LOST HIGHWAY
US, 1997, 134 minutes, Colour.
Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Blake, Gary Busey, Robert Loggia, Richard Pryor, Jack Nance, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Giovanni Ribisi, Marilyn Manson.
Directed by David Lynch.
If you want a film that makes you think - and still be uncertain who what has actually happened - this is it.
David Lynch seems to revel in the reputation of being weird. His plots explore the dark side of the human psyche. Are his characters two sides of the one person? How do they interact realistically and psychologically? And while one of the characters is Death (who is also two persons), then who is the villain, the Devil? If this sounds interesting, then go to Lost Highway. If not,... Lynch has a distinctive visual, colour as well as aural style, blending music and sounds, familiar from Twin Peaks. His dialogue is a blend of the arresting and the banal, designed to dramatise meaning in banal life.
Bill Pullman and Balthazar Getty play the two (or one) central characters and Patricia Arquette plays one (or two). Robert Blake is Death and Robert Loggia the evil one.
It is all an allegory of people lost on the highway of life.
1. The impact of the film? Puzzle? Confusion? Parallel worlds?
2. The work of David Lynch, visual, oral, another world?
3. The title, the opening and closing credits, the road, the lines, the symbol?
4. The two stories, the moments of change, supernatural touches, cosmic touches? Issues of identity, the character in the two parts, good and bad, interchange of characters? Two faces? Harry and Renée, Peter and Alice? The presence of the stranger in each story? Symbol of Death?
5. Introduction to Harry, listening to the voice, his relationship with Renée, sexual compatibility, the saxophone, playing at the club, loud and lively, the crowds, his phone call to his wife, going home, Renée in bed? The next morning, the packet at the door, the video? The second envelope? Playing the video? Seeing themselves filmed in their bedroom? Calling the police, the police and their characters, manner, the visit, the interrogation, sympathy? Their promises? The video of Renée’s death, the murder, Harry covered in blood? Arrest, going to prison? The visuals of the change of character in the prison?
6. The introduction of Pete Dayton , his story, in himself, age, younger, his family, relationship with his parents, discussions with them, their tentative characters? His work as a mechanic, the supervisor in the form of Richard Pryor? The assistant and the conversations with Peter? Eddie, his arrival, the car, the presence of Alice? Seductive, despite Peter’s relationship with Sheila? The affair, sensuality? Eddie and his threats, the phone calls? Alice and her story, the pornography, her lover? Her plan, the date, hitting the lover on the head – his death, Alice blaming Peter? The driving away, plans for the future? Going to the hut – initially in flames but then normal, Pete, the clash with Sheila, going to Alice? His transformation into Harry? The confrontation with Death? Harry’s confrontation with Eddie, his death? Death shooting Eddie? The escape, driving, Harry's being transformed, the primal scream?
7. The role of Death, at the social, getting Harry to call home and Death answering, the puzzle? Death and Eddie? The threats to Pete?
8. Eddie, sex exploitation, unless participating in stripping, his death?
9. Renée, character, wife? The contrast with Alice seductive? Scheming?
10. The men in the two roles? The women in the two roles? Women as seductive, exploited, men as dominant but victims?
11. This contribution to David Lynch’s world, imagination and style?
