Lost Highway (1997) France
Lost Highway Image Cover
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Director:David Lynch
Studio:Import [Generic]
Producer:Tom Sternberg, Deepak Nayar, Mary Sweeney
Writer:David Lynch, Barry Gifford
Rating:7.4 (27,337 votes)
Rated:R
Date Added:2007-03-06
ASIN:630451087X
UPC:0044004656733
Price:CDN$ 17.45
Awards:1 win
Genre:Widescreen
Release:2003-04-07
IMDb:0116922
Duration:135
Picture Format:Pan & Scan
Aspect Ratio:1.33:1
Sound:Dolby Digital
Languages:English
Features:Import
David Lynch  ...  (Director)
David Lynch, Barry Gifford  ...  (Writer)
 
Bill Pullman  ...  Fred Madison
Patricia Arquette  ...  Renee Madison
Balthazar Getty  ...  Peter Raymond Dayton
Robert Blake  ...  Mystery Man
Natasha Gregson Wagner  ...  Sheila
Richard Pryor  ...  Arnie
Lucy Butler  ...  Candace Dayton
Michael Massee  ...  Andy
Jack Nance  ...  Phil
Jack Kehler  ...  Guard Johnny Mack
Henry Rollins  ...  Guard Henry
Giovanni Ribisi  ...  Steve 'V' Vincencio
Scott Coffey  ...  Teddy
Gary Busey  ...  William Dayton
Robert Loggia  ...  Mr. Eddy
John Roselius  ...  Al
Louis Eppolito  ...  Ed (as Lou Eppolito)
Jenna Maetlind  ...  Party Girl
Michael Shamus Wiles  ...  Guard Mike
Mink Stole  ...  Forewoman (voice)
Leonard Termo  ...  Judge (voice)
Ivory Ocean  ...  Guard Ivory
David Byrd  ...  Doctor Smordin
Gene Ross  ...  Warden Clements
Summary: Plot is a meaningless term when trying to describe Lost Highway. Here, more or less, is what happens: A noise-jazz saxophonist (Bill Pullman) suspects his wife (Patricia Arquette) of infidelity. Meanwhile, someone is breaking into their house and videotaping them while they sleep. The wife is murdered and Pullman is convicted of the crime. Then, in prison, he transmogrifies into a young mechanic (Balthazar Getty) who is subsequently released, since, after all, he's not the guy they convicted. Getty goes back to his life and meets a local gangster's moll, who happens to be played by Patricia Arquette... but none of this has much to do with what the movie is really about. Dreams are what intrigues director David Lynch. Not friendly, happy dreams; his dreams whisper that what we think is real is just something we made up, something to keep ourselves from falling into chaos. Characters are fragments. Events happen not because they make sense, but because deep down we want these things to happen. Of course, in Lynch's dreams, as in our waking lives, getting what we want is not always pleasant. In the movie's best moments, you really have no idea what you're seeing. The screen is a big rectangle of color and shadow, but what it represents, well, it could be anything. And yet, in those moments, you've been given just enough hints of place, character, and story that these elusive images elicit a genuine dread, a sense that you might not want to see this, yet you can't look away; a sense that we are living on borrowed time, that something is fiercely askew in our psyches. As a whole, Lost Highway is a failure: much of it is padded, gratuitous, and indulgent and pointless cameos bog down an already sluggish narrative. Yet within that failure are moments worth more than the entirety of most successful movies. --Bret Fetzer