Lost highway (1997)

Even though I, most of the time, have no idea what David Lynch's films are about, I tend to like his sense for psychological mazes and uncanny moments exploding into something outrageously threatening (like that scene in Mulholland Dr.). Lynch's films are interesting to watch because of the assumptions about plot & characters that are subversed. No matter how hard you look, there is no solution on the surface level. An analysis of the films must begins elsewhere Lynch deals with questions about fear, the psyche, personal identity,  reality, etc, etc. I'm not sure what criterion I apply when I say that some Lynch films "work", while some just don't, but I suspect it has everything to do with the extent to which the viewer accepts Lynch's personal quirks and hang-ups.

Lost Highway has all that, of course. The first hour is pretty good. A man and a woman has a problematic relationship. One day, a videotape is placed at their doorstep. The tape shows footage of their house. Later tapes are from within the house. Gradually, we see the main character steeped in a corroded sense of reality and identity. There is one scene in particular that underscores this theme. It is set in a flashy party (awful music). The main character, called Fred, meets an eerie-looking man. The strange man tells Fred that they've met before. That does not seem right, says Fred. I'm at your place now, continues the stranger. You can't, says Fred. Call me, says the man, and Fred dials his home number, and the stranger answers the phone. Zizek talked about that scene in his tv-series on film and philosophy. That he talked about Lacan and the Real here actually made some sense.

I would not complain that Lost Highway "is too complicated". The problems I had with it did not concern the aims of the film, or the structure of it. It was, in my view, in the artistic realization of his idea that Lynch failed this time. The music used is intrusive, there is too much gratuitous sex scenes, and some transitions between the humoristic and the uncanny do not provide the expected clash of emotion. More importantly; Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire were fully achieved films - Lost Highway, I think, is too messy. There are lots of efficient scenes, but I felt that the film dissolved into its parts.