Hope I put this in the right place, I wasn't sure whether it should go here or in the DL Forum. Oh, well...

I got to thinking about movies today (not unusual for me) and started to wonder about movies by other directors that are "Lynchian". You know how it is, Lynch's films have that certain quality that's hard to define, yet impossible to mistake. It's like that old cliche about pornography: I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.     

I tried to think of non-Lynch movies that have Lynchian qualities. So far I've come up with:

Natural Born Killers-This is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it movie. Me, I'm in the love it category. Oliver Stone at his unbridled best. Lots of Lynchy moments, IMO.

River's Edge-Great little film about the effects (or lack thereof) of a teenage girl's death on her peers in a small town. Very Lynch, especially with Crispin Glover and a "Blue Velvet"-era Dennis Hopper.

Being John Malkovich-I've always thought that if DL were to make a flat-out comedy it would be a lot like this film.

What can you come up with?

I always think that doing this type of thing is a little insulting to the people who made the movies in question.

i don't know, it's a valuable skill to be able to compare tone. one of my favorites is the scene in the recent war of the worlds remake where dakota fanning sees all the bodies come floating down the river. that was a moment of pure kurosawa magic, and there's no way in hell spielberg would be insulted by that comparison. :)

This part of David Foster Wallace's oft-cited article cites some obvious Van Sant, Jarmusch, Tarantino & the Coen Brothers nods to things Lynch did:

http://www.geocities.com/~mikehartmann/papers/wallace7.html

I think his definition ("the irony of the banal") might have meant something in 1996, when he said the "anti-Hollywood" wave of directors in the 90's (some of whom are now "Hollywood") wouldn't exist without DL as a touchstone.

 But at some point, the word became a box people wanted to force other things inside, and that box became an overstuffed cliche; falling apart, and generally worn out. Jen is likely to be buried in it, by an unfortunate hereditary association to the word.

Even if you can say, respectfully, that another work is strictly Lynchian, one could make the case that saying anything can be "Lynchian" after 30 years is like calling DL a one-trick-pony.

I mean, If Inland Empire is "Lynchian", it's only because David Lynch made it, not because it fits into some other, past-its-expiration-date criteria delineated by Eraserhead and Blue Velvet... right?

David Lynch Keeps His Head by David Foster Wallace:

 http://www.geocities.com/~mikehartmann/papers/wallace.html

calling DL a one-trick-pony.

i can't imagine reading so much film commentary/criticism that i'd get sick of the word lynchian. i can't honestly say i've heard it outside of people complaining about it here.

This thread title has been endorsed and sponsored by Booth, Nefud, and 12rainbow.  Lynchian! 

calling DL a one-trick-pony.

So that would be Booth's definition of Lynchian.

(Yes, critics love to label anything with those gothic conventions as Lynchian, as if he invented it. But he didn't, so that can't be his signature. Got to applaud the guy for appearing to corner the market on that plot, though! That's big.)

Mine is: directed by anyone with the last name "Lynch."

WilliamtheBloody is not alone making the connection with Lynch to the works of a guest director of Twin Peaks; or super-saturated nightmarescapes; or mind-bending identity play.

Dude who wrote David Lynch Decoded might say anyone who uses strobes, red curtains, barking dogs, and the color blue.

See how messy and vague it becomes? It can't be all of these things at once, can it? And if it meets just one of those qualifications, then anything can be Lynchian.

  So that would be Booth's definition of Lynchian.

And if it meets just one of those qualifications, then anything can be Lynchian.

(I know, Booth. I was just using your statement to make a point.)

lynchian is like that old definition of porno-- i know it when i see it. and frankly, i never see it outside of his movies. not the "real deal" anyway. there's a certain combination of exquisite lighting, ambient noise and just SLIGHTLY off dialogue* that lets you know it's a lynch movie.

*go on, just try writing something as perfectly gently weird as the "my dog barks some" speech. dialogue is SO undervalued in lynch's bag of tricks!

lynchian is like that old definition of porno-- i know it when i see it.

lynchian is like that old definition of porno-- i know it when i see it.

*The Giant appears* "It is happening again."

coolspringsj says - Do me.
 

coolspringsj says - Do me.

This has already been posted. OR HAS IT?!


Yes it has.

I keep seeing an ad at the bottom of the screen with pics of guts with stretch marks

Wow. Never in a million years did I think that my use of the word "Lynchian" on a David Lynch fan site would generate controversy.  

Wow. Never in a million years did I think that my use of the word "Lynchian" on a David Lynch fan site would generate controversy.  

"I got burned at the stake for it by the sponsors of the thread title.     "

From now on, I'll stick to the safe topics: Religion, politics, The Great Pumpkin...  

Wow. Never in a million years did I think that my use of the word "Lynchian" on a David Lynch fan site would generate controversy.  

Controversy is the spice of life, and the spice prolongs life.

Roll on the revolution.

I was looking for something else and came across the Movies Reminiscent of Lynch thread for you, William:

http://twinpeaks.2000revue.com/community/topic.cfm?topicid=1737&page=1

Thanks, Rainbow!

No prob.  It wasn't my intention to shit up your thread, I hope you're not offended by my comments.

Hey- I'm watching The Cell again for the first time since it came out. This one used to get compared to TP a lot. 

"No prob.  It wasn't my intention to shit up your thread, I hope you're not offended by my comments."

Nah, it's cool. I just didn't set out to start a thread that would be a source of conflict. I like to get at least a hundred posts under my belt before I start pissing people off.  

I think "The Cell" is a really underrated litle movie, very cool and weird. Totally different from Lynch's brand of cool and weird, but I can see the comparison.