Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

David Lynch has died

variety.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 391 posts

Re: David Lynch has died

#121

Post by PittleyDunkin »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #64
jonhohle wrote: post #16

During Covid I started watching his daily weather update, even though I didn’t live in LA. Virtually every day was the same. Very clear. Very still. I’m not sure if anyone could ever “get” one of his movies completely beyond the experience and the narrative. He always left so much unsaid and open to interpretation, just like life. They are movies designed to make the viewer feel a certain way, rather than literally w…

> I’m not sure if anyone could ever “get” one of his movies completely beyond the experience and the narrative. His movies are not supposed to be "got" completely. They are surrealist. They have the logic of dreams. Or nightmares. There are things in them that won't ever make literal sense. Any film school graduate can string together some random images and call it "surreal", and mostly those would be boring. but Lyn…

I want to push back on the surreal end slightly. It's true that his movies are extremely resistant to analysis, and it's true that much of his imagery is de-facto surreal. But his movies still have narratives assembled from humans in concrete situations with concrete problems and easily understandable actions and reactions. In other words, you can enjoy his movies as an experience at relative face-value in a way many other forms of surreal art resist.

Some more than others, perhaps—the man produced Dune and Eraserhead pretty damn close together, and Eraserhead is not generally considered an easy movie to watch. But the man was never afraid or dismissive of giving us straightforwardly enjoyable cinema, even if we can't easily articulate why!

Re: David Lynch has died

#122

Post by wut42 »

freedomben wrote: post #12
wut42 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I was hesitating to post the facebook source but back when I submitted there was no other coverage.

HN guidelines prefer the original source when possible, so you did the right thing IMHO.

Apparently not! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42729717

Funny :)

Re: David Lynch has died

#123

Post by julienchastang »

Very sad. I had the privilege of watching the late Roger Ebert deconstruct "Mulholland Drive" at the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado during the daily Cinema Interruptus. Each day for a week, we spent an hour or two analyzing the film, with anyone in the audience able to shout "stop" to pause the screening and discuss any aspect of the movie with Ebert. His insights and thoughtful manner of speaking about film left a lasting impression on me. RIP.

Re: David Lynch has died

#124

Post by Fricken »

diggan wrote: post #19

Sad to hear. Personally I think I've only seen Mulholland Drive before, but long time ago. I enjoy surreal movies in general, so kind of weird I haven't seen more of Lynch's work. What personal favorites do other HNers have, of what he'd done?

I recommend starting at the beginning with Eraserhead. He hasn't made anything I would classify as less than brilliant.

Re: David Lynch has died

#126

Post by Trasmatta »

I'm so grateful he was able to make Twin Peaks: The Return before he passed. It's one of the most brilliant and moving pieces of fiction I've ever experienced. If they had started it just a few years later it may have never been finished.

Re: David Lynch has died

#127

Post by messe »

hinkley wrote: post #71
tannhaeuser wrote: post #17

How sad. Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive (the IMO under-appreciated pilot), and yes his Dune even though he didn't like it are some of my favourite movies of all time. RIP

We discovered a cut that was about three hours that people who hadn’t read the book seemed to understand. Had a different intro and flowed better. I’ve seen three versions of this movie. The theatrical and the longest one both sucked for anyone not a Herbert fan. I thought the longest was the director’s cut but he never did one. Perhaps it was the TV movie cut. But I don’t know what the “good” one was called.

My best guess is that you're thinking of the Spicediver edit, a fan edit which runs about three hours, and is highly regarded.

Re: David Lynch has died

#128

Post by jimbob45 »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #103
sk11001 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never seen a single one of his movies but I love watching interviews with him, he had an amazing presence and so much energy.

Start with "Eraserhead" and then go from there. Surreal is the word I associate with his movies and tv show (Twin Peaks) and I absolutely love watching such movies!

Dune or Twin Peaks are probably going to be more accessible than anything else.

For Eraserhead, I understand the metaphor of how parenting can be larger-than-life and terrifying and I see how Eraserhead was trying to embody that but I very much didn't appreciate the highly pessimistic ending. It's an early movie that would have benefited immensely from an alternate ending on its DVD.

Re: David Lynch has died

#129

Post by timewizard »

jonhohle wrote: post #16

During Covid I started watching his daily weather update, even though I didn’t live in LA. Virtually every day was the same. Very clear. Very still. I’m not sure if anyone could ever “get” one of his movies completely beyond the experience and the narrative. He always left so much unsaid and open to interpretation, just like life. They are movies designed to make the viewer feel a certain way, rather than literally w…

Eraserhead is about the fear of being a new father.
Post reply on HN