Michael Adam Warren's Blog, page 12

More Love for Eraserhead (1977)

Because one day is not enough to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of David Lynch's remarkable Freshmen achievement, today we explore more of its remarkable impact as a cultural artifact. This is Part 2 of yesterday's article, "Happy 40th Anniversary Eraserhead (1977)!" A feature length directorial debut of a film student, Eraserhead is one of those rare cult films that decompresses directly in the subconscious like a film-equivalent of a zip file.
Although many filmmakers ostensibly set out with this same goal in mind, David Lynch is one of the few that follows through on that commitment to the subconscious. Surreal audio and visual symbols are not just adornments to his story, but they are literally part of the story itself. The feeling, emotion, environment, and sense of place of the film is just as important to David Lynch as the characters and plot. More so, even.And while many critics, reviewers, fellow filmmakers, and cinema enthusiasts might offer intriguing glimpses at the meaning of Eraserhead (1977), I think it is always important to watch David Lynch films in the mode of going to a concert. The music can be an end in and of itself and does not necessarily have to lead the listener down an intellectual rabbit hole. On one level, David Lynch's films are meant to be experienced and enjoyed this way.
But to be fair, at the same time, David Lynch does also leave a trail of cinematic breadcrumbs that lead you down the path to discover strange and hidden mysteries within his cinematic text. And reading and interpreting that text is an equally pleasurable experience as going along for the ride, too. This dichotomy is at the heart of all of David Lynch's work.
It is almost like David Lynch is challenging us to engage with his films in mutually exclusive and non-overlapping ways. Whether "listening to the music" or "hunting down the clues," his audience members persist to engage and re-engage with his work in part because his films do work as standalone works of art that should just be breathed in and experienced, or as complex, multi-layered examinations of the human heart and mind.
It is like this optical illusion, which forces us to ask if it is a drawing of a rabbit or a duck? And while you and a group of friends could debate it at length, the truth is that it is a drawing of both a rabbit and a duck, depending on how you choose to look at it.
Likewise, I feel David Lynch's films and TV shows are purposely designed with a similar quality, a cinematic illusion. This illusion can polarize his viewers, some of whom see little or no meaning and others who see a great deal, but which ultimately might both be accurate depending on how you choose to look at it.
And while we may never know exactly what every detail and symbol of Eraserhead (1977) means explicitly to David Lynch, nor why it is his most spiritual film, we do know how it makes us feel after viewing it. And a mixture of queasy, distressed, and troubled in cinema has rarely been so compelling and thought provoking. You can read Part 1 of this article here.

Happy 40th Anniversary Eraserhead (1977)!

Happy 40th Anniversary of Eraserhead's World Premiere in New York on September 28, 1977! This was the first major public screening of the film in its final theatrical cut form, where it began its polarizing life as a nightmarish work of celebrated, decried, and debated expressionistic art. And 40 years later, it still packs as much punch per frame as ever!
Eraserhead (1977) made a name for David Lynch and helped producer Mel Brooks to entrust The Elephant Man (1980) to the fledgling filmmaker. The rest is history, as David Lynch has continued to take turns challenging and enthralling the world with his unique artistic cinematic vision for the next 40 years until this very day, September 28, 2017!
The history of the journey of some bright-eyed film students who set to make one of the craziest, weirdest, and most unique films ever made is fascinating to hear from the documentary David Lynch released on his original DVD set titled Eraserhead Stories (2001).
I personally think David Lynch throwing his and his friends' futures into the unknown, shaping his film meticulously frame by frame was nothing short of a spiritual awakening for the young filmmaker. An experience that means more to him more than the production of any other later film or project.
It is inspiring to hear of the young married couple Jack Nance and Catherine Coulson's steadfast devotion to their director, even after running out of money several times over the intervening years of production. They believed in David Lynch's vision and kept Jack Nance's hair ridiculous throughout those years, in spite of it bringing some hardships all its own.
Now this little cult film by experimental film students in the seventies has been adopted into the national archive of film preservation by the Library of Congress and Eraserhead (1977) has seeped into the cultural consciousness to the point that celebrities today cannot resist imitating shots from the film.
John Malkovich participated in Playing Lynch, Where He Brought Back to LifeSeveral David Lynch Creations, Particularly Henry Spencer from EraserheadFrom John Malkovich to Brad Pitt, Eraserhead has come to be known as a counterculture symbol of underground cinema. The kind of movies that could never be made by a studio, but which slowly permeates the zeitgeist by virtue of its innate strangeness.
Even Bradd Pitt Wanted in on this Eraserhead Action WhenHe Posed in a Special NY Times Magazine PhotoshootAlthough there are no ways of predicting such things, I wonder if a small part of David Lynch did not have an inkling that his first feature film project would grow into an important artistic foundation that would launch his career and still have a tremendous impact on audiences in 40 years, just as much as it did in 1977?
To hear of Jack Nance's initial reluctance to star in Eraserhead, but how fate eventually won the actor over and made him best friends with David Lynch is one of my favorite stories. And was a kindness that David never forgot later in his career, finding and creating many great parts for him in the decades to come.
Thank you for stopping by and celebrating with us this momentous occasion, as David Lynch's film career officially encompasses four decades of pop culture history. I go into much greater detail about the making of Eraserhead (1977) in my book 40 Years of David Lynch - Volume I: Eraserhead - Wild at Heart . In addition to exploring the film's production history, I also explore some of what the film has meant to me, personally, as well as what David Lynch has said and revealed  about it over the years.

Preorder 40 Years of David Lynch - Volume IV: Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)

We arrive at the possible conclusion of the 40 Years of David Lynch series with Volume IV: Twin Peaks: The Return! Will David Lynch make more films and TV shows after this? As of today, He has officially declared himself as undecided. But dive deep into the master artist's latest creation with filmmaker Michael Adam Warren as your guide through nuclear blasts, charred lumberjacks, tulpas, doppelgangers, alternate dimensions, time travel, Kafka, and blue roses. And we are definitely going to talk about Judy. Preorder your copy before its release on October 10, 2017!

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94) 30th Anniversary

Wishing the best for the cast and crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94), who celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the premiere of their two-part pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint." First airing on September 26, 1987, Next Gen helped pave the way for a whole new epoch of science fiction programming.

Funny enough, this expectation of impending failure actually enabled the show to hire on some very talented actors for the main cast, who might not have signed up for the show if they had known it was going to be a success and transform into a seven year gig, including Sir Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and others. And in spite of some rough patches as the show developed its legs and had to lean a bit on the good will of the original series fan base, Star Trek: The Next Generation eventually learned to stand on its own as a thoroughly thought provoking and entertaining show in its own right. And although the show can occasionally come across a little stilted and dry, the show's true humanity shines through often enough to make it more than worthwhile viewing. Most fans will admit the show did not truly come into its own until the third season, but when it did, it did so with a vengeance and regularly produced compelling television that managed to remain relatively fun and family friendly yet still contain some sophisticated ideas and drama. And the writers of Next Gen would even go on to develop one of the most thoroughly compelling concepts for a villain in science fiction history with the periodic arrival of the Borg.And as restoration efforts go, the team tasked with creating the HD masters for the Blu-Ray release performed one of the most impressive restoration efforts ever for a TV program. Now the show is ensured much greater staying power as new generations of viewers discover the show and enjoy its pristine transfer.
And although the episodic nature of the show and its varying degree of writing quality from episode to episode can be a little frustrating to deal with at first, particularly with some viewers who developed their tastes during the golden age of television, Next Gen is still definitely worth watching to this day, and for viewers of all ages. It has some deserved HUGO Award-Winning episodes for Best Dramatic Presentation and has some of the funniest, cutest, most thought provoking, and tragic hours of quality science fiction television.
And Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-93) was an important milestone in establishing a foothold for science fiction on television once again, helping to usher in a more sophisticated age of independently produced genre programming, like Babylon 5 (1993-98), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-99), Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), Lexx (1997-2002), and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003).

What is Cinema? By David Lynch

Italian Giorgi Getiashili released a beautiful snippet on YouTube of David Lynch discussing the nearly magical nature of cinema and how to best experience the illusion. David Lynch has always been an advocate of developing a more sophisticated language in cinema capable of transporting audience members into complex and abstract worlds of artistic thought.
It appears there is more to this video clip, as if this is part of a larger piece. So if anyone knows where we could find the remainder of this interview, then please let us know in the comment section below. If there were an entire feature length presentation done in this style interviewing David Lynch, it would be a must watch movie.

Kyle MacLachlan Guides Judi Dench and James Corden in the Red Room & More!

Not to be outdone by Late Night with Seth Meyers , last night James Corden made his own Red Room sketch on The Late Late Show and with Agent Cooper himself, the talented Kyle MacLachlan. The Dame Judi Dench joins in on the fun and surprisingly Kyle and her share amazing comedic chemistry. I hope they do a feature film together in the near future. The world needs more of this hilarity!
The full interviews with Judi Dench and Kyle MacLachlan are worth watching, but here is an amusing clip of Kyle explaining his love scene with Naomi Watts as the innocent Dougie. Turns out, the arm flailing was a happy accident the Director of Photography commented on and Kyle accentuated for greater comedic effect.
My recommendation, someone out there, write a buddy cop movie with Kyle MacLachlan being partnered up with Judi Dench on a case. Is it just me, or do you want to see these two investigate a series of crimes in a comedy?

New Clip from "Lucky" Features David Lynch and Harry Dean Stanton

Magnolia Pictures released a new clip from the John Carroll Lynch directing debut Lucky (2017) about a week after star Harry Dean Stanton passed away from natural causes. You can find my article commemorating Harry Dean Stanton's prolific career in film by clicking here. With Lucky finally being given a wide release in the U.S.A. next week, this clip helps give the flavor of what looks to be a beautiful character study.
Although I have not yet had the chance to watch Lucky yet, rumor has it from the film festival circuit that Harry Dean Stanton gives the performance of his lifetime in it. So interestingly, he may have an excellent chance of gaining his first ever Oscar nomination and perhaps even a posthumous win. It is a travesty that such a talented actor could go ignored for over sixty years. But now is the perfect opportunity to correct the error.
From the trailer you can learn the basic premise and tone of the film, which seems like a quirky character drama that explores some of the deep questions about life and death, spirituality and god, and perhaps the meaning one can take from life near the end of mortality. I will definitely be looking for a screening on its release date a week from today on September 29, 2017.
Again, I applaud new director John Carroll Lynch for assembling together such a talented group of underappreciated actors, he himself being one of those underappreciated supporting actors himself. He recently gave a great performance as one of the McDonald's brothers in The Founder (2016), a loyalist newspaperman in Turn: Washington's Spies (2014-2017), a reformed pacifist nurturer in The Walking Dead (2010-Present), and an extremely memorable role in David Fincher's masterpiece Zodiac (2007).

Swery's The Good Life (2017)

After his Lynchian tour de force Deadly Premonition (2010) and the intriguing D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (2014), video game developer auteur SWERY is back in action with a new independent venture, the crowd-funded video game The Good Life (2017). He is still accepting backers for his latest project, which you can personally invest in here on Fig toward its $1.5 million goal up until the crowdfunding deadline on October 12, 2017.
SWERY'S latest game is a quirky Debt Repayment Life Simulation RPG, wherein a New York photographer named Naomi (a likely homage to Lynch collaborator Naomi Watts) travels to England to photograph the British countryside but discovers a young woman murdered instead. Try to uncover the killer as you discover many strange phenomena in the town, as everyone (including you) are transformed into cats every night.
Although the premise may seem bizarre, SWERY thrives with the storytelling freedom to build you strange new worlds and allow you the privilege of becoming entangled in the ensemble of quirky characters who populate these worlds. The whole process is indescribably enjoyable, especially for people who enjoy open world gaming.

SWERY's Deadly Premonition (2010) was one of those rare video games that was greater than the sum of its parts. A game with somewhat clunky mechanics and quirky story deviations that ultimately got closer to matching the feeling and tone of the classic TV series Twin Peaks (1990-91) than any other video game has before. The imprint of its creator SWERY helped shape it into an unforgettably fascinating detective story and game world worth exploring and studying over and over again.

And yes, Deadly Premonition manages to hit the tone and style of Twin Peaks even better than Alan Wake (2010). And although Alan Wake has its devotees, too, and offers several interesting parallels with Twin Peaks, it ultimately plays out more like a classic Stephen King horror novel than as a Twin Peaks-ian adventure.
To be perfectly honest, the third-person shooter aspects of both Premonition and Wake were to their detriment. The detective gameplay is the far more interesting aspect of both video games, and should have been emphasized much more over their unnecessary zombie shoot-em-up survival horror aspects. Both games tried to capitalize on the market of the Resident Evil games, in the survival horror genre. And frankly, these shooting parts of these games are ironically the most boring part of their gameplay.
Titles like Heavy Rain (2010) helped prove that interactive detective dramas/mysteries could offer more than enough thrills to keep players interested and invested in gameplay without resorting to frequent periodic combat sequences with hordes of mindless NPC zombies. Storytelling can be an end in and of itself in video gameplay rather than just offer brief interludes between button mashing. Thankfully, The Good Life (2017) seems like a good step in the right direction.

But regardless of any nitpicks I might have had in games past, The Good Life (2017) looks to be one of those unique opportunities for rpg players to support an independent video game's development in order to preserve that raw, unfiltered creative spark that can only exist outside the typical development process of a major video game studio.
If this English murder mystery rpg sounds like something you'd like to give a try, then do not hesitate to invest on SWERY's Fig page. And even if this particular game does not seem like your cup of tea, then at least consider supporting a genuine artist working in the medium of video games. This relatively new art form needs strong authorial voices like SWERY to give us new experiences like The Good Life to push this relatively young artistic medium in exciting new directions.
Here is the trailer for SWERY's The Good Life (2017) and I hope it has a very successful independent crowdfunding campaign. Free-thinking artistic voices like SWERY have earned some good will with video game players for his bold choices in the past. And I would love to see his latest vision fully realized in the form of this fun, yet darkly layered mystery rpg.

Harry Dean Stanton R.I.P. (1926-2017)

The great actor Harry Dean Stanton joins the chorus of angels yesterday afternoon after passing away from natural causes on September 15, 2017 at age 91. Harry Dean was born on July 14, 1926 in Kentucky and grew up during the Great Depression when economic hardship was at its most difficult in the United States of America. His thin, bedraggled appearance feels born out of that era, providing a constant reminder of our nation's leanest years.
Harry Dean Stanton was one of those familiar faces that kept popping up in films and TV shows for most our lives, a reassuring connection to an older Hollywood steeped in Westerns. Entering his first professional acting jobs in his late 20's and early 30's, he entered the entertainment industry a little later than most actors, but his distinctive look and inner charisma made him an instant cowboy favorite in popular Westerns of the time, such as The Rifleman (1958-63), How the West was Won (1962), Rawhide (1959-65), and Gunsmoke (1958-68).
But his cool demeanor and down-to-earth charm served well in a multitude of other supporting roles in memorable classics like Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), The Godfather: Part II (1974), Alien (1974), Escape from New York (1981), Repo Man (1984), and Red Dawn (1984). Then a critical reexamination took place with Wim Wender's Paris, Texas (1984), wherein Harry Dean Stanton beautifully carried the film as the lead.
Paris, Texas is often attributed as a turning point in Harry Dean Stanton's career, helping usher in a lot of work as a dramatic heavyweight ever after. Notably he would become a staple of David Lynch's work, appearing in seven of that master director's projects, including the titular Cowboy in David short film / TV project The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988).
And then from there, Harry Dean Stanton continued working with David Lynch as the lovably sympathetic private detective Johnnie Farragut in Wild at Heart (1990), to the cantankerous old trailer park manager Carl Rodd in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), as the hapless "John" Moe in Hotel Room (1993), Alvin Straight's sick brother Lyle in The Straight Story (1999), the ever-mooching Bernie from Inland Empire (2006), and finally reprising his role as a much older and wiser Carl Rodd in Twin Peaks: The Return (2017).
David Lynch released the following statement about the passing of his good friend and frequent collaborator: "The Great Harry Dean Stanton has left us. There went a great one. There's nobody like Harry Dean. Everyone loved him. And with good reason. He was a great actor (actually beyond great)–and a great human being–so great to be around him!!! You are really going to be missed Harry Dean!!! Loads of love to wherever you are now!!!"
And Harry Dean Stanton has also notably earned great supporting roles in number of other film classics, such as the John Hughes teen drama Pretty in Pink (1986), Martin Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Frank Darabont's touching Stephen King adaptation The Green Mile (1999), and Joss Whedon's Summer spectacular The Avengers (2012). And I suspect there is a good chance that the Academy Awards will finally honor the late actor with a posthumous Oscar for his performance as the titular Lucky (2017), which many believe could be the crowning achievement of his 63 year career in Film & TV.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch Arriving in Riverdale?

Somehow, the unlikely mashup of Archie Comics and Twin Peaks (1990-91) resulted in one of the best new TV series to air this year: Riverdale (2017-Present). It is one of those rare CW Teen Dramas that completely surpasses all expectations and delivers the kind thrills, mystery, and chemistry that has been missing from television for far too long. And it looks like the most magical Riverdale resident is finally ready to make an appearance: Sabrina the Teenage Witch!
According to the recent Nerdist newscast video embedded above, the Disney Channel's Dove Cameron (pictured above and at the top of article) is the odds on favorite to be cast in the role. Unfamiliar with her work, I can say that she looks like she would fit in nicely with the rest of the cast and would shake things up nicely. And for those weirded out at the prospect of this superb night-time soap opera delving into the supernatural, this is nothing that the original comic book and the show's inspirational guide Twin Peaks have not done before. If anything, that is part of the charm the fictional town of Riverdale always had. Bring it!