In class today, we watched some David Lynch shorts. Until that point, I was almost totally unfamiliar with his shorts, so it was an experience for me – and one I am definitely glad that I had.

Lynch is a surrealist artist, and produces surreal films of varying duration. His films are always packed with motifs and symbols, and are often dreamy, seeming as though they are not occurring in the real world. In fact, Lynch has said…

Waking dreams are the ones that are important, the ones that come when I’m quietly sitting in a chair, letting my mind wander. When you sleep, you don’t control your dream. I like to dive into a dream world that I’ve made or discovered; a world I choose.

– David Lynch, NewYork: Faber and Faber.

He uses the ‘uncanny’ or unknown to make the audience feel uncomfortable, as unknown is negative and frightening. If the audience does not know what is happening – such as in ‘Absurdia’ – then they are frightened, but also intrigued… they are curious as to what is happening but it’s also extremely unsettling and alien.

We’re also familiar with the space (all movie cinemas are somewhat alike, after all), but the eeriness makes it unsettling and provokes thought.

Lynch uses a lot of techniques to instill this feeling, including his use of disembodied voices – you don’t know where they’re coming from, and that’s scary and unsettling. There’s so many interpretations to be taken from it. I took that cinema has the ability to influence people in a way most people don’t want to admit, because the man in the projection room is kind of controlling the kids who walk in.

But everyone who sees it will think something different, and that’s why it’s so interesting. (It also takes a couple of watches before you can form a competent conclusion).

We also watched Idem.Paris, and I was captivated by the dynamic shots that Lynch had taken. His use of light/dark is fascinating, and something we have used in (parts of) One Closed Door.

Finally, we watched ‘Lady Blue Shanghai’, and this was the one that really got me thinking. This one is a fairly clear and linear narrative in which a wealthy woman walks into her hotel room and sees a Dior handbag. It appears in a puff of smoke, and she’s alarmed. She calls the security guards up and asks them where it came from, but they do not know.

She then recounts her day in Shanghai, and how she met a man who gave her a blue rose and asked her to stay, but she could not. And this was the bit I found really interesting – as she’s recounting her day, it goes into a dream-like sequence and becomes less linear, and it was here that my interest was perked.

The whole time she was talking to the security guards, I actually found myself becoming disengaged. But the second that sequence started, I was 100% there and captivated – and I largely attribute that to being because it was so interesting and mysterious.

This made me realise how important the non-linear sequence is in our short film – it has potential to make or break it, and we want it to make the audience question the protagonist’s sanity. 

I also think that Lynch did a really good job in establishing power through shot in this. At the start, the woman is walking down the halls with her head held high, doesn’t talk to the desk guy, and seems very powerful. Then, when she is talking to the guards after finding the bag, she is sitting while they are looming over her, showing that she is frightened and powerless.

 

Then, at the end, she is broken and kneeling beside the bag.

Throughout the film, I was drawing so many parallels between our screen project and Lynch’s work. We have that sense of surrealism with Sid, and his seeing a monster that may or may not be there is similar to the disembodied voices. He is contesting with something that isn’t there. He uses things (a toothbrush) for something they are not intended for (warding off Doc) which brings such a mainstream object into question.

Plus, our film questions the “real functioning of thought” (Andre Brenton) as you don’t know if Sid is nuts, or being haunted.

I’m quite excited to get to that point in the edit, because some of our footage – like what we screened in class today, with Matt freaking out – is so interesting that I can’t wait to play with it.