David Lynch

[Egg Shen]

I'm sure i've mentioned it here before, but there was a scene during the early episodes of Twin Peaks which scared me more than anything i've ever seen (not counting being shit scared of everything as a kid) on first viewing. I've watched it back since and I don't really know why it got to me like it did, but that first time freaked me out.

I can't recall character names but it was do with a guy hiding behind a bed or settee and having the camera pan to his face.

 

Edited January 19, 2025 by Egg Shen

[Carbomb]

2 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

I'm sure i've mentioned it here before, but there was a scene during the early episodes of Twin Peaks which scared me more than anything i've ever seen (not counting being shit scared of everything as a kid) on first viewing. I've watched it back since and I don't really know why it got to me like it did, but that first time freaked me out.

I can't recall character names but it was do with a guy hiding behind a bed or settee and having the camera pan ro his face.

 

That was BOB, wasn't it? Was terrifying, I agree.

[LaGoosh]

9 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

can't recall character names but it was do with a guy hiding behind a bed or settee and having the camera pan ro his face

[Merzbow]

It's crazy that he was never even cast as a character until after filming started, he was a set guy caught on camera by accident in a mirror and Lynch saw it and suddenly had him play Bob.

[BomberPat]

There's two things there that Lynch was great with - trusting his gut enough to completely change things on the fly based on that kind of happy accident, and trusting in non-conventional casting; I don't know if Frank Silva had done any acting before Twin Peaks, but Lynch felt he fit the part and ran with it. Eric Da Re, who played Leo Johnson, worked on more Lynch projects behind the scenes than in front of the camera. Catherine Coulson, likewise, was cast because she'd worked behind the scenes on Eraserhead and Lynch saw something in her, rather than for her acting experience. That runs through a lot of his movies, and his regular casting of musicians and other non-actors.

[Chili]

27 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

There's two things there that Lynch was great with - trusting his gut enough to completely change things on the fly based on that kind of happy accident, and trusting in non-conventional casting; I don't know if Frank Silva had done any acting before Twin Peaks, but Lynch felt he fit the part and ran with it. Eric Da Re, who played Leo Johnson, worked on more Lynch projects behind the scenes than in front of the camera. Catherine Coulson, likewise, was cast because she'd worked behind the scenes on Eraserhead and Lynch saw something in her, rather than for her acting experience. That runs through a lot of his movies, and his regular casting of musicians and other non-actors.

Eric Da Re was fucking awful though, but it almost seems to slightly pass because the atmosphere seems to carry it away a bit. But he was absolutely dog shit and even though I love Twin Peaks and forgive certain bits of it, he's actively off-putting sometimes. I believe his Ma was the casting agent/director for it no? Lynch was great at being very unique with his cast choices (Silva is rather good because of his otherworldly feel and his incredible look) but I found Da Re actively bad.

Best choice of turning a character into a vegetable up there with when that arsehole in Skins got hit by the bus.

Edited January 19, 2025 by Chili

[Carbomb]

Da Re was terrible, as was the guy who played James. He wasn't much of a character, to be fair, so maybe it just wasn't a good showcase of the actor's abilities.

[davertfnewman]

Wasn't Da Re, in a cast and crew where drugs could be in abundance, MAJORLY into drugs when this was being made, and for a long time afterwards?

[Egg Shen]

6 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

That's the fucker.

Reading the comments on the Youtube video, it seems I wasn't the only person it terrified. The comments about it reminding people of the kind of things remembered from nightmares might be the crux of it.

 

Edited January 19, 2025 by Egg Shen

[Carbomb]

Just got back from Fire Walk With Me. Bloody hell, it's Lynch with a vengeance. Dreamlike sequences, surreal occurrences, intense and uncomfortable emotional moments, while yet retaining a weird but not completely creepy playfulness to it.

One particular thing that was of note was, in light of some of the criticism Lynch got for using the debasement of and violence against young women as a means of pushing a plot, this film was very much about her story, making her a living human, rather than just a Maguffin corpse.

Also, I now believe Moira Kelly should always have played Donna. Laura Flynn Boyle is good, but she's quite arch - because Kelly is very sweet-looking, it feels like a greater act of corruption when Laura draws her into that world.

[BomberPat]

the Nickel Cinema are doing a screening of Eraserhead from a 16mm print at the Cinema Museum in London on 9th February, along with some of Lynch's short films, interviews, and weather reports. 

I'm very tempted, though I'll never be able to convince my partner to come with me, she's still traumatised from the last time we watched it.

Our rewatch just finished season 2 last night, and she realised she'd never seen the final episode of that series before, so was completely and brilliantly bewildered by it all. I can't wait to get to The Return, though it was a bit sad realising how many characters we're saying goodbye to after the end of series 2. Absolutely lost it when I realised that Laura saying "see you again in 25 years" and The Arm saying "the next time you see me, I won't be me" both happen in the same scene, which is a great lead in to The Return. I had forgotten a fair bit of series 2, and just the extent to which they pile on the cliffhangers at the end in the hope of getting a new series was ridiculous - the bank explosion comes practically out of nowhere.

 

I agree that Eric Da Re is terrible, though in a lot of ways, in certain scenes, I felt that actually worked for Leo, because the way he spoke and had barely any chemistry with any other actor made him out to be a total psychopath. Kind of like how Gordon Cole was written as deaf to make up for Lynch's "acting".

[Chili]

We can all agree the worst bits of Twin Peaks are James falling for that femme fatale and when Billy Zane pops up to swoop Audrey off her feet.

[Merzbow]

Billy Zane's class 90's jumpers are good enough to make up for that story, nothing will ever make James cool though.

I'm on season 2 of my rewatch right now and haven't really got to most of the hated parts yet, although we did get *that* song being sung so fucking weirdly. Jean Renault is a highlight, he's the absolute perfect soap opera baddie turned up to 100, evil overdone French Canadian accent and all.

[Chris B]

12 minutes ago, Chili said:

We can all agree the worst bits of Twin Peaks are James falling for that femme fatale and when Billy Zane pops up to swoop Audrey off her feet.

Worth remembering that Lynch was less involved with the series for quite a bit of that. He was really not happy about them doing the big reveal partway through season 2, so the latter half is pretty much Mark Frost's take on the show. Lynch rewrote and directed the end of season 2, which is why it's an absolute banger compared to most of the season.

[Carbomb]

17 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Jean Renault is a highlight, he's the absolute perfect soap opera baddie turned up to 100, evil overdone French Canadian accent and all.

Someone did an ASMR compilation on Youtube of all of Jean Renault's scenes. It's quite impressive that he has such an impact, when you consider he's not in it for all that long.