Experimental Film Flashcards
Who directed Mulholland Drive? In what year?
David Lynch in 2001
What are Lynch’s five auteur traits?
The power and importance of dreams
The dark underbelly of superficial Americana
Duality
Experimental film form
Experimental narrative structure
What is meant by the term ‘Lynchian’?
A kind of irony where the macabre and the mundane interact to create an uncanny, unconsciously uncomfortable sensation
What two films heavily inspire Lynch?
Vertigo and The Wizard of Oz
How does Lynch embed the uncanny in his films?
Performance: Directs actors to be non-naturalistic
MeS: Make-up, actor’s skin is slightly too pale, placing them between living and dead
Editing: Dialogue is edited so that there are unnatural pauses in rhythm
What other element of film form does Lynch design?
Sound
What is interesting about the production of Mulholland Drive?
It was originally a pilot episode for an ABC TV show, which was immediately cancelled after they viewed the pilot. The episode was later picked up by StudioCanal, who asked Lynch to make it into a feature film
A quote from David Lynch on the structure of narrative?
“You can still have a structure, but you should leave room to dream”
What is postmodernism?
A reaction against modernism, against the ideas of a ‘universal truth’
What are some of the features of postmodernist cinema?
Intertextuality
Genre fusion
Homage
Pastiche
Self-refection and meta-fiction
How is postmodernist cinema meant to be interpreted?
Subjectively, advocates for individual experience
