
> "Suspiria".

My favorite moments in this regard are, perhaps, the
more prosaic ones.  Think of those antlers on the
table in the sherriff's conference room in the "Twin
Peaks" pilot.  Why are those antlers there?  Why not,
is my answer ...
 
> And "MD" contains scenes of breathtaking beauty. The
> performance of Orbison's "Crying" in that mysterious
> nightclub, for example. The scene at first seems to
> be a rather heavy-handed approach to the perennial
> "what you see (or hear in this case) is just an
> illusion" topos. But this rational thought vanishes
> as we listen to this incredibly beautiful version of
> this song, a performance so immediate and
> overwhelming that the illusion, so to speak, takes
> on a reality of its own. Something similar happens
> in the audition scene. 

Co-starring a terrifyingly orange-leathery Chad
"Medical Center" Everett, by the way.  He was
similarly disquieting in the Gus van Sant Psycho ...
 
> It is a trick very similar to that moment in "Blue
> Velvet" in which Dean Stockwell performs "In Dreams"
> - a scene which Greil Marcus once accurately
> described with the words: "Suddenly, for no apparent
> reason, the whole movie seems to implode." (quoted
> from memory) - which is one of my favourite movie
> scenes of all time.

Quentin Tarantino, asked about the seemingly
extraneous twist contest in Pulp Fiction, mentioned as
inspiration those moments in movies where you say to
yourself, "Damn, it's over!"  I believe he mentioned
as an example a scene with someone singing away in a
telephone booth in an Ernst Lubitsch film, but here
I'd suggest, indeed, not only that Dean Stockwell
scene, but the Cripin Glover cameo in Wild at Heart
(indeed, much of Wild at Heart), Miguel Ferrer's rant
about love in that "Twin Peaks" episode where Albert
finally  loses it ... 

The dance number in A Band of Outsiders (undoubtedly
in PF's archaeology as well--Uma Thurman is definitely
wearing an Anna Karina wig ...), the "dance" number in
A Woman is a Woman, the dance number in Velvet Hustler
(q.v., the best-dressed cast ever, you can't go wrong
with 60s Japanese new wave yakuza films, see also ,
esp.,  Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill, Black Lizard
[from the play by Yukio Mishima, who puts in a
cameo]), ...

Just about any given moment in Rushmore ...

> I could go on, but I still have some sightseeing and
> beachwalking left to do. I'll try to find the time
> to see "Waking Life" in the remaining few days.
> Thanks for the recommendation.

And The Royal Tennebaums, if it's playing out there. 
>From Wes "Rushmore" Anderson ...

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
http://personals.yahoo.com



More information about the Pynchon-l mailing list