David Lynch's Lost Highway

I watched this Friday night, and have to admit I am quite confused by it.  MP posted a site featuring analysis for Mulholland Dr earlier this weekend, is there one for Lost Highway?

I'll also say that despite not having the foggiest idea of what was going on, I enjoyed the experience. 

That's how I approach his films anyways by just enjoying the experience. At one time I tried to figure out Mulholland Dr. But in the end it just seems unnecessary to think too hard about it. I really don't understand what any of his movies mean and I don't care. I just know that I love them. They're like bad nightmares, but in a good way.

Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr both have the same premise going for them as they are both "dreams" but from a different perspective. There are a lot of Lost Highway explanation sites out there, though.

Lost Highway is a terrible, terrible movie. I like Lynch most of the time, but this and Dune are so bad they've made me more wary of his work.

One of my favourite movies of all time. I can never decide if this or Eraserhead is Lynch's best work.
 
Anyways, Lynch himself admitted that many elements in his films are simply there to enhance the mood and overall experience and thus don't have anything to do with the plot as such, so it's quite impossible to make sense of every single detail of his films.
 
I personally don't interpret Lost Highway as a dream, by the way. Mulholland Drive is a dream (for the most part), but Lost Highway is rather a depiction of the distorted mind of a psychopath.

this is just me and my opinion, but david lynch is one of those highly touted artists that i just dont "get" - like devin townsend, neal morse, transatlantic...

I love Lost Highway, but only when I want my mind fucked with. Speaking of Bill Pullman, people here should check out "Rick". A movie that builds and builds and builds and certainly delivers in the end.

Out of the Lynch I've seen, I'll go
 
 
1.  Mulholland Dr.
2.  Twin Peaks
3.  Lost Highway
4.  Blue Velvet
5.  Inland Empire
6.  Fire Walk With Me
 
With the top 3 being wonderful experiences. 
 

I wasn't very impressed with Inland Empire. It was good but it seems that Lynch is getting a bit "stale" with his brand. Methinks he needs to make more Sci-fi.

Monk

Methinks he needs to make more Sci-fi.

 
No no no more Duneish productions thank you very much!

Bump.  Watched this again last night.  Still don't know what's going on, but I've got a couple ideas at least.  Wonderful experience.  Check it out if you liked Black Swan......

Love that movie! But it's definitely one, that you need to watch multiple times. And yes, some interpretation attempts being made all across the web don't hurt either. Lots of interesting stuff going on in people's minds obviously... but yeah, in the end it's up to yourself and what you think might be "true" or at least make sense... i love movies which leave you puzzled in the end...
A bit off-topic (and off-Lynch): If you enjoyed Lost Highway, also try Memento and Inception directed by Christopher Nolan. Pretty weird and puzzling stuff going on there also...

When I watched the movie several years ago, I remember I've read somewhere an interpretation that the movie can be seen as a Möbius strip. At the time, that seemed to make sense to me (as much sense as a David Lynch movie can make anyway).

guitarrero


A bit off-topic (and off-Lynch): If you enjoyed Lost Highway, also try Memento and Inception directed by Christopher Nolan. Pretty weird and puzzling stuff going on there also...

no, those movies actually make sense.  lost highway doesnt really make sense on the same level.

colin007

guitarrero


A bit off-topic (and off-Lynch): If you enjoyed Lost Highway, also try Memento and Inception directed by Christopher Nolan. Pretty weird and puzzling stuff going on there also...

no, those movies actually make sense.  lost highway doesnt really make sense on the same level.

I agree with Colin007. "Memento" and "Inception" make more sense than "Lost Highway". It is a interesting experience to watch "Lost Highway". I will dig into more of Lynch´s work!

Tensed Dreams

colin007

guitarrero


A bit off-topic (and off-Lynch): If you enjoyed Lost Highway, also try Memento and Inception directed by Christopher Nolan. Pretty weird and puzzling stuff going on there also...

no, those movies actually make sense.  lost highway doesnt really make sense on the same level.

I agree with Colin007. "Memento" and "Inception" make more sense than "Lost Highway". It is a interesting experience to watch "Lost Highway". I will dig into more of Lynch´s work!

Cool man.  Just avoid Wild At Heart.  Or at least check out his other stuff first, and if you absolutely love it, then check out Wild At Heart.

i love Lynch's work...in small doses. it's always enjoyable but i could not handle a whole bunch in a short period of time.
 
my faves are Blue Velvet and Mullholland Dr., though Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart might be my favorite (*creepy*) charachter.
 
random info: a former co-worker was cast in and acted in Wild at Heart, he ended up being completely cut out of it, yet he is a key plot devise: he was "red", the guy Nick Cage's charachter was going to go see "about a job". Lynch was nice enough to put all of his scenes together on a promo tape for him to use on his resume.

LeChuck


One of my favourite movies of all time. I can never decide if this or Eraserhead is Lynch's best work.

Anyways, Lynch himself admitted that many elements in his films are simply there to enhance the mood and overall experience and thus don't have anything to do with the plot as such, so it's quite impossible to make sense of every single detail of his films.

I personally don't interpret Lost Highway as a dream, by the way. Mulholland Drive is a dream (for the most part), but Lost Highway is rather a depiction of the distorted mind of a psychopath.

very true... it'll frustrate you if you view it as a straightforward narrative. It's not, and many of Lynch's works aren't. It's a very very interesting film though. I'll give it props there. Do i understand most of it? Probably not... but whatever!

Inland Empire on the other hand.. i found it hard to get through, and the most 'obtuse' of his works.

Monk


I wasn't very impressed with Inland Empire. It was good but it seems that Lynch is getting a bit "stale" with his brand.

Rick

 
I thought it looked like shit too... Why he wanted to shoot it digitally I'll never understand. His films usually have a beauty to them.

I'd rank his films like this (note i still haven't seen Eraserhead or Dune):
Wild At Heart
Lost Highway
Blue Velvet
The Straight Story (totally not a typical Lynch film, but i really loved it)
Mulholland Drive
The Elephant Man
---------------------------
Inland Empire
 
Now i really dug all of the films (although Mulholland was frustrating somewhat) but Inland, although fascinating to a degree.. was WAY too long, pointless, and confusing. Idk.. But I'm a fan of Lynch. He's an acquired taste for sure. Need to watch Eraserhead, and the Twin Peaks show maybe. I saw a portion of the Twin Peaks movie.. but had to turn it off because it was weird and i didn't know wtf was going on due to not having seen the show.