David Lynch Film Festival Guidebook

The A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things festival will reveal to the audience the weird nightmare world of David Lynch and try to consider his vision and unique style in historical and cinematic perspective. His role as an innovator and director of surrealistic films will be highlighted, and there will be an effort to recreate the atmosphere and mood of his movies. During this Festival, six films will be screened: Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, and Wild At Heart. Moreover, the audience will be able to participate in various special events: an opening party, a piano and singing performance, a surrealist exhibition, a small cocktail party with David Lynch, a small alternative music concert, and a masked ball.

Let’s investigate the fine line between innocent lives and disturbing crime and violence in the world of David Lynch

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

01.

THE DIRECTOR David Lynch Biography Filmography Interviews

02.

THE FILMS Blue Velvet Twin Peaks : Fire Walk With Me Mulholland Drive Lost Highway Inland Empire Wild at Heart REFERENCES

03.

THE FESTIVAL Schedule Directions About the Venues Special Events

“I JUST LIKE GOING INTO STRANGE WORLDS.” — DAVID LYNCH

01.

THE DIRECTOR DAVID LYNCH BIOGRAPHY FILMOGRAPHY INTERVIEWS

D

The Director

BIOGRAPHY

DAVID LYNCH David Keith Lynch is an American director, screenwriter, visual artist, musician, actor and author.

He is well known for the unique and surreal style of his films and has had an influential career.

Many of his works disturb, scare, or mystify the audience, and he makes an ambiguous boundary between the conscious and unconscious and dream and reality.

When he was at the Pennsylvania Art Academy, he made his first short film, Alphabet (1968).

After graduating from school, he made a 16mm short film called The Grandmother (1970). He

then was inspired to make a movie about a young couple who have a deformed child. This project took from 1971 to 1977 to finish and than was released as Eraserhead (1977). After Eraserhead, Lynch gained attention in the film industry with The Elephant Man (1980). Blue Velvet (1986) and the Twin Peaks series made him famous as the king of cult movies. Wild at Heart (1990) and Lost Highway (1997) are also two of his major films.

Lynch was influenced by European film makers and then American directors and admires the spirit of “get down and thrill your soul” he sees in the European directors. Lynch has mentioned his admiration of Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, Werner Herzog and Jaques Tati and has also cited Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls (1962) as an influence on his work.

Regarding Lynch’s work, leading film critics Le Blanc and Odell state that “his films are so packed with motifs, recurrent characters, images, compositions and techniques that you could view his entire output as one large jigsaw puzzle of ideas.” One of his striking techniques is the usage of dreams and dream-like imagery and structures. His work also shows a surrealistic ethos, and most of the time the stories blur the lines between dream and reality, with some focus on crime, deviant behavior and dark humor. Lynch believed that his movies also have a ‘spiritual’ quality.

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David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

FILMOGRAPHY 1967

Six Men Getting Sick Absurd Encounter with Fear Fictitious Anacin Commercial

1968

The Alphabet

1969

The Grandmother

1974

The Amputee

1977

Eraserhead

1980

The Elephant Man Heart Beat

1984

Dune

1986

Blue Velvet

1987

The Cowboy and The Frenchman

1988

Zelly and Me

1990

Pilot Wild at Heart Industrial Symphony No.1 Hollywood Mavericks For One Week Only

1991

The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez Dangerous teaser

1992

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

1993

The King of Ads

1994

Nadja Crumb

1995

Premonition Following an Evil Deed Lumiere Ads Company

1997

Lost Highway Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch

1999

The Straight Story

2001

Mulholland Dr. I Don’t Know Jack Eraserhead Stories Darkened Room The Short Films of David Lynch Rabbits

14

The Director

Oscars N

8

BAFTA W

Golden Globe

N

W

N

7

3

4

W

Cannes Film Festival N

W

Palme d’Or

Palme d’Or

1 1

1

2

1

1

Palme d’Or

1 1

2

1

2

Palme d’Or

4

Palme d’Or

Palme d’Or

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

2002

DumbLand

2004

Epreuves d’ Artistes Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments

2005

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstrea

2006

Inland Empire Dynamic:01: The Best of DavidLynch.com

2007

To Each His Own Cinema Absurda Boat Bug Crawls Lamp Industrial Soundscape Intervalometer Experiments Lynch Donovan: The Donovan Concert Live in L.A. More Things That Happened Ballerina

2008

Surveillance Sunshine Superman: That Journey of Donovan

2009

Soul Detective Transcendendo Lynch My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

Great Directors

2010

Lady Blue Shanghai 2012: Time for Change

2011

The 3 Rs

2012

Meditation, Creativity, Peace I Touch a Red Button Man Side by Side

16

2013

Idem Paris

2014

Duran Duran: Unstaged

2016

My Beautiful Broken Brain

The Director

Lynch’s films include elements of horror, disturbing thrillers, nightmares, surrealism, the supernatural and characters with split personalities or even mental illness. These themes appear in a situation that might seem normal or like “daily life.” Lynch also sets most of his movies in innocent 1950’s-style America but with a frightening and violent background.

People in the movies seem ordinary but at some point, the stories suddenly turn to their dreams, unconscious and uncertainty. The films chosen for this festival represent these themes and ideas, and they contain many of Lynch’s most famous characters and scenes.

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

INTERVIEW David Lynch, of course, is best known

almost neoclassical, wholesome

Night of the Soul. (In addition, he worked

as the vanguard director of dreamlike

archetypes that one might find in the

with Interpol via the Creators Project

and disturbingly allegorical films such

movies of the ’50s and ’60s by directors

on a short film shown at the Coachella

as Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man

like Nicholas Ray and Billy Wilder; yet

music festival last spring.) Lynch has also

(1980), Blue Velvet (1986), and

his films are also uncompromising

added interior designer to his wide-rang-

Mulholland Drive (2001)—movies that

explorations of the societal id and the

ing résumé, helping to conceive of and

are as idiosyncratic and independently

dark underside of American dreaming.

create the decor of the semiprivate club

spirited as movies come, yet consistently

And as much as he has created within

Silencio in Paris, which opened last year.

flirt with a kind of mainstream Americana.

the confines of popular culture, he has

Films like Wild at Heart (1990) and Lost

continued to be an outlier; he has been

In conversation, the 66-year-old Lynch

Highway (1997) teem with sex and

nominated for three Academy Awards for

proves to be a living, breathing analog to

violence that is anything but cartoonish,

directing—most recently in 2001 for

his art: a beguiling combination of the cos-

while Lynch’s heartland tale, The Straight

Mulholland Drive, for which he won the

mic and the mundane, the surreal and an

Story (1999), proved clean enough to

Palme d’Or at Cannes and which helped

abnormally normal-seeming normal. We

earn a G rating. He has consistently

launch the career of yet another of his

spoke in Los Angeles, where Lynch lives.

coaxed vivid, career-defining perfor-

leading ladies, Naomi Watts—then, just

mances out of his female leads, including

five years later, he opted to self-distribute

MATT DIEHL: I’ve noticed a thread

Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and

his next film, Inland Empire (2006).

throughout your recent activity. You’ve

Sherilyn Fenn. In 1990, well before shows

made a new album, you helped put

like The Sopranos or Mad Men transformed

Although Lynch hasn’t put out a feature

together a new nightclub, you have the

series television into a creative hotbed,

film in more than half a decade, he has

comprehensive Works on Paper book

Lynch revolutionized the medium with

hardly been idle. He began his creative

that brings together all the strands of

Twin Peaks, a stark, surreal serial about

life in Missoula, Montana, as a painter,

your visual art, you’ve taken film

the investigation into the death of

and recently compiled Works on Paper

distribution into your own hands. Adultery

a homecoming queen in a small town in

(Steidl), a career-spanning monograph

is something of a prominent theme in

Washington. He was also an early

of his wide-ranging output as a visual

your films, and you currently seem to

adopter of the Internet as a forum for

artist. Renowned for his meticulous

be in a moment of creative promiscuity,

creative work, producing a set of

sound design and the innovative use of

philandering between genres and mediums.

online shorts dubbed Dumbland, as well

music in his movies, Lynch also released

as a sitcom, Rabbits, about a family of

his critically acclaimed first solo album

DAVID LYNCH: [laughs] Right. You know,

humanoid bunnies.

as a musician and singer, Crazy Clown

I’ve always said cinema combines so

Time (Sunday Best), late last year,

many different art forms. As a kid, I was

Lynch’s career, though, has, in many

which followed his musical and visual

always building things. My father had a

ways, embodied the great dichotomies in

collaboration with Danger Mouse and

shop in the house, and we built things—

his work. As a director, his characters are

Sparklehorse on the 2010 album Dark

we were kind of a project family. I started

The Director

out as a painter, and then painting led to cinema, and in cinema, you get to build so many things, or help build them. Then cinema led to so many different areas—it led to still photography, music . . .

Furniture is also a big love of mine.

I started building these kind of sculptural lamps. Then I got into lithography at this printing place in Madison, Wisconsin, called Tandem Press. For the last four years, I’ve been working on lithography in Paris at a great, great printing studio called Idem. And I’ve always been painting along the way, as well as doing drawings

LYNCH: The name was inspired by it, but

off them, with pods that you can sit on.

and watercolors . . . There are just so many

not the actual club itself. What happened

It was important to me that everything

things out there for us to do.

was, they asked me if I wanted to help

feel very warm, so we created this wall

design this club in Paris. It was a strange

treatment out of wood blocks covered

place—it was way underground and the

in different types of gold, which catches

space was fairly small. But now the club

light in a really beautiful way. I’m real

seems very big—it seems a lot bigger

happy with that. I also designed this

than it did when I first saw it. I designed

sink for the restrooms—I’m really happy

the walls, floor, and ceilings. In this one

with that sink. These things, you just

particular room, the walls curve into

don’t know what’s going to come next.

the ceiling. My whole idea was to make

It’s great to be given the possibility of

a place that you felt good being in. I

designing a sink; ideas start coming that

DIEHL: As I understand it, when you orig-

designed many different things—the

you never thought about before. A person

inally got into film, it was to try to make

stage and the movie theater, which is

doesn’t really think too much about

your paintings move. Is that correct?

spectacular. You can go from hearing the

a sink, but when you do, ideas come that

loudest music into this very beautiful,

are really beautiful. So the club has

LYNCH: Yes.

comfortable theater to watch a film. I also

a great feeling now. It’s very beautiful to

I wanted to make a moving painting.

designed what they call a “yellow forest”:

be inside this club, Silencio.

“I’M NOT A MUSICIAN, BUT I PLAY MUSIC. SO IT’S A STRANGE THING.” — DAVID LYNCH

it’s a smoking room in the club, with DIEHL: It’s funny because I recently

these steel yellow trees that go from floor

watched The Alphabet [1968], one of the

to ceiling with these little lights coming

early shorts that you made in art school, and it reminded me exactly of that: it was as if a Francis Bacon painting had come to life.

LYNCH: Ah, well, Francis Bacon is one of my giant inspirations. I just love him to pieces.

DIEHL: Speaking of inspirations, the members-only nightclub you recently opened in Paris, Silencio, was inspired by the fictional nightclub in Mulholland Drive, wasn’t it?

19

DIEHL: From what I understand, the location

LYNCH: That came about with these

Dean and I started working, and out came

of Silencio is historical. The building, on

two guys I work with, Eric and Erik. I hate

the song “Good Day Today.” We played

the rue Montmartre, was designed by the

making coffee, but one of them started

it for Brian, who loved it, and he gave it

creators of the Eiffel Tower.

getting heavy into making signature

to Jason Bentley [music director of Los

designs on the foam of the cappuccinos,

Angeles radio station KCRW], and the

LYNCH: I don’t know the whole history

and then the other started telling me I

story goes that Jason thought the song

of it, but there’s metalwork in there that

should have my own brand of coffee. So

was by Underworld.

would make you think of the Eiffel Tower.

one thing led to another, and it happened.

DIEHL: Since it opened last October,

DIEHL: You make sinks, you make

He played “Good Day Today” on his

Silencio has hosted performances by the

coffee—is it possible that you might

radio show and introduced it as the new

likes of The Kills, Lykke Li, and parties for

someday have a kind of David Lynch

Underworld single.

Kanye West and Chanel, among other

version of IKEA, where everything

events. The New York Times wrote that

necessary for everyday life is created

LYNCH: Not only did he play it on the

“it has been compared to the Dadaists’

with your vision?

radio, but Jason took it to Ibiza and

DIEHL: I heard that as it was happening.

Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Andy Warhol’s

played it for two guys named Ben Turner

Factory in New York, and the existen-

LYNCH: No, no—I’m not doing that!

and Rob da Bank. They liked it so much,

tialists’ Café Flore on the Left Bank.” It

I’d have to quit everything and just design

they said, “We want to put this out on our

seems intended to be a kind of hub for

away . . . But it would be kind of fun.

label, Sunday Best.” It’s a tiny company,

new bohemian culture. When I first heard about it, it reminded me of the golden age

DIEHL: You’ve been making music for

of New York City nightlife, where you had

years, starting with the soundtrack

places like the Mudd Club, where you had

to Eraserhead. But last year you released

all of these disparate people—artists,

your first proper solo album, Crazy

professionals, people with money, people

Clown Time.

with no money—meet and exist in the same space.

“I’M SEEING SOMETHING THAT WAS ALWAYS HIDDEN.”

LYNCH: Right. I worked on that with my

— DAVID LYNCH

friend and engineer “Big” Dean Hurley.

LYNCH: Well, I don’t know about

We pretty much did everything together

bohemian . . . It’s a club that people have

except for the track “Pinky’s Dream,”

a good time in. I’m not sure who the

which we did with Karen O.

clients are all the time, although they

but they got that music out in a big, big way. Then they came to me and said,

seem to be a good bunch. But Arnaud

DIEHL: Many tracks on Crazy Clown Time

“We’d love to do an album. Do you have

[Frisch], the owner—that’s what his

have a surprising dance-music influence.

more songs?” And we had a bunch, and

whole wish was, that Silencio would be

A lot of them would weirdly work in a DJ

that’s what became Crazy Clown Time.

a meeting place for all different types

set at a club.

of people. That’s the feeling it has. Paris

DIEHL: Where did the title come from?

is now the second-best city in the world

LYNCH: My music agent, Brian Loucks,

for me. The French have been my great

always brings people up for a coffee, then

LYNCH: The title came from the song

friends, and they believe in a director

we talk, and then sometimes it forms

“Crazy Clown Time.” The lyrics tell

having final cut. They don’t understand

into a collaboration. Brian has brought

a story of the time . . . It’s a traditional

any other way. They protect the artist.

up some great people over the years. So

backyard story that involves girls and

I had been working on music, and one

guys and beer.

DIEHL: You’ve always been considered an

of the first people Brian was going to

auteur as a filmmaker, but it seems like

bring up to meet about it was into dance

DIEHL: In addition to the club grooves,

you’ve become an auteur of many things.

music. After that, I started thinking about

many of the songs are deeply rooted in

I heard that you now even have your own

dance music, and all of a sudden some

the blues tradition. What do the blues

brand of coffee beans.

lyrics and a little tune came. The next day,

mean to you?

The Director

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David Lynch Film Festival

LYNCH: Well, I love the dirty, rough-running power of the blues-based electric guitar.

I like the idea of a gasoline-powered guitar, where you’ve got an accelerator, and you can push down on it and it just revs up. The great blues music is very simple, but sophisticatedly so. It’s so beautiful, this world that the great blues men and women conjured up. It’s got such a mood and a way of moving, and that was a big inspiration.

DIEHL: I was also intrigued by Karen O’s DIEHL: I know you were initially drawn to

appearance on the record. That’s the only

art by expressionist painters like Oskar

outside collaboration on the album, and

Kokoschka and Francis Bacon, who in

the only song that you don’t sing. How did

a weird way were doing a kind of European,

that come about?

visual expression of blues emotion.

LYNCH: Several years ago, Brian LYNCH: That’s exactly right. There are

introduced me to Karen O. On that trip,

so many similarities between the blues

nothing happened, but then last year,

and a lot of painting.

Karen O appeared again. She came in, and I gave her the lyrics, then she listened to the track over and over. She kind of sat there, you know, thinking, going over things in her mind. It was quite a comfortable situation. Then, at a certain point, Karen went into the booth and knocked the song out of the park.

DIEHL: Had you known about Karen O’s work with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and her other music?

22

The Director

LYNCH: Sure, but I felt like this was kind of its own thing. The way Karen O says the word pinky, it brings Pinky, as a character, alive. Pinky was in my mind, but not as good as that. Karen made Pinky a character that you kind of know and really care for.

DIEHL: You have a sort of magic with female characters. I found it kind of genius that you included that feminine energy in there. Karen O serves as a kind of presence in your music the way,

I also work on music with this other girl,

It’s really beautiful and interesting when

say, Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive or

Chrysta Bell, and she’s a real leading

the two meet. When a certain girl and

Laura Dern in Wild at Heart exist as the

lady. She’s gonna be big, I hope, one day

a certain guy get together, certain things

heroines and femme fatales of your films.

soon. But I love women. I can kind of sit

are going to happen. It’s always these

and go into a world where the women . . .

combos and different characters coming

Talk to me.

together in a story that make certain

LYNCH: Yes, you’re onto something. [laughs] Well, there are different types

things happen. These things are what

of music, and sometimes Dean and I will

DIEHL: Jean-Luc Godard once said,

kind of makes it, and the women play

do a track and we know right away it’s

“All you need to make a movie is a girl

a huge role.

not for us–that it’s gonna go to some girl

and a gun.”

because it’s just that kind of thing.

DIEHL: It’s interesting because there LYNCH: Nope, you don’t need much more

are frequent connections between the

than that.

way some of the women look in your films—that sort of ’50s- or ’60s-inspired,

DIEHL: The tagline to your last film,

all-American aesthetic—and what’s

Inland Empire, was “A woman in trouble,”

going on in contemporary fashion. I

which I also thought could be the tagline

remember those hairstyles and jewel

to many of your films. In so many of them,

tones from Blue Velvet suddenly became

the women become the emotional pivot

a look, as did the extreme rockabilly style

for the action.

in Wild at Heart. Prada’s Spring 2012 collection really echoes the way some of

LYNCH: There are men and women in the

your characters dress. A couple of years

world, and they’re different in many ways.

ago, I know that you also made a short

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

film, Lady Blue Shanghai, for Dior starring

the way she dressed everybody was

get the right person for the project.

Marion Cotillard. We know that your work

perfect, and it has to be. If that part of

Sometimes a person can be your dearest

has been an influence on fashion, but

the movie is wrong, then it’ll jump out

friend, but there’s just not a role for them

does fashion play a role in your work?

and bite you.

in the next film. That’s kind of a hardship.

LYNCH: Well, the women dress a certain

DIEHL: You’re known for having so many

rejoice, because you not only love this

way for my films, for the world. I want to

key long-standing collaborators, like

person, but you’ve worked with them

say one thing about that look: I work with

Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, and the

before and developed a shorthand. It’s

this woman, Patricia Norris, with whom

late Jack Nance, for example. You’ve

a beautiful ride.

I started working on The Elephant Man.

also transformed people’s careers at

I loved the ’50s and early ’60s and that

unlikely moments, like Dennis Hopper

DIEHL: There’s a song that you sing on

sort of started the style of Blue Velvet,

[in Blue Velvet] and Robert Blake [in Lost

the soundtrack to Inland Empire . . .

but Patty deserves all the credit for the

Highway]. How do you choose whom

way people dressed in it. She has

to work with?

If they’re right for the part, though, you

a knack for putting clothes on people

LYNCH: That’s the song “Ghost of Love.”

I had sung before that, but that one is

that really fit them in every way. The way

LYNCH: There are so many people I’ve

where I got more comfortable. That song,

she dressed Dennis Hopper, too . . . Well,

loved working with, but you’ve got to

I really love. It did start something . . .

The Director

DIEHL: At one point while watching

But storytelling with cinema never will

Inland Empire, I realized that I was watching

die—ever, ever, ever. The way the stories

a movie conceived by David Lynch, with

are told may change, but it will always be.

a song sung by David Lynch, over a scene conceived by David Lynch. It was like

DIEHL: It might, though, be the death

full immersion, visually and aurally, in

of film as a director’s medium, where the

that moment.

artist gets final cut. It’s interesting how so many filmmakers with established

LYNCH: That’s beautiful.

oeuvres and visionaries who have changed how we perceive cinema—

DIEHL: And then on top of that, I learned

people like you, John Waters, Gus Van

that you self-released the film. You took

Sant, and even Martin Scorsese—often

charge of every aspect of that movie,

still struggle to set up projects today.

from its creation to its distribution.

LYNCH: Thousands of other filmmakers LYNCH: Well, everybody knows that

out there would agree with that. The

the art houses are pretty much gone.

studios are superreluctant to give final

It’s the mainstream films that get the

cut. They have so much money riding on

theaters now, and theaters can’t survive

these things, so they want a committee

if nobody’s coming to them, so it’s big

to go and rule the roost. The poor director

advertising and big money that talks. We

just dies a death. More and more, when

didn’t have the big money, so we figured

a committee at a studio sees something

that if we could go and book theaters and

that maybe people won’t understand,

do it on our own, then it might be the best

they’ll kill the thing quickly. It’s an insult.

way. I don’t know if it was, but that’s what

I don’t know why anyone would make

happened with Inland Empire.

a film if they couldn’t make the film they wanted to make with all the freedom and

DIEHL: In your best-selling memoir,

the support they needed. But it happens

Catching the Big Fish, you say, “For me,

every day, so you have to be independent.

film is dead.”

You have to not only find enough money to make the film, but you have to have

LYNCH: I meant that celluloid, the actual

final cut—you absolutely have to have it.

film that runs through the camera, is

Otherwise, you’re gonna die. But there’s

dead. That’s gone, and now digital is here.

always a way. Sometimes restrictions are a big blessing. When you have to build

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

“...WE’RE ALL LIKE DETECTIVES IN LIFE. THERE’S SOMETHING AT THE END OF THE TRAIL THAT WE’RE ALL LOOKING FOR.” something yourself, ideas start coming

ideas just flowed in, in one meditation—

that never would’ve come otherwise. New

all the ideas to finish that into a feature.

ideas flow in. Happy accidents do occur.

DIEHL: You’re a devotee of Transcendental DIEHL: With Inland Empire, you seemed

Meditation, which you’ve practiced for

liberated to run with your vision like

more than three decades. What does it

never before.

do for you?

LYNCH: Well, it’s a very big freedom

LYNCH: Well, you’re swimming in the

to have lightweight equipment and

transcendent twice a day, and when

a smaller crew. The pressure is so much

you swim there, the world gets bigger,

less. Pressure equates to money,

and you get wet with that, and the

so it’s really, in a way, a blessing to go

creativity grows. The Beatles, who did

low budget.

Transcendental Meditation, always talked about how the ideas for all those great

DIEHL: Mulholland Drive started out as

songs came to them when they were

a TV pilot at first. But when that failed, it

working with the Maharishi. I always say

actually opened the door for it to become

it’s not Transcendental Meditation that

a theatrical film.

does it, but the great treasury within—the great field at the base of all matter and

LYNCH: It was a closed-ended pilot, and

mind. But you need to transcend to get to

then the ideas came to make it into

that field. People have a lot of different,

a feature. I was meditating, and all these

strange ideas of what meditation is.

26

The Director

I meet people who say, “My form of

DIEHL: We live in a moment where

DIEHL: Except for Dune (1984) and The

meditation is jogging,” or “I lay in the sun.

violence is pervasive in pop culture. When

Elephant Man, all your movies are set in

That’s my form of meditation.” But that’s

you made films like Wild at Heart and

America—and often a mythic America

not meditation. You need a mental

Lost Highway, you came under fire for

of your own making. What is the myth of

technique that truly gets you to a field

the graphic depictions of violence that

America that intrigues you now?

that is beyond the field of relativity. The

they contained. But I always felt you were

key word is transcend. Transcendental

bringing that violence to the screen so

LYNCH: I’m an American, and I love

Meditation is like a key that opens the

we could transcend it, in a way.

America, even with the problems we’ve

door to that deepest level of life, that ocean of pure consciousness.

got. Stories come out from where we live LYNCH: Most films reflect the world, and

and what we hear and see and feel, so I

the world is violent and in a lot of trouble.

don’t know what will come next. It’s like

DIEHL: You’ve said meditation helped you

It’s not the other way around. The films

fishing: You just wait . . . I’m starting to

in the making of The Elephant Man, which

don’t make a peaceful world violent—the

catch ideas for the next film, but I don’t

was really your breakthrough film.

violent world made the films.

know what it is yet. It’s like I always say,

LYNCH: Meditation does open up a kind

DIEHL: In a way, though, the way you’ve

make the fish.” Desire is the bait, the

of an understanding that grows. The

reflected the very surreal world in which

fish is caught, and then the chef cooks

Elephant Man was such a gift to me. I was

we live in your films has helped make

it. Ideas are like fish. They just come to

a kid from Missoula, Montana, who had

surrealism itself a part of the popular

you sometimes, and when you’re really

made one film at that point that was

cultural discussion.

lucky, you fall in love with them and know

“The chef cooks the fish, the chef doesn’t

considered very strange by most people,

exactly what to do.

and here I was in London, England,

LYNCH: Well, I don’t know. I love the

making a Victorian drama with some of

surrealists, and I sort of understand what

the greatest actors in the world; a lot of

they’re saying, but I just think that maybe

people thought I was really not right for

things aren’t always surreal. To me,

that job. One day, I was standing in

a story can be both concrete and

a derelict hospital in East London, long

abstract, or a concrete story can hold

since it was a working hospital. The halls

abstractions. And abstractions are

had the remnants of gas lamps, and it was

things that really can’t be said so well

filled with pigeon shit and broken

with words. They’re intuited. They’re

windows. Then a wind came and kind of

understood in a different way, and

blew through me, and I suddenly knew

cinema can do those things. Cinema

exactly what it was to be alive at that time.

is a great, great language for concrete

Once I got that feeling, no one could take it

stories, and concrete stories that hold

away from me. I kind of owned it after that.

abstractions, and abstract stories.

27

“I LIKE THINGS THAT GO INTO HIDDEN, MYSTERIOUS PLACES, PLACES I WANT TO EXPLORE THAT ARE VERY DISTURBING. IN THAT DISTURBING THING, THERE IS SOMETIMES TREMENDOUS POETRY AND TRUTH..”

— DAVID LYNCH

02.

THE FILMS BLUE VELVET TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME MULHOLLAND DRIVE LOST HIGHWAY INLAND EMPIRE WILD AT HEART

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

BLUE VELVET DIRECTED BY David Lynch

RELEASE DATES September 12, 1986 (Toronto) September 19, 1986 (United States)

PRODUCED BY Fred Caruso

RUNNING TIME 120 minutes

WRITTEN BY David Lynch

COUNTRY United States

MUSIC BY Angelo Badalamenti

LANGUAGE English

CINEMATOGRAPHY Frederick Elmes

BUDGET $6 million

EDITED BY Duwayne Dunham

BOX OFFICE $8.6 million (North America)

DISTRIBUTED BY De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

32

STARRING

Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns to his logging home town of

Kyle MacLachlan

Lumberton, North Carolina from Oak Lake College after his father suffers

Isabella Rossellini

a near-fatal stroke. While walking home from the hospital, he cuts through

Dennis Hopper

a vacant lot and discovers a severed ear. Jeffrey takes the ear to police detective

Laura Dern

John Williams (George Dickerson) and becomes reacquainted with the detective’s

Hope Lange George Dickerson Dean Stockwell

daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). She tells him details about the ear case and a suspicious woman, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), who may be connected to the case. Increasingly curious, Jeffrey enters Dorothy’s apartment by posing as an exterminator, and while Dorothy is distracted by a man dressed in a yellow suit at her door (whom Jeffrey later refers to as the Yellow Man), Jeffrey steals her spare key.

Jeffrey and Sandy attend Dorothy’s nightclub act, in which she sings “Blue Velvet”, and leave early so Jeffrey can sneak into her apartment to snoop. He hurriedly hides in a closet when she returns home. However, Dorothy, wielding a knife, discovers him and threatens to kill him. Believing his curiosity is merely sexual and aroused by his voyeurism, Dorothy makes Jeffrey undress at knifepoint and begins to fellate him before their encounter is interrupted by a knock at the door. Dorothy hides Jeffrey in the closet. From there he witnesses the visitor, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), inflict his bizarre sexual proclivities—which include inhaling an unidentified gas (possibly amyl nitrite), dry humping, and sadomasochism—upon Dorothy. Frank is an extremely foul-mouthed, violent sociopath whose orgasmic climax is a fit of both pleasure and rage. He continually refers to

David Lynch Film Festival

34

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Blue Velvet

The Films

“IN DREAMS YOU’RE MINE. ALL THE TIME...” her as “Mommy” and to himself as both

nothing about him, she has been yearning

the “Daddy” and the “Baby”, who “want

for him. Jeffrey attends another of

to fuck.” Frank has kidnapped Dorothy’s

Dorothy’s performances at the club,

husband and son to force her to perform

where she sings the same song. At the

sexual favors; to “Do it for van Gogh.”

club, Jeffrey spots Frank in the audience

When Frank leaves, a sad and desperate

fondling a piece of blue velvet fabric he

Dorothy tries to seduce Jeffrey again

cut from Dorothy’s robe. Jeffrey follows

and demands that he hit her, but when

Frank and spends the next few days

he refuses, she tells him to leave. When

spying on him. Shortly afterwards, two

Jeffrey moves to leave, she asks him to

men that Jeffrey calls the Well-Dressed

stay, though he leaves anyway.

Man and the Yellow Man exit an industrial building that Frank frequently visits.

Jeffrey relays his experience to Sandy,

Jeffrey concludes the men are criminal

asking her why there are people like

associates of Frank, and tells his new

Frank. Sandy in turn tells him of

findings to Sandy. The two briefly kiss,

a wonderful dream she had about robins

though she feels uncomfortable about

that she interprets as a sign of hope for

going any further. Jeffrey immediately

humanity. Jeffrey and Sandy find them-

visits Dorothy again, and the two have

selves attracted to each other, though

sex. However, when he refuses to hit

Sandy has a boyfriend.

her, she pressures him, becoming more emotional. In a blind rage he knocks her

Jeffrey again visits Dorothy’s apartment

backwards and is instantly horrified, but

and she tells him that although she knows

Dorothy derives pleasure from it.

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Afterwards, Frank catches Dorothy and

Jeffrey insists on returning to Dorothy’s

Jeffrey together and forces them both to

apartment and tells Sandy to immediately

accompany him to the apartment of Ben

send the police there, including her father.

(Dean Stockwell), his suave, effeminate

At Dorothy’s apartment, Jeffrey finds

partner in crime who is holding Dorothy’s

Dorothy’s husband (Don Vallens), who is

son. Ben lip-syncs a performance of Roy

dead from a gunshot to the head and

Orbison’s “In Dreams”, sending Frank

identifiable by his missing ear, as well as the

into maudlin sadness, then rage. Frank

Yellow Man (Gordon), who bears a gruesome

takes Jeffrey to a lumber yard and when

head wound and appears to have suffered

he molests Dorothy, Jeffrey stands up to

a crude lobotomy. When Jeffrey tries to leave,

Frank by punching him. Frank’s cronies

he sees the Well-Dressed Man coming up

drag Jeffrey out of the car and Frank

the stairs and recognizes him as Frank in

kisses Jeffrey’s face, intimidates him, and

disguise. Jeffrey talks to Detective Williams

then savagely beats him to the overture

over the Yellow Man’s police radio, but lies

of “In Dreams”. Jeffrey wakes the next day

about his location inside the apartment.

at the same place and walks home, over-

Frank enters the apartment and brags about

come with guilt and despair. He goes to

hearing Jeffrey’s location over his own police

the police station, where he notices that

radio. While Frank searches for him in the

Sandy’s father’s partner is the Yellow

wrong room, Jeffrey retrieves the Yellow

Man—an officer named Lieutenant

Man’s gun and hides in the same closet

Detective Tom Gordon (Fred Pickler).

in which he hid during his first visit to the

Later, at Sandy’s home, her father is

apartment. Frank fires sporadically, knocking

amazed by Jeffrey’s story, but warns

over the dead Yellow Man, who had still been

Jeffrey to stop his amateur sleuthing lest

standing up, and when he opens the closet

he endanger himself and the investigation.

door, Jeffrey fatally shoots him in the head.

Jeffrey and Sandy go to a dance together

Detective Williams, gun drawn, enters with

and profess their love, only to be confronted

Sandy a moment later. Jeffrey and Sandy

by Sandy’s boyfriend. A confrontation is

now go ahead with their relationship and note

averted when the group finds Dorothy—

the unusual appearance of robins in their

naked, battered, and distressed—on

town. A montage sequence ends the film,

Jeffrey’s front lawn. Barely conscious,

which shows Dorothy and her son reunited.

Dorothy reveals her intimacy with Jeffrey, causing Sandy to become upset and to slap Jeffrey, although she later forgives him.

Blue Velvet

The Films

37

DIRECTED BY

MUSIC BY

David Lynch

Angelo Badalamenti

PRODUCED BY

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Francis Bouygues

Ron Garcia

Gregg Fienberg EDITED BY SCREENPLAY BY

Mary Sweeney

David Lynch Robert Engels

DISTRIBUTED BY AMLF (France)

STARRING

New Line Cinema

Sheryl Lee

(United States)

Moira Kelly David Bowie Chris Isaak Harry Dean Stanton Ray Wise Kyle MacLachlan

38

The Films

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME RELEASE DATES May 1992 (Cannes) July 3, 1992 (France)

FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (David Lynch) sends agents Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland) to investigate the murder of drifter and teenage

August 28, 1992 (United States)

prostitute Teresa Banks in the town of Deer Meadow, Oregon.

RUNNING TIME

Desmond and Stanley view Teresa’s body at the local morgue

134 minutes

following a tense exchange with the town’s sheriff. They notice that a ring is missing from her finger and a small piece of paper

COUNTRY France United States

printed with the letter “T” has been inserted under one of her fingernails. The agents question residents about Teresa but come up with few clues so Stanley leaves Deer Meadow while Desmond remains behind. Desmond discovers Teresa’s missing

LANGUAGE English BUDGET $10 million

ring under a trailer belonging to the sheriff’s deputy. As he reaches out to it, the screen fades to black.

The following day at FBI headquarters in Philadelphia, Cole and Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) experience a brief vision of their long-lost colleague Agent Phillip Jeffries

BOX OFFICE $4.2 million (North America)

(David Bowie). In a surreal montage, he tells them about a meeting he witnessed involving the Man from Another Place, Killer Bob, Mrs. Chalfont (Frances Bay) and her grandson, all mysterious spirits who appeared as characters in the original television series. Desmond is reported missing and Agent

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Cooper is sent to Deer Meadow to

from the house. Laura begins to suspect

investigate. The clues to Teresa’s murder

her father is Bob. That evening, while the

lead to a dead end but Cooper is certain

Palmer family is eating dinner. Leland sees

her killer will strike again.

Laura’s half-heart necklace and questions her menacingly about her “lovers.” Later, he

One year later in Twin Peaks, high school

goes into his daughter’s bedroom and tells

homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl

Laura he loves her. Laura wonders if he could

Lee) and her best friend Donna Hayward

truly be Bob.

(Moira Kelly) attend school. Laura is addicted to cocaine and is cheating on her

Before bed, Laura hangs the painting on her

boyfriend, the arrogant and ill-tempered

wall and then falls asleep. She dreams about

jock, Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), with

entering the Black Lodge. Suddenly, Cooper

the biker James Hurley (James Marshall).

and the Man from Another Place appear in her dream. The Man from Another Place tells

Laura realizes pages are missing from her

Cooper that he is “the arm” and offers Teresa’s

secret diary and tells her friend, the

ring to Laura, but Cooper tells her not to take

agoraphobic recluse Harold Smith (Lenny

it. Laura finds Annie Blackburn (Heather

Von Dohlen) that Bob took them. Laura

Graham) next to her in bed, covered in blood.

insists that Bob is real and will kill her if

Annie tells Laura to write in her diary that “the

she does not allow him to possess her.

good Dale” is trapped in the Lodge and can’t

Laura’s face then changes color as she

leave. Laura sees the ring in her hand and is

utters the words, “Fire walk with me.”

frightened. After looking outside her bedroom

She quickly returns to normal and, visibly

door, Laura finds herself inside the painting.

shaken, gives Harold her diary to keep.

She leaves saying she does not know

Laura awakens in the morning with the ring

when, or if, she will return.

gone from her hand. Disturbed, she removes the painting from her wall. Meanwhile, Bobby,

During her Meals on Wheels rounds,

Leo, and Jacques Renault discuss drug

Laura sees Mrs. Chalfont and her grandson.

scores. Jacques agrees to send someone

They give Laura a painting and warn her

to meet with him. That same evening, Laura

that the “man behind the mask” is in her

prepares to go to the Bang Bang Bar where

bedroom. Laura runs home, where she

she encounters the Log Lady. Inside the bar,

sees Bob. She rushes outside in terror

Jacques introduces Laura to two men. The

and hides in the undergrowth, then sees

group is about to leave for the Pink Room to

her father, Leland (Ray Wise), emerge

have sex, but Donna shows up. The men are

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

The Films

41

friends, but fled when he discovered Laura was among them. Teresa realized who he was and plotted to blackmail him and he killed her to prevent his secrets from being revealed. Laura realizes that Mike’s ring was the same one from her dream, and was also worn by Teresa. The next night, Laura and Bobby take cocaine in the woods, and wait for Jacques’ drug messenger, the sheriff’s deputy from Deer Meadow. The messenger

“LIFE IS FULL OF MYSTERIES, DONNA.”

delivers the drugs and takes out a gun, but Bobby shoots him first. He hastily tries to bury the messenger as Laura laughs maniacally, high on drugs. The following night, Bob comes through Laura’s window and begins having sex with her. She asks Bob repeatedly who he is and then suddenly realizes that he is Leland, and warns Leland to stay away from her the next morning. Upset, Laura uses more cocaine and has trouble concentrating at school. Bobby attempts

42

impressed with her “audition kiss” and

to initiate sex with her, but Laura refuses.

appears in the train car. Ronette finds

they allow her to come along.

Bobby realizes Laura was only using him

herself untied and opens the door to let

for his access to cocaine. He hands her

Mike in, but Leland kicks her out of the

In the Pink Room, Laura discusses Teresa

his stash, breaking off their relationship.

train car. Mike manages to throw in the

Banks’ murder with Ronette Pulaski

The angel in Laura’s painting disappears.

ring. Laura puts it on, which prevents Bob

(Phoebe Augustine). She then engages

from possessing her. Enraged, Bob stabs

in oral sex with the men. Laura becomes

In the woods, Laura tells James that “his

Laura to death. Bob/Leland places Laura’s

distraught when she sees a topless Donna

Laura” is gone. She tells him that she

body in the lake. As her corpse drifts

making out with one of the men. She

loves him and runs into the woods where

away, Bob/Leland enters the Black

takes Donna home and in the morning,

she meets Ronette, Jacques, and Leo.

Lodge, where he encounters Mike and the

Laura tells Donna she does not want

They hold an orgy in Jacques’ cabin as

Man from Another Place who tell Bob

Donna to become like her. Leland arrives

Leland watches from outside. Leland

they want all their garmonbozia (“pain

to take Laura back home. On the way

attacks Jacques outside, and Leo flees

and sorrow”). Bob pulls the blood from

home, Philip Gerard/Mike (Al Strobel),

in panic. Leland takes Laura and Ronette,

Leland’s wound and flings it to the floor.

the one-armed man, shouts at Leland

both bound, to the train car. Meanwhile,

that “the thread will be torn” and shows

Mike realizes that Bob/Leland is about to

Laura’s body washes up on the lake

Laura Teresa’s ring, but Leland and Laura

kill again and chases after him. In the train

shore, where it is found by the Sheriff’s

become frightened and drive away.

car, Laura asks Leland if he is going to kill

department the following morning.

her. She looks into a mirror and screams

Laura’s spirit later sits in the Black Lodge

Leland pulls into a gas station parking

after seeing her reflection turn into Bob,

and notices Agent Cooper at her side. He

lot to gather his wits, and recalls his affair

who says that he wants her. Meanwhile,

places a comforting hand on her shoulder.

with Teresa. He had asked Teresa to set

Ronette prays for rescue but breaks down

Laura sees an angel appear and begins to

up a foursome and invite some of her

because she is “dirty”. Suddenly, an angel

cry and then laugh.

43

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

MULHOLLAND DR. DIRECTED BY David Lynch

RELEASE DATES May 16, 2001 (Cannes) October 12, 2001 (United States)

PRODUCED BY Neal Edelstein Tony Krantz

RUNNING TIME 146 minutes

Michael Polaire Alain Sarde Mary Sweeney WRITTEN BY David Lynch MUSIC BY

COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English BUDGET

Angelo Badalamenti

$15 million

CINEMATOGRAPHY

BOX OFFICE

Peter Deming EDITED BY Mary Sweeney

$20.1 million Starring Justin Theroux Naomi Watts

DISTRIBUTED BY Universal Pictures

Laura Elena Harring Ann Miller Robert Forster

44

Mulholland Dr.

The Films

45

David Lynch Film Festival

46

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Mulholland Dr.

The Films

The story may not be linear and exhibits

and he is broke. He agrees to meet

several instances of temporal disruption.

a mysterious figure called The Cowboy,

A dark-haired woman escapes her own

who urges him to cast Camilla Rhodes for

murder, surviving a car accident on

his own good. Later, a bungling hit man

Mulholland Drive. Injured and in shock,

attempts to steal a book full of phone

she descends into Los Angeles and

numbers and leaves three people dead.

sneaks into an apartment that an older, red-headed woman has just vacated.

Trying to learn more about Rita’s accident,

An aspiring actress named Betty Elms

Betty and Rita go to Winkies and are

arrives at the same apartment and finds

served by a waitress named Diane, which

the dark-haired woman confused, not

causes Rita to remember the name “Diane

knowing her own name. The dark-haired

Selwyn”. They find Diane Selwyn in the

woman assumes the name “Rita” after

phone book and call her, but she does

seeing a poster for the film Gilda, starring

not answer. Betty goes to an audition,

Rita Hayworth. To help Rita remember her

where her performance is highly praised.

identity, Betty looks in Rita’s purse, where

A casting agent takes her to the set of

she finds a large amount of money and an

a film called The Sylvia North Story,

unusual blue key.

directed by Adam, where Camilla Rhodes gives an audition and Adam declares,

At a diner called Winkies, a man tells his

“This is the girl.” Betty smiles shyly as she

companion about a nightmare in which he

locks eyes with Adam, but she flees before

dreamt there was a horrible figure behind

she can meet him, saying that she is late

the diner. When they investigate, the

to meet a friend.

figure appears, causing the man with the nightmare to collapse in fright.

Betty and Rita go to Diane Selwyn’s apartment and break in when no one

As the principal narrative resumes,

answers the door. In the bedroom they

Hollywood director Adam Kesher has

find the body of a woman who has

his film commandeered by apparent

been dead for several days. Terrified, they

mobsters, who insist he cast an unknown

return to their apartment, where Rita

actress named Camilla Rhodes as the

disguises herself with a blonde wig. The

lead in his film. After he resists, he returns

two women have sex that night and

home to find his wife having an affair and

awake at 2 a.m., when Rita insists they go

is thrown out of his house. He later learns

to an eerie theater called Club Silencio.

that his bank has closed his line of credit

On stage, a man explains in several

languages that everything is an illusion; a woman begins singing then collapses, although her vocals continue. Betty finds a blue box in her purse that matches

“IT’S ALL AN ILLUSION.”

Rita’s key. Upon returning to the apartment, Rita retrieves the key and finds that Betty has disappeared. Rita unlocks the box, and it falls to the floor with a thump.

The older red-headed woman investigates the sound, but nothing is there. The Cowboy appears in the doorway of Diane Selwyn’s bedroom saying, “Hey, pretty girl. Time to wake up.” At this point, all elements of the narrative seem to change. Diane Selwyn wakes up in her bed. She looks exactly like Betty, but is portrayed as a failed actress driven into a deep depression by her unrequited love for Camilla Rhodes. On Camilla’s

48

invitation, Diane attends a party at

she will find a blue key. Diane asks what,

Adam’s house on Mulholland Drive. Her

if anything, the key opens, but the hit man

limousine stops before they reach the

just laughs. Diane looks up and sees the

house and Camilla escorts her using a

man who had the nightmare standing

shortcut. Adam appears to be in love with

at the counter. Back at her apartment,

Camilla. Over dinner, Diane states that

with the key on a table in front of her,

she came to Hollywood when her aunt

she is terrorized by hallucinations. She

died, and she met Camilla at an audition

runs screaming to her bed, where she

for The Sylvia North Story. Another

shoots herself. A woman at the club

woman kisses Camilla and they turn and

whispers “Silencio”.

smile at Diane. Adam and Camilla prepare to make an important announcement, and dissolve into laughter and kiss while Diane watches, crying.

Diane meets with the hit man at Winkies, where she gives him Camilla’s photo and a large amount of money, and they are served by a waitress named Betty. The hit man tells Diane that when the job is done, 49

RELEASE DATES February 21, 1997

DIRECTED BY David Lynch

RUNNING TIME

PRODUCED BY

134 minutes

Mary Sweeney Tom Sternberg

COUNTRY

Deepak Nayar

France United States

WRITTEN BY David Lynch

LANGUAGE

Barry Gifford

English MUSIC BY BUDGET

Angelo Badalamenti

$15 million CINEMATOGRAPHY BOX OFFICE

Peter Deming

$3.7 million (North America) EDITED BY STARRING

Mary Sweeney

Bill Pullman Patricia Arquette Balthazar Getty 50

DISTRIBUTED BY October Films

Lost Highway

The Films

LOST HIGHWAY Fred Madison (Bill Pullman), a Los

Fred and Renée then attend a party being

Angeles saxophonist, receives a message

thrown by Andy (Michael Massee), Renée’s

on the intercom of his house from an

friend. At the party, the pale old man Fred

unknown man, who says: “Dick Laurent is

dreamed about approaches Fred, claiming

dead”. During a break at a show one night,

to have met him before. The man then says

Fred calls his home but Renée (Patricia

he is at Fred’s house at that very moment

Arquette), his wife, does not answer any

and even somehow answers the house

of the home’s ringing telephones. Arriving

phone when Fred calls it. Fred asks Andy

home later, Fred finds her sleeping in their

who the man is, and Andy replies: he is a

bed. The next morning, Renée finds a VHS

friend of Dick Laurent’s. Fred, terrified and

tape on their porch which contains

confused, leaves the party and heads

a videotape of their house. After having

home with Renée. The next morning,

sex one night, Fred sees Renée’s face

another tape arrives and Fred watches it

as that of a pale old man, then tells

alone. To his horror, it shows him hovering

Renée of a dream he had about someone

over Renée’s dismembered body. He is

resembling her being attacked. As the

arrested for her murder, tried, found guilty

days pass, more tapes arrive showing the

and sentenced to death. Shortly after

interior of their house and even shots of

arriving at death row, Fred is plagued by

the pair asleep in bed. Fred and Renée call

frequent headaches and strange visions

the police but the detectives they send

of the Mystery Man, a burning cabin in the

over offer no assistance.

desert and a strange man driving down a dark highway.

51

David Lynch Film Festival

52

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Lost Highway

The Films

“YOU’LL NEVER HAVE ME.” During a routine cell check, the prison

what he must do to carry out her plan to

When the two detectives then drive up to

guard is shocked to find that the man in

rob Andy but Andy puts up unexpected

the house, Fred runs back to his car and

Fred’s cell is now Pete Dayton (Balthazar

resistance and ends up dead, accidentally

drives off with the detectives in pursuit.

Getty), a young auto mechanic. Since

impaling himself on the edge of his glass

As it gets dark, Fred is shown speeding

Pete has committed no crime, he is

coffee table. Pete notices a photograph

down the highway pursued by the police.

released into the care of his parents,

showing Alice and Renée together, with

Fred suddenly begins convulsing and

who take him home. Pete is then followed

Alice claiming that the blonde woman in

screaming, before the familiar image of

by two detectives who are trying to find

the photo is her. Later, when police are at

the highway at night is seen.

out more about him. The next day, Pete

the house investigating Andy’s death, the

returns to work at the garage where he is

same photo shows only Renée with Andy

soon called on by gangster Mr. Eddy

and Mr. Eddy; Alice is inexplicably missing

(Robert Loggia), to fix his car. Mr. Eddy

from the shot.

takes Pete for a drive, on which Pete witnesses Mr. Eddy chase and beat down

Pete and Alice arrive at an empty cabin

a tailgater. The next day, Mr. Eddy returns

in the desert, the same one Fred had

to the garage with his mistress, Alice

envisioned. The two start having sex but

Wakefield (also played by Arquette) and

during the act Alice gets up, walks up

his Cadillac for Pete to repair. Later, Alice

the stairs to the cabin and disappears

returns to the garage alone and invites

inside. Pete suddenly transforms back

Pete out for dinner. Soon, Pete and Alice

into Fred Madison. Upon searching the

begin a secret liaison, meeting each other

desert cabin, he meets the Mystery Man

at run-down motels every night. Alice

who begins filming and chasing Fred

soon begins to fear that Mr. Eddy is privy

with a hand-held video camera, revealing

to their affair and concocts a scheme to

himself to be the same man responsible

rob her friend Andy and leave town. Alice

for the videotapes earlier in the film. Fred

then reveals to Pete that Mr. Eddy is

escapes and drives to the Lost Highway

actually an amateur porn producer named

Hotel, where he finds Mr. Eddy and Renée

Dick Laurent.

having sex. After Renée leaves, Fred kidnaps Mr. Eddy, beats him and slits his

At home, Pete gets a phone call from

throat. The Mystery Man then shoots

Mr. Eddy and the Mystery Man (which

Mr. Eddy dead and whispers something

eerily mirrors Fred and the Mystery Man’s

to Fred. The Mystery Man disappears

earlier conversation), which distresses

and Fred drives off in Mr. Eddy’s car.

Pete so much that he decides to go along

Fred drives to his old house, buzzes the

with Alice’s plan to escape. Alice tells Pete

intercom and says: “Dick Laurent is dead”.

53

54

55

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

INLAND EMPIRE DIRECTED BY David Lynch

RELEASE DATES 6 September 2006 (Venice) 6 December 2006 (United States)

PRODUCED BY Laura Dern

7 February 2007 (France) 27 April 2007 (Poland)

Mary Sweeney RUNNING TIME WRITTEN BY

180 minutes

David Lynch COUNTRY MUSIC BY

France

David Lynch

Poland

Krzysztof Penderecki CINEMATOGRAPHY David Lynch

United States LANGUAGE English Polish

EDITED BY David Lynch

BOX OFFICE $4 million (North America)

DISTRIBUTED BY 518 Media

STARRING

Absurda (US)

Laura Dern

Studio Canal (France)

Jeremy Irons Justin Theroux Harry Dean Stanton Karolina Gruszka Peter J. Lucas Krzysztof Majchrzak Julia Ormond

56

Inland Empire

The Films

57

David Lynch Film Festival

58

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Inland Empire

The Films

The film opens to the sound of

the old woman comments on the confusion

a gramophone playing Axxon N, “the

of time, claiming that were this tomorrow,

longest-running radio play in history”.

Nikki would be sitting on a couch adjacent

Meanwhile, a young prostitute, identified

to them. The film then pans to where the

in the credits as the “Lost Girl”, cries

neighbor is pointing, and we see Nikki

while watching television in a hotel room,

and two girlfriends sitting on the couch.

following an unpleasant encounter with

Her butler (Ian Abercrombie) walks into

her client. The Lost Girl’s television

the living room with a phone call from her

displays a family of surrealistic

agent, announcing that she has won the

anthropomorphic rabbits who speak in

role. Ecstatic, Nikki and her friends

cryptic statements and questions.

celebrate while her husband Piotrek

Occasionally, there are laugh track

(Peter J. Lucas) ominously surveys them

responses within these Rabbit scenes.

from atop a nearby staircase.

These three elements become recurring motifs throughout Inland Empire.

Some time later, Nikki and her co-star Devon Berk (Theroux) receive an interview

The main plot follows an actress named

on a talk show. The host (Ladd) asks them

Nikki Grace (Dern), who has applied for

both whether they are having an affair, to

a comeback role as Sue in a film entitled

which each of them respond negatively.

On High in Blue Tomorrows. The day

Devon is warned by his entourage that

before the audition, Nikki is visited by an

Nikki is out of bounds, due to her husband’s

enigmatic old woman (Zabriskie) who

power and influence. Later, on the set

says she is her neighbor; she predicts

being built for the film, Nikki and Devon

that Nikki will get the role, and recounts

rehearse a scene with the director,

two folk tales. One tells of a boy who,

Kingsley Stewart (Irons). They are

sparking a reflection after passing

interrupted by a disturbance, but upon

through a doorway, “caused evil to be

investigation Devon finds nothing. Shaken

born.” The other tells of a girl who,

by the event, Kingsley confesses that

wandering through an alleyway behind

they are shooting a remake of a German

a marketplace, “discovers a palace.” The

feature entitled 47. Production was

old woman presses Nikki for details on

abandoned after both leads were

her new film, asking whether the story is

murdered, creating rumors of the film

about marriage and involves murder. Nikki

being cursed.

denies both, but her neighbor disagrees.

Disregarding Nikki’s offended response, 59

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A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Immersed in her character, while the film is being shot, “Sue” / Nikki appears to begin an affair with Devon / “Billy”.

A strange scene follows based on what the old woman had described: Nikki appears in a mysterious alley walking to her car, carrying a bag of groceries, but then she notices a door in the alley marked Axxon N, and enters. It leads her back to soundstage where the earlier rehearsal took place. She witnesses that rehearsal from across the room—she herself was what had interrupted it earlier.

This time, when Devon seeks to discover who’s observing them, she disappears from the rehearsal scene, and flees among the half-built backgrounds and into the house of a character named Smithy (possibly her husband in the film’s story, but this is never made clear).

Despite the set being merely a wooden facade, Nikki enters to find an illuminated suburban house inside. Devon looks through the windows, but sees only darkness, not hearing her frantic cries of his character’s name, “Billy.”

At this point, the film takes a drastic stylistic turn. Various plotlines and scenes begin to entwine and complement each other. The chronological order is often confused or nonexistent. Inside the house, Nikki sees her husband (whether it’s “Smithy” or Piotrek is unclear) in bed.

60

Inland Empire

Hiding from him, she enters a different

husband Smithy seems to be connected

room and encounters a troupe of

with both the pimps and the organization,

prostitutes. One of the women advises

and then is hired by a circus from Poland

her to burn a hole through silk with

because he is said to be “good with

a cigarette and look through the hole.

animals.” There is much talk of the

Nikki complies and witnesses several

Phantom, an elusive hypnotist. Convinced

strange happenings, many of which

she’s being stalked by a red-lipped man,

seem to revolve around her, or alternate

Sue arms herself with a screwdriver.

The Films

versions of herself.

Finally, Sue walks down Hollywood Prior to these scenes, the woman who

Boulevard, and is startled to see her

plays Billy’s wife tells a policeman that

doppelgänger across the street. Before

she had been hypnotised to murder

Sue can investigate, Doris arrives and

someone with a screwdriver, but finds the

attempts to kill her, having been

screwdriver embedded in her own side.

hypnotized by The Phantom.

A mysterious organization claims to have captives from Inland Empire.

Sue is brutally stabbed in the stomach with her own screwdriver, causing her to

A parallel plotline involves Polish circus

stagger down the street and eventually

artists in the present day, as well as Polish

collapse next to some homeless people

prostitutes in Łódź during the 1930s, who

on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. One

are confronted by strange pimps while

woman remarks that Sue is dying, then

murder permeates their city. Nikki, having

proceeds to debate with another, younger

become one of the group of present-day

homeless woman about taking a bus to

prostitutes, wanders the streets while her

Pomona. Her companion talks at length

companions ask, “Who is she?” Both Nikki

about a friend named Niko, a prostitute

and her prostitutes frequently ask people

whose blond wig makes her look like

to look at them and “say whether you’ve

a movie star, thus allowing her to walk

known me before.” In a parallel plotline,

through the rich district without drawing

Sue climbs the dark staircase behind a

attention. The older woman comforts Sue

nightclub to deliver long monologues to

by holding a lighter in front of her face

an unidentified man touching upon her

until she finally dies, promising her “no

childhood sexual abuse, disastrous

more blue tomorrows.” Off-camera,

relationships, and retaliations. Her

Kingsley yells “Cut!” and the camera pans 61

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

back to show this has merely been

and crying all along. The two women kiss,

a film scene. As the actors and film crew

before Nikki fades away into the light

wrap for the next scene, Sue slowly

along with the rabbits. The Lost Girl runs

arises, Nikki once more. Kingsley announces

out of the hotel and into Smithy’s

that her scenes for the film are complete.

house, where she happily embraces

In a daze, Nikki wanders off set and into

a man and child.

a nearby cinema, where she sees not only On High in Blue Tomorrows—encompassing

Nikki is then seen back home, smiling

some of the subplots of the film—but

at the old woman from the beginning

events that are currently occurring.

of the film. The concluding scene takes

She wanders to the projection room,

place at her house, where she sits with

but finds an apartment building marked

many other people, among them Laura

“Axxon N”. Eventually, Nikki confronts

Harring, Nastassja Kinski, and Ben Harper.

the red-lipped man from earlier, now known to be the Phantom. She shoots

A one-legged woman who was mentioned

him, which causes his face to morph first

in Sue’s monologue looks around and says,

into a distorted copy of Nikki’s own face,

“Sweet!” Niko, the girl with the blonde wig

and then an even more distorted face

and monkey, can also be seen. The end

bleeding from its mouth. Nikki flees into a

credits roll over a group of women dancing

nearby room—Room 47, which houses the

to Nina Simone’s “Sinner Man” while a

rabbits on television, though she fails to

lumberjack saws a log to the beat.

see them. Elsewhere in the building, Nikki finds the Lost Girl, who has been watching 62

Inland Empire

The Films

“THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES TO ONE’S ACTIONS. AND THERE CERTAINLY WOULD BE CONSEQUENCES TO WRONG ACTIONS. DARK THEY WOULD BE, AND INESCAPABLE..”

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David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

DIRECTED BY David Lynch PRODUCED BY Steve Golin Monty Montgomery Sigurjon Sighvatsson SCREENPLAY BY David Lynch MUSIC BY Angelo Badalamenti CINEMATOGRAPHY Frederick Elmes EDITED BY Duwayne Dunham DISTRIBUTED BY The Samuel Goldwyn Company 64

Wild at Heart

The Films

WILD AT HEART RELEASE DATES May 25, 1990 (Cannes) August 17, 1990 RUNNING TIME 124 minutes COUNTRY United States

STARRING

Lovers Lula and Sailor are separated after he is jailed for killing

Nicolas Cage

a man who attacked him with a knife; the assailant, Bobby Ray

Laura Dern

Lemon, was hired by Lula’s mother, Marietta Fortune. Upon

Willem Dafoe

Sailor’s release, Lula picks him up at the prison where she

Crispin Glover

hands him his snakeskin jacket. They go to a hotel where she

Diane Ladd

reserved a room, make love and go to see the speed metal band

Isabella Rossellini

Powermad. At the club, Sailor gets into a fight with a man who

Harry Dean Stanton

flirts with Lula, and then leads the band in a rendition of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me”. Later, back in the room, after making love again, Sailor and Lula finally decide to run away to California,

LANGUAGE

breaking Sailor’s parole. Marietta arranges for private detective

English

Johnnie Farragut – her on-off boyfriend – to find them and bring them back. Unbeknownst to Farragut, however, Marietta also

BUDGET $10 million

hires gangster Marcello Santos to track them and kill Sailor.

Santos’s minions capture and kill Farragut, sending Marietta into a guilt-fueled psychosis.

BOX OFFICE $14.6

Unaware of all of the events happening back in North Carolina, Lula and Sailor continue on their way until – according to Lula – they witness a bad omen: the aftermath of a two-car accident, and the only survivor, a young woman, dies in front of them. With little money left, Sailor heads for Big Tuna, Texas, where he contacts “old friend” Perdita Durango, who might be

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A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Wild at Heart

The Films

“THIS WHOLE WORLD’S WILD AT HEART AND WEIRD ON TOP...” able to help them, although she secretly

blows his own head off with his own shot

after Lula. The photograph of Marietta in

knows he is under contract to be killed by

gun. Sailor is arrested and sentenced to

Lula’s house sizzles and vanishes.

Lula’s mother. While Sailor agrees to join

six years in prison.

up with gangster Bobby Peru in a feed

As there is a traffic jam on the road, Sailor

store robbery, Lula waits for him in the

While Sailor is in jail, Lula has their

begins to run over the roofs and hoods of

hotel room, trying to conceal that she is

child. Upon his release Lula decides to

the cars to get back to Lula and their child

pregnant with Sailor’s child. While Sailor

reunite with him. Rejecting her mother’s

in the car. Sailor sings “Love Me Tender”

is out Peru enters the room and forces

objections over the phone, she throws

to Lula, having earlier said that he would

Lula to implore him to make love with her,

water over her mother’s photograph and

only sing that song to his wife.

but in the end he refuses, stating he has

goes to pick up Sailor with their son.When

no time. This traumatizes Lula, who had

they meet Sailor, he reveals he will be

survived a rape as a child.

leaving them both, having decided while in prison that he isn’t good enough for them.

The robbery goes spectacularly wrong when Peru unnecessarily shoots the

While Sailor is walking a short distance

two clerks. Peru then admits to Sailor

away, Sailor encounters a gang who

he’s been hired to kill him and Sailor

surround him. He insults them and they

realizes he has been given a pistol with

quickly knock him out. While unconscious,

dummy ammunition.

he sees a vision in the form of Glinda the Good Witch, who tells him, “Don’t turn

Chasing Sailor out of the store, Peru is

away from love, Sailor”. When he awakens,

about to kill him when the sheriff’s deputy

he apologizes to the men, tells them he

opens fire on him and Peru accidentally

realizes the error of his ways, then runs 67

David Lynch Film Festival

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A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Wild at Heart

The Films

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“THROUGH THE DARKNESS OF FUTURE PAST, THE MAGICIAN LONGS TO SEE, ONE CHANCE OUT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, FIRE WALK WITH ME!” — DAVID LYNCH

03.

THE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE DIRECTIONS ABOUT THE VENUES SPECIAL EVENTS

David Lynch Film Festival

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A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Schedule

The Festival

SCHEDULE This festival will highlight the six most significant films made by David Lynch and explore his importance to contemporary movies and pop culture. The audience will be able to view two movies per day, and there will also be special events for them to attend. They will also have a chance to meet David Lynch himself as well as some of the actors who have performed in his films. Also we are holding events: an opening party, a piano and singing performance, a surrealist exhibition, a small cocktail party with David Lynch, a small alternative music concert and masked ball.

During the three days you might feel just like you have been transported into the surreal world of this great director. Enjoy this journey into a dark and disturbing yet fascinating and hypnotic world.

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A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Schedule

The Festival

DAY 01.

JAN 20 FRI. 2017 2:00 pm

Opening Party in the lobby of Twin Peaks Hotel

3:00 pm

Meet the Director

4:00 pm

Screening: Blue Velvet

6:00 pm

Break Time

7:00 pm

Screening: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

9:30 pm

Piano and singing performance at Martuni’s On the first day of the festival, you can enjoy the opening party and meet the director David Lynch in the lobby of Twin Peaks Hotel, which is the first venue for this film festival. After that two films will be screened: Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Between the screenings, there will be a short break time. Lastly, at Martuni’s in San Francisco, you can enjoy a piano and singing performance similar to the one in the movie Blue Velvet.

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David Lynch Film Festival

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A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Schedule

The Festival

DAY 02.

JAN 21 SAT. 2017 2:00 pm

Surrealist exhibition in the lobby of Motel Capri

3:00 pm

Meet the Actors

4:00 pm

Screening: Mulholland Drive

7:00 pm

Break Time

7:30 pm

Screening: Lost Highway

10:00 pm

A small cocktail party at The Royale in SF On the second day of our festival, we’ve planned an exhibition of Surrealist art in the lobby of Motel Capri. It is going to start at 2pm. After you enjoy the exhibition, you can meet some of the actors who have starred in David Lynch’s movies and have an opportunity to talk to them. From 4 pm on, we will be screening Mulholland Dr. and Lost Highway. Between the movies, there will be a short break with refreshments.

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David Lynch Film Festival

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A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

Schedule

The Festival

DAY 03.

JAN 22 SUN. 2017 2:00 pm

Alternative music Concert in the Lobby of Inn On Broadway

3:00 pm

Critics Roundtable Discussion

4:00 pm

Screening: Inland Empire

7:30 pm

Break Time

8:00 pm

Screening: Wild At Heart

10:00 pm

Masked Ball at Bimbo’s 365 Club On the last day of the festival, an interesting alternative music concert will be held in the lobby of the Inn On Broadway, which is the last venue of the festival. After that, a roundtable discussion will be held with various film critics on the importance of David Lynch’s movies and his impact on current pop culture. From 4 pm on, we will be screening Inland Empire and Wild at Heart. We also have a break time between the movies. Lastly, there will be a big closing Masked Ball party at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco.

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David Lynch Film Festival

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DIRECTIONS

4

Directions

1.

The Festival

Twin Peaks Hotel Address: 2160 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94114 Phone:(415) 863-2909

2.

Martuni’s Address: 4 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94103 Phone: (415) 241-0205

3.

Motel Capri Address: 2015 Greenwich St, San Francisco, CA 94123 Phone:(415) 346-4667

4.

The Royale Address: 800 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone: (415) 441-4099

5.

Inn On Broadway Address: 2201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone:(415) 776-7900

6.

Bimbo’s 365 Club Address: 1025 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 Phone: (415) 241-0205 83

David Lynch Film Festival

A Dream of Dark and Troubling Things

ABOUT THE VENUES & SPECIAL EVENTS The festival will be held for three days in three old-fashioned motels, which are similar to the settings for several of David Lynch’s movies. There will also be events before and after the screenings, and guests will go to the room numbers printed on their tickets. This festival is very private and discrete and has limited seating.

After the screenings, we provide events every day. During the three day festival, you can enjoy a piano and singing performance at Martuni’s, a small cocktail party with the great director David Lynch at The Royale, and a weird but interesting masked ball at Bimbo’s 365 Club.

DAY 01.

Twin Peaks Hotel You can watch Twin Peaks: File Walk With Me at the Twin Peaks Hotel, which has the original 1950’s interiors. Moreover, it is a 5-minute drive to Golden Gate Park and this Castro District hotel is two miles from Union Square. So it will be a good opportunity for sightseeing in San Francisco.

Martuni’s From 9:30 pm to midnight you can enjoy the piano show with a glamorous singer performing classic songs at a famous piano bar in San Francisco. You could also belt out show tunes and down large specialty martinis at this popular piano bar.

Let’s enjoy the first day of the festival!

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Venues and Special Events

DAY 02.

The Festival

Motel Capri This old-fashioned motel will recreate the atmosphere of many of David Lynch’s films. An 8-minute walk from Fort Mason’s museums, parks and gardens, this family-run motel in the Marina District has been open since 1957. The relaxed property is also a 4-minute walk from the restaurants and art deco architecture of Chestnut Street.

The Royale From 10 pm to midnight, a small cocktail party will be held. You can talk to David Lynch at the party. Don’t miss this precious opportunity!

DAY 03.

Inn On Broadway This mid-century style motel provides a similar feeling to that of David Lynch’s movies. This motel is also set on a bustling commercial street and is 4 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge and 5 miles from Golden Gate Park, which are good places to look around before and after the screening.

Bimbo’s 365 Club From 10 pm to midnight on the last day of the festival, we are having a masked ball at this historical club in San Francisco. We are really looking forward to see your weird but fabulous Lynchian masks at this final celebration of Lynch’s genius.

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References

REFERENCES https://theatre.acehotel.com/events/david-lynchs-festival-disruption/ http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/10/david-lynchs-festival-of-disruption-the10-best-moments/ https://www.ffffilm.com/director/david-lynch?page=1 http://musicvideotop.com/david-lynch-festival-includes-robert-plant-sky-ferreirast-vincent/ http://thevinylfactory.com/news/new-david-lynch-lp-treated-to-deluxe-editionbox-set-with-bonus-7-single-and-bastille-remix/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcJ-DVq25-Q

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School Department Student Email

Academy of Art University Graphic Design Sunjung Park ssunssi02@naver.com

Semester

Fall 2016

Instructor

Hunter Wimmer

Typefase

Tungsten Vitesse Forza

Š 2016 All Right Reserved

HOPE TO SEE YOU IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE UNCONSCIOUS WORLD OF DAVID LYNCH’S FESTIVAL.

Sunjung Park | 04207893 ssnssi02@naver.com