When presenting our film projects to the class, we suggested that our film was ‘Lynchian’. That our film was more interested in creating a world than telling a story. This world would be colourful, abstract, everyday and slightly eerie – giving it a surrealist vibe, but was it Lynchian? I haven’t see all of Lynch’s films – not even close, nor fully understood many that I’ve seen. There are so many iconic filmmakers today where the essence of their ‘filmmaking’ is more know than their actual films. Ask someone what a Hitchcock film explores, or what a Tarantino film looks like and I’m sure they could tell you. I’m sure they could describe to you scenes from films that they’ve never seen and concepts they don’t even fully understand. For me, Lynch is that filmmaker. I know of him, I’ve seen some of his work, he’s probably the kind of filmmaker i’d love – but do I know that much about Lynch’s films? Not really. I decided to explore the world of Lynch’s filmmaking to understand how he has become known as the master of modern surrealism on film.

David Lynch’s film are often described as Lynchian, but what does a David Lynch film actually entail?

  • Mundane images turned macabre: representation of the wholesome, with the gruesomeness lurking below.
  • Surrealism: universe dictated by dream logic – representative of the subconscious.
  • Film noir tone: dark, edgy.
  • Americana settings: often small town American life, Industrial wastelands.
  • Recurring themes: 1950s America, the American dream and the dark underbelly of suburban life.
  • Recurring motifs: red curtains that obscure the passage of time, deformed bodies.
  • Recurring characters: complex females that play on archetypal expectations of the ‘femme fatale’ – often reflected in dual roles for single female actresses.
  • Light & Dark/Dualities: thematic and visual juxtaposition.
  • Noise: eerie and ambient.

Overall vibe/message:

  • Exposing the strange within the familiar and the reality within the dream.
  • Everything is stranger than it seems.
  • No personality is static.
  • No perspective is objective.
  • Exploration of the deeper layers of consciousness’ reaction to/understanding of experiences.

Now, once you read all of this, you kinda go – well your film is nothing like Lynch’s films. And you’re kind of right.

  • Our film doesn’t make mundane images macabre, rather it makes mundane images weird.
  • Our film is surreal. 
  • Our film doesn’t have a film noir tone, but it does have a dark tone.
  • Our film explores suburbia, but it’s not American suburbia, it’s Australian suburbia.
  • We explore the 1950s -’70s Australia, we explore the Australian dream, we explore the dark underbelly of suburban life.
  • We have no red curtains, just a red light and certainly no deformed bodies.
  • No complex women here – bad feminists we are (as Yoda would say).
  • We kinda explore dualities? dualities of fantasy maybe?
  • Noise is defs eerie and ambient.

Or maybe it’s a little like Lynch’s? It’s like a poor mans Australian Lynch that is seriously under-baked and lacking of budget.

 

Until next time,

Louise Wilson