“Lost Highway” The theme of disturbed memory inspired by real events

Many impressive factors common to Lynch's works

Wild at Heart '' (1990), the TV series ``David Lynch's Hotel Lost Highway,'' and the film ``Lost Highway.'' is. Just as Lynch is a multifaceted film director, artist, and actor, Gifford is also a screenwriter, poet, and film critic.

In the first place, the inspiration for the creation of ``Lost Highway'' came from a passage called ``Lost Highway'' that appeared in Barry Gifford's short story collection ` `Night People '' (published by Bungeishunju). Lynch liked this phrase, worked on the script with Gifford, and completed the tale of Lost Highway.

The idea for ``Lost Highway'' was not only based on the aforementioned ``O.J. Simpson case'' and Gifford's collection of short stories. Lynch left one more comment as part of his resume for this work. It's a "psychogenic fugue." In Japanese, the psychological term is ``psychogenic amnesia'' or ``dissociative fugue,'' and it is a disease in which memory is lost due to excessive stress.

I see, that makes sense. The main character, Fred, kills his wife and is arrested, but for him it's no surprise. I don't remember it at all. Fred suspects that his wife is having an affair, so he murders her, but the stress has erased his inconvenient memories and he has run away from the reality in front of him, that is, the fact that he has murdered her. Best of all, Fred hated video cameras. Or rather, I hate remembering. "I don't want to remember it as it happened," are the words Fred says in the movie. In other words, Fred's memory is extremely vague.

Lynch's films have many things in common. Factors include beautiful blonde and brunette women, dimly glowing shade lamps, cigarettes, black telephones, street names, the dark side hidden in the light, and memories and dreams. In `` Mulholland Drive ,'' budding actress Diane rearranged her memories of her life to show her ideal dreams, and in ``Blue Velvet,'' Sandy, played by Laura Dern, talked about a certain dream.

"Blue Velvet" preview

In Lost Highway, the factors of memory and dreams are the most important core of any of Lynch's works. Despite killing his wife, he loses all of his memories. Moreover, in the middle of the movie, he even creates an alter ego called Pete Deighton. The incident in which O.J. Simpson, who is clearly a black man, completely denies the charges of murdering his ex-wife, can be considered to indicate that Simpson was suffering from some kind of syndrome, such as a psychogenic fugue.

In any case, ``Lost Highway'' is the story of a man named Fred who has memory problems. No, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the correct answer. In the first place, there is no concept of a correct answer in this movie, and the outcome of the story is created by the number of people who watch it. But what's strange about the film's story is that even though it seems like it's coming to an end, it's actually returning to the beginning. Yes, like a Möbius strip. This remains a very troubling mystery, but it doesn't matter anymore.

If there's anyone whose style is extremely contradictory to David Lynch's, it's none other than director M. Night Shyamalan. Known for works such as `` The Sixth Sense '' (1999) and `` The Village '' (2004), he lays out as much foreshadowing as he can in his movies, and at the end of the movie, he neatly collects the foreshadowing and adds a twist. I'll give it to you.

“The Sixth Sense” preview

However, Lynch is the complete opposite, laying out just enough foreshadowing and letting it go unchecked. We, the audience, have to find the punch line ourselves. ``Lost Highway'' is an unpredictable drama, and you can't quite grasp the punch line. I guess that's the real thrill of Lynch's work.

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Movie “Lost Highway” theatrical program

Text: Hayato Otsuki

Born in May 1993 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Writer, editor. He started his writing career in 2016 and currently contributes columns, movie reviews, etc. to various media. By reading the creator's Arrival from a bird's-eye view, we incisively analyze and explain the original intention of the work. His writing publications include "THE RIVER", "IGN Japan", and "Real Sound Movie Club". My specialty is action and fantasy.

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