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Visual Intensity 4
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Visual Intensity - Issue 4 (1994-05-29)(Dual 4Mat)(Disk 2 of 3).adf
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Films
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113
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1978-01-04
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{ta{L{9 D A V I D L Y N C H
A Q U I C K C A R E E R G U I D E
{C{7
BY BOB TESTICLES
{A{5
David Lynch is best known for his TV
series "Twin Peaks". "Twin Peaks" was
a high;y inventive and surrealistic
look at the underbelly of American
life. Most of David Lynch's movies
are also inventive and surrealistic
looks at the underbelly of American
life ("Blue Velvet" and "Young At
Heart" in particular). His debut
feature from 1976, "Eraserhead" is
quite a remarkable film in many ways.
It is inventive, disturbing and very
dark and bloody weird shit. It makes
you think: "What's going on in his
mind?" What indeed? I personally find
much of Lynch's work very dark and
disturbing. I love surrealism but
some of Lynch's movies can be an
ordeal at times. They drag you
menatlly through a hadge backwards. I
could say the same for Terry Gilliam's
"Brazil" and David Cronenberg's
"Videodrome". Personal taste aside,
there is no denying that Lynch is a
unique talent and one of the precious
few who continues to make original and
challenging films. It's a pity the
same can't be said for his daughter,
Jennifer who gave us the highly
questionnable "Boxing Helena" last
year. Kim Basinger was well out of
it.
{ta
{I{:Eraserhead (1976)
{A{6Starring : John Nance,
Charlotte Stewart.
{7 An extremely disturbing and
virtually unwatchable movie about a
misfit (with an electric shock
hairstyle), his girlfriend and their
barely human baby. They live in a
grotty appartment with slimy things
crawling everywhere. Towards the end
of the movie things go really weird as
Nance gets consumed by an alien world.
Don't watch this while on LSD (unless
you're a masochist!) A unique and
nightmarish movie.
{4Rating : 2 out of 5
{I{:The Elephant Man (1980)
{A{6Starring : Anthony Hopkins,
John Hurt,
Anne Bancroft.
{7
Lynch's second movie is a biopic of
John Merrick, a deformed man who lived
in Victorian times. This is probably
Lynch's most mainstream movie and
contains good performances and good
photography (in black and white).
{4Rating : 3 out of 5
{ta{I{:Dune (1984)
{A{6
Starring : Kyle MacLachlan,
Francesca Annis,
Sting.
{7
"Dune" is the screen adaptation of
Frank Herbert's well known SF novel
which is set in the year 10,991. The
film can't be faulted usually; it is
extremely stylish and has first rate
effects but it is totally
incomprehensible! At almost two and a
half hours, it is too long and most of
the time you won't have a clue what's
going on. A friend of mine claims to
understand it but I think he's telling
me porkies. High on style, low on
everything else.
{4Rating : 2 out of 5
{I{:Blue Velvet (1986)
{A{6
Starring : Kyle MacLachlan,
Isabella Rossellini,
Dennis Hopper.
{7
This is my favourite Lynch movie.
It attempts to explore the dark,
hidden side of American life through
the story of MacLachlan's involvement
in a mystery in a small town. A
disturbing and original movie (in true
Lynch style) which features some
excellent performances with Dennis
Hopper's foul-mouthed asthmatic
gangster standing out. A borderline
case between 3 and 4 marks.
{4Rating : 3 out of 4
{ta
{I{:Wild At Heart (1990)
{A{6
Starring : Nicolas Cage,
Laura Dern,
Williem Dafoe.
{7
Cage and Dern are in love so they
drive across the country with all
manner of weirdos and psychopaths in
pursuit. "Wild At Heart" is a road
movie (and not a particularly good
one) with added sex, violence and
Lynch's strangeness. An over-rated
film which could've been a lot better.
{4Rating : 2 out of 5
{I{:Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
{A{6
Starring : Sheryl Lee,
Moira Kelly,
Chris Isaak.
{7
Who did kill Laura Palmer? I still
haven't got a damn clue! This is a
prequel to Lynch's TV series "Twin
Peaks" to show the last days of
Laura's life and it is dreadful (even
if you loiked the TV series). It is
too long, makes "Dune" look like the
epitome of clarity, and is a generally
unpleasant trawl through the nastier
side of human nature. As I said at
the time: What a pretentious load of
bollocks! Empire magazine liked it
though. They gave it five stars.
{4Rating : 1 out of 5
{A{: End.