Presentation Script
David Lynch’s use of puzzle pictures and dream sequences
Run Audio: Theme music from the Twin Peaks TV series – 30 seconds then fade out.
Projector: Famous image of David Lynch smoking a cigarette
Presenter: David Lynch is famous for his own unique style. His first film, eraserhead (1976) automatically attained him cult status and established himself as a distinctive filmmaker, popular among the arthouse crowds.
Video clip: Clip from Eraserhead – 0’ 43”
Presenter: My research is based around the use of puzzle pictures and dream sequences within Lynch’s films, and how dreaming plays an essential part within his cinematography. I have been focusing on the film Mulholland Dr, as well as looking at his other classics such as Lost Highway, Blue velvet and his Hit TV series Twin Peaks.
Video Clip: Dream sequence from Mulholland Dr. – 1’07” This clip shows Naomi Watts screaming hysterically, whilst having a nightmare that her Grandparents are coming to get her.
Presenter: From what I have read in my research, people seem to try and over analyse Lynch’s work, to pin point a specific answer or evn define reasoning to what he displays in his films. They argue that his films are too hard to understand.
From whether you are trying to grasp the non-liner narrative in Lost Highway, or trying to figure out what you are watching is reality or dream, in Mulholland dr., to keeping up with the double roles played by same actors.
David Lynch films are not supposed to be fully understood. Lynch describes his paintings like how he sees his films; hes says they are “lost in darkness and confusion”
As long as you know this before watching a Lynch film, you will be able to enjoy it more, rather than over analysing it to try find an answer at the end. There are never concrete answers within Lynch films, which makes them unique. Some films end with cliff hangers, making you ask yourself, ‘What’s going to happen next?’ where as after watch a Lynch film, such as Lost Highway, which ends with a Police chase down a long dark highway, the question in mind is ‘What just happened? Let alone what next.
Video Clip: Mulholland Dr. Trailer – 1’47”
Presenter: As you should have notices, the word ‘dream’ fetured twice within the trailer, emphasising the central role of dreams within. The most prominent attribute to Mulgolland Dr, come about an hour and a half into the 2 hours 20 minute film, throwing the whole story off course. However there are other smaller story lines intwined, the main storyline follows the arrival of Betty (Naomi Watts) to Hollywood, ‘The city of dreams’ where she find her self caught up in a dangerous mystery, with a woman with amnesia (Laura Harring), known as Rita. After finding a key to a mysterious ox, things get complicated, as Betty suddenly wakes up. Her name is different, now Diane, as well as her personality changing. Other characters from earlier have also changed, as well as their relationships to one another. As each new scene unfolds after this peculiar change, a different level of significance and mean becomes apparent when the spectator looks back on what had already happened. This consecutively builds a sense of apprehension and anxiety. The film ends with Betty/Diane committing suicide, which adds to the confusion of the entire film, as you’re left debating questions to yourself about what’s gone on. Was the first Betty all a dream? Which would mean, Diane was the ‘real’ Betty visioning her fantasies
Video Clip: Clip of Betty Auditioning for a part in a movie, where she seems quite intimated by the room of spectators – 1’22”
As you can see the original Betty had a more timid voice, she is a stereotypical American actress, who had moved to Hollywood in search of stardom, where as Diane is a lot more tough and hard
Video clip Clip of Diane paying a hit man to kill a woman called Camilla. – 0’ 46”
Presenter: Even if this is true, that does not explain how some of the characters pathways interlink with each other. Ultimately it would seem that Lynch’s ‘thrill of discovery’ takes over here, and that he would rather leave it open to interpretration.
Video Clip Lost Highway Trailer – 1’ 50”
Presenter: The most significant quote from Lost Highway is when Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) says, “I like to remember things my own way, not necessarily the way they happened”. This is David Lynch’s way of describing the disorder within Lost Highway, as it is up to the viewer to interpret what happens between the parallel worlds of the film.
This film also has a surprising twist within the narrative, and is similar to Mulholland Dr., in that half way through everything transforms. The main Character Fred, gets arrested and put in prison for the murder of his wife, when overnight in his cell he suddenly becomes a different character. This new character, Fred gets arrested and put in prison for the murder of his wife, when overnight in his cell he suddenly becomes a different character. This new character, Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty) leads a completely different life but strange things start to happen to him, and he meets a woman, who you instantly identify as Fred’s murdered wife. Her name and appearance have also changed. Before the ending, the swap is reversed and Fred comes back, on the run from the police. The question is, was Fred dreaming?
Mulholland Dr and Lost Highway both end puzzlingly, tormenting the viewer over what had just happened, but is there any reason behind why Lynch does this, or is it just his belief that ‘”abstraction in movies intensifies an audiences participation”, therefore making you want to understand the questions that have no answers?
Video Clip: Twin Peaks trailer – 1’ 43”. This shows a brief outline to the story.
Presenter: Lynch is also well known for his TV series, Twin Peaks. Lots of characters within Lynch’s work are shown to experience dreams, or in some cases nightmares. In Twin Peaks, FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), arrives at the town of Twin Peaks to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), a stunning high school girl, with dark secrets. In the second episode of the series, Agent Cooper has a dream, which is then looked back at, throughout the rest of the series. It shows a very peculiar set of images, with himself sitting in the ‘Red Room’
Video Clip Twin Peaks Ep.1.2 – ‘Cooper’s Dream’ – 5’42”
Presenter: As you can see, Cooper is looking old and wrinkled, there is also a midget and Laura is alive. The midget tells Cooper some mysterious information and then before he wakes up, Laura comes over and whispers something to him. When he wakes up he claims, “I know who killed Laura”
Compared to Fred’s dream in Lost Highway, which is more like a nightmare, to scare the viewer and entice them into his crazed life, where your never quite sure what is a dream and what is reality, Cooper’s dream in Twin Peaks consists of shocking images, which in turn provide clues to help him solve Laura’s murder. In both cases, the dreams play crucial parts within, and as Lynch writes the films himself, he has total control over the narratives, which means they are meant to be centered around dreams and puzzle pictures, and not just show random dream sequences. Lynch says “It’s a dangerous thing to say what a picture is. If things get too specific, the dream stops.”, which shows how he doesn’t like to give the audience any solid answers, he says “I never interpret my art. I let the audience do that.”
Lynch has many trade marks, which emphasize his distinct style, one used often is his ‘close up shots of eyes’ which allows the audience insight into his characters souls, to help them unlock clues into his puzzle pictures, as for the changes in their personalities. Another Lynch trade mark is the ‘ Use of slow-motion during key scenes of violence’ which helps created a distorted dream like world, where time is drawn out to prolong what is happening, which resembles a real life dream and empathsize the non-liner narrative, as for the flashing mirrors and the inordered structure. Lynch’s films are hugely influenced by his artistic background, and he constantly borrows from surrealism, as for the artist Dali, and h uses elements as ‘live ants and rotting flesh’ in his art work. He has also cited Luis Bunuel, ‘The father of cinematic surrealism, as an influence of his work. Through these influences he is able to createdepth and space within shots, through the use of clever technical skills, as for the colour and lighting, which add to the dream like vision
Image: Comparison of Lynch’s work to a Dali painting.
Presenter: It is not because Lynch uses dreams in his films, which makes them unique, as many other directors show characters having dreams or nightmares in their films, but I would say that it is Lynch’s unique style that makes his out of the ordinary. He does this by making the dreams the central role in his films and creates puzzles around them to create an abstract film. Since Lynch does this in more than one film, it had become his distinct style and one reason that people go back to see his films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVPHF3_zSIw&feature=player_embedded
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