The David Lynch Experience

I recently saw David Lynch's newest Movie "Inland Empire" a 3 hour tour de force, of talking rabbits, time warps, stories-within-stories, emotional instability, and lots of tight gritty close-ups. A lots been said on that movie, and I actually wanted to talk more about the experience of David Lynch movies rather than any particular movie itself.

For me it started at Wake Forest, I was pretty much just off the turnip truck from rural Eastern North Carolina. However, I was all set for something new and different, challenging. The little student theater there, run by the film department was a small basement affair in the student center. A small cinder block room, painted black with maybe 20-30 chairs, and a projector on a AV stand in the back. There was probably never more than 10-15 people there for any movie that I can remember.

It's an experience I'm not sure people get today (what with Netflix, downloads and DVDs). There's something exciting about going down long hallways and stairs to some small basement black box to see some arthouse movie - there's that feeling of discovery, of being introduced to something unusual, something "arty". There's this joining of a small club of film buffs who "get it" when most people don't even try.

Well David Lynch was part of all that. I remember seeing Eraserhead and his earlier movies here, being riveted to the screen by the sheer perverseness and creativity of it all.

He later went a bit more mainstream with Blue Velvet, and Dune. Then veered off the tracks a bit to a more personal style with Mulholland Drive and now especially Inland Empire.

I read a recent article asking -- "Just how do you keep your reputation as a renegade avant garde film maker when you hit 50?"

I also remember seeing Andy Warhol movies there (see previous post on Factory Girl) actually sitting through all five hours of "Sleep" (which you can't even find today) - Who in the MTV generation would do that today?

How do people today discover art cinema? That there's something outside of the the local mall octoplex?

DVDs are a mixed blessing, I know they're cited as the main culprit in the death of the Art Cinema. Atlanta used to have quite a few. Places like Rhodes Hall, that showed old B&W classics, and hard to find foreign movies. It's nice that it's all (mostly) available for home consumption, but I guess I miss the magic of seeing those classics on the big screen with an audience.

Or in the case of David Lynch, seeing a a movie in a student center basement.

I've attached what I think is probably the ultimate early Lynch movie "The Grandmother" not as famous as Eraserhead, but probably more disturbing and memorable.