R.I.P. David Lynch 1946-2025

stlukesguild

stlukesguild

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I'm saddened that neither the passing of The Band's Garth Hudson, nor that of the film-maker David Lynch has yet been mentioned on CS. David Lynch died January 15 at age 78. His underground film, Eraserhead, left me confused and stunned when I first saw it as an art school student. Seeing it again years later, I found myself recognizing just how good of a film it was. The Elephant Man, is one of the few films to leave me literally in tears. Lynch directed another handful of films that even when falling short of brilliant, were always intriguing. These include Dune, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Wild at Heart. His TV show Twin Peaks remains one of the peaks of American television.

 
I love a lot of his work. Twin Peaks was incredible for writing, characters and style.
stlukesguild said:
I'm saddened that neither the passing of The Band's Garth Hudson, nor that of the film-maker David Lynch has yet been mentioned on CS.
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Well, it has now. ;) I appreciate it. You're the best at tributes around here, so thank you for both of these, as well as including the clips.
 
A friend and I went to see Mulholland Dr in the theater when it was first released. When the film ended, the entire audience just sat there in silence, minds blown. And then something happened I have never before or since seen in a film: the audience broke into spontaneous applause. Been one of my favorite films ever since.

They don't make them like that anymore. But I shouldn't say too much about film; for some reason I no longer enjoy the medium. Maybe I just got old and grumpy, but I simply cannot sit through any film I haven't seen before anymore. So I still occasionally enjoy an old favorite, but have become unadventurous about trying anything new, because they almost invariably bore me to tears.

At first I thought it's just that films nowadays suck. But then I tried some classics. Citizen Kane (supposedly one of the best films ever)? Unwatchable; I literally slept through most of it. Casablanca? Made it about half an hour in, and then I just couldn't stand it anymore. Maybe I should try Dumb and Dumber... :D
 
I don't disagree that a LOT of movies are crap these days. I don't understand the draw of making/re-making plonk like action hero/cartoon-like stuff that's mainly computer generated with voice overs. Silly and usually pointlessly violent.

Citizen Kane is best watched after reading about it first - full of metaphors and back stories. If you aren't armed with any of that, it can fall flat. It doesn't work easily as a straight, sit-down story, it requires more from the viewer than that.

Now, Casablanca is simply fabulous all the way through. But we can disagree.

David Lynch was outside the norm; no question of his brilliant contributions. That's why his loss is so significant. We need more like him; not corporate empty-minded crap.
 
A great loss to the film making world when David Lynch died because I felt he still had more to give.
 
Terri said:
Citizen Kane is best watched after reading about it first - full of metaphors and back stories. If you aren't armed with any of that, it can fall flat. It doesn't work easily as a straight, sit-down story, it requires more from the viewer than that.
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One of the problems for us now appreciating Citizen Kane is apparently a lot of the filming techniques/ compositions invented within it have now become standard procedure. We just take them for granted.
 
Marc said:
One of the problems for us now appreciating Citizen Kane is apparently a lot of the filming techniques/ compositions invented within it have now become standard procedure. We just take them for granted.
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I took a film class in my last semester at college, and we were going to watch Citizen Kane for that very reason - to learn and discuss the groundbreaking techniques used at the time. The prof changed his mind for some reason, and we moved to The Godfather.
 
Terri said:
I took a film class in my last semester at college, and we were going to watch Citizen Kane for that very reason - to learn and discuss the groundbreaking techniques used at the time. The prof changed his mind for some reason, and we moved to The Godfather.
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Maybe someone made him an offer he couldn't refuse. :-)
 
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