auteurs

RIP, David Lynch

by
The Fire Walker

And by RIP, I mean rest in production, as Mr. Lynch said only not so many months ago that, despite his home-confining emphysema, he would never retire.

And by production, I don’t just mean making movies. For production to Mr. Lynch also meant making art, his initial creative endeavor begun as a wee lad, and making music, perhaps later in life his most personally rewarding endeavor as he was most adamant on the importance of the sound of his movies.

And if anyone were to be able to transcend the space/time limitations of our known reality to produce creatively in perpetuity, it would certainly be our beloved and beguiling Mr. Lynch, for his lynchian films subvert the real with artistic ease.

“The Spider and the Bee” is one of my favorite productions of Lynch’s that highlights his keen awareness of environment and his acute creative talents in such a hauntingly artistic manner…

#firewalkingforever

The Indelible Shining

by

Great movie despite Stephen King’s protestations* — it’s one of those rare occasions when the movie out shines, so to speak, the book, which I found mostly laughable and long (as I do with most of King’s books) — and despite the horrible decision to cast Shelley Duvall, which, of course, resulted in her horrible acting. Kubrick abused the hell out of her during production because of it.

Pauline Kael wrote in the New Yorker that Kubrick’s devotion to technique distanced the audience from the domestic horrors of his story. The Washington Post called it “elaborately ineffective.” Gene Siskel said it was “boring” and occasionally “downright embarrassing.” Toronto’s Globe & Mail: an “overreaching, multi-levelled botch.” In its first year of existence, the bad movie-centric Razzie Awards nominated The Shining for worst director and worst actress.

From unloved curiosity to beloved classic: The surprising 40-year legacy of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, INLANDER, May 21, 2020

#allworkandnoplaymakeskurtrethinkhispriorities

*Spoilers of both book and movie