Lost Highway (film)
Lost Highway | |
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Directed by | David Lynch |
Written by | David Lynch Barry Gifford |
Produced by | Mary Sweeney Tom Sternberg Deepak Nayar |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Deming |
Edited by | Mary Sweeney |
Music by | Angelo Badalamenti |
Production companies | Ciby 2000 Asymmetrical Productions |
Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 134 minutes[1] |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Box office | $3.8 million |
Lost Highway is a
Lost Highway was financed by the French production company
Upon release, Lost Highway received mixed reviews and grossed $3.7 million in North America after a modest three-week run. Most critics initially dismissed the film as incoherent, but it has since attracted a cult following and critical praise, as well as scholarly interest. Lost Highway is the first of three Lynch films set in Los Angeles, followed by Mulholland Drive in 2001 and Inland Empire in 2006. The film was adapted as an opera by the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth in 2003.
Plot
Fred Madison, a Los Angeles saxophonist, receives a message on his house intercom: "Dick Laurent is dead." He hears tires squealing and sirens blaring past his house immediately afterwards. The next morning, his wife Renee finds a VHS tape on their porch containing a video of their house. After having sex, Fred tells her he had a dream about someone resembling her being attacked. He then sees Renee's face as that of a pale old man. Another tape arrives, showing shots of them asleep in their bed. Fred and Renee call the police but the detectives offer no assistance.
Fred and Renee attend a party being thrown by her friend Andy. The Mystery Man that Fred dreamed about approaches Fred, claiming to have met him before. The man then says he is at Fred's house at that very moment and answers the house phone when Fred calls him. Fred learns from Andy that the man is a friend of Dick Laurent. Terrified, Fred leaves the party with Renee. The next day, a tape shows him hovering over Renee's dismembered body. He is sentenced to death for her murder.
While on death row, Fred is plagued by headaches and visions of the Mystery Man and a smoldering cabin in the desert. During a cell check, the prison guard finds that the man in Fred's cell is now Pete Dayton, a young auto mechanic. Although Pete is released into his parents' care, he is followed by two detectives who are trying to uncover more about him. Pete returns to work where gangster Mr. Eddy asks him to repair his car. Mr. Eddy takes Pete for a drive, during which Pete witnesses Mr. Eddy beat down a
The next day, Mr. Eddy returns to the garage with his mistress, Alice Wakefield, and his Cadillac for Pete to repair. Later, Alice returns to the garage alone and invites Pete out for dinner. When Pete and Alice begin an affair, she fears that Mr. Eddy suspects them, and concocts a scheme to rob her friend Andy and leave town. Alice also reveals to Pete that Mr. Eddy is actually an amateur porn producer named Dick Laurent. Pete receives a phone call from Mr. Eddy and the Mystery Man, which frightens Pete so much that he decides to go along with Alice's plan. Pete ambushes Andy and accidentally kills him, before he notices a photograph depicting Alice and Renee together. Later, when the police are at the house investigating Andy's death, Alice is inexplicably missing from the photo.
Pete and Alice arrive at an empty cabin in the desert and start having sex outside on the sand. Alice taunts Pete and enters the cabin while Pete turns back into Fred. Fred searches the cabin and finds only the Mystery Man, who tells him that there is no Alice, only Renee, and starts chasing him with a video camera. Fred escapes and drives to the Lost Highway Hotel, where he finds Mr. Eddy and Renee having sex.
After Renee leaves, Fred kidnaps Mr. Eddy and slits his throat. The Mystery Man shoots Mr. Eddy dead and then whispers something to Fred before he disappears. Fred drives to his old house, buzzes the intercom and says, "Dick Laurent is dead." When the two detectives drive up to the house, Fred bolts and engages in pursuit with the detectives. He leads the police on a high-speed chase through the desert, begins screaming helplessly amid flashes of light, and then falls silent as headlights trace the darkened highway.
Cast
- Bill Pullman as Fred Madison
- Patricia Arquette as Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield
- Balthazar Getty as Pete Dayton
- Robert Blake as The Mystery Man
- Robert Loggia as Mr. Eddy/Dick Laurent
- Natasha Gregson Wagner as Sheila
- Richard Pryor as Arnie
- Lisa Boyle as Marian
- Mink Stole as Forewoman
- Michael Massee as Andy
- Jack Nance as Phil
- Jack Kehler as Guard Johnny Mack
- Henry Rollins as Guard Henry
- Gene Ross as Warden Clements
- Giovanni Ribisi as Steve 'V'
- Scott Coffey as Teddy
- Gary Busey as Bill Dayton
- John Roselius as Al
- Lou Eppolitoas Ed
- Jennifer Syme as Junkie Girl
- Marilyn Manson as Porn actor
- Twiggy Ramirez as Porn actor
Themes
Although Lost Highway is generally classified as a
Some of the film's themes and ideas had been explored before: the 1945 film Detour also focuses on a disturbed nightclub musician.[5] The film's setting and mysterious recorded messages were seen as a reference to the 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly, while its nightmarish atmosphere has been compared to Maya Deren's 1943 short film Meshes of the Afternoon.[5] Like Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo, the film examines male obsessions with women, who merely represent emotions that relate to them.[5] Lynch has described the film as a "psychogenic fugue"[14] and insisted that, while Lost Highway is about "identity",[6] the film is very abstract and can be interpreted in different ways.[15] He does not favor advancing a specific interpretation and said that the film leaves viewers to interpret events as they choose.[6] Gifford, however, thinks that the film offers a rational explanation to its surreal events. According to him, Fred Madison is experiencing a psychogenic fugue, which is manifested when he transforms into Pete.[6] Some viewers think that the film is an homage to Ambrose Bierce's 1890 short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".[16]
The film's circular narrative has been likened to a
Production
Development
Lost Highway was directed by David Lynch as his first feature film since Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), a prequel to his television series Twin Peaks (1990-1991).[13] He came across the phrase "lost highway" in the book Night People (1992) by Barry Gifford.[20] Because Lynch knew the writer very well and had previously adapted his novel Wild at Heart (1990) into a film by the same name,[6] he told him that he loved the phrase as a title for a movie. The two agreed to write a screenplay together,[15] having their own different ideas of what Lost Highway should be. They ended up rejecting all of them.[15] Lynch then told Gifford that, during the last night of shooting Fire Walk with Me, he had a thought about videotapes and a couple in crisis.[15] This idea would develop into the first part of the film until Fred Madison is put on death row. Lynch and Gifford then realized that a transformation had to occur and another story, which would have several links to the first one but also differ, developed.[15] It took them one month to finish the script.[15]
Lost Highway was partially inspired by the
Casting
Lynch cast Bill Pullman, a friend and neighbor of his, as the film's central character.[22] Actress Patricia Arquette agreed to be cast as Renee and Alice because she was interested in portraying a sexually desirable and dangerous woman,[23] a role she had never done before.[24] She had also been a fan of Lynch for a long time and felt that it would be an honor to work with him.[23][24] Actor Balthazar Getty was chosen for the role of Pete Dayton after Lynch saw a picture of him in a magazine and said that he was "the guy for the job".[25] Because the script was so open to interpretation, Getty and Arquette did not know what kind of film Lost Highway was supposed to be. According to Getty, "Part of David's technique is to keep his actors guessing, because it creates a certain atmosphere on set."[25]
Actor Robert Blake was cast as The Mystery Man because Lynch liked his previous work and was always interested in working with him.[6] Although Blake did not understand the script at all, he was responsible for the look and style of his character. When Lynch told him to use his imagination, Blake decided to cut his hair short, part it in the middle, shave his eyebrows, and apply white Kabuki make-up on his face. He then put on a black outfit and approached Lynch, who loved what he had done.[6] Actor Robert Loggia, who had previously expressed interest in playing the role of Frank Booth in Lynch's 1986 mystery film Blue Velvet, was cast as Mr. Eddy and Dick Laurent. Lynch recalled that, upon learning of Dennis Hopper's casting as Booth, Loggia launched a profanity-laden rant at him, which would eventually become Mr. Eddy's road rage scene.[26] Lost Highway also features the final motion picture performance of Richard Pryor.[17]
Filming and editing
Lost Highway was shot in Los Angeles, California, in about 54 days,[27] from November 29, 1995, to February 22, 1996.[21] Some of the film's exterior and driving scenes were shot in Griffith Park,[21] while the scenes of the Lost Highway Hotel were filmed at the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel in Death Valley.[28] Lynch owns the property that was used for Fred and Renee's mansion, which is located on the same street as his own house in the Hollywood Hills.[13] The house was configured in a particular way to meet the requirements of the film. A corridor that leads to the bedroom was added and the façade was remodeled with slot windows to make Fred's point of view very limited.[15] The paintings that are on the wall above the couch were done by Lynch's ex-wife and producer Mary Sweeney.[21]
The scenes that involved nudity and sexual contact proved to be very difficult for Arquette because she considers herself a very modest and shy person. Nevertheless, she felt very protected by Lynch and the film crew, who would always give her robes at any time.[23] The love scene between her and Getty in the desert, which was shot on a dry lake bed 20 miles outside Baker,[24] was a closed set and only key crew were allowed on it.[23] The sequence where Fred transforms into Pete was not computer-generated, but rather accomplished with in-camera techniques: a makeup expert constructed a fake head that was covered with artificial brain matter, which was then intercut with shots of Pullman.[29] The final car chase was shot with two different cameras running at different frame rates. The footage was then sped up to make the scene more aggressive.[29]
Lynch worked with cinematographer
Originally, Lynch wanted to shoot Lost Highway in
Soundtrack
The film's original score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti with additional music by Barry Adamson.[31] Badalamenti had previously worked with Lynch on Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks.[6] Although most of the score was recorded in Prague, additional compositions were done in London.[6] In New Orleans, Lynch collaborated with musician Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to provide additional music. Together, they created music that accompanied the scenes in which Fred and Renee watch the mysterious VHS tapes.[32] Two songs by Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, "The Perfect Drug" and "Driver Down", were specifically composed for the film.[31] Reznor then produced a soundtrack album that includes the film's score and songs by artists such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, Marilyn Manson, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Rammstein.[33]
Marilyn Manson's contributions include their cover of
Release
Box office
Lost Highway was released in France on January 15, 1997.
Critical reception
Upon release, Lost Highway received mixed reviews from critics.
In a more positive review,
Writing for the Chicago Reader, critic Jonathan Rosenbaum felt that Lost Highway was "an audacious move away from conventional narrative and back toward the formal beauty of Eraserhead".[48] He credited Lynch's "masterful and often powerful fusions of sound and image" for giving the film a very expressionist style.[48] However, he criticized the noir iconography for its lack of historical context. For example, he explained that, while Arquette's clothes fit in a noir setting, The Mystery Man's video camera is very contemporary and feels out of place.[48] Todd McCarthy of Variety concluded that, although Lost Highway is "uneven and too deliberately obscure in meaning to be entirely satisfying", the result "remains sufficiently intriguing and startling to bring many of Lynch's old fans back on board".[12]
At the 1997 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, Lost Highway was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Director, but lost to Batman & Robin in both categories.[49] At the 1998 Belgian Film Critics Association, the film was nominated for the Grand Prix award, but lost to Lone Star.[50]
Home media
Lost Highway was released on
Legacy
Although not as universally praised as other Lynch films,[8] Lost Highway has retrospectively attracted critical praise and scholarly interest.[14] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Marking a further escalation in David Lynch's surrealist style, Lost Highway is a foreboding mystery that arguably leads to a dead end, although it is signposted throughout with some of the director's most haunting images yet."[57] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 53 out of 100 based on 21 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[40] Jeremiah Kipp of Slant Magazine claimed that the film was not an artistic failure, stating that "in many ways, it's Lynch at his most daring, emotional, and personal".[51]
Writing for
As a
Adaptation
In 2003, the film was adapted as an opera by the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth, with a libretto by Elfriede Jelinek.[60]
References
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- ^ a b "Lost Highway". Bifi.fr (in French). Archived from the original on August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
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- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Szebin, Frederick; Biodrowski, Steve (April 1997). "David Lynch on Lost Highway". Cinefantastique. Vol. 28, no. 10. Forrest Park, Illinois: Frederick S. Clarke. pp. 32–41.
- ^ Gilbey, Ryan (September 5, 1998). "Film: The Five Best Films". The Independent. London, England: Independent Print Ltd. Archived from the original on August 8, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
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- ^ Amorosi, Ad (October 31, 2022). "The Sound and Vision of David Lynch's Lost Highway". FLOOD Magazine. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
- ^ Caldwell, Thomas (1999). "Lost in Darkness and Confusion: Lost Highway, Lacan, and film noir". Metro. No. 118. Auckland, New Zealand: Australian Teachers of Media. pp. 46–50.
- ^ a b McCarthy, Todd (January 19, 1997). "Lost Highway". Variety. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
- ^ a b c Gilmore, Mikal (March 6, 1997). "David Lynch and Trent Reznor: The Lost Boys". Rolling Stone. No. 755. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. Archived from the original on August 7, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
- ^ a b c Lim, Dennis (April 1, 2008). "Fugue Interstate". Slate. Archived from the original on February 10, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
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- ^ a b c Hill, Veronica (December 15, 1995). "David Lynch takes Lost Highway to Baker". Daily Press.
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- ^ Bergan, Ronald (December 6, 2015). "Robert Loggia obituary". The Guardian. London, England. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
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- ^ a b Pizzello, Stephen (March 1997). "Highway to Hell". American Cinematographer. Vol. 78, no. 3. Hollywood, California: American Society of Cinematographers.
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- ^ a b Klein, Andy (February 27, 1997). "A bumpy ride". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
- ^ a b c Rosenbaum, Jonathan (February 27, 1997). "Splitting Images". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
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- ^ "Cinéma Grand Prix de l'UCC à "Lone Star"". Le Soir (in French). January 12, 1998. Archived from the original on December 26, 2013. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
- ^ a b Kipp, Jeremiah (April 1, 2008). "Lost Highway". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on May 30, 2017. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
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- ^ a b Sharf, Zack (June 26, 2019). "Kino Lorber Speaks Out After David Lynch Bashes 'Lost Highway' Blu-ray Release". IndieWire. Archived from the original on June 24, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
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External links
- Lost Highway at IMDb
- Lost Highway at Rotten Tomatoes
- Lost Highway at Metacritic