Omar
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Post by Omar on Jul 13, 2008 19:12:52 GMT
The Straight Story(1999/David Lynch)  [First Viewing] An elderly man with no drivers license takes a lawn-mower 240 miles to visit his dying/estranged brother.Plain and simple, Lynch has made one of the best films about life (oxymoron? I don't think so). Growing up in small town communities, Lynch understood the roots and thought process of "regular folk", and while "Twin Peaks" or "Blue Velvet" could be seen as almost a lampoon of those conventions, "The Straight Story" shows them for what they really are, minus false sentimentality and an overbearing score. I'm not sure I've seen "life" portrayed so truthfully and heartwarming on the screen. Lynch's road movie is episodic, slowly revealing the pain and suffering of a determined and aging man, who tries to take control of his life while he still can, while also coming to terms with it ending. Contemplations on forgiveness, fear, and, well, life, make this a hugely rewarding and memorable work, with plenty of Lynch's trademarks of limited dialogue and the Midwest as a pasture-filled wasteland to make it something truly unique.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Jul 13, 2008 19:27:12 GMT
The Straight Story
David Lynch 1999 | France / USA
An aging widower travels across America on his lawn mower to visit his brother, who has had a stroke.
The title is double-edged: not only is it based on Alvin Straight's real-life journey to his brother, but Lynch plays it totally straight. A warming road movie which in many ways is uncharacteristic of its director but also part of a unique oeuvre comprising sometimes of odd true tales (The Elephant Man), road movies (Wild at Heart) and the special bond of family (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, though those three are much, much darker). It is a fine example of his ability to invoke strong emotional feelings without either milking situations or prostituting them - and much must be said in praise of Richard Farnsworth's phenomenal performance.
I saw this on the big screen; amazing. There was a print on the arthouse circuit not long ago with a live score, which, to my understanding, was different to Badalamenti's. I was vaguely intrigued (how would it be done, with the film's soundtrack still audible?), but ultimately missed it.
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Blib
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Post by Blib on Jul 14, 2008 0:57:08 GMT
 I also thought this movie was great. I'm due to watch it again. It's the only movie I've seen from Lynch so I'm curious to see what else he has done, especially because he is so popular here on the board. What I loved the most was what Omar already mentioned, minimal dialogue. Too many movies focus on what the characters are saying and not what they are doing. It makes his journey more impressive by showing how alone he is most of the time driving his lawnmower through the beautiful countryside.
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Post by svsg on Jul 14, 2008 2:49:34 GMT
I also thought this movie was great. I'm due to watch it again. It's the only movie I've seen from Lynch so I'm curious to see what else he has done, especially because he is so popular here on the board. What I loved the most was what Omar already mentioned, minimal dialogue. Too many movies focus on what the characters are saying and not what they are doing. It makes his journey more impressive by showing how alone he is most of the time driving his lawnmower through the beautiful countryside. I will be very interested in what you think of his other movies. I am biased beyond a point now, mainly as a result of frustration trying to figure out what he is trying to say. I can't even complain that he deals with the same theme, as another of my top 5 filmmakers, Alain Resnais, does the same, but always manages to thrill me completely. |
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Post by svsg on Jul 14, 2008 3:05:59 GMT
Would you say that his movies are appreciated mainly for visual aesthetics?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Jul 14, 2008 3:18:15 GMT
It's the atmosphere for me certainly. But a lot of people do think his films are heavily encoded and that it's possible to 'decrypt' them. But to hear him talk about his own approach it doesn't seem likely.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Jul 14, 2008 3:25:28 GMT
I think there are two kinds of Lynch fans.
One seems to think he begins with a story grounded in a sense of intelligible cause-effect relationships and then comes up with a bunch of metaphors for that story, encoding it and burying it in symbolism. And that all that can be peeled away and they'll be left with the sensible linear story he started out with. There are a lot of 'explanations' of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive online that treat the films this way.
The other type of Lynch fan takes all his rhetoric about intuition and 'not interrogating the ideas' very, very literally and seems to imagine him writing, directing and editing his films in some deep out-of-body TM trance.
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Post by Michael on Jul 14, 2008 3:47:52 GMT
Yeah.
I'd rather lick a car battery than listen to most people talk about Lynch.
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Post by Michael on Jul 14, 2008 17:41:09 GMT
I thought those were the only two types of Lynch fans though?  |
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Jul 14, 2008 17:48:32 GMT
Maybe there are.
Am I being very enigmatic?
I'm reevaluating Lynch.
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Post by Michael on Jul 14, 2008 18:00:48 GMT
Am I being very enigmatic? As always. But when re-evaluating an artist, you shouldn't even take his/her fans into consideration. |
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Jul 14, 2008 18:07:33 GMT
I don't agree. An artist knows who their audience is at every stage of the creative process, and that's a considerable factor.
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Post by Michael on Jul 14, 2008 18:08:42 GMT
So if someone's fans annoy you, that affects your enjoyment of that particular artist's work?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Jul 14, 2008 18:18:17 GMT
No, not in principle at least. But an artist knowing who he makes films for is significant. What social background do his fans come from? What are their political inclinations? How old are they? Are they supporting him financially? Is there a cult of personality surrounding him? Questions worth asking.
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