Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Whether Mulholland Drive (2001) is stranger than the film discussed in my previous post is fairly difficult to say.   Both films have characters who become different people, depictions of evil, strange music sequences, and very ambiguous endings.   Those aspects make this film very dreamlike.

          Mulholland Drive is divided into two parts and one seems like the dream.  Or maybe each part is a different dream and we still don't know who the dreamer is.   It's a strange world depicted that might make you want to watch this film several times like I have done.

            Definitely an adults only film so if you're easily offended you might want to avoid it.   It's a trip worth taking if you can handle it.  After it's over you might think that you were dreaming.

             Have you seen Mulholland Drive?     Does it bother you when movies have weird shifts in character and story?   Are there any other films that you can think of that have ambiguous or peculiar endings?

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Lost Highway #atozchallenge

Lost Highway (soundtrack) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         In this post and my next post I feature two more films by surrealistic director David Lynch.  The first film is the male counterpart of the pair, a very strange film called Lost Highway (1997).   This head-scratcher has a rather peculiar dream like story with events that make no sense to the extent that they might make you laugh in a nervous sort of way.

       The film gets a very hard R rating and is definitely not for kids or the easily offended.   If you're able to get past that then you'll have an interesting mind trip experience into the world of weirdo filmmaking.  This is one of my favorite films.

         Have you seen Lost Highway?    Does it bother you when weird things that make no sense happen in a movie?   What is a film that you consider to be really weird?

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Blue Velvet #atozchallenge

          Blue Velvet (1986) is one of several films by director David Lynch that you'll see listed in my dream film series.  And this makes sense since Lynch would seem to be one whacked out dude judging by his films.  Dreamlike surrealistic stories and images pervade Lynch's films and Blue Velvet is an iconic pick from his catalog of films.

          This film is presented on one level as a film noirish mystery and on another level as a surrealistic hometown America nightmare fantasy.  In fact, the film is all about levels and the intricacies of the seen and unseen in life.  There is the dark and light, the innocence versus evil.  Young lives are turned topsy turvy in a corrupted world.

           It's a harsh film with rough language at times, violent images, and sex, but somehow it all seems fitting.  Like in a dream the adult themes exist on a plane where we accept them as a part of the subconscious evil side of the world.   The unsullied fancies of youth are tainted just enough to emerge out of the rabbit hole with a more jaded outlook about the way the world is, but hopefully not enough to destroy them completely.

          In the Lynchian world of Blue Velvet life is strange, but we somehow manage to muddle our way through it all.   As a warning, this film is rated a hard R, but for those who can deal with that it's a rich dreamlike film experience.

           Have you seen Blue Velvet or any of the other films of David Lynch?   Are you a fan of Film Noir?  Do you have a difficulty accepting graphic depictions of evil in films?

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Living In Oblivion: Dwarfs in Dreams

       The previous post looked at the famous dwarf dream sequence from the David Lynch television show Twin Peaks.   Below is a clip that parodies that sequence.   The clip comes from the 1995 comedy Living In Oblivion starring Steve Buscemi.    The dwarf actor is Peter Dinklage who can currently be seen in HBO's  Game of Thrones.  Be warned that the clip contains profanity, but it is quite funny.





        If you enjoyed the clip and would like to watch the entire hilarious sequence, I've included this clip as well.  



         This might just be whetting your interest in seeing the entire film, which is a film that I can recommend for very funny adult viewing.  Steve Buscemi is one of my favorite actors and this film is one of his best roles.

          Have you seen Living In Oblivion?   Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it?   Dreams are strange, but do you think many film dream sequences actually capture the feel of a real dream?

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• "Worse still than real dreams, mine or yours - sandier mouthfuls, ranker lies - are the dreams of characters in books and movies."

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Dream Sequences on Film: Twin Peaks

       While I'm away on vacation I'm going to present a few video clips from some famous film dream sequences.

       David Lynch is one of the best of the surrealistic filmmakers.   Some of his films are almost like dreams or have extended portions that are very dreamlike.   The following clip comes from his television series Twin Peaks.  The clip portrays a famous dream sequence.




          Are you a David Lynch fan?    Have you seen Twin Peaks?   Do you have a favorite David Lynch film?  Do you think this clip accurately captured the concept and feel of dreaming?

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Roy Orbison

Cover of Roy Orbison

        When I first heard Roy Orbison's recording of "Oh, Pretty Woman",  I was just entering my second year of  junior high school in Merrillville, Indiana.  I absolutely fell in love with the song.  Orbison's plaintive voice really added to the yearning that the song expressed--a yearning that I as a young adolescent understood so well.

          After that hit, Roy Orbison was on my radar as he came up with one hit after another over the next few decades.  In the 1980s, surrealistic film director David Lynch included Orbison's "In Dreams" in a bizarre sequence of his film Blue Velvet.  At first offended, Orbison later recognized the ingenious use of the song in the film sequence.

         As his career was experiencing a resurgence, Roy Orbison died from a heart attack in 1988 at age 52.  His haunting catalog of music would make a good soundtrack for anyone's dreams.