Renee/Alice - Good Witch or a Bad Witch?
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:35 pm
Today I mentioned to my friend how I thought it was surprising how Lynch refers to Renee/Alice, in Lynch on Lynch, as Pete/Fred's "walking with the wrong person." I always sympathized with her character(s), myself, and I was surprised when my friend said he'd always loathed her. I wondered how diverse the reaction to her might be.
This is something I wrote over at IMDB explaining why I think Renee/Alice is, for the most part, innocent:
I sympathized with Renee/Alice the entire time. I believe Fred was running from the torment he himself has manifested, not one she purposefully inflicted on him.
The jazz club scene is key in understanding Fred's inability to apply passion, emotion, and freedom to his relationship. I got the impression that his saxophone playing was the reason Renee fell in love with him' he's powerful, intense, passionate, completely lost to the sensual world whereas he just can't get there with Renee. Still, she stays with him and comforts him when he fails sexually, but she can't stand to go to the club and see how much better he is at making love to the music (though her not going could easily be interpreted as her not taking an interest in that which he is most passionate about' instead, she'd rather "read").
There's a strong Madonna/Whore complex running throughout Lost Highway. Fred finds Renee extremely attractive, but he can't reconcile his strong sexual desire for her without also believing that she must be a "whore." He craves her and the sexual energy she projects (from the script: "She is sexy without trying"), but he wants to make sure that he's the only person who "owns" her natural sensuality. Like many men, Fred is unable to see a woman as both sexy and loyal/"marryable." He has to invent a sordid agenda for her because he's so insecure and convinced by the Madonna/Whore ideology that any sexy woman is a promiscuous one.
I read a review of LH somewhere that mentioned the ambiguity of the scene where Alice is being forced into oral sex' it mentioned that we aren't sure if Lynch or someone else is objectifying her. Is it Lynch, Mr. Eddy, or Fred/Pete? Alice is telling the story of how she was forced to be Mr. Eddy's moll, but in Pete's imagination, he can only focus on Alice's body. Perhaps it even turns him on, seeing her in this role. He objectifies her just as Mr. Eddy did, because he doesn't even consider the trauma that must have been involved in being forced into a sexual act at gunpoint (I would love to know what Lynch's direction to Patricia Arquette was for this scene' was she supposed to be scared or was she supposed to subtly "enjoy" what was happening?). And when Alice finishes, all Pete can think of is that she must have "liked" it. He doesn't even think to offer her comfort or understanding, since he fully expects Alice to be such a "slut" because she's attractive, to the point that there are no sexual offers she would turn down. Alice can't win no matter what she does' so she offers to leave Pete alone, but he isn't happy with that, either. He wants to "tame" her and make sure he's the only one she desires.
The last scene in the desert could be interpreted as Alice/Renee's final "up yours" to Fred/Pete, in conclusion to all the fucking around she's supposedly done to him. The way she stands up and looks down at him is decidedly cold. But, I think at this point, even if Renee/Alice is angry at him, she's earned her anger. She's tried to be with him and be honest about her past, but Fred/Pete is never satisfied and does not respect her or her emotions. "You'll never have me" because you will never try to understand or accept me. This moment could also be interpreted as the one in which Pete/Fred gives up, lets Alice/Renee walk away, and decides that he cannot have a proper relationship with her, because of who he is, and who he then becomes' Fred, jealous, insecure, and distrusting. Or maybe he's made the realization too late, and at this point Alice/Renee is already gone (whether because she walked away or because he's already killed her).
I personally think Lynch and Fred have/had similar issues with women. In almost all of Lynch's movies, a pair of breasts somehow get exposed, sometimes for what seems like no real reason (it's the worst in the Ronnie Rocket script). There's also often the presence of a woman not only getting abused, but secretly enjoying it (Laura Palmer, Dorothy, Lula and the "Say 'fuck me'" scene), which has never sat well with me. Lynch likes to say that there are people like that out there, and masochists do exist. But masochists tend to enjoy pain inflicted on them by people they trust' almost NO ONE enjoys being sexually assaulted by someone they believe may really hurt/kill them. To suggest so in THREE different movies is really... questionable. I like to think Lynch faced some juvenile, patriarchal demons in Lost Highway. The next two movies he wrote had female main characters, seemed to me much more sympathetic to women, and had scenes where women were clearly NOT enjoying being sexually assaulted (Camilla pushing Diane away, Laura Dern's character recounting her rape to her psychiatrist in anger). I'm not trying to definitively accuse Lynch of being a misogynist or anything, but I find it really interesting to try and see LH from the eyes of a man (director or not) with unhealthy attitudes toward women/women's bodies. It could be coincidence, of course, but I see LH as a personal, redemptive and therapeutic movie. And who doesn't like to remember things not necessarily the way they happened?
What do you guys think?
This is something I wrote over at IMDB explaining why I think Renee/Alice is, for the most part, innocent:
I sympathized with Renee/Alice the entire time. I believe Fred was running from the torment he himself has manifested, not one she purposefully inflicted on him.
The jazz club scene is key in understanding Fred's inability to apply passion, emotion, and freedom to his relationship. I got the impression that his saxophone playing was the reason Renee fell in love with him' he's powerful, intense, passionate, completely lost to the sensual world whereas he just can't get there with Renee. Still, she stays with him and comforts him when he fails sexually, but she can't stand to go to the club and see how much better he is at making love to the music (though her not going could easily be interpreted as her not taking an interest in that which he is most passionate about' instead, she'd rather "read").
There's a strong Madonna/Whore complex running throughout Lost Highway. Fred finds Renee extremely attractive, but he can't reconcile his strong sexual desire for her without also believing that she must be a "whore." He craves her and the sexual energy she projects (from the script: "She is sexy without trying"), but he wants to make sure that he's the only person who "owns" her natural sensuality. Like many men, Fred is unable to see a woman as both sexy and loyal/"marryable." He has to invent a sordid agenda for her because he's so insecure and convinced by the Madonna/Whore ideology that any sexy woman is a promiscuous one.
I read a review of LH somewhere that mentioned the ambiguity of the scene where Alice is being forced into oral sex' it mentioned that we aren't sure if Lynch or someone else is objectifying her. Is it Lynch, Mr. Eddy, or Fred/Pete? Alice is telling the story of how she was forced to be Mr. Eddy's moll, but in Pete's imagination, he can only focus on Alice's body. Perhaps it even turns him on, seeing her in this role. He objectifies her just as Mr. Eddy did, because he doesn't even consider the trauma that must have been involved in being forced into a sexual act at gunpoint (I would love to know what Lynch's direction to Patricia Arquette was for this scene' was she supposed to be scared or was she supposed to subtly "enjoy" what was happening?). And when Alice finishes, all Pete can think of is that she must have "liked" it. He doesn't even think to offer her comfort or understanding, since he fully expects Alice to be such a "slut" because she's attractive, to the point that there are no sexual offers she would turn down. Alice can't win no matter what she does' so she offers to leave Pete alone, but he isn't happy with that, either. He wants to "tame" her and make sure he's the only one she desires.
The last scene in the desert could be interpreted as Alice/Renee's final "up yours" to Fred/Pete, in conclusion to all the fucking around she's supposedly done to him. The way she stands up and looks down at him is decidedly cold. But, I think at this point, even if Renee/Alice is angry at him, she's earned her anger. She's tried to be with him and be honest about her past, but Fred/Pete is never satisfied and does not respect her or her emotions. "You'll never have me" because you will never try to understand or accept me. This moment could also be interpreted as the one in which Pete/Fred gives up, lets Alice/Renee walk away, and decides that he cannot have a proper relationship with her, because of who he is, and who he then becomes' Fred, jealous, insecure, and distrusting. Or maybe he's made the realization too late, and at this point Alice/Renee is already gone (whether because she walked away or because he's already killed her).
I personally think Lynch and Fred have/had similar issues with women. In almost all of Lynch's movies, a pair of breasts somehow get exposed, sometimes for what seems like no real reason (it's the worst in the Ronnie Rocket script). There's also often the presence of a woman not only getting abused, but secretly enjoying it (Laura Palmer, Dorothy, Lula and the "Say 'fuck me'" scene), which has never sat well with me. Lynch likes to say that there are people like that out there, and masochists do exist. But masochists tend to enjoy pain inflicted on them by people they trust' almost NO ONE enjoys being sexually assaulted by someone they believe may really hurt/kill them. To suggest so in THREE different movies is really... questionable. I like to think Lynch faced some juvenile, patriarchal demons in Lost Highway. The next two movies he wrote had female main characters, seemed to me much more sympathetic to women, and had scenes where women were clearly NOT enjoying being sexually assaulted (Camilla pushing Diane away, Laura Dern's character recounting her rape to her psychiatrist in anger). I'm not trying to definitively accuse Lynch of being a misogynist or anything, but I find it really interesting to try and see LH from the eyes of a man (director or not) with unhealthy attitudes toward women/women's bodies. It could be coincidence, of course, but I see LH as a personal, redemptive and therapeutic movie. And who doesn't like to remember things not necessarily the way they happened?
What do you guys think?