Lost Highway
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Movie Reviews of Lost Highway
Movie Review: Hell is Repetition
Summary: 5 Stars
There are those cinema experiences that will always stay with you for various reasons that sometimes even have little to do with the movie you saw, as I will always remember seeing "From Dusk till Dawn", at the midnight hour, not just because I loved the movie, but more so, that during that night in the next few hours the relationship with a girlfriend was initiated. Sometimes a movie is stuck in your memory, because you were deeply moved by it because you totally identified with one or several characters, while another movie you will never forget, because you had such high expectations and eventually so few of them you felt were met.
Seeing Lost Highway in the cinema for the first time was such an unforgettable experience but not for any of the reasons mentioned above. From the opening scene that showed me Fred's face lit by inhaling cigarette, I knew I was about to go on a journey that I had never before undertaken as a viewer, as it turned out to be a journey through a landscape, that never before was seen in any movie in this way, the landscape of the subconscious, in this case the subconscious of the character Fred Madison. Never before or since an exploration of this realm was undertaken in such a brilliant way and shows it as reality. Let's be honest, we all know how much our behavior, thoughts and feelings are determined and directed by it, so it's really quite astonishing, that this journey has been made so rarely.
It's not my intention to analyze the movie scene by scene, however great the temptation as I could talk about every scene for about an hour, but that's not the point. Everybody should get lost in their own fashion on this highway, which the movie travels and which proves to be so fateful for Fred Madison. I'd like to help the viewer along just a bit though and so there are two aspects I'd like to expand upon: `Moebius strip' and `Psychogenic Fugue'.
As is shown in a famous Escher painting a Moebius strip is a strip of paper of which both ends are tied together in a circle, which is however twisted in the middle, causing both in- and outside of the surface to be identical. This relates to the structure of the movie, where conscious-subconscious, fantasy-reality, have become entangled to such a degree that they have merged to the point of indistinction. It also is a structure that has no end and no beginning, only determined by identical starting and end point before a new loop is initiated.
Naturally there are multiple interpretations possible concerning this movie, but what is certain is that the medical condition, named by Lynch himself in relation to this movie, which plays a crucial part is "psychogenic fugue". This medical term refers to a state of mind in which the person suffering from it deals with a traumatic experience, let's say the violent death of a wife by their hand, by creating a construct for itself, a different personality with a different history and a different life trying to suppress reality.
It should be obvious that a combination of these two aspects applied to one character would signify a highly confusing life with no hope of escaping the vicious circle, as the personas the character adopts every time (the start of each loop) cannot prevent that in the end reality always determines the outcome with only the one escape to the next persona, as we can see at the end of the movie when Pete (Fred's alternate persona) has become Fred again and is being chased by the police, reality seeping in, starts to 'morph' again and this way initiates the start of a new 'loop'. Ultimate hell I'd say.
In Fred's 'fugue' existence Pete is the ideal made flesh for a man like Fred, who no longer wants to suffer from impotence caused by suspicions of infidelity on his wife's part. Pete doesn't have a wife, but dumps his girlfriend in favor of a mistress, femme fatale Alice, 'stolen' from underworld figure Mr. Eddie, known by Pete as a regular of the garage where he works as a mechanic. As Pete, Fred seems to have a firm grip on the reigns of his life, but that's only on the surface. Pete, as it turns out, is being completely manipulated by Alice and Mr. Eddie, Dick Laurent in Fred's reality who he suspected of the affair with his wife Renee, the blond version of Alice, is now the victim and threatening potential doom on Pete's and Alice's relationship and just as present between them as Laurent was in Fred's mind in his relationship with Renee. The only one not fooled by Fred's game with fantasy and reality is the so-called 'Mystery Man', a unique performance by Robert Blake, who, as a kind of Mephistopheles knows all about Fred's dark impulses, symbolically recording all his actions on video (also a comment about the relationship between the artist and his art, but that's a different discussion). As in the Faust legend of old he only goes where he's invited and he embodies the inescapability of Fred's doomed fate, the nexus where fantasy and reality touch. It's no coincidence that the metamorphosis from one persona into the next takes place in his cabin.
I do consider 'Lost Highway' to be the, hopefully temporary, pinnacle in Lynch' work and those that are willing to travel along this road of mystery, violence and sensuality, I wish them a similar spellbound experience that I have had so many times on this road to perdition.
Movie Review: Finally - Lost Highway on DVD!
Summary: 5 Stars
Universal finally got around to releasing Lynch's "Lost Highway" on DVD! Most of you are already well aware that there was never a proper domestic release of the film. It was available from Canada in a hideous pan and scan version complete with terrible color and brightness levels that made the film difficult to watch.
Before discussing this particular DVD, I'd like to include a few comments on the film itself. There are a lot of people that will say this film makes no sense, that it's meaningless, or even pointless. I would like to counter that by saying, the film is full of meaning, but it's like a puzzle and you can't expect to figure it out on one or two viewings alone. There are so many fascinating details and connections that present themselves upon subsequent viewings that I really believe it's worth it to spend some time with "Lost Highway".
I don't want to give away plot information or even present some common interpretations of the film. At least 30% of the fun comes from post-viewing discussions where you and your friends attempt to make sense of the pieces. If you are just dying to get some easy answers, they're already covered in Lynch discussion boards all around the web. I'm much more interested in helping new viewers approach the film to get the most out of it on the first viewing.
I think the first viewing should be a purely sensual experience where you can take in the atmosphere and react to the film on a gut level. It's going to make you scratch your head, but it's such a wild ride that I think it's fun without even understanding everything. The second time you watch it, look for details - themes, motives, repetition - there are clues all over the place.
In interviews, Lynch admitted that he and Barry Gifford (the writer) included certain elements so that the film would *not* ever completely resolve, no matter how you put it together. Think of the blue box in "Mulholland Drive" - it's a fantastic element that probably exists only symbolically. If you separate certain features of "Mulholland Drive", the film eventually makes sense. The same goes for "Lost Highway" - there are real events, symbolic events, and imaginary events. A great first step is deciding in which category specific events fall.
Now onto this particular DVD release:
The rumor websites have been talking about a brand new 5.1 mix, and given Lynch's obsession with top-quality video, I'm hoping that this will be the best "Lost Highway" release ever. However, while this DVD will probably be a big step up in terms of quality and availability, I'm disappointed that Universal didn't do more. "Blade Runner" fans waited years for a proper DVD release, but they were eventually rewarded with a total of NINE different editions (including both HDDVD and Bluray) - why couldn't they at very least give "Lost Highway" fans a special edition? I have the Region 2 UK double-disc edition and it's great. The featurettes, interviews, and such are out there already, so why not include them?
The only real extra is a 10-part, multi-angle interview with Lynch. Since the Lynch interview on the Region 2 release is fairly brief, I'm guessing this is something new, recorded recently. Those familiar with Lynch know what to expect - he's going to tell interesting stories without explaining anything in the film. I'm sure it will be very cool, but what about the extra scenes that are floating around? Universal could have done a lot more.
"Lost Highway" is such a puzzling, but engaging film. I highly recommend it to any fan of Lynch's. It's not the best Lynch film to start with if you haven't seen any yet. It's not as straightforward as "Blue Velvet" and it's trickier than "Mulholland Drive", but it's got a wonderfully dark atmosphere that fills the screen with Lynchian dread. It's an experience. Enjoy.
Movie Review: Lynch's greatest film?
Summary: 5 Stars
It's not a popular position to take considering all the reasons people admire his other films, but LOST HIGHWAY has always been my personal favorite of David Lynch's since its release in 1997.
I never tire of watching it. Even by its maker's standards, it's a powerful and unapologetically dark concoction which can inspire a really gut-level, intuitive, sensory response from a viewer.
The film manages to capture the rare and delicate mood I can only describe this way:
You wake from a terrifying, cryptic nightmare. You can't decode it. Your heart is racing. With the morning's progress, the terror fades, but certain scenes remain indelibly in your mind. You mull them over in the context of 'reason.' Sometimes a feeling you have while 'awake' takes you back to these scenes...and they appear different somehow. You think you begin to understand. But then as quickly as your understanding comes, it vanishes again.
When the next night comes, you startle yourself with a realization: in its own way, that nightmare world is as seductive and beautiful as it was scary. Something strange, almost alien in you wants to go back. But you can't dream the same dream twice.
Except when it's a film.
And that's what LOST HIGHWAY is.
In a career full of startling images, music and sounds, it easily contains some of Lynch's most incredible ones. The visuals are like a symphony of red, black, pale yellow, neon and smoke. The textures of Los Angeles are captured with a dream- and life-like detail which are both familiar and exotic. The sounds and music are enveloping and alluring one minute and pulse-quickening the next.
The performances are strong all around, with even the most minor characters played with notes only Lynch and his carefully chosen actors could hit.
Although Lynch has also explored his non-linear storytelling side in other, more popular efforts, I think he struck the perfect balance between the abstract elements which challenge and the accessible pleasures of the film-noir genre in this particular story. LOST HIGHWAY veers more toward the all-out assault of INLAND EMPIRE or ERASERHEAD, rather than the more glammed-up MULHOLLAND DRIVE, but I think it also feels truer to itself, and so more resonant.
EDIT: Now that the actual DVD product is out and I own a copy...I can say that the DVD is good for the following reasons: the picture and sound, as expected, are tops. This is probably the best homevid version which exists, at least until the Blu-Ray version comes out (there are no plans for one though that I am aware of currently). There are some web reviews that claim other transfers of it on non-Region 1 discs are superior, but based on the screen captures I have seen I think they are wrong. This does look to me like the Lynch-approved version, with colors truer to the film as I remember it in theaters.
There are also chapter stops, a welcome surprise given Lynch's dislike of them and their exclusion on some of his other DVDs.
And the bad: no extras. The expected 10-angle interview never appears here (why?) and not even the excellent original trailer, which you can probably YouTube if you're curious.
Anyway, it's still a great film and the best way to watch it outside of a good print in a movie theater, so...
It isn't going to please most film viewers and even many fans, but if you end up appreciating the dark jewel that is LOST HIGHWAY, it's an addictive flavor.
Movie Review: This is the real narrative
Summary: 5 Stars
For all those who said they could not understand the movie or appreciate the storyline, etc., and thus gave this film a low rating, here is a summary of the narrative so that you may wish to watch the movie again and enjoy it.
NARRATIVE
Pete Dayton a young attractive man works as a mechanic during the day and goes partying at night, and hangs out with Sheila a girl from the nighbourhood. His parents are nice and calm and do not intervene much in his life. One day at work he meets this girl, Alice Wakefield who was in the company of Dick Laurent a customer wanting to repair his car. She caught his eyes ogling her and she comes alone in the evening. Thus started a sexual relationship between her and the mechanic. Now Alice is a porn star in a film business owned by Dick Laurent, and is plotting to leave this business and run away. But before doing that, she wants to steal money from Andy, an associate of Dick. So she found Pete the innocent youngster (19 yrs) who would assist her in her plot. She leaves the backdoor open while she is having sex with Andy to let Pete sneak in and hit Andy. Pete hits Andy and Alice steals the money. But Andy wakes up only to fall on the edge of a coffee table and gets killed. They run away and get married and Alice dies her hair black. But they are pursued by Dick Laurent who fancies Alice and cannot let go. Alice and Pete now married have an average suburban house and change their names to Fred Madison and Renee Madison. A few years later, Dick finds out about them and threatens them, so Alice (now Renee) agrees to renew her relationship with Dick and sleeps with him at Lost Highway Motel. Eventually, she plots with Pete (now Fred) to kill Dick when Dick falls asleep after having sex with her. Pete (Fred) now in his mid-twenties, waits in the dark for his wife to leave the motel and sneaks in and kidnaps Dick and drives him to a desert cabin and kills him. He returns home and even before getting in he informs Alice that Dick is dead.
From then on, Alice (Renee) who always had a penchant for criminal thinking leads a normal life, and Pete (Fred) who was an innocent youngman cannot escape the nightmares of the murders he committed because he loves Alice (Renee). He has frequent nightmares and he suspects that his wife who was a porn star and who had sex with anyone to get what she wanted fast, is infidel to him with anyone anytime. Driven by his deteriorating psychological condition, he murders her one night. The police investigates and arrest him, and he is sentenced to death by electric execution. During the execution, his mind is revealing falshes of his memories about what happened.
THE PLOT
The plot is an artistic representation of the narrative. The film starts at a point where the tension between Pete and Alice is highest, and thirty minutes or so Pete kills Alice and is sentenced to death. He is now waiting execution in a prison cell and when is taken to be electrocuted, all the other events start flashing in his head, starting with his life as a 19 year old working as a mechanic and dating Sheila, and so on. All the other elements that are not directly part of the plot are there to improve the artistic presentation and to add style. For example, the strange man with the weird face is Pete's evil sub-conscious reminding him all the time about the murders he committed. There are moments when David Lynch gives away signales, for example when this strange man tells Pete/Fred that her real name was not Alice, or the photo when Alice and Renee show up only to have only Renee left after Andy is killed. Which means that Alice will now run away and use another name.
Now reviewers can watch the movie and enjoy it as I did. It is a piece of art.
Movie Review: Classic David Lynch - see it repeatedly and still not know what's happened!.
Summary: 5 Stars
Lost Highway was definitely an experimental film, there was no straight narrative and it is guaranteed to confuse the audience, however this film was also brilliant and a genius piece of work by David Lynch. It was genuinely before it's time, and is in most respects still way ahead of the pack. Much has been said before about the impenetrable nature of Lost Highway's story. And while it is not an easy film at times, there is a strong narrative which makes sense if you engage with it. However even if you don't fully 'get' it, Lost Highway is still so rich and you get to see something different each time you watch it.
One of the few films I can think of which is actually just as enjoyable if you don't know what's going on. The tone achieved by Lynch in the opening 40 minutes is awesome and remains just about the best sequence in cinema of recent times. This is a film where all the elements are alive for the viewer. The sound design is meticulously throughout to help build the mood and every single shot is just gorgeously framed, the whole film has this nightmarish quality to it, like it was some kind of bad dream. I would probably compare it with Eraser Head even though both films were different and one was shot in black and white, they both had this bizarre and surreal atmosphere while this film wasn't a horror film it still had a few violent and disturbing moments. The three leads are terrific, and re-watching this edition I continue to be surprised that Balthazaar Getty hasn't broken through since.
This was probably my favorite Lynch film next to Blue Velvet as it has plenty of his usual directorial flourishes and also a killer soundtrack with lots of great artists like Marylin Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Lou Reed, Smashing Pumpkins (before they started sucking) and the musical score done by Angelo Badalamenti was truly amazing and haunting at the same time, make sure that you get the soundtrack. The story of Lost Highway focuses around a middle-aged saxophone player named Fred Madison played by Bill Pullman. Fred is accused, under mysterious circumstances of murdering his wife Renee Madison (Patricia Arquette). Whilst on death row, Fred's identity distorts and he manifests into a young man named Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty), leading a completely different life. When Pete is released from prison, Pete and Fred's lives begin to cross, morphing and flowing into and out of each other until ultimately only one identity remains.
Bill Pullman is excellent in Lost Highway, and really manages to delve deep inside the character creating a really enigmatic and believable Fred Madison. Patricia Arquette's two contrasting characters are played brilliantly with great expertise, and Balthazar Getty plays Pete superbly (despite claims that throughout the making of the film he was constantly undermining Lynch and making fun of his accent). Also watch out for Robert Blake's creepy and sinister character, who exactly is this man and why does he have this demonic laugh?, you'll have to watch the film to find out. Typical Lynchian imagery abounds and once you work out what the hell is going on you'll want to watch it again and again to explore all the nuances of Fred's never-ending attempt to escape from the truth. If you love bizarre, surreal and ambiguous films that are well-crafted, sinister and wonderfully acted, then I highly recommend you go and buy this film.