Lost Highway (film)
The film's surreal narrative structure has been likened to a Möbius strip, while Lynch has described it as a "psychogenic fugue" rather than a conventionally logical story.On death row, Fred experiences intense headaches and visions of the Mystery Man and a burning cabin in the desert, before being enveloped in light.[11][12] Writing for the Australian Metro Magazine, Thomas Caldwell described Fred Madison as "a typical film noir hero, inhabiting a doomed and desolate world characterised by an excess of sexuality, darkness and violence.consider the film an homage to Ambrose Bierce's 1890 short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", in which much of the main narrative is imagined by the protagonist as he is executed.[8] However, when asked in a 1997 interview whether Pullman's character is "trapped in this time loop, doomed to repeat his murders and mistakes for ever and ever," Lynch replied, “Well, maybe not forever and ever, but you can see how it would be a struggle."[22] Philosopher and critic Slavoj Žižek considered the narrative's circularity as analogous to a psychoanalytic process: "there is a symptomatic key phrase ["Dick Laurent is dead"] (as in all of Lynch's films) that always returns as an insistent, traumatic, and indecipherable message (the Real), and there is a temporal loop, as with analysis, where the protagonist at first fails to encounter the self, but in the end is able to pronounce the symptom consciously as his own.[18] The film's opening scene, where Fred Madison hears the words "Dick Laurent is dead" over his intercom, was inspired by an analogous incident that happened to Lynch at his own house.When Lynch told him to use his imagination, Blake decided to cut his hair short, part it in the middle, shave his eyebrows, and apply white Kabuki make-up on his face.[8] Actor Robert Loggia, who had previously expressed interest in playing the role of Frank Booth in Lynch's Blue Velvet, was cast as Mr. Eddy and Dick Laurent.Lynch recalled that, upon learning of Dennis Hopper's casting as Booth, Loggia launched a profanity-laden rant at him, which would eventually become Mr. Eddy's road rage scene.[28] The love scene between her and Getty in the desert, which was shot on a dry lake bed 20 miles outside Baker,[29] was a closed set and only key crew were allowed on it.[28] The sequence where Fred transforms into Pete was not computer-generated, but rather accomplished with in-camera techniques: a makeup expert constructed a fake head that was covered with artificial brain matter, which was then intercut with shots of Pullman.Lynch felt it was a musical term, stating that "a fugue starts off one way, takes up on another direction, and then comes back to the original, so it [relates] to the form of the film.[36] Reznor then produced a soundtrack album that includes the film's score and songs by artists such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, Marilyn Manson, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Rammstein.[38] Marilyn Manson's contributions include their cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You", which was previously released on their 1995 EP Smells Like Children, and "Apple of Sodom", which was specifically written for the film.[38] The Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan wrote "Eye" after Lynch rejected an early version of "Tear" from the band's 1998 album Adore.[38] The track "Insensatez", an instrumental version of the bossa nova song "How Insensitive" by Antônio Carlos Jobim, was also included as part of the film's soundtrack.[51] Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film "two thumbs down", a rating Lynch would later tout as "two more great reasons to see" Lost Highway.[52] Ebert argued that, while Lynch effectively puts images on the screen and uses a strong soundtrack to create mood, the film does not make sense, concluding that Lost Highway "is about design, not cinema".[53] Similarly, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Lost Highway is a "beautifully made but emotionally empty" film that "exists only for the sensation of its provocative moments".[55][56] Zacharek said that Lynch "traded some of his disturbing originality for noir formula and schticky weirdness",[55] while Gleiberman compared the film's sex scenes to those of "mediocre Hollywood thrillers".[56] In a more positive review, The New York Times journalist Janet Maslin felt that, while the film's perversity is unoriginal and resembles that of Blue Velvet, Lost Highway still "holds sinister interest of its own" and "invites its audience to ponder".[57] Metro editor Richard von Busack praised Lost Highway as a "true horror" film due to its confusing and unpleasant screenplay.[11] In another positive review, Andy Klein of the Dallas Observer felt that Lost Highway was a return to form for Lynch and considered it his best work since Blue Velvet.[58] Klein compared the film's unanswerable concerns to the "Star Gate" sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), stating that Lost Highway is "better absorbed and experienced than analyzed".[58] Writing for the Chicago Reader, critic Jonathan Rosenbaum felt that Lost Highway was "an audacious move away from conventional narrative and back toward the formal beauty of Eraserhead".[59] Todd McCarthy of Variety concluded that, although Lost Highway is "uneven and too deliberately obscure in meaning to be entirely satisfying", the result "remains sufficiently intriguing and startling to bring many of Lynch's old fans back on board".The website's critical consensus reads, "Marking a further escalation in David Lynch's surrealist style, Lost Highway is a foreboding mystery that arguably leads to a dead end, although it is signposted throughout with some of the director's most haunting images yet.[64] Jeremiah Kipp of Slant Magazine claimed that the film was not an artistic failure but rather "in many ways, it's Lynch at his most daring, emotional, and personal," and described it as "a fitting companion piece to, and inversion of, Mulholland Drive."[45] Writing for Little White Lies, William Carroll also connected the film to Mulholland Drive due to "Los Angeles' iconic topography", and felt that it deserved to be regarded as one of the director's best works.
David LynchBarry GiffordMary SweeneyBill PullmanPatricia ArquetteBalthazar GettyRobert BlakeNatasha Gregson WagnerGary BuseyRobert LoggiaPeter DemingAngelo BadalamentiCiby 2000October FilmsSundanceneo-noirJack NanceRichard PryorvideotapesLos Angelesnarrative structureMöbius strippsychogenic fuguefilm's soundtrackNine Inch NailsTrent ReznorBarry AdamsonDavid BowieMarilyn MansonRammsteinthe Smashing Pumpkinscult followingMulholland DriveInland Empirean operaOlga NeuwirthEarly life and workJennifer LynchFilmographyEraserheadThe Elephant ManBlue VelvetTwin PeaksThe ReturnWild at HeartThe Straight StoryDiscographyBlueBOBThe Air Is on FirePolish Night MusicCrazy Clown TimeThe Big DreamThought GangCellophane MemoriesBibliographyImagesCatching the Big FishGenealogies of PainRoom to DreamDale CooperLaura PalmerSheriff Harry TrumanShelly JohnsonDonna HaywardAudrey HorneMaddy FergusonBenjamin HornePhillip JeffriesWindom EarleLeland PalmerLog LadyThe GiantThe Man from Another Place / The ArmTommy HillBobby BriggsFrank BoothUnrealized projectsAccolades receivedCultural impactFrequent collaboratorsDavid Lynch FoundationHollywood HillsVan NuystailgatingLisa BoyleMink StoleMichael MasseeJack KehlerHenry RollinsGiovanni RibisiScott CoffeyJohn RoseliusLou EppolitoJennifer SymeTwiggy RamirezGerman ExpressionismFrench New Wavepsychological thrillerhorror filmfilm noirfemme fataleDetourKiss Me DeadlyMaya DerenMeshes of the AfternoonAlfred HitchcockVertigoAmbrose BierceAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgetime loopBuddhistreincarnationmisogynistSlavoj Žižekpsychoanalyticthe Reala film of the same namescreenplaymurder trial of O. J. SimpsonDavid LanderKabukiDennis Hopperblack and whiteGriffith ParkAmargosa Opera House and HotelDeath Valley