Mystery Man: We've met before, haven't we.
Fred: I don't think so. Where was it you think we met?
Mystery Man: At your house. Don't you remember?
Fred: No.
No, I don't. Are you sure?
Mystery Man: Of course.
As a matter of fact, I'm there right now.
Fred: What do you mean? You're where right now?
Fred: That's fucking crazy, man.
Mystery Man: Call me. Dial your number.
Go ahead.
So plays out the dialogue during one of the most creepy, disturbing, and entrancing scenes I've ever seen. The appearance of the Mystery Man (played by wife murderer Robert Blake.
..which is creepy in-and-of-itself) is one of my favorite Lynch moments.
Lost Highway is one of Lynch's enigmatic surrealist tales like the much loved Mulholland Drive. The story involves jazz saxaphonist Fred (Bill Pullman) as he and his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) begin recieving enveloped video-tapes of their house being entered. Naturally they call the police.
However the story begins to get much darker after the arrival of the Mystery Man.
Like Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, the story of Lost Highway is highly surrealist and cryptic. Each person takes something diferent from the story or images.
Many might agree on certain plot points or themes..but there is so much open to interpretation.
I'll briefly cover my interpretation of the film later.
I will however just get down to the meat of it -- I really like Lost Highway. It can't top Mulholland Drive as my favorite Lynch experience, but it is another film that Lynch fans like myself love to watch.
I am a huge fan of surrealist films. They creep me out and intrigue more than any major Hollywood thriller ever can. That's why I have always had a deep respect for Lynch's films.
Even at times when I don't understand what is happening, the images and sound can still have a deep affect on me. And that's what keeps me coming back.
I think that Fred is stuck in purgatory, or hell, or some repeating nightmare after killing his wife in a jelous rage.
The blonde version of his wife Alice is a fantasy version of his wife that justifies his actions of retribution. As he becomes the young man Pete, he kills for the simple reason of money and freedom. Not for something as silly and foolish as a blind rage, which he really did.
Alice does not exist, which is why she vanishes from the picture in Andy's house and is why she says You can never have me.
The Mystery Man IS Fred. The violent and dark side of him that killed his wife.
As he says, You invited me. It is not my custom to go where I am not wanted.
There are more themes and points that I feel are relevant, especially how Fred hates video cameras and his wife gets filmed doing porno for Mr.
Eddy and the Mystery man pulls out a camera in the beach-house...
-- But I'm just too damn lazy to get into the other thematic details of Lost Highway now. If you've got a question, go ahead and ask. I'm sure it'll pop up in the forums.
(However the U.S. copy of the movie gets a 1/10 for being the single worst DVD transfer known to man.
..)
Using tricks of narrative and going in reverse order, the Nolan brothers created a story in which the audience find themselves in the main characters shoes. Instead of some gimmick to make itself stand out, the reverse order of the movie serves the purpose of furthering the experience of the story.
Sounds like a revenge tale that is simple enough, but the catch is Leonard is afflicted with debilitating short-term memory loss. However, driven to find his wife's killer, Leonard has devised a system using notes, polaroid pictures, and tatoos to remind himself of the details of the case. Using these messages to communicate with himself, Leonard searches for the killer while dealing with people who claim to want to help (Joe Pantoliano Carrie-Anne Moss).
The story-editing of Memento is what makes this character work. A scene will begin with Leonard not knowing what is happening, where he is, or why. That's the point.
The audience is just as clueless. You share in Leonard's memory loss, confusion, and paranoia.
It is a slick film that even if you were to remove the originality of the script, it is directed with such great care, passion, and skill that it would still be something special. Especially during the flash-back sequences. The film is intensely moody, especially with the score (credited to David Julyan) which is usually sublime but can turn into an unsettling surge of panic and heart-like rythm.
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