The Ongoing Complete-Films-of-David-Lynch Project
“A work of genius…I think” —BBC
“My advice, in the face of such hallucinatory brilliance, is that you hang on” —Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
The role of a lifetime, a Hollywood mystery, a woman in trouble… David Lynch’s first digitally shot feature makes visionary use of the medium to weave a vast meditation on the enigmas of time, identity, and cinema itself. Featuring a tour de force performance from Laura Dern as an actor on the edge, this labyrinthine Dream Factory nightmare tumbles down an endless series of unfathomably interconnected rabbit holes (one including actual rabbits) as it takes viewers on a hallucinatory odyssey into the deepest realms of the unconscious mind.
Perhaps the least-appreciated film in the Lynch oeuvre, the film marked several firsts for Lynch: the film was shot without a finished screenplay, instead being largely developed on a scene-by-scene basis; and it was shot entirely in low-resolution digital video by Lynch himself, using a handheld Sony camcorder rather than traditional film stock. The film's cinematography, editing, score, and sound design were by Lynch, with pieces by a variety of other musicians also featured, including Beck, Nina Simone, Kroke, Dave Brubeck, and Krzysztof Penderecki.
An international co-production between the United States, France, and Poland, the film’s expansive cast features Lynch regulars Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, and Grace Zabriskie, as well as brief appearances by a host of additional actors, including Nastassja Kinski, Laura Harring, Terry Crews, Mary Steenburgen, Diane Ladd, and William H. Macy.