2001: Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
One thing people don't discuss all that much when it comes to David Lynch is his relationship to film noir. When I look at the majority of his career -- Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks TV show and film, Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., and Inland Empire -- as much as anything else, I see influences and traces of noir. Sure he blends genre, and sure his films challenge us to reconsider the look, feel, and sound of noir, but so many elements of noir are present. And I say this as a compliment. After all, noir is the genre I know best, and probably the one that got me into all this in the first place.
I won't break down and analyze all the noir elements I see in Mulholland Dr. But I will at least make a quick mention of them: the theme of amnesia, a deep relationship to a specific city and locale, a serpentine plot, a non-linear narrative, a femme fatale, a fatalistic tone, obscurity in favor of clarity, elements of crime, and an emphasis on the nocturnal.
Mulholland Dr. combines all of Lynch's talents -- mastery of noir, humor, and sexiness -- into an incredibly powerful and fresh concoction. I love almost all of Lynch's work, but this one has some of his most memorable characters. It is also one of his more accessible and relatively audience-friendly works. As always with Lynch, Mulholland Dr. is both entertaining and smart, and looks and sounds amazing.
One thing people don't discuss all that much when it comes to David Lynch is his relationship to film noir. When I look at the majority of his career -- Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks TV show and film, Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., and Inland Empire -- as much as anything else, I see influences and traces of noir. Sure he blends genre, and sure his films challenge us to reconsider the look, feel, and sound of noir, but so many elements of noir are present. And I say this as a compliment. After all, noir is the genre I know best, and probably the one that got me into all this in the first place.
I won't break down and analyze all the noir elements I see in Mulholland Dr. But I will at least make a quick mention of them: the theme of amnesia, a deep relationship to a specific city and locale, a serpentine plot, a non-linear narrative, a femme fatale, a fatalistic tone, obscurity in favor of clarity, elements of crime, and an emphasis on the nocturnal.
Mulholland Dr. combines all of Lynch's talents -- mastery of noir, humor, and sexiness -- into an incredibly powerful and fresh concoction. I love almost all of Lynch's work, but this one has some of his most memorable characters. It is also one of his more accessible and relatively audience-friendly works. As always with Lynch, Mulholland Dr. is both entertaining and smart, and looks and sounds amazing.
Other contenders for 2001: From this year, I still have some things to see. These include: Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World, Seijun Suzuki's Pistol Opera, Jafar Panahi's The Circle, Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone, Yves Lavandier's Oui, mais..., and Pedro Costa's Ou git votre sourire enfoui? From this year, I really like Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl and Sean Penn's The Pledge. I love Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: AI, Jacques Rivette's Va savoir, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Millennium Mambo, and Dover Kosashvili's Late Marriage. And my closest runner-up is Tsai Ming-liang's What Time Is It There?
8/29/10 I watched Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. I've always struggled a little with his cinema. He has wonderful taste in music, his cinema is quite unique and of one piece, but it leaves me a little frustrated. I'm not sure if it's whether I find it too quirky and interested in being hip, or I struggle with something else in his work. He's a talent. I just have different wants and needs, I think, when it comes to the medium.
12/10/10 I watched Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World. Zwigoff has a little of Woody Allen's sensibility and an extraordinary sense of humor, at times. I wish this film was a little less quirky and the visuals a little less glossy. But it's mostly a fun, pretty original little film.
12/11/10 I watched Julio Medem's Sex and Lucia. Sexy, for sure. But not really my type of film. Complex like the Inarritu movies, with an aesthetic that I found a little on the ugly and messy side.
12/21/10 I watched Jean-Luc Godard's In Praise of Love. Godard has not abandoned his path one bit. He continues to believe that the role of an artist is to provide a mirror on his/her world, and he continues to believe in the power of thought, analysis, and information as a weapon rather than as a crutch. His style here is more like Chris Marker's filmmaking, but he still has the ability to be lyrical, incredibly perceptive, and bold. It's good to see him looking at Paris again. I just wish, at times, that his style was a little more vital, and his thoughts a little easier to follow.
1/3/11 I watched Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. It's amazing that Scott was able to make one battle sequence stretch almost two hours. He finds a few moments, here and there. But all in all, I thought it a little less than its reputation.
9/1/14 I watched Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home. Only the second film I have so far from the celebrated Portuguese filmmaker and again I was impressed, moved and encouraged to seek out and watch more of his work. At times his aesthetic and sensibility remind me of Rohmer or even Rivette, something very loose and smart, and it does not hurt that this film takes place in Paris and features Michel Piccoli and Catherine Deneuve. The title holds several different meanings and the final image perpetuates the contemplative mood and tone that seems to be one of the hallmarks of de Oliveira.
8/29/10 I watched Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. I've always struggled a little with his cinema. He has wonderful taste in music, his cinema is quite unique and of one piece, but it leaves me a little frustrated. I'm not sure if it's whether I find it too quirky and interested in being hip, or I struggle with something else in his work. He's a talent. I just have different wants and needs, I think, when it comes to the medium.
12/10/10 I watched Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World. Zwigoff has a little of Woody Allen's sensibility and an extraordinary sense of humor, at times. I wish this film was a little less quirky and the visuals a little less glossy. But it's mostly a fun, pretty original little film.
12/11/10 I watched Julio Medem's Sex and Lucia. Sexy, for sure. But not really my type of film. Complex like the Inarritu movies, with an aesthetic that I found a little on the ugly and messy side.
12/21/10 I watched Jean-Luc Godard's In Praise of Love. Godard has not abandoned his path one bit. He continues to believe that the role of an artist is to provide a mirror on his/her world, and he continues to believe in the power of thought, analysis, and information as a weapon rather than as a crutch. His style here is more like Chris Marker's filmmaking, but he still has the ability to be lyrical, incredibly perceptive, and bold. It's good to see him looking at Paris again. I just wish, at times, that his style was a little more vital, and his thoughts a little easier to follow.
1/3/11 I watched Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. It's amazing that Scott was able to make one battle sequence stretch almost two hours. He finds a few moments, here and there. But all in all, I thought it a little less than its reputation.
9/1/14 I watched Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home. Only the second film I have so far from the celebrated Portuguese filmmaker and again I was impressed, moved and encouraged to seek out and watch more of his work. At times his aesthetic and sensibility remind me of Rohmer or even Rivette, something very loose and smart, and it does not hurt that this film takes place in Paris and features Michel Piccoli and Catherine Deneuve. The title holds several different meanings and the final image perpetuates the contemplative mood and tone that seems to be one of the hallmarks of de Oliveira.
3/13/22 I watched Frederick Wiseman's Domestic Violence. Another courageous, unflinching look from Wiseman. It has some tremendous passages but I was never as involved as I sometimes get in some of my favorite Wiseman films.
12/10/23 I watched Manoel de Oliveira's Porto of My Childhood. Struck me as a mixture of a memory film from Godard and Marker. Poetic and fully felt even if I could not follow it all.
