Werth: Happy Film Gab-iversary, Wise! Our little celluloid-loving blog has just turned two!
Wise: Happy Gab-iversary to you too, Werth. It's hard to believe that another year has passed, full of thrills, chills, and the eternal cage match between Joan and Bette.
Werth: Joan would never put herself in a cage.
Wise: And what better way to kick off a celebration of ourselves, except by revisiting some of our most popular posts from the past year, including one celebrating the birthday of one of Hollywood's biggest stars: Kirk Douglas. There's nothing better than sharing some cake with a guy who looks great in a loincloth and whose talent is even bigger than the cleft in his chin.
Werth: But we're not all about lantern jaws here at Film Gab because sometimes we get a hankering for the softer side of things, like dudes in dresses.
Wise: Or the stranger side, like when we discussed Hollywood's oddball auteur David Lynch.
Werth: Fun Film Gab fact: Kyle MacLachlan's tuckus is almost as popular among Film Gab readers as Julian Sands' rump.
Wise: Talk about a celebrity cage match!
Werth: One of the biggest defeats at the box office this year was Disney's John Carter, a sci-fi flop overstuffed with Martians, mayhem, and Taylor Kitsch attempting to act through his abs. We had much better luck with our voyages with time and space traveling hunks.
Wise: Of course we're not adverse to disasters, especially when it gives us a chance to revisit a modern classic like Titanic and plunge into shipboard romances of various stripes.
Werth: Maybe they would have had better luck forming a ragtag band of misfits determined to fight injustice instead of getting caught up in the pitfalls of romance.
Wise: Some of the most enduring Tinsel Town romances are between celebrities and their political party, much like a certain tap-dancing tot or particular tough guy with brains and a penchant for fast-talking showgirls.
Werth: We here at Film Gab have a penchant for great actresses, especially those with long and varied careers who aren't afraid to get a little pig's blood on their hands.
Wise: So, Werth, are there any entries from the past year that you wish had attracted more readers?
Werth: Well I'm still mourning the loss of gap-toothed classic Ernest Borgnine. A 61-year career in Hollywood deserves props... even with films like Bunny O'Hare on his resume. What about you, Wise?
Wise: I'd have to say that our salute to Hollywood's funny ladies is one of my favorites. It's just too bad that a giggly blonde never got a chance to share the big screen with a legendary fast-talking brunette.
Werth: I know one silver screen pair that's destined for more laughs.
Wise: Join us for another rollicking year of leading ladies, Hollywood toughs, big budget bonanzas, gut busting comedies—
Werth: —And the finer side of Julian Sands.
Wise: Hi there, Werth.
Werth: .esiW, ydwoH
Wise: Um, what's going on? Why are you dancing around in a red velvet suit and flashing a strobe light?
Werth: !yadhtrib s'hcnyL divaD gintarbelec m'I
Wise: Wait, is that cherry pie? A snakeskin jacket? And Richard Farnsworth on a tractor? It must be David Lynch's birthday!
Werth: Exactly. And what better way to salute one of cinema's truly unique auteurs than to Gab about two of his best flicks?
Wise: I'll grab a log and see if David Duchovny can still fit into a dress.
Werth: It's hard to believe it now, but for his first studio film, Lynch avoided twisty mystery plots, ultra-violence and aliens and instead produced a heartbreaking, Oscar-nominated drama. The
Elephant Man (1980) is based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (re-named John in the film to follow the real-life Dr. Treves' journal entries), a Victorian Era man who was horribly disfigured by a then unknown genetic disease. Dr. Treves (Anthony Hopkins) finds Merrick (John Hurt) in a freak show where he is treated as a horrifying grotesque causing women to faint and righteous men to howl about "abominations."
Wise: Kind of like Melanie Griffith's plastic surgery.
Werth: Dr. Treves rescues Merrick from his abusive owner and puts him up in London Hospital where he discovers that this Elephant Man is actually an intelligent, curious human being who makes models of cathedrals and quotes the Psalms. But sadly, there is no Dumbo happy ending for Mr. Merrick—which is where Lynch's unique, dark style of filmmaking comes in.
Mimicking some aspects of his first film, cult favorite Eraserhead (1977), Lynch films his vision of Victorian England in black and white, making it dark, dingy and ugly. The filthy machines of the Indrustrial Age choke the air and chop up men and their souls, leaving madness, depravity, and contempt around every corner. But the world is not devoid of kindness.
Dr. Treves, hospital administrator Carr Gomm (John Gielgud), famous actress Mrs. Kendal (Anne Bancroft) and head nurse Mothershead (Dame Wendy Hiller) all discover Merrick's hidden beauty and attempt to nourish and protect him.
Wise: Dame Wendy is the hidden beauty in every film she's in.
Werth: But Lynch doesn't limit himself to the traditional structures of a historical drama. Surreal nightmares and a beautiful visual daydream of the joy and escapism of theater are evidence of Lynch's evolving, non-realistic style. Sound design is overemphasized with clacking shoes, hissing gas lamps and screaming train whistles giving scenes an other-worldly feel. Even his editing skips ahead in time, cutting out details from scenes without losing their essence.
Roger Ebert, among other critics, accused Lynch of sentimentality, but Lynch is more restrained than most directors at dramatic climaxes. Many of the most gut-wrenching scenes are performed without underlying orchestration, allowing the realistic acting of this talented cast to tell the tragic story of a beautiful soul trapped in a monstrous body and an even more monstrous world.
Wise: That's part of what makes Lynch such a fascinating filmmaker: how intimately he observes the details of everyday life and how those same details can suddenly turn monstrous. And nowhere is that slippery connection more apparent than in Blue Velvet (1986), the story of a small town boy, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), who finds a severed ear in a field and discovers the sordid dealings beneath the idyllic surface of his hometown. Along the way, he nearly loses his girlfriend Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), falls for the self-destructive allure of Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), and has to escape the machinations of gangster Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper).
Werth: Not to mention showing off his tuckus!
Wise: After his big-budget adaption of Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic Dune (1984) bombed at the box office, Lynch was relegated to the lower rungs of the Hollywood ladder until legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis gave him another shot (and a much smaller budget).
Tellingly, the constricted circumstances freed Lynch's powers, and—away from the monstrous worms and overblown space fantasy—he is able to address more personal themes: curiosity, innocence, depravity, love, and violence.
Werth: Sounds like the usual Friday night at Mel Gibson's house.
Wise: The film isn't always pleasant to watch, but it's almost impossible to look away. There's rape, murder and every other stripe of brutality you can imagine, plus Dennis Hopper's Frank may be one of the most compelling villains in film: a sadist who weeps at Rossellini's torch songs, tortures her, and then caps it off by huffing a mysterious gas from a hospital mask.
Werth: All of that is great, but I still don't know whose ear is in that field!
Wise: Maybe Mr. Lynch will let us know in next week's Film Gab!
