chrisfarrar

I just watched mulholland dr. last night and was amazed. So now i'm looking to buy some other lynch films. How's Lost highway?

Ergyu

It's great, but it's not on DVD I don't believe.

chrisfarrar

oh ok, any lynch recommendations that are?

The Bus

Blue Velvet
Dune
Elephant Man
The Straight Story - excellent!
Eraserhead - only available from his website for $50+

I recommend Straight Story only because it's the only other Lynch movie I have seen.

pagos77

Lost Highway is available in Region 4 (Australia) on an average disc as far as audio/video are concerned but the extras are great.

If you have a multi region player...you can get it from here...

http://www.atlanticdvd.com.au

If you loved Mulholland Dr. you will love Lost Highway...very similar movies and both favourites of mine. I dont recommend The Straight Story as your next Lynch movie as it is very different from Mulholland Dr.

meritocracy

If you loved Mulholland Dr and it's the only work of his you've seen thus far I would listen to Pagos77's caveat and not view The Straight Story next as they are vastly different stylistically. The Straight Story is in essence Lynch's attempt, and a masterful one at that, of making a straight film. What I would recommend that you check out are Lost Highway and Wild At Heart although you may have to stick to the VHS format for the moment to view them if your not multi-region. As far as DVDs go I would most certainly view Blue Velvet and then immediately thereafter pickup Twin Peaks. Enjoy...

MrN

Well, there is that fullscreen Canadian edition (R1) of Highway out there if you really want it. Its pretty cheap so I ended up getting it. I think Mullholland Dr. is a lot better. You should probably watch Blue Velvet next.

Autotelik

I also recommend Blue Velvet. Mulholland Dr. was my #1 of 2001. I really enjoyed Blue Velvet as well, but not nearly as good as Mulholland.

chrisfarrar

wow eraserhead 50 bucks? is there ever going to be another release of this? i'd like to see it, but I don't know if I would for that price.

meritocracy

No, there will be no additional release. Many rabid fans of this film waited while delay piled upon delay for Lynch to finally finish mastering this DVD until it was just right. Now it is available and with a wonderful documentary included. If your a fan, it's worth the price and the website is the only place you'll ever get it. As your just staring out exploring Lynch's oeuvre I'd hold out and decide at a future date whether or not this merits a purchase for you as the price is somewhat steep.

Revoltor

Lost Highway was pretty good (not great) up until I saw Richard Pryor. Then I got really depressed and the movie became more about "oh my God, Richard Pryor looks so bad....".

I did manage to watch it all. I guess it's one of his better movies but I think a lot of his stuff falls in the "overrated" bin. Odd for the sake of being odd is retarded.

I did like Elephant man and Dune though. He should get back to stuff like that.

Numanoid

I am a huge Lynch fan, and Lost Highway is my favorite of his films. It is a very difficult film to wrap your head around, but it does "mean something" and thinking about it is where the fun is (rather than simply dismissing it as odd and calling it retarded ).

Professor Frink

I totally agree. If it helps, here is the really looooong write-up from the fan magazine Wrapped In Plastic :

Lost Highway, part 1
Lost Highway, part 2

Jepthah

I think it's one of Lynch's masterpieces. It's a movie that can haunt you for the rest of your life, and will change each time you see it. Audio-visually stunning.

Damn it, I want a DVD with a top-notch transfer, like, yesterday!!!

pagos77

Jepthah, the region 4 transfer isnt that bad, it is in its OAR of 2.35 to 1, anamorphic, DD 2.0 and like I said has some really good extras. Give it a try if you have a multi region player.

rocket1312

Lynch's films can be easily seperated into 2 different groups.

First, there's his more conventional (for Lynch) films. These have a generally straightforward narrative and are films Lynch was hired to direct

-Elephant Man
-Dune
-The Straight Story

Then there's pure Lynch. These are Lynch's own projects (or collaborations) and are much more bizarre in nature. I heard them descibed as Lynch's "difficult" films, because they can be quite perplexing to some.

-Eraserhead
-Blue Velvet
-Wild At Heart
-Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
-Lost Highway
-Mulholland Dr.

Lost Highway is very similar to Mulholland Dr. except it's almost completely incomprehensible. You get a good idea of the story, but dissecting each scene and trying to figure out how things happened or what they mean is fairly useless. The film seems to be more of a collection of ideas than a complete whole. If you're into film noir, love Lynch's surrealism, and don't need to make sense of everything, then you'll love this film. It's not my favorite, but I know a lot of others think it's his best.

I personally prefer Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks: FWWM to Lost Highway. Blue Velvet is much more straightforward than some of his later films, but excellent none the less. It's plot is not the puzzle that Mulholland Dr. is, but it's still bizarre and quite surreal. I think it's Lynch's most fully realized film. I like Mulholland Dr. better, but if you know that film's history, you know that it was quite the patchwork project and not all the ideas are fully explored. Sometimes I like that aspect of Mulholland Dr. and sometimes it frustrates me, but that is not the case with Blue Velvet. There really aren't any dangling plot threads.

I also love Twin Peaks: FWWM. I know some people hate it, and I admit it is a quite miserable film, but I rank it just ahead of Blue Velvet and right behind Mulholland Dr. However, this film only really works if you have seen the Twin Peaks TV series. While the second season had it's ups and downs, this is one of the best series ever. And even though I think some of the eps. in the middle of season 2 are pretty awful, when it's good, it can't be beat. The episodes directed by Lynch are amazing. I consider the season 2 premeire to be one of Lynch's finest works ever.

Anyway, to summarize the above, this is what I reccomend:

1. Twin Peaks (don't watch FWWM until after you've seen the series)
2. Blue Velvet
3. Lost Highway

If you like these, then check out the rest. All of these are not currently available on R1 DVD, so you'll either have to go multi-region or VHS.

Cygnet74

the key to "wrapping your mind around" Lost Highway is much easier with the following piece of information. you may want to read this after you've seen it once, then re-watch it with this in mind:



there are, of course, other aspects to Lost Highway that cannot be as easily comprehended. I have the German R2 dvd (2.35:1 OAR and unlike the R4 has Dolby Digital 5.1... a must for Lynch's amazing sound design in this feature).

victant

Excellent breakdown of Lynch, rocket1312

And welcome to the forum!

garmonbozia

well to be fair, it is 40 bucks....but if you are only buying one item from the site, then the S&H is grossly overpriced and it about $10. If you are buying several items, it is not so bad. And to Lynch fans, it was worth it to have Eraserhead available on dvd (and in its OAR).

The vhs never left "rental pricing", so technically, the dvd is twice as cheap, lol.

Also available on his site is his Short Films dvd available for the same price. I had not seen some of them before and it was great to finally have them all.


Don't forget Lynch's other 2 tv projects: Hotel Room and On the Air. Many people thought On the Air was a waste of time......but it had a lot of that stupid quirky comedy that made Twin Peaks so endearing. It's fun and still should be released on dvd. Hotel Room though, I think can stand up to most of his films. This NEEDS to be on dvd. With only three segments, it almost plays as a film anyway. I'm not even sure how this originally aired (I think it was on HBO)......as three separate episodes, or presented all at once??

Crocker Jarmen

I remember when THE STRAIGHT STORY came out, some magazine (I think it was Entertainment Weekly) had a little article where Lynch commented on each of his movies. The comment Lynch made about LOST HIGHWAY made me consider it in a different way (Similar to what cygnet74 said.)




I had always seen the movie being about

audrey

While The Straight Story is indeed conventional, I don't think it's entirely accurate to describe Lynch's involvement as a hired hand---Mary Sweeney (writer/producer) is Lynch's partner in the Picture Factory. And though less bizarre than much of his work, it's an engaging, beautifully told story with flawless performances by Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek. Sadly, The Straight Story gets far too little attention. Highly recommended.

WRT Lost Highway, I must admit it’s the only Lynch movie I don’t enjoy. Sure the movie is visually stunning, but it never draws me into the story or the characters. In Lost Highway, I always feel like a spectator, aware that I’m watching a movie rather than caught up in the richly textured world Lynch paints.

My recommendation: rent them all; even his less successful efforts are wonderful cinema and definitely worth watching.

joltaddict

Eraserhead is worth EVERY PENNY.

And save FWWM for after the seasons of Twin Peaks. Get Blue Velvet right away if you like MD though. I dont know if Eraserhead or Mullholland is my favorite Lynch but its between those two with BV and TPs coming in next.

There is a R1 Canadian Lost Highway DVD but its P&S and horribly grainy.