> Alexander Nekvasil wrote:
>
> >I entertain the notion that the collapse of the Frontier, and its
> >consequent internalization into people's inner lives, is the recurring
> >theme in David Lynch's work. (Curiously, as I just realize, he is
> >currently completing a film with the title "Inland Empire" ... it
> >turns out to be the name of a slipshod trailer park, of course.)
> >
> That "open sky" closed about a hundred and fifty years ago. It opened
> again, iconically after WWII, but there were "communists under the
> bed," and when that ended there was the failure of empire -- the new
> icon of the mighty U.S. fighting Grenada or slightly bigger foes with
> broken legs -- Iraq.
Mentalities die hard. And mentalities of groups (like the US ruling class) die even harder, because of the transmission problems involved.
> Lynch's work is twenty years old, looked promising to being with,
> but he was never able to get on the other side of his own symbols.
That's made me think. Getting to the other side of one's own symbols is tricky, dangerous business. It was thought that cinema was the way to do it (cf. Eisenstein's ideas about "head-splitting" Soviet film), but is is far from clear _how_ it should be done -- especially in a situation where everything you do today, artistically, will come back to you, bottled and boxed and commodified, tomorrow.
David Lynch's take on this is to crank up the volume and push things to the limit. Noirer than Noir (the _physical_, _tangible_ darkness in "Lost Highway"), porno-er than porn, etc.
At the limit, things jump.
As to his work being aged, it is my impression that in about since Lynch acquired a mass audience with "Twin Peaks", time has been running pretty much backwards. There was the disintegration of the USSR/YU, Gingrich had his day, the European far right had its day, Free Trade had its day ... Contemplating this, I think Lynch's was the last solid business in town.
...
cheers AN