"Hey pretty girl... time to wake up." (original) (raw)

Thought you all might like to know about something cool going on in Miami Beach, Florida.
Is anyone here near there? If so, check out the PHOTO-IMAGERY and FILMS of DAVID LYNCH at the Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way on South Beach, 305 673 4567 and www.MBCINEMA.com.

Justin Theroux just surprised the audience by stopping by for the opening night (Blue Velvet), and Richard Green (Bondar the Magician in MD) will be there HALLOWEEN WEEKEND...
The film retrospective and exhibition continues all October. Here is a Miami Herald article about it:

GREAT DIRECTORS SHOWCASE
David Lynch: obsessive artist
BY RENE RODRIGUEZ rrodriguez@herald.com

It is one of the not-so-small miracles of the American film industry that it continues to make room for David Lynch. Not since Luis Buñuel has there been a filmmaker whose subversive imagination and surrealist approach to storytelling found such a wide -- and appreciative -- audience.

Lynch is the subject of this month's Great Directors showcase at the Miami Beach Cinematheque's excellent retrospective series, which is headlined by two rare screenings of 1977's Eraserhead (showing Oct. 28 and 29), Lynch's first -- and unquestionably strangest -- film.

Shot mostly on weekends over the span of five years, Eraserhead has a plot of sorts -- a man, played by Jack Nance, is abandoned by his girlfriend and left to raise their deformed child -- but is best approached as an immersing, hallucinatory experience. The movie's nightmarish, often repulsive imagery; its black-and-white cinematography that resembles an industrial film; its dreamlike logic and symbolism; and its dense sound mix are all closer to experimental art than conventional filmmaking, which helps explain why Eraserhead was rejected by both the Cannes and New York Film Festivals in 1976.

When it finally premiered in Los Angeles a year later, Eraserhead was greeted by negative reviews (Variety called it ``a sickening bad-taste exercise''). But the film became a sensation on the midnight-movie circuit, where it played for four years straight and brought Lynch his first Hollywood assignment, The Elephant Man. Seen today, in the context of Lynch's subsequent pictures, Eraserhead seems like an even more remarkable debut -- a pure distillation of his signature style and obsessions, unfettered by commercial concerns. If you've never seen it, you're in for a nasty treat: You never forget your first time watching Eraserhead.

Lynch's best-known film, 1986's Blue Velvet (showing at 8:30 tonight), is also his most influential. The concept of a picture-perfect suburbia harboring dark secrets has become so commonplace, it almost borders on cliché. But even as other filmmakers continue to weave variations on the theme (from A History of Violence to TV's Desperate Housewives), Lynch's subversion of small-town bliss remains the most cutting and perverse, anchored by Dennis Hopper's astonishing performance as evil personified.

Released the same year that his TV series Twin Peaks became a pop culture phenomenon, 1990's Wild at Heart (showing Oct. 14) was Lynch's playful, bizarre take on the American road picture. The story of on-the-run lovers Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern), the film alternates between fanciful whimsy (including odes to The Wizard of Oz and Elvis Presley) and bursts of shocking violence. But for all its prevailing weirdness, Wild at Heart is also Lynch's most romantic, emotional movie -- and it even has a happy ending.

Although it had its supporters, 1997's Lost Highway (showing Oct. 21) was a gloomy downer, recycling previous themes and visual motifs with little payoff. Despite some fascinating moments (including a great, terrifying bit involving Robert Blake and a cellphone), the movie was the work of an artist a little too obsessed with himself. After an unexpected (and excellent) foray into G-rated Disney territory with The Straight Story, Lynch returned to haunting form with 2001's Mulholland Drive (showing Oct. 27), a beguiling meditation on Los Angeles carved from a failed TV pilot that earned him his third Best Director Oscar nomination. Like much of Lynch's work, Mulholland Drive becomes richer and more entrancing each time you watch it -- an endless source of dark, tormenting pleasures.

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Herald Movie Critic Rene Rodriguez will answer your questions online. Go to www.herald.com and click on Q&A.
IF YOU GO

Here is the complete schedule for The Great Directors: David Lynch series showing this month at the Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Española Way, Miami Beach. As part of the retrospective, the theater is also displaying an exhibit of Lynch's original photography, movie posters and memorabilia.

Actor/director Richard Green, who played Bondar the Magician in Mulholland Drive, will attend Q&A receptions on Oct. 27-29 to discuss Lynch's work and present his own film, Seven Year Zig Zag. Tickets are 6−6-6−10. For more information, visit www.mbcinema.com or call 305-673-4567.

Oct 07
8:30 p.m.: Blue Velvet
Oct. 14
8:30 p.m. Wild at Heart
Oct. 21
8:30 p.m. Lost Highway
Oct. 27
8:30 p.m. Mulholland Drive (with Q&A with Richard Green/Bondar)
Oct. 28
8 p.m. I Don't Know Jack (documentary about actor Jack Nance, star of Eraserhead) (with Q&A with Exec. Prod. Richard Green)
9:30 p.m. Eraserhead
Oct. 29
8 p.m. Seven Year Zig Zag (with Q&A with Director Richard Green)
9:30 p.m. Eraserhead