Why I Will Love David Lynch Forever
"Coop, I may be wearing a dress, but I still pull my panties on one leg at a time if you know what I mean."
I have been re-watching Twin Peaks for, literally, the first time in a decade. I first saw the series when the Season 1 DVD was released, unfortunately long before Season 2 ever saw a DVD release, on December 18th, 2001. I got the box-set for Christmas. I had never seen the series before, but in the midst of my Lynch obsession at age 15, I was pumped.
Since I’ve been re-watching it, I’ve been thinking a lot more about David Lynch than I have for years– at least since Inland Empire was released. While I know that Twin Peaks is specifically not exclusively the work of Lynch, in any sort of auteur sense, it certainly maintains a lot of elements that are specific to his aesthetics, and the episodes he himself directed are certainly the best of the series. The point is, I’ve been thinking about how awesome David Lynch is, and how really he is sort of the only ‘dark cult figure’ that I can still deal with after decades of obsession & attempting to navigate ‘fanboy’ culture (which, for the record, any sort of genre-based fanboy culture–actually just make that any sort of fanboy culture in general–is pretty much the most annoying thing in the world; I can no longer deal with the cult of Werner Herzog due to his incessant pandering & the caricature of himself that he’s fallen into (and the fact that Klaus Kinski is 100x more awesome than Herzog while Herzog gets all the credit majorly pisses me off)). Anyway, the point is I’ve made a list of why I will love David Lynch forever.
1. David Lynch understands the idea that films are more than just a representational narrative, rather, they are experiences in their own right.
2. David Lynch is not afraid of unwavering intensity. In fact, he loves it, and uses it to a very strong degree. Within the first season of Twin Peaks, made for prime-time network television, after establish a jovial tone filled with the lower-middle class & hat-tips to coffee and pie (“americana”), there are strobe lights, sexual perversions, and intense screaming & crying. This is not Lynch pandering towards “revealing the dark underbelly of suburbia”– maybe that is what Blue Velvet did, but I’d argue it’s more likely that Lynch is just prone to exploring this intensity in various environments (which if you ask me, the rest of his filmography seems to prove).
3. David Lynch, as a person, is not afraid to call people out on their bullshit. On watching movies on an iPhone, he says, “Get real.” During a Q & A session after the Chicago premiere of Inland Empire, when some pretentious film-student (undoubtedly from Columbia) asked, “So, I noticed you use a lot of Polish locations in this movie. Were you at all influenced by the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski?” Lynch simply stared at the man, looked him up and down, and said, “No,” before signalling for the next question.
4. David Lynch has amazing hair. I have modeled my hair after David Lynch’s hair. I have never gotten more compliments on my hair in my entire life.
5. David Lynch’s primary interest in genre tropes is what he can use them to achieve, i.e. he seems to float around the periphery of horror because of his interest in the intensity of affect. While he hovers around the periphery of genre archetypes & ideas, all of his work is always uniquely his, which is something entirely admirable.
6. David Lynch’s obsession with drones in virtually all of his films is amazing. There are always arguably diegetic sounds that haunt almost every scene; whether it be the waterfalls in Twin Peaks, the hum of an interior in Lost Highway or just the highway in Mulholland Drive.
7. David Lynch has played a particular role for me at a personal level at almost every stage of my ‘creative’ development. I started writing this post as biographia, but I get bored doing that so I decided that I’d just work in list-form instead.
8. David Lynch LOVES TO FILM CRYING. There is like sobbing in almost everything he’s done, which is kind of a really intense thing to have in a movie, which makes it really awesome and affective, always. Lynch is also completely unashamed that he loves to watch women smoke, and I like it when people don’t even bother to hide their fetishes’ influence on their work (unlike certain asshole directors who also ‘hover on the edge’ of genre who really like feet and who I wish would just disappear off the face of the earth).
9. David Lynch’s films are funny in a way that is really sort of goofy but also thankfully not trying too hard. There are actual jokes in most of Lynch’s films, which is not something that happens in most contemporary “comedies.” On the other hand, Lynch is not afraid of an utter-seriousness when it’s important for a scene. While many of his contemporaries will ‘give the audience a break,’ so to speak, by throwing in some awkward humor to lighten a particularly intense scene, Lynch simply goes for the gold and comes out on top.
10. David Lynch wrote a script called Ronnie Rocket that is one of the most wonderful things ever.
11. David Lynch has awesome taste in pop music & composers, as evidenced by his soundtrack choices.
12. David Lynch fully embraced the internet, both as a sort of medium for short works, and as a medium to communicate with his fans long before it became commonplace to do so. This proves that, despite comments, he clearly does not hate technology, but rather embraces it when it is appropriate (I believe Inland Empire was one of the first feature-length films shot on whatever digital video camera it was shot on).
13. David Lynch resists interpretation. This plays into the number 1 reason I presented, but it’s worth reiterating: there have been plenty of essays that try to ‘interpret’ the plots of Lynch’s later films, to somehow fit them into a narrative box that is digestible and hegemonic & “makes sense,” but when asked, Lynch is always just like “calm down bro, the idea of a complete narrative isn’t important, what is important is how the events make you feel.” That officially makes him the best.
And that is why David Lynch is amazing.
Tags: affect, david lynch, love
Nice article, Mike. I actually got into a discussion with a co-worker today who had never heard of David Lynch (he had heard of Blue Velvet, if that helps). I think I’ll show him this article as a teaser.
Agreed on pretty much all those points. And that Lou Reed song is the best. I love how Lynch comes across in interviews. He makes it all sound as simple as it is: he talks about how an idea appears, then another idea.
I can’t stand probably every other movie he’s made. But the the other ones besides the every other are stellar. I just have a lot of guys on my list that are much more consistently great. Though that sort of thing probably comes with the (Lynchian) territory.
Wild At Heart… gives me a headache, every time. Maybe a personal problem.
I like the films of his I’ve watched, but your #3 reason for liking him is the reason I don’t think I’d ever like him as a person, because that kind of eye-rolling “I’m going to judge you on what limited information I have” makes him come off as a dickhead.
unfortunately, it is unlikely you and i would get along in real life if that is the case
Yeah, the awesome thing about the interviews is that he really doesn’t sound like he’s lying or condescending or hiding anything. He’s just like “no for real these things just happen.”
Sweet, thanks DJ
I don’t love all his films to be honest, but I don’t think there are any that I “can’t stand.” I definitely think he is awesome as a person tho.
He comes off as pretty genuine to me… you know, like… may seem ‘pretentious’ or whatever to some people but, really, he’s not pretending. You know? And if people like that are ‘dickheads’ sometimes, I have to give them a pass. I’ve never seen anything with him that I’d say made him a dick in my eyes, though.
i agree with this. if you genuinely are interested in something and love to talk about it and think about it, and someone who literally is just brushing the surface to hear themselves speak, it is a much better idea to brush them off than to humor them, it’s a much more efficient use of time.
Yeah completely. I think that one thing that a lot of people have missed is Lynch’s sincerity. He’s not trying to trick anyone or attempting to be obtuse when he says that stuff about ideas. He’s seems aware that ultimately, he’s made his stuff because there’s no other way to articulate his ideas. The art speaks for itself.
I don’t get how the “Polish locations question” in #3 is pretentious, but I liked Lynch’s one-word response, too. He wasn’t calling someone out, I don’t think, as much as providing a simple answer to a yes-or-no question. Not everyone has to drone on forever like Kevin Smith does.
I still prefer Cronenberg’s films because there’s probably something wrong with me, but Lynch is all right by me.
Cronenberg’s films are sweet too man, but Lynch is more of an awesome persona in my opinion.
Polish location question is pretentious because Kieslowski is like… the first Polish filmmaker every film-student finds out about & the way Lynch was shooting Poland bore absolutely no relationship, in any conceivable way, to anything Kieslowski has done ever. So, it really struck me as a “watch me demonstrate the fact that I can name a Polish director,” which is obnoxious.
Also if Kevin Smith never opened his mouth for the rest of eternity I would be more than satisfied, lol.
I have a weird respect for even somebody like Michelle Bachmann. I don’t care for her politics at all, but I don’t think she’s faking it like a Palin or Romney… the woman took in 27 or howevermany foster kids and is honestly committed to her view. It’s not somebody I would vote for her but I don’t consider her a clown as many people do.
I also love John Gardner, partly, for this. I don’t agree with his philosophy entirely (though, Moral Fiction was a polemic, people… and he later backed off a lot of what he said in it) but the guy was engulfed in a passion for what he was doing… and he wrote a few really great novels.
Part of the Franzen thing may be that he does, to me at least, give off that slight smell of playacting…. while his buddy DFW did not.
[…] just want to take this moment to shout out to M Kitchell, I been loving David Lynch too. Rewatched Twin Peaks this month […]
Kevin Smith is a bad filmmaker, as far as I can see. I like Clerks, it’s like hanging out with your buddies or something. Because that’s what he was doing. Nothing after that was worth watching.
…all this above plus the very significant Eraserhead. When I was a teen, at midnight on Saturdays, they showed strange, uncomfortable, edgy foreign and domestic cinema in a cavernous, ornate, fine old theater. One of these nights, we witnessed Dreams That Money Can Buy/Richter, Freaks/Browning, and then Eraserhead/Lynch… gasp, truly shocking and horrifying. When Blue Velvet went mass release I was reluctant, then also reluctant when Twin Peaks aired, reluctant to see that he compromised, but Lynch has maintained integrity throughout.
I was also recently rewatching Twin Peaks with my brother, who is in film school, and he pointed out something I found pretty interesting – – the scenes are heavily front-loaded with the sort of plot-info that usually constitutes a whole scene in television & movies. Tons of exposition immediately. For about the first third of each scene. Then the rest of the time is completely atmospheric – – all about mood or weirdness or jokes. Until you cut to the next character’s scene, and we get intense exposition again. It’s a very pleasing structure, and very consistent. I want to learn from it for my own stories.
This was great–I’m (re)watching Twin Peaks right now, too (is everyone? Seems like.) I think you’re so right that Lynch makes every film an experience. He gets that art should be an experience, and should be bizarre and interesting while still fun to watch. That’s why I love him.
But how do you know Polish director dude just wanted to hear himself speak? What if he was genuinely curious? What if he just started watching that Polish director, liked him a lot, and was just hoping to make a connection with someone he admired? Why should anyone be punished for asking a question?
I dunno, maybe it’s working in law for such a long time, but I think it’s more reprehensible when someone does something that is dick than assuming someone is doing something that is dick.
As for the iphone thing, I remember posting something on the FB about watching a movie on my ipod and some dude linked me to that clip, like he was teaching me a lesson, and it was just like, fuck you. Fuck you for telling me how to enjoy movies, fuck you for adopting the opinion of someone else instead of expressing your own thoughts, and fuck David Lynch for making some sort of opinionated business that unsure kids could latch onto as their own opinion and then link to on my FB status to show I was being a fool for not agreeing with the almighty Lynch. His job is to make movies, not tell me how to enjoy them.
Idunno. I’m a pretty get-alongable guy. We might just argue a lot?
I know he only wanted to hear himself speak because I can read minds. I know he only wanted to hear himself speak based on context clues & experience. I mean, sure, we could all assume the “but wait! anything is possible!” mode of living, but frankly i’m going to die eventually, and I don’t have time for bullshit, whether good intentioned or not.
i wish to god that Ronnie Rocket was filmmable. but that script is a masterpiece in its own right.
I guess that’s where we part ways because I believe the world can’t stop gushing forth unavoidable gallons and tons of ripe runny bullshit and it will always get in my way and there’s nothing I can do about it outside of like blow myself up, so why not be nice.
I’ve never watched Elephant Man, Dune, or Straight Story. Worth it?
I love David Lynch. And I love this list. I watched Inland Empire again only a few nights ago and feeling like I almost got a grasp on what it’s all about. Almost. But not quite. And that for me, is the beauty of David Lynch. His movies are like jigsaw puzzles with a few pieces missing, so they go round and around in your head, never quite being solved, but almost. Just…almost. That is why he is awesome.
Hey great post. I actually like what you said about not figuring the films out, even though I tried to do that just like I do with books. For some reason I’m way more accepting of non-narrative films than non-narrative books, I dunno. I’m getting better at a glacial pace. I had looked up a Mulholland Drive forum where people interpreted the shit out of it. There was some thing in the DVD like “10 clues for understanding Mulholland Drive” and people analyzed those one by one, all this stuff about what the blue key meant, etc. And I tried to follow along with it, but realized that I’d rather just remember how shocked I was when the singer in Club Silencio was on tape.
I like your Inland Empire piece for how it talks about giving yourself over to the film, not seeing it in a theater, etc. If I watched it with other people, I know we’d be giggling. But alone, they’re terrifying. Something like the “Laura and her dad screaming while stopped in traffic” from FWWM seems ridiculous if you’re not in “the zone” or whatever, but when you are it’s amazing.
How do you achieve Lynch’s hair, what does it look like when you do? Lots of gel? I like to imagine his just naturally swooshes that way, but I know that’s unlikely.
When I watched Twin Peaks, I had seen the film first. As much as I loved Agent Cooper’s character (since he was barely in the movie at all, I didn’t get much of a sense of him), I hated most of the other townies, except sexy sexy Bobby. Josie and the mill and the hotel, I couldn’t stand any of it. Shelley escaping that abusive guy was mildly interesting, I guess, but not anything special, really. So I’m wondering if you could talk a bit more about all the more mundane soap operatics in Twin Peaks? Did you enjoy that stuff in its own right or have to overlook it?
I thought the whole Maddy’s death/”It is happening again” sequence was the most haunting thing I ever saw from a TV show, and Lynch’s series finale was great. I just feel like the show could have been cut to 10 or 13 hours (cutting more from the back half of the series than the first, obviously) and gone down as an unequivocal great, instead of being an uneven primetime soap sprinkled liberally with moments of greatness and inspiration.
I really wish he’d do another TV series now that there’s the cable model of shorter seasons and serialized stories, but it sounds like he was so burned by the Mulholland Drive thing (which I can’t really picture as a series at all) that he never will. Sucks.
Thanks for posting this.
I like what you said about Gardner (my stance is that I love the idea of fiction as a continuous dream but hate the idea of fiction having to have any kind of morality). I would consider Bachmann way more of a playactor than Franzen, though. But I truly do get why people dislike/distrust Franzen. Reading his Paris Review interview, I was thinking how easy it would be to pull a few quotes that were positively assholish, even though I think the whole interview overall reveals someone who cares deeply about what he’s doing. I think that people like Franzen who care about their work while wanting to reach a large audience (not in a James Patterson way but just in a “let’s get people reading/thinking way”) get a lot less respect than people who care equally about what they’re doing but don’t care about the audience or not (DFW maybe, and Lynch, I think).
Elephant Man and Straight Story are wonderful. I especially like Straight Story, but it is soooo unencumbered and, well, ‘straight’, that some people may see it as ‘quaint’?, perhaps?.
Yeah, I was sort of thinking of video interviews I’ve seen with Franzen… in which he seems very mannered and stilted, thinking out what he should say and preemptively disarming what he’s about to say… I dunno, just a feeling. I could be wrong.
yeah, if anything i’d argue that Lynch has actually gotten more interesting as his career has gone on (Inland Empire is his most amazing work in my eyes)
yeah, if anything i’d argue that Lynch has actually gotten more interesting as his career has gone on (Inland Empire is his most amazing work in my eyes)
I know, right?
I know, right?
Regarding hair: I just sort of have really thick hair, so since 2011 has started I’ve buzzed the sides & back up to the part once a month or so while letting it mass up on top. Over the years I’ve already sort of cultivated the swoop, so the lack of side hair helps to sort of uh, give it the image of weight. Here’s what it looks like today: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/269558_2130917910954_1186178157_32509245_427824_n.jpg
though it’s a little humid so the volume is doing weird things. I don’t use any gel. Occasionally I’ll use Brylcream, but that only makes it look good the following day. Mostly I just depend on nature yo.
I saw Fire Walk With Me before I saw the series, so I was confused, and I agree that the movie is a lot better than the TV show. The TV show draaaaags in the middle of the second season, but it’s still entertaining I think, especially if you let yourself get attached to characters (and this is perhaps the last time Lynch let’s you do that I think). There’s a camp/goofiness to some of it that I can appreciate on a level totally divorced from how I normally appreciate Lynch, but it’s not un-watchable. I’ll agree with a heightened brevity increasing its power.
I haven’t read Catching the Big Fish… I’m kind of hesitant to jump into that element of Lynch’s oeuvre, for specifically those reasons, but I mean, based on Cooper-as-doppelganger-of-Lynch in Twin Peaks, I guess it makes sense.
Elephant Man is a fine “drama” or something, I don’t know, it definitely feels more “studio approved” than something specifically Lynchian, but there are touches there. I’ve never seen Dune and I’ve never actually watched all of Straight Story for whatever reason. I imagine I’ll see ’em sometime.
Probably not wrong. (Although, for the sake of argument, for “thinking out what he should say and preemptively disarming what he’s about to say” try catching DFW on Charlie Rose.) He definitely lacks charisma, and the “unfortunate” combination of wanting to write an “old-fashioned” book while not being charming comes across very “get off my lawn.” I still think The Corrections is incredible.
I was just hesitant about the Straight Story, since my least favorite part of Lynch’s movies are the stories, you know?
Epic epic hair man. Also like the mirror in the background. (Hey why didn’t you photograph it at a Dutch angle though, don’t you love those?)
I think it’s cool you like the movie better, too. When I was first getting into Lynch and googling him all the time, it seemed like every reviewer liked the show better. Good points re the camp etc etc
If Coop was Lynch (makes sense), I wonder if the sheriff was Mark Frost.
That was my reaction while reading 3.: in Mike’s words, it sounds like Lynch was “just brushing the surface” of a questioner “genuinely […] interested in something [who] love[s] to talk about it and think about it”.
Of course, if I saw the exchange, I might agree, ‘hm, he does sound like a show-off who doesn’t actually see a connection between Kieslowski and Lynch’.
– but how Lynch negotiated the power imbalance between the questioner and himself – the way he marshaled (I’m guessing) the crowd’s partiality – strikes me as being not needlessly irascible, but rather defensive and even deceptive.
What Mike says is reasonable: sometimes you just have to cut things short – at least your end of them – and move on. – but that’s not what it sounds like Lynch’s staring-up-and-down dismissal consisted of.
I may of may not have dramatized the event in my memory to be more hilarious and fulfilling to my own frustration, i think we all know how ‘creative non-fiction” goes
13. Everything “resists interpretation”.
One could, for example, see unwavering intensity shining from a movie, and that sense would be felt, would affect, as an interpretation – not to be mistaken for the thing itself.
To discover is not to impose, and to see is to do both. – for instance, to see ostentation and dissemblance in a question. To me, it’s not a question of ‘which?’, but rather ‘how much of each? to what effect or ends?’.
Affect severed from interpretation: that is how political propaganda and commercial advertising work.
Lynch’s movies are fun for me to watch, but he tries too hard to be trippy. He’s cannier in his career curation than, say, Terry Gilliam (whose movies I also enjoy), but why would that cut any ice while watching one of his shows?
I want to visit th reallife Club Silencio when it opens in Paris, so bad.
I want to visit th reallife Club Silencio when it opens in Paris, so bad.
I want to visit th reallife Club Silencio when it opens in Paris, so bad.
the TM mantras aren’t difficult to find online, though they are supposed to be taught. the entire TM thing, while it has some good qualities i suppose, is strange imo. it’s not necessary at all to pay thousands of dollars to learn meditation (even with grants it’s still like 800, i think). in any case, didn’t know about Catching the Big Fish but just checked it out and looks cool. thanks.
not conceding to bullshit: Like
calling “bullshit” evasively: no Like
i did not like fire walk with me when i first saw it and i haven’t tried it since
that’s probably a travesty but oh well
i keep falling asleep when i watch dune but that’s because i only try to watch it at 5am for some dumb reason
i like or love everything else i’ve seen by him which is all his feature lengths and most of his shorts
i’ve rambled about twin peaks to people enough that i won’t do it again here but long story short i’m going to build a genie and wish him to make me live there
Thanks, Mr. God, I think we’re on the same page. What Lynch exemplifies in that interaction is:
You used to bully me, but now I’m the one who gets to bully! Take that!
Which is fucking unhealthy.
Dude, who are you to determine what’s relevant?
David Lynch got paid money to answer stupid questions from an audience, right? He didn’t show up just for kicks, right? No famous artist hosts a q and a out of the good of his or her heart. So why should any artist who gets paid to present themselves to the public get any sympathy, ever? Poor baby Lynch got a grand to hear a stupid question. I think a grand’ll cover the emotional damage he hears from a student asking him about a Polish director. I’m sure, somehow, he’ll be able to go home and still go swimming in his inground pool. Why defend a person who already has millions eating his shit?
Like, if David Lynch saw someone getting raped in an alleyway, and he jumped in and broke it up and called the cops, AND he didn’t get paid, AND he didn’t get his own personal microphone, then I think I’d admire his ability not to concede to bullshit. Rolling his eyes at a kid who doesn’t know as much as he does and getting paid for it? Sounds kinda bratty.
I’d see your point more if Lynch had said “That’s a stupid question.” He just answered with “no.” I really do completely agree with you about hating when the rich, especially those rich from doing what they love/art, complain about it gratuitously (like celebrities whining about the paparazzi), but I don’t think this was really a case of that, necessarily.
What should he have said instead? I guess something like, “While I admire that director’s work, I don’t think it necessarily had any influence on what I’m doing”? Or… what?Personally, if I were a student at that panel, I’d rather Lynch expand on the questions he wanted to expand on, and dismiss the ones that weren’t relevant, because there’s only so much time.
What if he was hiding in a closet and saw someone get raped in their bedroom by a guy on nitrous oxide?
Dear M.Kitchell,
Thanks for this post, always nice to get going on Lynch. I watched Twin Peaks a couple years back and now I am ready for another go. Inland Empire is, I agree, the most amazing thing he’s done and it has this way of seeming separate from the entire works, not sure why yet, maybe because it succeeds at employing ever tool imaginable, cinematically speaking, and more.
I’m curious, however, about what you say about Herzog. Do you really think that he’s fallen into the caricature of himself? Doesn’t the way that he conducts himself, the earnest way that he always has (in that there is also an consistent and genuine insouciance), make it impossible become a caricature of himself? After all, the caricature arrived after the man himself and if we recycle him into that caricature then he becomes a trope and/or relatively nonexistent, which I’m pretty sure he’d be okay with. Perhaps I’m reading this wrong but I thought it was a fascinating viewpoint you voiced above. Also, Kinski has been dead for twenty years so posthumous (although in literature it seems otherwise) credit is difficult and, in my opinion, anyone who is really into film knows that Kinski is the one of the greatest actors who ever lived and I really don’t see how Herzog has received more credit. Herzog also worked with Kinski mid-to-late-Kinski’s career and they brought one another to breaking-point perfection. I get your point if it’s just to say that Kinski is more awesome, as that is quite subjective, but the point about Herzog falling into the caricature and receiving more credit I’m a bit lost on, or at least very curious about discussing further. Thanks.
As not to leave this without a little Lynch nod: Five of the Top Ten Reasons I Think Twin Peaks is Brilliant:
10) The timing of pun: it seems as though every inch of satire in
this series becomes a step necessary in keeping the tension real,
despite the level of absurdity that at times is, appropriately so, intentional. There
is a known balance of fun-making and character depth that Lynch
enlists. As a director and writer he is always one step in front of the
viewer. The moment a scene becomes enmeshed in sincerity it is cut
with some sharp inch of comedic commentary; yet, at this very moment, as
viewer becomes lost in the gamble of humor, the plot is usually taking
the space it needs to jump past the viewer in order not to over-reveal
the hints that patiently pile up in accordance with everything
Laura-Palmering about.
9) Andy: the affable yodel, often a maze in his own footfall, is the
perfect antidote to the gruff mannerisms of Harry and the cloying
complexity of Agent Dale Cooper. His continuous screw-ups always turn
out to reveal some hard evidence. His garbled, clumsy pursuit of Lucy
Moran is a legendary bend of confidence few shows have employed,
making him an unforgettable sidekick in the marching brigade of obscure
happenings.
8) Lucy Moran: as much as I, as well as many others I’m sure, want to
make Lucy stop messing up in minute ways, and to treat Andy better, her
tactics for answering the phone and delivering messages to the Sheriff
make for a routinely tucked-in chortle. The addition of her meticulous
and constant line up of office donuts makes the well-roundedness of a
small town secretary a sort of B-side-because-its-mysterious wondrous moment.
7) Big Ed Hurley: The things Ed doesn’t say make him the charcoaled
lone ranger of the country’s border. When he sings to his wife in her
coma and she emerges the look on his face pinpoints the best definition
of shock and awe I can possibly imagine.
6) FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield: the invocation of cynicism is uncanny.
Albert Rosenfield: Meanwhile, one of your principal
suspects is killed in his hospital bed, and the other is shot in his
living room. You tell me: vigilante justice, or just clean country
living?Dale Cooper: Albert, where does this attitude of general unpleasantness come from?Albert Rosenfield: I’ll have to get back to you on that.Dale Cooper: Well, if you don’t want two black eyes on a regular basis, I suggest you make some kind of peace with the rural life.Albert Rosenfield: Great. After the square dance, maybe we can all take a hayride.
I hope the other 5 are forth-coming. Regarding Herzog, it’s a big combined pile of this, most subjective, that just find me frustrated and frankly annoyed at the position he’s taken up within the realms of some sort of “post-intelligence pop-culture”. Positing Kinski against Herzog arises as a pre-defense to the fact that it seems like whenever I mention Kinski in any sort of public forum, somebody immediately jumps in and says HIS MOVIES WITH HERZOG ARE REALLY GOOD, like, “OK, great, I’m glad you think so,” but I am far more concerned with a Kinski legacy completely divorced from Herzog (as I’m sure Kinski would be too), and my favorite works of Kinski have nothing to do with Herzog (Zoo Zéro, Fruits of Passion, Lifespan, L’Important C’est D’aimer; his work with Euro-“trash” auteurs like D’Amato & Franco) & because they have nothing to do with Herzog they are overlooked, which is, as I’ve said, ultimately frustrating– I think absolutely Herzog has recieved far more credit than Kinski has, if only for the fact that even film-fans generally only know of Kinski due to the Herzog films he’s in (as they are some of the only non-genre films that really star Kinski, which I think really reveals an inherent bias).
My distaste with Herzog also involves his play into some sort of out-moded sense of morality that he seems to hold onto with the insistence of maintaining whatever postured stoic machismo (which is really just some sort of built-up way to be an antiquated asshole). Basically what I’m saying is “I don’t like his attitude” and I think it’s annoying that it’s held up as this hilarious thing, when really it’s a single-note.
Thanks, this explains it much better. If speaking about how
Herzog receives more credit, not necessarily just within how he and Kinski
worked together, but in the sense that people often do respond with “the
films he did with Herzog” I agree, though at times I think that if people
like Kinski then seeing what he did with Herzog is a way into his other work,
as it is slightly more difficult to find. I do think the Kinski legacy, as
divorced from Herzog, is altogether unknown and I hope that people will check
into what is a rather large and very accomplished career. L’Important C’est
D’aimer and Fruits of Passion are fine performances, as is Die toten Augen von London. I still
need to see more. Also, my GOD it must have been silencing to see him on stage!
About Herzog’s attitude
I hear what you say. I don’t find his attitude amusing at all but I do give him
respect for not waning from its entrails; he’s consistent in what he is resistant
to. Yet at times I wish he’d be this way without having to do so publicly, as
that action in itself seems to be the acceptance of the perception, as opposed
to the natural desire to interact with people which he plays a contradictory role
in via his documentaries—I don’t understand where his sympathy and empathy meet
at times or if he is more guided to deconstruct than construct cogency out of
that which is constructed (a whole other discussion I presume). Thanks for the
response anyway and I might just have to get the other top five TP moments over
soon.
[…] Johannes on Jun.23, 2011, under Uncategorized Over on HTML Giant, M Kitchell writes an excellent post about why he likes David Lynch: 5. David Lynch’s primary interest in genre tropes is what he can use them to achieve, i.e. he […]
Yes, that last point is strong: no artist (especially one who reaches actual millions) has the time to engage, or – why should she or he – interest in engaging with, hit-and-run free association on a mass scale.
– but, allowing for Mike’s accuracy in representing Lynch’s interview/press thingy persona: yes, he should have brushed the film student (?) off in a way “something like” you offer.
How is Lynch’s stare-down substantively different from that ‘who are you?’ of “Franzwright” over on the Shivani thread? – or from the imperious teachers and bosses that you’ve known (and despised, if you’re even a little like me)?
Yes, that last point is strong: no artist (especially one who reaches actual millions) has the time to engage, or – why should she or he – interest in engaging with, hit-and-run free association on a mass scale.
– but, allowing for Mike’s accuracy in representing Lynch’s interview/press thingy persona: yes, he should have brushed the film student (?) off in a way “something like” you offer.
How is Lynch’s stare-down substantively different from that ‘who are you?’ of “Franzwright” over on the Shivani thread? – or from the imperious teachers and bosses that you’ve known (and despised, if you’re even a little like me)?
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS OBJECTIVITY BRO
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS OBJECTIVITY BRO
Deadgod, bb, my point was more to be that Lynch was dismissive without being an insufferable asshole, which seems to be what “Franzwright” is.
I liketh and secondeth all your comments. Pretty spot on in my opin.
Bro, you totally ripped these words from my mind. Fassbinder, anybody? Let’s get going, it could be a very long voyage…
well then I hermeneutifailed to suss “Lynch simply stared at the man, looked him up and down, and said ‘No,’ before signalling for the next question”
I enjoy Franz Wright’s bile maybe because I don’t think it’s serious
‘”who” am I? I’m yer fuckin momma, chief’
You guys know it’s possible to dismiss a question you don’t like without being an asshole, right? You realize that this argument boiled down is “Sometimes it’s ok to be an asshole” vs. “Don’t be an asshole”, right?
Why is this even an argument? This might be the most ridiculous argument
You guys know it’s possible to dismiss a question you don’t like without being an asshole, right? You realize that this argument boiled down is “Sometimes it’s ok to be an asshole” vs. “Don’t be an asshole”, right?
Why is this even an argument? This might be the most ridiculous argument
You guys know it’s possible to dismiss a question you don’t like without being an asshole, right? You realize that this argument boiled down is “Sometimes it’s ok to be an asshole” vs. “Don’t be an asshole”, right?
Why is this even an argument? This might be the most ridiculous argument
I just splooged this comment all over the page like an ill-prepared masturbator.
haha, i’m ok with fassbinder, but mostly because he died before he had a chance to become annoying in a fanboy way. plus his whole “do as much coke and get as fat and ugly as possible as quickly as possible” is kind of hilarious. PLUS Querelle is basically one of the best movies ever made.
Yes, yes. Once again, two thumbs up….
I think if he would have lived any longer, he’d still be making like a million films a week, and smoking cigs through a hole in his neck, and not knowing when to say “’nuff is ’nuff, kay?'”. But I think I’d still like him a little, even if I never told any one. And the same goes for Lynch, even his crappier stuff is still awesome in my opinion. It’s too unique not to be badass. Hilarious little thing: when i first bought Mulholland Dr. on DVD I was going through a phase where I’d look at all the extras first, then watch the movie. It had the actors and actresses and his, Mr. David Lynch’s filmographies. While the others were filled with pages of movies and tv shows, etc., his was only this, and I paraphrase: David Lynch is an Eagle Scout. And that was it!!! Man did I laugh.
LOVE YOU MIKE
LOVE THIS
<3 ♥ blah blah keep it up!
Maybe he just said no.
Thanks for dropping that truth-bomb on me, John.
for the record i agree with that guy and we’re friends IRL
clarification: mike and i are friends IRL. I don’t know frank. but i agree with him.
Thanks, Russ, for helping me not feel like I’m going insane!
[that was quick]