LOST ON THE HIGHWAY

"Pete I just wanted to jump on and tell you I'm really glad you're doing OK."

Everyone has their favourite Lynch movie. They’re all wonderful. Mine is a bit of an outlier. It’s LOST HIGHWAY.

LOST HIGHWAY has been described as “a 21st century noir horror film, a graphic investigation into parallel identity crises, a world where time is dangerously out of control, a psychogenic fugue.”It begins with the story of Fred Madison, a jazz musician who may or may not have killed his wife; however, from very early on in the film, the narrative is disrupted by a continual infolding and reversibility of events, as time and space are layered over each other with a carnal density. Fred and Renee Madison live in Los Angeles; they begin receiving anonymous videotapes. Each tape repeats the shots of the previous tape, and penetrates further into the Madison home, tracing its way through the living room, down the hallway, along a curtain and finally into the bedroom, where initially Renee and Fred can be seen in bed. The audience has already seen this same interior progression of shots, during Fred’s description of a dream he had. They phone the police, who ask if they own a video camera. Renee replies, “No, Fred hates them.” Fred elaborates: “I like to remember things my own way":

Al (detective): What do you mean by that?

Fred: How I remember them. Not necessarily the way they happened.

The film stretches out perception, pulling it like a rubber band that never quite snaps back into place. In this way, and through the theme of the condemned man on death row, Lost Highway evokes the short film AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE, in which the moment between the drop of the prisoner from the scaffolding until the crack of the neck is stretched into a half hour long hallucination of escape and the possibility of a life. Only here, the crack of the neck never comes. In Lost Highway, there is only the nauseating feeling of adrenaline stretched beyond the moment of flight, the threat disseminated and suspended.

At a pre-shoot BBQ for the movie SURVEILLANCE (hosted by Bill Pullman), I was lucky enough to explain my 'AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE theory to Bill Pullman in person. He smiled, nodded his head and said “Not bad”.

SURVEILLANCE is one of handful of movies I’m proud to have my CV as a First Assistant Director. It is directed by David’s daughter JENNIFER LYNCH. If you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s a synopsis:

After a spree of horrific murders in the New Mexico desert, two FBI agents arrive at a small Sante Fe police station to interview the key witnesses. Using elaborate surveillance equipment to view the interrogations simultaneously, Sam Hallaway watches as his partner cross examines the three survivors. As several inconsistencies emerge, it becomes clear that somebody in the room knows the truth behind the slayings.

I’ve included a few photos I took while the movie was being made in 2007.

More down the road.

Cheers,

TC