“Moving Through Time” David Lynch Retrospective @ Music Box Theatre Pt. 1

Friday. Opening Night.

The line ran down the block and around the corner. We were in line to see Lost Highway. 

Opening Night

Music Box Theatre’s retrospective “Moving Through Time,” sponsored by Mubi, featured all of the late David Lynch’s films, documentaries on actors in his films, the music involved, and Lynch's influences, including a showing of The Wizard of Oz, and non-Lynch films featuring actors from his films. Formats of films, including 35mm film, which showed on film via black spots as they had somewhat degraded, digital, Laserdisc, digital Netflix showings, and who knows what else, as some short films and clips were pixellated. The theatre is decorated with David Lynch references, including picketed fences emulating Blue Velvet and a map of “Owl Cave" on an exit door referencing the show Twin Peaks.

Once in the theatre, interview clips of the actors and Lynch were played. The theatre was nearly filled and I struggled to find my friend and I two consecutive seats. I got us some very close. When the clips ended and the Mubi ad finished, a poster for Lost Highway projected on screen, reading “TWO THUMBS DOWN!” and “two more reasons to see LOST HIGHWAY.” The curtains slowly lowered over the projection, inciting the most dramatic lead-up to a film in theatres I had ever seen. A man came on stage to discuss his book written about the film and read us a quote from his interview with Patricia Arquette, who plays Renee in the film, and admitted the first time he watched it, he had to eject the VHS during the saxophone solo scene and only watched it twenty years later. He highlighted the blurry effects, which Lynch elected to leave in the film as happy accidents. Despite the book, the speaker claimed he had no idea what the movie was about, and instructed the audience to feel the movie rather than try to understand it. I disagree with it being totally not understandable. What I figured it was about made enough sense on my second watching of the film. I had brought my friend from Milwaukee, who had never seen a Lynch movie, and as for her, I only gave her the teaser from the screenplay: 

A 21st Century Noir Horror Film.

A graphic investigation into parallel 

identity crises.

A world where time is dangerously out 

of control.

A terrifying ride down the lost highway.

David Lynch

21 June 1995

As the credits rolled, flying on the screen in yellow letters as the camera wobbled, zooming over a dark highway and David Bowie crooned, “I’m Deranged,” I felt like I was in a car flying over the road myself. Best opening title sequence ever.

The house was full of Lynch fans, and the movie experience was punctuated with laughter after awkward jokes and characters’ reactions to the bizarre. I left my friend hanging on my interpretation after the movie so that she could stew on it. Her interpretation was… [if you hate anything resembling a spoiler skip to next paragraph] …the two women were succubi and the Mystery Man was the devil, who made deals with Fred Madison and Mr. Eddy–who then introduced the succubi to Peter Dayton who then made a similar deal with The Mystery Man/devil, and thereby gave The Mystery Man control of his soul. Which would explain The Mystery Man handing Fred the knife.

[RESUME HERE] After the film, the man next to me started talking about the other screenings so far, including the Commercial Works of David Lynch, the first showing of the retrospective.

Inside Music Box Theatre

The movie was followed by three short films. The first, “What Did Jack Do?” featured David Lynch interrogating a monkey in a suit who talked with human lips (Lynch’s lips) using the Syncro-Vox method. My friend asked me, “Am I high?” The second clip featured Lynch cooking quinoa with somewhat intense cuts to the clock indicating how long it should cook, and had a brief intermission of Lynch telling a story of a coal-burning train on his 1965 travel through Yugoslavia. By far the most interesting cooking video I’ve ever witnessed. The last short film was “The Cowboy & The Frenchman,” introduced by a Lynch interview explaining he was asked to show how he saw the French, and instead wrote a battle of cliches between American cowboys and the Frenchman Pierre, whose pockets were always full of snails.

Saturday. The Straight Story. A complete turnaround from the darkness of Lost Highway, as instead of flying disembodied through darkness over a highway in the desert, we are inching down a sunlit highway in golden Iowa farm fields. It seemed many there had never seen the film before, probably because it’s relatively normal. An old guy, Alan Straight, rides his lawnmower for over five weeks to reach his brother, who recently had a stroke, in Mt. Zion, Wisconsin. Based on a true story. The best old people joke was when the protagonist asks to buy the Ace Hardware guy and friend’s grabber, who was very torn up about selling it until Mr. Straight upped his five-dollar offer to ten. He then set out for Wisconsin, “a real party state.” My Milwaukee friend said, “I guess I live in the wrong area.” It features drama on the importance of family and a dark discussion between Alan Straight and a fellow veteran about their WWII experiences. Mr. Straight subsists on “weiners” kept in a cooler and deer roadkill, and almost suffers a catastrophe when his huge trailer sends him zooming down a hill past a flaming house some firefighters are practicing on. A notable Lynch sequence featuring the character Rose watching a blue ball roll down the dark road to be collected by a little boy reminded me of seeing Salvador Dali paintings at the Art Institute.

At midnight, my friend and I returned for the non-Lynch film, The Hidden, which stars Kyle McLachlan (Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks and characters in other Lynch films). The show was preceded by various ridiculous McLachlan clips, notably including a Subaru infomercial, including outtakes which featured McLachlan shirtless, in an unbuttoned shirt, and toweling his hair. “Good morning,” he greeted the camera, which was followed by the Subaru pitch in Japanese as McLachlan drove it around.

Sunday. There was a free secret showing I missed, and it drives me crazy wondering what it was. But every time I Uber home, it’s 20 bucks, and I’m scared of my bank statement.

Monday. Free showing of Meditation, Creativity, and Peace, a documentary following Lynch internationally to give speeches on Transcendental Meditation and answering some questions about the filmmaking process. It was sparsely attended. It featured some interesting comments by Lynch and advice on the creative process using fishing as an analogy. One good idea becomes better bait to attract better and more “beautiful” ideas. One woman asked Lynch if he had recurring dreams. Lynch asked her to stand onstage as he detailed a dream about his father approaching him in the desert, not knowing whether he was his “good father” or “bad father.” And then he jumped, scaring everyone, illustrating the father jumping at him by grabbing the woman’s shoulder. “And that was my good father.”

Tuesday. Eraserhead, which is followed by a Q&A with Charlotte Stewart, who plays Mary X in the film. Tonight, as of writing this.

More coverage soon.

If you have, run.