"artists make movies": david lynch's mulholland drive

Completing this year's series, "Artists Make Movies" sponsored by the Pollock-Krasner House, will be David Lynch's provocative movie, Mulholland Drive.

Lynch's films have always been controversial, starting with his earliest one, Eraserhead, and continuing with Blue Velvet, The Lost Highway, and most recently, Inland Empire. (As an artist, Lynch could also be considered edgy; this critic remembers one particular painting with real, dead flies.)

So what makes Lynch unique, even in today's world of weird, violent, incomprehensible movies? First, he's a true independent spirit, still persisting in the Hollywood system. His films are not gratuitous made for the teenage market, but artistic expressions of his worldview. Like Martin Scorsese, Lynch is an authentic filmmaker in this critic's mind, comparable to other great "auteurs" like Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock. (Like Hitchcock, Lynch is also fascinated with the idea of the "double ganger," meaning "the walking double.")

Lynch's style, like his paintings, is bizarre, a combination of Surrealism and Expressionism. Thus, his images may be incongruous, people may say and do things that don't make sense, reality may be ambiguous, seeming like a dream. Simply put, in a David Lynch film what you see is not what you get.

Moreover, some filmgoers are confused by Lynch's plot; they can't seem to follow it, as the beginning, middle and end become blurred. But people said that about Pulp Fiction, too, and it proved to be a great critical and popular success.

While Lynch can be a "painterly" director, his images filled with striking colors, evocative compositions and odd-looking characters, his stories are mesmerizing as well.

Mulholland Drive is no exception. It's a murder mystery that's much more than meets the eye, a psycho-sexual romp through the mind and heart of Naomi Watts as the naive heroine, where nothing is what it appears to be. Would-be actress Ms. Watts, upon arriving in Los Angeles for the first time, says "I can't believe it" as she gives vent to her excitement. Truer words were never spoken.

What's unique about Mulholland Drive is the excitement that the film evokes in the viewer, too, as we are drawn, almost against our will, into both the images and the plot.

Lynch's movies are ones we experience, not just sit back and enjoy.

Isn't that what all good artists should aim for?

- Marion Wolberg Weiss

Mulholland Drive will be shown on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 7:00PM at Stony Brook Southampton Campus, Chancellors Hall. Call 631-324-4929 for information.

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