Wild (2014)

Title: Wild (2014)

Director: Jean-Marc Vallee

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern

Wild is the story of Cheryl Strayed, a woman who falls into heroin addiction and furthermore, becomes sexually promiscuous in order to deal with her mother’s death. After reaching an all time low by becoming a town whore and getting pregnant in the process, she decides it’s time to do something with her life in order to straighten things out.  She decides to go hiking for three months in order to ‘find herself’ and eradicate her heroin addiction. Can she survive on her own for three months in the wilderness and kick her heroin addiction? And will Reese Witherspoon win an Oscar for this role?

I did some surfing on the net, trying to scope the general reaction for this film and discovered (to my surprise) that some folks seem to be disappointed by this film because they find it “to simple of a movie”. That it’s just about Reese Witherspoon walking around remembering the events that led her to heroin and sex addiction. That it’s not worthy of a movie, that it’s an ego trip for Reese Witherspoon. I guess those folks just don’t get it. I mean, yes, they are right; this is a film about a woman walking and remembering, but to these sentiments I say, what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with a film about analyzing ourselves? So obviously, Wild is not a movie for everyone, especially not those expecting special effects, action or impossible situations. No, this movie is more of an introspective tale, a spiritual journey of self discovery, so be ready for that.  

How personal is this story? Well, it’s based on Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild: From Lost to Found in the Pacific Crest Trail, which she mostly wrote as she hiked the trail herself. This is why we hear a lot of inner monologue through out the film, we here Cheryl’s thoughts as she is hiking, which made perfect sense to me. When  you hike for as long as she did, it’s just you, the road, nature and your mind. So what the director was doing here was capturing the experience of hiking on film; the loneliness, the beauty of nature, the grandness of the landscape and the inevitable tendency to get introspective, to reanalyze your life; where you've been, where you’re going, what does it all mean? We also get a glimpse at the whole hiker community, a whole different lifestyle that you've probably never gotten a glimpse at. It’s these elements that make this film unique. A good movie should capture the experience it’s trying to represent on film in a convincing manner and director Jean-Marc Vallee did just that, so kudos to him for it.

I like spiritual tales like this one. They are about people trying to connect with themselves, with the universe, trying to find the goodness in life by disconnecting from all the crap that society has to offer. Let’s face it, the world we live in offers some really crappy solutions to the sameness of it all. Once you grow tired of your repetitive life, of your problems, it’s easy to turn to drugs and alcohol to escape it all. What I liked about this movie is that it was Cheryl looking to escape from the escapes, if that makes any sense at all. She’s cuts with the world and with everyone in it in order to hear her own voice. That’s worthy of a movie for me, it’s a worthwhile story to tell. It reminded me a bit of Sean Penn’s Into the Wild (2007), though they are different films because Into the Wild was more about a man looking to completely disconnect from the modern life, completely giving his back to society and the modern world. Wild is more about escaping it all for a while, punishing your body a bit, showing it who is boss; taking a breather from the modern world in order to return to the battle and start again. But they share that idea of disconnecting, leaving all the noise of the world behind. Hiking for three months in the wild is no piece of cake; it takes a special kind of determination and will power and yes, inner strength to do it. Even more interesting is the fact that Cheryl Strayed did this without any prior experience in trail hiking!

Reese Witherspoon (left) and Cheryl Strayed (right)

Reese Witherspoon has gotten an Oscar nomination for her work in this film, but she has to go up against some stiff competition. She's going up against Julianne Moore for Still Alice, Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl, Felicity Jones for Theory of Everything and Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night. I guess we’ll see if she has what it takes to win, I thought her performance was excellent but I haven’t seen the competing films, so here’s hoping. I enjoy films like this one, they talk about life and how all of us deal with it in different ways. Some say big deal, we all got problems and they don’t make a movie about them. We all lose our mothers; we don’t all turn to promiscuous sex and drugs to deal with it; to that I say we don’t all react the same way when we lose someone close to us, some of us go on just fine, others break down. Each of our stories is different, they could make a movie about all of our lives, each one would be entirely different, each one would teach us a little something about the world we live in. This is Cheryl Strayeds story, and we can learn just as much from it as well. It’s a story about loss and redemption, told in a beautiful and sometimes poetic way, definitely worth a watch.

Rating: 5 out of 5   

Birdman (2014)

Birdman: Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (2014)

Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu

Cast: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton

I enjoy Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu films because of the level of realism they have, they have immediacy to them that attracts me to them, they feel like real life and not like many of today's color filtered, fake looking films. If you don’t believe me go rent Amores Perros (2000), a film that tells five stories that are all connected by one catastrophic car accident, an idea that Paul Haggis borrowed heavily from for his film Crash (2004). Amores Perros is shot in this hyper realistic documentary style that just blows me away every time I see it, actually all of Iñarritu’s films are shot this way which is what I like about them. So anyways, I always look forward to Iñarritu’s films, because he is one of those few directors with a pitch perfect record, he hardly ever makes a disappointing film. The only time I wasn’t blown away by one of his films was with Babel (2006), and even that film has its merits. Iñarritu’s the kind of director that even when he makes a “bad” film, it’s still good. When I heard about Birdman I was immediately attracted to it because of its premise, I thought it was a novel idea, but I have to admit I was more than a bit curious as to what Iñarritu was going to say with this film. What would it be about? 

Birdman is all about Riggan, an aging actor trying to gain the respect of an audience that has forgotten all about him. You see, at one point in his life Riggan was the biggest star on the planet when he starred in a series of comic book films called Birdman; a series of films about a super hero with wings, which by the way is a pretty cool looking character. Point is Riggan stopped making Birdman movies and is now fading away from the spotlight. His plan to regain the audiences approval and attention is putting on a play called ‘What we talk about when we talk about love’.  When the movie begins, the play is days away from premiering in a theater in New York City and he is all kinds of nervous looking for a new actor to take the lead role. Will he get to premiere his play successfully? Does he still have what it takes? Will the audience accept him once again?

Various elements make Birdman one of the best films of 2014, but let’s start with its obvious technical prowess. Here’s a film shot in a way that makes it look like its one long continuous shot, and though this might fly undetected by the common moviegoer, those with a more keen sense of observation will realize just how difficult it is to make a film this way. The big problem is that when an actor messes up a line, you have to start filming the shot all over again. Also, shooting a film with long continuous shots proves difficult in the editing room, because through editing you can establish certain beats in the rhyme of the visuals and the storytelling, you can even add comedy through editing, but if it’s all one continuous shot, things become just a little more demanding. Performances and shots have to be incredibly well choreographed and timed in order for this technique to work well, so this is why I applaud Iñarritu for achieving this technique so well.  Alfonso Cuaron also used this technique effectively in Gravity (2013). And it’s not that they don’t ever cut, they do, but the cuts are placed in a way that you hardly notice them, and they are very few. Entire sequences will go on and on and on without cutting, it’s quite amusing for those interested in filmmaking. It certainly makes things more demanding for everyone involved. Some shots are amazing, keep your eyes peeled for them, there’s quite a few of them.

Iñarritu directs a scene

Another area in which this film excels is in its themes, you see this is one of those films that’s about film. It’s not unlike Hugo (2011), The Big Picture (1989) or Shadow of the Vampire (2000), which are films that explore the nature of filmmaking both from the filmmakers view point and from the actors view point. On Birdman filmmaking is explored from the point of view of the actors, it’s all about the never changing fact that “Hollywood takes you in, chews you up and then spits you out”. There’s a reason why that saying hasn’t faded away and it’s because it still remains true. Hollywood caters to the young, the beautiful, the ‘now’, what’s in and what’s hot is what matters. You get old, suddenly you’re not getting as many roles as you used to. The movie addresses this idea that in Hollywood, unless you become a raging icon to the masses, you are more than likely going to fade away, quietly into the night. And sometimes that “fading away” ain’t a pretty sight because it’s hard for actors to let go of the fame and the spotlight. The film focuses on that frustrating moment when the actor simply doesn’t like the fact that he or she is no longer “popular”. What makes things even more interesting is the fact that Michael Keaton used to play a comic book character himself, same as the character in Birdman. It’s no wonder Keaton’s performance rings so true, I’m sure a lot of his own frustrations were channeled into his performance, because while Keaton has never stopped working, he isn’t as popular as he was when he made Batman (1989) or Bettlejuice (1988). There’s this amazing moment when Riggan is locked out of the theater by mistake and he’s in his underwear, the scene comments on how acting is a very vulnerable profession, you expose your soul to others through your performance, so I loved the metaphor there, an actor desperately baring his naked soul to his audience, humanity, the masses. You can expect a real heartfelt performance from Keaton. Could the critical success of Birdman spell a comeback for Keaton? It certainly feels like it, from what I hear, he’s gonna be reuniting with Tim Burton for Beetlejuice 2 next! It will be interesting to see how they make that one work after so many years have passed.   

The film also speaks about how aging actors have to adjust to the changing of the times, and the way things are marketed nowadays. For example, there’s a moment when a video of Riggan becomes popular on You Tube and is ‘trending’ and his daughter shows him how many people have viewed it and tells him “this is power”, a fact that Riggan is completely clueless about. The film also talks about how a lot of Hollywood films are aimed at a young audience and that what the masses love is action, blood, explosions and special effects. Which is true, just ask Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich. The masses don’t want “philosophical bullshit” and the filmmakers behind Birdman are obviously frustrated by this.  I agree with them to a certain extent, because while I enjoy big fx spectacles, I also love brainy, artistic films. In my book there’s space for both types of films; the escapist summer movies as well as the more philosophical, story driven films. But of course, what the masses like, which is to say what the grand majority likes is brainless action and effects like the next Transformers movie, this in turn speaks volumes about the kind of people that make up the majority, which in turns is a sad state of affairs. When we get down to it, I think what the filmmakers behind Birdman are really frustrated with is the level of education of the majority, in other words, if we’re to read between the lines, there’s a genuine frustration with how many brainless zombies exist in the world. So yes my friends, we have an amazing film here, certainly deserving of being called one f the best of the year and one that I’m sure will garner Michael Keaton an Oscar nod, and quite possibly an Oscar win, here’s hoping.

Rating: 5 out of 5 

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Director: Jim Jarmusch  

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt

Jim Jarmusch is not the kind of filmmaker that will appeal to everyone because his films are deliberately slow paced, which if you’re in the right mood could be just what the doctor ordered. In my case, Only Lovers Left Alive was exactly the kind of movie I was looking for. You see, this film is populated with mellow characters in no rush to blow anything up or save the universe. Quite the contrary, these guys are basking in their mellowness, and I dug that. It’s a change of pace. Sometimes, modern films seem to be in some sort of rush, like a child who suffers from ADD, always in search for the next big rush. Yes my friends, there’s no denying that today’s audiences are junkies of the rush. But here’s Jim Jarmusch wanting to teach us once again that slowing things down can actually be a cool thing, let’s get retrospective, let’s think about things, let's analyze. 

Only Lovers Left Alive is the story of Adam and Eve, two vampires who are extremely cultured and ancient, they know a lot about everything, their clothes are hundreds of years old. Eve has hundreds of ancient books and is an expert in literature and speed reads everything while Adam is an expert musician who wants to remain anonymous, hiding away from fame. These two vampires are married, but have been living so long that they don’t need to live together. Adam lives his rock and roll life style in Detroit Michigan while Eve lives in Tangiers, Morocco. Their lives are reunited when Adam reveals to Eve that he’s depressed with humanity. She detects his depression, so she flies to him, both reuniting in Detroit. Can these two vampires survive in our modern decaying society?

What I liked about this movie is how Jarmusch uses the vampires eternity to criticize humanity. You see these vampires have seen so many facets of humanity that they can comment, with an all encompassing point of view about where we are now as a race.  They've seen us go through the inquisitions, through hitler, through everything, they've seen Galileo and Tesla suffer for their knowledge, they know just how much cruelty we are capable of, because they've seen it. In a way, so have we because we can read a history book, we can all look back at humanities mistakes and learn from them and evolve, but it seems we are inclined more towards repeating our mistakes then growing above them. I love how both vampires simply drive around Detroit during the night, they see all these abandoned buildings and factories and say “it’s like everybody left”. I gots to tell you my dear readers, I sometimes feel the same way about my own city. So many businesses closed down, so many abandoned buildings, you can see the urban decay taking over. The city is rotting away. It’s life, sucked away. So of course, I connected with these vampires, driving around a decaying city in ruins. Reminiscing about where it all went and if its ever gonna come back.

These vampires are pretty cool, they are so cultured, they remind me of how I wish I could spend eternity, reading books and listening to cool music, just chilling the hell out, when these guys drink their blood, it’s not unlike smoking a dooby or drinking your favorite poison. How cool are these vampires? Well, they hang out with William Shakespeare, who by the way is also a vampire! Ha, awesome. They eat blood popsicles and hang out in rock and roll bars. They wear glasses at night. The only thing is that the state of humanity brings them down. Adam can’t believe how humanity has managed to not only poison their water supply but their own blood as well. He wonders if humanity is still fighting about oil and when the water wars will begin. These guys philosophize about everything, I dug it. Swinton and Hiddleston have great chemistry together, they sold me the part of these two vampires in love throughout the ages. But overall, the cast is awesome, including John Hurt playing an aging vampire Shakespeare.

Jarmusch filmed on location in some awesome looking places, for example, he actually shot in Detroit, a city that is actually in decay. Huge buildings that use to be factories now look like ghosts, haunting a dying city, Jarmusch captured it all beautifully, made all the more dark and brooding because most of the film takes place late at night, when the vampires hang out. Morocco adds a completely different type of background, with beautiful vistas of a completely different type of society. They go to Morocco escaping the masses, escaping humanity whom they appropriately call “zombies”. Watching this film you kind of get the idea that humanity is in the brink of some huge cataclysmic change, like the world will soon turn, like that famous worm that turns when provoked enough. That idea that the world is somehow pushing us to return to an animalistic state of being, like the out of control world we live in is calling out our animal instincts, and pretty soon we won’t be able to hold back. Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive is thought provoking, romantic and sexy. In a lot of ways, Only Lovers Left Alive reminded me of this offbeat, obscure vampire film called Blood & Donuts (1995), because of this weird mood that it elicits, this weird aura that only comes from films that take place during the wee hours of the night, the small hours when the creatures of the night emerge. I recommend this film if you want to see something sultry, a film that slows things down to the pace of blood ebbing down a vampires throat.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Under the Skin (2014)

Under the Skin (2014)

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Starring: Scarlett Johansson

So there are movies out there that divide audiences, Under the Skin is undoubtedly one of them. It will divide audiences who like to go see commercial films, from those who enjoy more artful fare. Films that break with the norm and try different things, different structures. Under the Skin doesn't subscribe to Hollywood formulas, we don’t have a hero trying to solve some problem, we don’t follow a clear three part structure, in fact, we don’t know what the hell is going to happen next. Director Jonathan Glazer gets a rousing shout of approval from this Film Connoisseur.

Under the Skin is the story of a sexy voluptuous alien (Johansson) who goes around town looking for lonely guys she can feed on. That’s really all I can say, you see, this isn’t exactly the kind of film that is overtly complex, yet strangely enough, even though it’s simple in many ways, it also comments on society and the world we live in. Most of all, it comments on how men will do just about anything to be with a woman, to share that amazing moment of intimacy. It speaks about how that desire can blind us and drive us. But also, it speaks about the ugly side of sex, how a man is willing to step into the world of rape and violence to get it, sad but true. It's a tragedy that we still live in a world where rape happens so often. So yeah, a “simple” movie in many ways, but if we look past its apparent simplicity, it actually comments on some very important themes.

   

Think about this film as an art house version of Lifeforce (1985), because it really is the best way that I can describe it. I know it sounds weird to compare a film like this one with Hooper’s Lifeforce, but both films are extremely similar: female alien goes around picking up lonely dudes, seducing them so she can suck the life force out of them. This is exactly what happens in both movies! The difference between both films is that Hooper Lifeforce is a glorified b-movie, while Under the Skin takes a more experimental route. It’s more artsy, for lack of a better word. But I loved how without realizing it, I suddenly felt like I was watching a movie about a space vampire! Want more similarities? Well, how about the fact that Scarlett Johansson gets naked throughout the entire film? Remind you of Lifeforce yet?  

When I say Under the Skin is ‘artsy’ by that I mean it’s that kind of film that just hovers on a moment so you can really absorb it, kind of the way that Werner Herzog or Terrence Malick. You know, where they will just linger on a vista, or stay on a moment so you’ll really get the feel of being there. It also has these long moments without dialog, in fact, Scarlett Johansson’s character hardly speaks. She only talks when she’s going to pick up a guy from the street. The film also used experimental filmmaking techniques for certain scenes, for example, there’s moments in which the alien walks into a mall, or a nightclub, and the filmmakers used hidden cameras to capture real people going about their business, in this way, the film was successful in capturing humanity in its natural habitat. You know how sometimes you wish you could tape people on the street, because truth is sometimes stranger than fiction? Well, they actually do that on this movie, the result is real, no extras, just real people. 

That the film is so different from anything out there makes perfect sense when we take in consideration that the director is Jonathan Glazer, who also directed Birth (2004), the film in which Nicole Kidman ends up kind of falling in love with a ten year old kid who is apparently the reincarnation of her dead husband, or is he? It was a controversial film when it was first released, I remember seeing it in theaters and being perplexed by it, and slightly shocked, but I also remember being wowed by the beautiful imagery. Under the Skin is not without those beautiful images, in fact, the filmmakers went out of their way to find these beautiful locations, again, Glazer did what Werner Herzog does. He finds these beautiful locations to shoot in, you’d swear they aren’t real. But they are, and they serve as a beautiful reminder of the amazing planet we live in.

While Under the Skin is a different kind of film, Glazer also shows he has many cinematic influences, displaying elements you could find in other directors works, for example you can find the surrealism and symmetrical perfection of Stanley Kubrick in abstract images that seem to come right out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. You can also find that ominous feeling you get from watching a David Lynch film, the beautiful locations from a Herzog film, in other words, Glazer loves many amazing filmmakers and puts a lot of them into his own films, but also, of course, adding his own taste and flavor to the mix. That deadly serious tone that all of his films have. This proves what I’ve always said about films, you can give the script to ten different directors, and you’ll end up getting ten, totally different films. I mean, Hooper with the concept of a female space vampire did Lifeforce and look at what Glazer did with the same exact idea, a refreshingly different film. Take it from me; if you like films that break with the norm, this is a film you should not miss. Highly recommended!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Her (2013)

Title: Her (2013)

Director: Spike Jonze

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams

In order to truly understand Her, I suggest you first watch Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003), you see, there’s a connection between both of these films; one comes as a response of the other. This is not to say that you can’t get anything out of watching the film without understanding its back story, but you’ll get a whole different perspective on them once you understand where they are both coming from. So this is how it goes: once upon a time not so long ago, Sofia Coppola, the youngest daughter of legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola, grew up with quirky music video director named Spike Jonze; their friendship blossomed and grew until in 1999 they ended up getting hitched. So anyhow, to make a long story short, their marriage ended in 2003. In order to deal with the divorce Sofia Coppola, though denying it a first, wrote and directed a film that expressed her feelings on the break up; that film ended up being Lost in Translation (2003), which curiously was released on the very same year she divorced Jonze.

In Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who’s married to a photographer, played by a very loopy Giovanni Ribissi. The photographer is so wrapped up in his career that he completely neglects Scarlett Johansson’s character and she ends up befriending a much older man played by Bill Murray; they end up developing a platonic romance even though their age difference is huge. The loopy, sort of absent minded photographer was actually Sofia Coppola’s version of Spike Jonze. The way I see it, that character was a cartoon like version of Spike Jonze, it’s how Sofia Coppola saw Jonze. So if we are to read between the lines, we can deduct that Coppola felt neglected by Jonze during their marriage because he was so wrapped up in his film career, which was beginning to take off back then. “I was trying to figure it out when I was writing that” she said in an interview to ONTD. That’s one thing I can say about the Coppola’s: they make very personal films that talk about their life experiences, sure they’ll deny the hell out of it if you ask them, but truth is, they are simply sharing their life experiences with us. Beautiful thing about these films is that even though they are extremely personal in nature, we can still enjoy them and get a lot out of them because they are genuine reflections of the human spirit, of what it means to be ‘us’. Her is another good example of an extremely personal film; detailing the thoughts and situations that go into a divorce. 

Jonze sets up a shot

So, fast-forward ten years later and now its Spike Jonze’s turn to address how he feels about that divorce. From what I can tell after watching Her, I think it’s safe to say that it was Jonze who ended up the most heartbroken from that divorce and he projects himself in the character of Theodore; a very sensitive man who truly misses his wife and can’t seem to stop remembering the good times he had with her. This film feels as if ten years later, Sofia Coppola still lingers in Spike Jonze’s soul. In that same interview to ONTD , Sofia Coppola mentions that “Spike didn’t end well” so I’m not just talking out of my ass here. Jonze was truly broken up and we can definitely pick that up from watching Her. So, it is understandable then that the main character in Her; Theodore Twombly, is mopy and anti-social; he can’t take the fact that he is about to divorce his wife Catherine of many years; who by the way looks a heck of a lot like Sofia Coppola! 

Many other things let us know that Her was made in response to Lost in Translation; Scarlett Johansson was the main character in Lost in Translation, while on Her she plays the voice of the operating system for which Theodore falls head over heels for. In the film, Theodore and Catherine grew up together which made the divorce that much more difficult, same as with Jonze and Coppola who also grew up together. Actually, if we want to get really detailed, some shots in the film are extremely similar, starting with Theodore’s room which looks a heck of a lot like Scarlett Johansson’s hotel room in Lost in Translation. Point is, if you want to really understand Her, you should watch Lost in Translation while keeping all these things in mind. Just remember that in Her, Theodore is Spike Jonze’s alter ego, while in Lost in Translation Charlotte was Sofia Coppola’s alter ego. The difference between the two films is that they are told from different points of view, one film is from the female perspective, while the other shows us the males point of view; which instantly makes both films all the more fascinating to me. It's like hearing both sides of the story; interesting thing is that both of them make sense in their own ways. They both got interesting points to make, and we can learn a lot from both films. 

But trust me, you don’t need to know any of this to enjoy Her, seen without all the context behind it, you can still get a lot out of it. The film works on two fronts:  it works as a comment on relationships, break-ups and male/female dynamics, while at the same time it throws a bit of commentary on society’s current obsession with social media and technology. Her is not for everybody, its a very cerebral film, which relies heavily on dialog, so if you like that in your films, you'll love Her. It seems to me that a lot of people where having a difficult time digesting the fact that Theodore was falling in love with a computer program. But you can’t go in thinking this is a silly premise, after all, this is a science fiction film, we are here to escape into a fantasy world where anything can happen. Her takes place in a slightly futuristic version of L.A., which by the way, Spike Jonze brilliantly shot in China, making China look like a futuristic version of L.A. How genius is that? So anyways, be ready for a film in which the main character falls for an artificial intelligence. What I loved about it is how Theodore’s obsession with his computer program represents our obsession with technology, an obsession that only serves as a way to alienate us from real human contact. Take a bus or a train and you’ll see more than half of the people connected to their phones, i-pads and I-pods, sometimes all at the same time! Are we growing apart as a human race? Are we in desperate need to reconnect with our fellow humans? Well yes we are and I’m glad we have films like Her to point that out.

Rating: 5 out of 5   

To The Wonder (2013)

Title: To the Wonder (2012)

Director: Terrence Malick

Cast: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams

Certain directors out there make films that are an experience to watch, these films don’t subscribe to any ideas of what a film should be, these types of films are made to be taken in without any expectations; you simply have to experience them. Films like these lean more towards the artistic, the ‘avante garde’, the experimental. I’m talking about guys like David Lynch, Werner Herzog or Andrei Tarkovsky, all directors, like Malick, who will show you that the world is beautiful and strange enough on its own, without the aid of special effects. These guys don’t make films with box office numbers in mind ; if their movies make money, it’s a by-product of the thing, what they care most about is making a film that will linger on after you watch it, a film that will stir your emotions; films that will leave a lasting impression on you. I urge you to watch films by these directors, you can rest assured they’ll leave a mark on your psyche and your emotions, because directors like these care most about making you feel while commenting on the little intricacies of the human condition.

The thing with directors like these is that depending on your appreciation/tolerance for art and style, you’ll either love their films or hate them. I fall under the ‘I freaking love Terrence Malick’ category. Why? Well, what can I say, the guy makes films that move me, that speak to me even when there is no dialog being spoken, which by the way is a signature stamp on Malick films; images take over and speak. “A picture can say more than a thousand words” is a phrase that comes to mind when I watch a Malick film; what I love about the beautiful vistas and landscapes that Malick catches with his lenses is that they speak about that beauty of nature that leaves us speechless; you know how sometimes you’ll look at a spectacular sunset, or bask in the beauty of nature and you can’t help but be blown away by the magnificence of it all? About how beautiful it all is? That’s what To the Wonder is largely about, a love letter to nature and the beauty of life, which is in large part what TheTree of Life (2011), Malick’s previous film, was all about as well. But while The Tree of Life focused entirely on the magnificence of life, To the Wonder dives more into themes of relationships and faith. It is both things, a love letter to life and an exploration of the ins and outs of love.

On this film we meet Neil (Affleck) and Marina (Kurylenko) precisely at the moment when they have started to fall in love with each other, you know, those moments when physical attraction is the strongest and people can’t seem to keep their hands to themselves? When the smallest of caresses means a world, that time of the relationship when you feel you’re walking on air, ah, the beauty of the beginning. The film is amazing in that it focuses on those little details that demonstrate that these two individuals are really into each other, the looks, the caresses. But again, Malick doesn’t focus so much on dialog, it’s not what these characters say but what they do that lets us know what is going on. We do hear inner monologue as the characters whisper to themselves how they are feeling, so be ready for a film that doesn’t have people saying “I love you” or “I trust you”; nope, one this movie characters show these things with their actions towards each other. For example, in the film, Affleck has a fling with Rachel McAdams and she’s a horse wrangler, a cow girl every step of the way; she’s fallen deeply in love with Affleck, but he doesn’t want to settle down. She wants to marry him and she’s trying to sort of reel him into it, the same way she would wrangle her untamable wild horses. All a visual allegory to how Affleck’s character doesn’t want to get tied down by marriage. Malick does this type of allegorical thing with the images all throughout.

I’ve always thought that relationships, no matter how strong the bond is at first, have an expiration date to them. I am of the opinion that nothing lasts “forever”, to me everything changes, which is why I don’t believe in marriage. Why get tied down to someone legally, when eventually both grow tired of each other? Everything starts out fine and dandy, but around the four to five year mark you’ll start annoying the hell out of each other to the point where one can’t stand being with the other. But I digress, I'm sure marriage works for some, but what I have seen in this world, it rarely does. The film targets those first blissful moments of the beginning of a relationship and those awful moments when the magic is gone and you’re left with nothing but hatred and contempt for each other.  There is a scene in which Affleck is trying to hug and caress his wife and she pushes him away, a scene in which we see that obviously, the love is gone. Why do people forget why they fell in love with each other? Why do we forget what made it all work in the first place? Then there’s the issue of freedom, which you kind of loose once you are entangled with someone. In the film, Marina is a free spirit, always dancing and basking in the beauty of nature while Affleck is detached, quiet and introspective. In one particular scene, Marina’s best friend comes from France and tells her to go back to being the free spirit that she is, to go back to France and feel alive! In this scene Malick alludes to how Marina’s relationship to Affleck has degenerated to the point where the relationship sucked the vitality out of her. She’s no longer the crazy, free spirited being she once was. So is being with somebody “forever and ever” a good thing for you, or will it end up being a soul sucking experience? You be the judge; I’m sure there’s such a thing as eternal love for another person, it’s just so damn rare. But anyhow, these are the themes the film explores in regards to relationships.

Through the character of Father Quintana; Malick explores issues of faith. It’s interesting because in the film Quintana is a person whom people look up to as a spiritual leader, yet secretly, he doubts the existence of god. It’s not that he doesn’t believe in God, it’s just that he’s never had any real proof of his existence, he wants to believe but has no physical or empirical evidence to do so. This is something that happens to people who start to question faith; secretly in your mind you tell yourself it’s all feeling like a bunch of bull, but you don’t dare say it out loud for fear that someone might discover you are beginning to doubt God. In Father Quintana’s case, his doubt is starting to show on his face; so much so that his own parishioners begin to tell him he doesn’t look happy. His doubts are so strong, he feels his life as a preacher is a lie. Yet while the film does question the existence of God, at the same time it’s an ode to the wonder of the world, the beauty of nature and the planet which is something real and undeniable. There are many scenes in which the camera simply focuses on the beauty of a breathtaking landscape or some curious thing that happens in the world, like the wind blowing through the trees, or the water forming odd shapes on the sand. The way I see it, Malick sees the world the way I see it, as a constant wonder, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant the event, according to this film, there’s beauty in everything and Malick wants you to see that. Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful looking films of the year.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Lost Highway (1997)

Title: Lost Highway (1997)

Director: David Lynch

Cast: Patricia Arquette, Bill Pullman, Balthazar Getty, Robert Blake, Gary Busey, Robert Loggia

I’ve been re-watching all of Lynch’s films these past few days for my Lynch blog-a-thon and watching Lost Highway it dawned upon me how much Lynch had been playing with the same themes ever since he made Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992). You see, in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Lynch told a story about a secret group of people hell bent on taking over other people’s bodies, kind of like possessing them, so they can live forever. Then there’s MulhollandDrive (2001) which some people seem to interpret the same way, Betty wants to turn Camilla into herself. So while watching Lost Highway (1997) I realized it also played with this premise of people taking over other people’s bodies. In many ways, Mulholland Drive was the result of Lynch playing with these themes for years, it was the culmination of many years of ruminating these premises, which is why Mulholland Drive is so damned perfect in my book. This of course is not to say that these films are all the same, in fact, they aren’t, they vary in mood and look, but they do play with similar ideas. In fact, Lynch stated in a recent interview that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Lost Highway exist in the same universe, so I guess I’m not that far off with my assumptions. So what sets Lost Highway apart?

In Lost Highway we meet Fred Madison, a Jazz musician who’s experiencing marital troubles. Though not entirely obvious at first, little things let you know that they’ve grown apart. She won’t go to his Jazz shows because she’d rather stay home and read a book? We see she feels kind of sorry for him during sex when she taps him in the back while having it, as if saying “there, there”. Fred tells his wife “I’m glad I can still make you laugh” the key word being “still”. Finally, he remembers her walking away with some guy during one of his performances at the Jazz club, so he suspects she is also being unfaithful, which fires up a furious jealousy. All these negative feelings in his relationship bring forth an unusual situation in his life! A mysterious man dressed in black begins to visit him in his mind and his dreams. Who is this Mystery Man? And how and why does he keep sending ominous video tapes of Fred and his wife sleeping in bed? How does the Mystery Man invade their home?

So once again Lynch visits the world of relationships, Lynch has been commenting on the intricacies of relationships since his very first film, Eraserhead (1977) which was all about that awkward situation of suddenly finding yourself entangled with someone you do not love. On Lost Highway Lynch explores a similar subject manner, the little tattle tale signs that let you know something is just not right in a marriage, signs that let you know in an indirect way that though this person is still with you, she or he has already moved on to the next relationship and is actually already contemplating how to dump you. In Lost Highway Fred has already detected this in his wife Renee and so he welcomes a dark being into his mind, the creepy ‘Mystery Man’, the one who can help him escape and become somebody else, somebody younger! The difference on this film though is that Lynch focuses on how we don’t have to stay in this situation, Lynch actually comments on how we can and probably should change our life before the darkness takes over, but this being Lynch, well, he goes into dark, dark territory to tell this tale.

So once again we enter the realm of switching bodies and lives. Remember how in Mulholland Dr. Diane changed her dark depressive life as a wannabe actress, for the life of Betty, an up and coming actress who blows everybody away with her acting abilities? Something similar happens on Lost Highway with Fred the Jazz player. As we can see by these films, Lynch likes telling stories about people who aren’t happy with their lives and want to change them somehow. In Twin Peaks we get a whole group of people trying to posses others lives, but in that film these mysterious people want to posses bodies so they can live out their own lives. So this is actually a very positive thing about Lynch’s films, he tells us that we can become whoever we want to become, no matter how dark the situation.

Lynch transmits his ideas through a very dark and disturbing prism and that’s one of the funny things about Lynch, his films aren’t horror films, but they have horrifying elements to them that make them scarier than any horror film you’d see. I think this trio of films, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway and Twin Peaks are some of his scariest ones, they all deal with supernatural elements, and they all stir up dark situations and emotions. Other similarities that these films share: females as central characters of the story, which is really a Lynch staple. In all three films women are either femm fatales you don’t want to mess with, or women in peril at the hands of abusive psychotic men. In Lost Highway’s case, it’s an incredible mixture of both; awoman in peril desperately trying to escape the grip of a gangster/mad man, but also, a femm fatale, a woman with great allure, leading men into dangerous situations. In Lost Highway’s case, the femm fatale is played by the beautiful Patricia Arquette. I want to take this time and point out just how obvious it is that Lynch loves and appreciates women. I mean, he not only makes them the central characters in many of his films and shows sympathy for them, he also chooses true beauties for his films. I mean, Laura Dern, Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, all bombshells in my book, we  can add Patricia Arquette to that list. On this film she looks incredibly beautiful; a woman that any man would do anything for. So out of Wild at Heart, MulhollandDr. and Lost Highway which one is the most erotic? That’s a tough one, I thought Mulholland Dr. would be it with it’s amazing sex scene between Watts and Herring, but after having seen Lost Highway, I think Lost Highway wins, Patricia Arquette is just too stunning. I can now see why Nicholas Cage proposed to her on the spot, the first time he saw her!

So anyhow, that’s my two cents on Lost Highway. It’s a very slow paced movie, but then again, that’s the way most of Lynch’s films are, slow, sultry and seductive, and then blamo, he hits you in the head with disturbing imagery. At the end of the day it’s a satisfying film. By the way, though Lynch usually works with the same group of actors, most of the actors on this film were working with Lynch for the first time. Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Gary Busey, Robert Loggia and Robert Blake are all Lynch rookies; the only Lynch regular that I spotted was Jack Nance in a cameo as a mechanic. By the way, this was Nance’s last performance before he passed away two months before the film was released. Look for an avalanche of amusing cameos from guys like Henry Rollins, Marilyn Manson, Giovanni Ribisi. Even Richard Pryor cameos here in his last on screen performance as a guy running an auto shop. Last words on Lost Highway: it’s another spooky unsettling gem in Lynch’s crown of masterpieces. My only true problem with it is the open ending; the film ends rather abruptly which leaves you sort of begging for more, this small quibble aside, Lost Highway is another Lynch masterpiece, I gotta say, I’ve yet to be disappointed by a Lynch film.

Rating:  5 out of 5  

Mulholland Drive Film Analysis

Some of David Lynch’s films use a more traditional storytelling method than others; sure Lynch is primarily known for his surrealism, but on that rare occasion, some of his films run on a linear fashion. Take for example The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986) and The Straight Story (1999), three of Lynch’s films that don’t get too dreamlike or surreal, they don’t jump time or go into trippy dream sequences, nope, these three films run on a more or less linear fashion; they tell their tale in a way that is digestible for anyone willing to take a crack at them. But then there’s the dark, dark side of Lynch. I’m talking about that group of films in Lynch’s fantastic filmography that dive wholeheartedly into the surreal, the non-linear and the open for interpretation; these are films that usually end up meaning something different to everyone. Lost Highway (1997) is a good example of this, and so is the film I’ll be analyzing today, Mulholland Dr. (2001).

Now here’s a film that I instantly wanted to see again the first time I saw it. I mean, literally, I saw it and immediately popped it back in and pushed play. I watched it twice, back to back! I was enthralled, amazed and transfixed by this film. It spooked me, it had this alluring aura to it that I devoured and became addicted to. Mulholland Dr. quickly turned into one of my favorite Lynch films, and it quite arguably is Lynch’s best film. Don’t know how many of you out there agree, but Mulholland Dr. to me was the apex of Lynch’s career, the pinnacle of his work, he took everything he knew about filmmaking up to that point put it in a blender and hit puree!  I don’t believe he’s done a film as good as this one again. 

When it was released, Mulholland Dr. got awards all over the place! Lynch was nominated for best director that year at the Academy Awards, he won the Best Director Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and Mulholland Dr. was named ‘Best Picture’ by the New York Film Critics Circle, amongst other awards. The film certainly got a reaction from audiences, more so than any other Lynch film, there was something special about this movie and audiences and critics picked up on it immediately. Now here’s the deal with Mulholland Dr, there are a myriad of interpretations of the film out there, but I got my personal one and seriously, it is solid! Air tight! So if you’ve never seen this movie, don’t read this article because I’m going to go into a deep analysis of the film, this is my take on one of Lynch’s most mysterious and alluring films, it’s like a puzzle you have to put together little by little. I’ve seen the movie many times and my take on it makes sense the more and more I watch it. What I’m going to do is actually deconstruct the film (which is told in a non-linear fashion) and retell it linearly, while trying to explain what the film means to me. Just remember, this is just my take on it, maybe you have your own take it on it too, which of course I urge you to share on the comments section! if you haven’t experienced Mulholland Dr. yet, what are you waiting for?

CHAPTER I

CAMILLA AND DIANE; TWO ACTRESSES TRYING TO MAKE IT

The whole story starts out with these two actresses waiting for their “big break” on a film project, their names are Camilla Rhodes and Diane Selwyn. In order to make ends meet, Diane works at the local ‘Winkies Diner’. To complicate things just a little bit more, they are in a relationship. Apparently, for Camilla the relationship is more sexual, while for Diane, being with Camilla is an obsession.

 CHAPTER 2

CAMILLA BECOMES FAMOUS, DIANE WALKS IN HER SHADOW

One thing leads to another and Camilla gets a big break on a film called The Sylvia North Story! Camilla actually gets a major role on the film! Unfortunately, while Camilla get’s to be a star, Diane gets NOTHING! Fortunately, Camilla uses her fame to get Diane bit parts in some of her films. For example, Camilla landed a role in a film from a young director called Adam Kesher whom Camilla ends up falling in love with while rehearsing a kissing scene. This romance that develops between Camilla and Adam Kesher obviously makes Diane insanely jealous because Diane is obsessed with Camilla; we can see the jealousy in Diane’s eyes when Camilla and Adam rehearse the kissing scene.

CHAPTER 3

ADAM BATTLES WITH PRODUCERS OVER WHO IS GOING TO STAR IN HIS MOVIE

Adam is trying to cast the right actress for a part in his film and he’s got a girl in mind, unfortunately, his producers don’t agree. They want another actress! This of course is this young director’s worst nightmare! Now this meeting is the most uncomfortable meeting ever, everyone is on the edge! The producer is portrayed as a man that’s so hard to please that no one can get him an adequate cup of coffee! He tastes a cup of espresso they bring him and he spits it out on a napkin! This of course is Lynch venting out his frustrations with movie producers and the business side of filmmaking. Producers often times clash with a directors artistic vision, especially with directors like Lynch who value art over commerce. Many of Adam’s problems probably mirror in one way or another Lynch’s own frustrations with the business side of filmmaking; starting with the hard to please producers. Adam hates this meeting because they are forcing him to choose an actress he doesn’t want, so he storms out of the meeting and vents out his frustrations by smashing the window of one of the producers limos!

CHAPTER 4

ADAM FINDS HIS WIFE CHEATING ON HIM, GETS A CALL FROM ‘THE COWBOY’

After the meeting with the producers, Adam goes home only to find his wife in bed with the pool man. To avenge this, he takes all her expensive jewelry and smothers it with pink paint, she tries to stop him, so he starts to fight with her at which point the pool man punches Adam in the face and kicks him out of his own home, Adam takes the hint and leaves. He then goes to stay at a cheap hotel in town, to hide away. Here he discovers that the studio has cut off his credit line and he is practically broke! He then receives a phone call to meet up with a character called “The Cowboy”. Just who is this cowboy? And what does he want with Adam?

 CHAPTER 5

 DIANE AND CAMILLA BREAK UP 

Even though Camilla is romantically entangled with Adam Kesher, she still lives with Diane, and they still share intimacy. But Camilla wants to put an end to it, so one day, right in the middle of having sex with Diane, Camilla tells Diane “we can’t keep doing this”, meaning, let’s break up. Diane doesn’t like what she hears and replies “don’t say that, don’t ever say that” with an obsessive look on her face. Diane ends up kicking Camilla from their apartment. Camilla begs Diane not to make things harder than they are but Diane says she’s not going to make it easy, because it’s not easy for her either. Obviously, Diane’s attraction towards Camilla was obsessive. How so? Well, once Camilla has moved out Diane crumbles, she looks a mess, she’s obviously depressed. While walking through her apartment, she imagines that Camilla is talking to her. She speaks to the wind saying things like “Camilla, you’re back!” but there’s no one there. She’s alone. Camilla’s attraction was physical and not romantic, while Diane’s was obsessive.

CHAPTER 6

ADAM MEETS THE COWBOY

So Adam goes up to this corral up on a mountain to meet The Cowboy. Now this is a really mysterious character in the film: he knows everything and seems to have everything under control. Now if you ask me, The Cowboy is GOD, yup, not just symbolically, but literally. Why do I come to this conclusion? Well, according to the bible God knows everything, and this cowboy guy, well; he seems to know it all. He is one step ahead of Adam and the whole mess going on with Diane and Camilla. There are more symbolisms that let us see he is god. Adam must go to the top of the mountain to meet him, kind of like how Moses had to go to the top of the mountain to meet God and get the Ten Commandments, which is essentially what The Cowboy does with Adam, he gives him a commandment. When the Cowboy arrives, a light bulb on the corral mysteriously turns on, when he leaves, the light bulb mysteriously turns off, as if he’s presence emitted some kind of mystical energy, a common motif in Lynch’s films. The Cowboy tells Adam that he is the one in charge; that he’s the one “driving this buggy” and that Adam better do as he’s told. He tells Adam to choose the girl that his producers have chosen for him. Why does The Cowboy want Adam to choose this new girl? More on that later!

CHAPTER 7

CAMILLA AND ADAM GET BRUTALLY CRUEL WITH DIANE

So Camilla and Diane have an ugly break up, but apparently they are still in speaking terms because Camilla invites Diane to a dinner party at Adams home. On the dinner table, a conversation reveals to us just how Camilla and Diane met and how Diane has been living on the shadow of Camilla’s success. Diane also tells us a bit about how she won a Jitterbug Contest and that this is why she ended up trying to be an actress. We saw the Jitterbug Contest way back at the beginning of the movie, when we see all those dancers doing ‘The Jitterbug’ during the very first scenes of the film. While at this dinner table, we hear Adam talking about his ex-wife; he says that the judge decided that Adam would get the pool and that “she got the pool man”; which means they are now divorced and Adam got to keep the house. Things take a turn towards the brutally cruel when we see the blonde actress who The Cowboy told Adam to choose for the film kissing Camilla right in front of Diane’s face! This move is particularly cruel on Camilla’s part when we consider that she knows just how badly Diane took their break up. But the cruelty towards Diane does not stop there. Right on this very dinner table Camilla and Adam announce that they are going to get married!

CHAPTER 8

DIANE DECIDES TO KILL CAMILLA

After the particularly cruel night, Diane can’t take the loneliness and rejection. Being without Camilla proves to be just a bit too much for her. How do we know? Well, Diane masturbates as she cries, but masturbating just isn’t the same as being with Camilla. So, when Diane just can’t take it no more, she decides that she wants to kill Camilla, so she hires a hit man to do the job. Diane meets the hit man at the Winkies where she works at. She gives him a picture of Camilla, so that he knows who he’s got to kill. After she hands the hit man the money for the job, the hit man hands her a blue key. Now just what is this blue key she’s just received and why has she received it? What does it open?

CHAPTER 9

 THE BLUE BOX, THE BLUE KEY, DIANE COMMITS SUICIDE

 Here’s where we gotta stop and explain just what the blue box and key are. This is an important question in this film because when the blue key is used and the blue box is opened, people disappear!  They go somewhere; but where? Now If ‘The Cowboy’ is God, then there’s gotta be a Devil in this movie, and that Devil is this ugly bum/monster in the alley behind the Winkies, it is he who owns the Blue Box and Keys, so it is my belief that this blue box is essentially a door way to hell. In the film, you get a Blue Key only when you’ve done a heinous thing, like making arrangements to kill someone. When Diane receives The Blue Key from the hit man, we see The Bum Behind the Winkies (Satan) dropping the blue box and releasing these two evil looking old people that I see as demons from hell, I mean, one look at these old dudes and you’ll agree with me, they are demonic looking! It seems to me they’ve come to get Diane for the sins she’s committed! What was Diane’s sin? Attempting to get Camilla killed by paying the hit man! So we see the old demons chasing Diane to her bed room, once there, Diane grabs a gun from her night table and shoots herself in the head!

CHAPTER 10

THE COWBOY RESURRECTS DIANE

So Diane has committed a sin, sure, she has to pay for it, so this is why demons from hell came for her. But what if God considers the events that led to her death unjust? The all knowing, omnipresent Cowboy (Omnipresence being another trait that God possesses) apparently decides that Diane has had a rough life, that the events that led to her suicide where unjust, so he decides to give her a break. So this is essentially a battle between God and Satan for Diane and Camilla’s soul! God things she deserves a break while the Devil wants her to pay for what she’s done. This is the reason why after Diane dies, the Cowboy walks into her room and tells her “time to wake up”, who else can wake people from the dead but God? This type of action lets us see that The Cowboy is indeed a character that is supernatural in nature and why I conclude that he is God. In the film, he is like a watcher, he is always lurking somewhere in the background, observing what is going on. During the cruel dinner scene, he was there seeing the events unfold, if you pay attention, you’ll see him walking in the background. So it is my belief that The Cowboy saw what was done to Diane, saw how these cruel acts made her commit suicide so he decided to give Diane a second chance; so now Diane is going to live again. Will her life be better this time around?  

   

CHAPTER 11

DIANE’S SHINNY NEW LIFE

So Diane does get to come back to life, only this time, things are happier, scratch that, things are perfect! On this second chance at life Diane’s new name is Betty Elms. She’s just arrived at Los Angeles, the name of the city itself an allusion to the fact that this is really Diane, coming back from the afterlife. If you pay attention, when she’s coming down the escalator at the airport, Lynch focuses on the words “City of Angels” and on the walls, we see little designs of clouds, as if she was coming down from heaven.  This time, the two demonic old people that had come out of the Blue Box and tortured her till she killed herself seem angelically nice. Betty says she just met them on the plane, and we kind of get the idea that they function as guardian angels to Betty.  This time around Betty/Diane is still an aspiring actress, but things are different. Her attitude has changed! She’s all positive about her prospects as an actress and we gotta remember, one of the things the Cowboy told Adam was that our attitude in life determines the kind of life we will live. So anyhow, Betty’s aunt Ruth is letting her stay in her house so that she can go to a big audition. Everything seems perfect this time around, even the way Lynch shot the scenes, everything’s colorful and brightly lit as opposed to Diane’s previous life which was all dark, grey and depressive. Could this new life be The Cowboys way of giving Diane a chance at living a better life, a happier life? Maybe he figures she suffered enough and deserves a shot at happiness? Apparently so because when Dianne goes to an audition for a film it goes splendidly well! The producer and director love her! Apparently she’s going to get the part!

CHAPETER 12

BETTY ALMOST MEETS ADAM KESHER…AGAIN!

After her splendid audition, a casting director decides to take Betty to meet a hot young film director whom she considers better. This young filmmaker as fate would have it ends up being none other than Adam Kesher! Here’s where we understand why The Cowboy (God) wanted Adam Kesher to choose another girl! If Adam hadn’t chosen somebody else, Betty would have auditioned for Kesher’s film and she would have ended up meeting Kesher and Camilla again! Kesher might have recognized her from when he knew her as Diane, Camilla’s obsessive girlfriend! But Betty is not Diane anymore, she’s Betty! Had Kesher not chose another actress, Betty would have ended up right back with Camilla and Kesher, the two people who psychologically tortured her and made her commit suicide! To avoid all this, The Cowboy made sure that Kesher chose somebody else. Still, for a brief second Adam and Betty do see each other from afar, but apparently, Kesher can’t recognize her. Thankfully, Betty remembers she has to meet Rita and so she leaves before she can actually meet Kesher. Phew!  Crisis averted!  

CHAPTER 13

CAMILLA AVOIDS HER OWN DEATH, LOOSES MEMORY

Diane is dead, and she’s come back as innocent and happy Betty, but we gotta remember that Diane paid a hit man to kill Camilla and said hit man is still out to kill Camilla! And so, as Camilla rides a Limo, she doesn’t know it, but she’s about to get shot by the drivers, who are the hit men. These are the hit men that Diane paid for in her previous life! Anyways, suddenly, a freak car accident sets her free from being murdered! The hit men die in the accident and Camilla manages to escape, but there’s a catch, the concussion that Camilla receives makes her forget who she was! So now Camilla doesn’t know she’s Camilla, she doesn’t know Adam or Diane, she can’t remember a thing! So she begins to wander aimlessly through city of Los Angeles, not knowing who she is or where to go to.  

CHAPTER 14

CAMILLA RE-ENCOUNTERS DIANNE IN THE FORM OF BETTY

Eventually Camilla, in her disorientation, finds an empty apartment and decides to hide in it. She doesn’t know it yet, but this is the same apartment that Betty/Diane is staying in! Yup, as fate would have it, Camilla aimlessly wonders right back into Diane’s second chance at life! These two women who had been lovers in a previous life have now re-encountered each other, the only problem is that neither one of them recognizes each other. Camilla can’t remember who Diane is because she’s lost her memory and Diane can’t remember Camilla because she can’t remember anything from her previous life! So they both treat each other like perfect strangers! Camilla can’t remember her name so she gives Betty the first name she sees on a movie poster which is Rita. So on this second go, Camilla is now known as Rita and Diane is now Betty. Betty ends up pitying Rita and wanting to help her, perhaps because the attraction and feelings she had for Camilla in her previous life are still there somehow. To me it always seemed like their love, their attraction for each other was so strong that even now, on this second life their souls end up converging. “Perhaps we’ll meet again in another life” is a common phrase; I think we could apply it here. 

CHAPTER 15

BETTY AND RITA BECOME DETECTIVES

Rita came into Betty’s apartment with a purse that had two things:  a Blue Key and a large amount of money. What was the money for? Perhaps Camilla was going to get someone killed as well? At any rate, Camilla must have done a seriously evil deed in order to receive the dreaded blue key. So anyhow, Betty wants to help Rita remember who she is, so she calls the cops trying to figure out what happened at the scene of the accident. Rita suddenly remembers a name ‘Diane Selwyn’! Betty doesn’t realize it, but Rita is talking about Betty’s past self! Rita/Camilla is starting to remember who Diane was! Then Betty decides to look up Diane Selwyn in the yellow pages, they find out there’s only one Diane Selwyn, they call her but get a recorded message; when Camilla hears the message she recognizes the voice and says “I know that voice!” Of course, she recognizes it because Diane use to be her lover and roommate! Next they decide to go see where this Diane Selwyn lives. When they get there, they walk into the empty apartment and start exploring it until a hideous smell leads them to the bedroom where they discover Diane Selwyn, dead on her bed! In other words: Betty discovers the body she used to inhabit in her previous life! With her brains blown out! The body decayed! The horror! She doesn’t recognize herself though because the body is so decayed.

CHAPTER 16

BETTY AND RITA GET IT ON...AGAIN!

Rita is horrified after having discovered the dead body; she decides she wants to cut all ties with who she was, so she puts on a blonde wig. Now Betty and Rita look like two blond twins or something. So anyways, one thing leads to another and Rita and Betty end up naked on the same bed, their previous passions resurface and voila! They end up making out. Funny how Betty asks Rita “have you done this before?” and Rita replies “I don’t know”, in reality, they’d both been lovers before, they just can’t remember! In the midst of the passion Betty tells Rita she loves her, but Rita doesn’t say the same, which kind of mirrors their previous relationship which was only physical, at least from Rita’s side. On a personal note, this is one of the most erotic love scenes ever filmed! So after their make out session, while they are both sound asleep, suddenly Rita starts saying “Silencio!” which means ‘silence’ in Spanish, then she says “No hay banda” which means “There is no band!”.  When you first see the film, this is a really spooky moment because it’s like, suddenly Rita can speak Spanish? What else don’t we know about Rita? So right there and then, at 2 in the a.m., Rita begs Betty to come with her somewhere. That somewhere is a place called “Club Silencio”, a place that apparently Rita frequented.

CHAPTER 17

CLUB SILENCIO

Now here’s a scene in which many of the films themes are accentuated. Club Silencio is a theater in which we see performers doing illusions on stage. First we see an illusionist come up on stage and tell us that “there is no band”. We hear a trumpet, we hear a trombone, but it’s all recorded, nothing is real, the overall message is that everything is an illusion. The phrase “life is but a dream” or “life is an illusion” applies here. To me the Illusionist is the same character as the bum behind the Winkies, he is Satan coming to claim these girls souls. Both have done horrible deeds, and both must pay for what they have done, I mean, just the guys face let’s you know he is evil. When the illusionist stares at Betty, we hear thunder and blue light and Betty starts shaking uncontrollably. To me what’s happening here is that the illusionist is placing the Blue Box (which is essentially a doorway to Hell) on Betty’s purse. He recognizes these two souls as souls who have eluded him when they should have gone to hell to pay for their sins. When the blue light fades and the smoke disappears, the Illusionist is also gone from the stage. Suddenly, Betty realizes that the Blue Box is in her purse. After that we here Rebecca del Rio sing a Spanish version of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ a song that applies perfectly to Diane’s unrequited love for Camilla. Read these lines from the song and you’ll see what I mean:

“When you said “so long” left me standing there all alone, alone and crying”

”I thought that I was over you, But it’s true, oh so true, I love you even more, than I did before”

”But darling what can I do? For you don’t love me, and I’ll always be crying over you”

After Rita and Betty give a good cry together they both know what they have to do with the Blue Key that they’d found in Rita’s purse! They have to use it on the Blue Box that magically appeared in Betty’s purse! Again, this sudden appearance of the Blue Box in Betty’s purse alludes to supernatural events happening which is why I go with the God/Satan angle with this movie.  It’s really the angle that makes the most sense.

CHAPTER  18

FINALLY RITA AND BETTY USE THE BLUE KEY ON THE BLUE BOX

After Club Silencio, Betty and Rita go back to Aunt Ruth’s apartment, look for the Blue Key and put it in the Blue Box; we see the camera zooming into the box, as Betty and Rita are sucked into it, then they disappear! We know what’s happened; they’ve both been sucked into hell! Then, Lynch ends the film with this mysterious old lady with blue hair looking at the camera. She looks at us from high above in a theater balcony of Club Silencio and whispers the words “Silencio”, then the movie fades to black and we’re left wondering what the hell we just saw. Of course, if you ask me I say that old lady with the blue hair is also God, the cowboy in another form, same as the devil took the form of the magician. God looks at us from high above amusing himself with the theater of life, because as the saying goes “all life is a stage”