World of Blue - Archived Forum 2007-2022

well...to be fair, here's a better DL quote that relates MD to TP:

David Lynch: "...[Mulholland Dr.] was gonna be kind of a spin-off of Twin Peaks, but it didn`t go anywhere."

http://www.davidlynch.de/empire2001.html

Interesting conversation, a shame I missed it when people participated.

On the whole I agree with snikgrif, they probably don't really happen in the same "world", as in one character could meet the other, but I do think Lost Highway, Twin Peaks/Fire Walk with Me, Eraserhead and to some extent Mulholland Drive certainly belong to the same logic.

In general, when I show one of those movies to friends, they eventually all ask "but what does REALLY happen ? Does BOB really exist or is he something Leland and Laura made up ? Does Fred Madison REALLY turn into Pete Dayton or is he just imagining things in his cell ? Is the baby REALLY a monster and is there REALLY a world behind the radiator or is Henry seeing things ?"

The answer, IMO, is : both. What Lynch and those movies do, which pretty much no other movie does, is taking pathological/psychological forces and events that are inside the main character(s), and takes them outside, in reality. BOB is an abstraction, so is the Mystery Man, Lynch said so, but they do things that are real. That's a technique used to make us live what Leland, Laura, Fred and Henry live, and not just make us watch them as pathological freaks. They take us inside of them by taking their fears and drives and taking them out on the world shown on screen.

The Mystery Man, the Mulholland Drive bum, the Little Man from Another Place, BOB, then become abstractions AND characters that do act and have consequences in real life. The Mystery Man is Schizophrenia, but he acts like a Devil character by making Fred able to kill his wife then offer him another identity to escape prison in exchange of going to "his side", the side of madness. BOB has the same kind of duality, he's the symbol of "the abused turned abuser" (it's strongly suggested "Roberton" was Leland's neighbour when he was a kid and abused him then) but he's also a force investigated by the FBI.

In all those movies the lines are blurred, that's what make them belong to the same logic. And that's why in my "World of David Lynch" site I chose to make a character from one film go to another, or make phone calls from Eraserhead to Twin Peaks or from Twin Peaks to Mulholland Drive. It just works.

Just like Lynch himself made his "Rabbits" shorts into INLAND EMPIRE, which also belongs there IMO.

I can't see the connection, actually. I think Lost Highway and M Drive may be in the same world, but not with Twin Peaks. For some reason, I don't see L.A. existing in that world.

It's interesting how Lynch creates these worlds that exists in a kind of parralell dimension within the Lynchian universe. I don't think Lost Highway is in the same world as Twin Peaks exactly but rather a closely related reality. It's kind of like an adjacent dimension that opens up within this universe of his. This alternate universe can be found inside Lynch's head for sure. It's there, breathing and living all on it's own and he in a sense just pulls them out. I think he once likened his writing process to fishing.
That's probably why we feel his films exist within the same world.

Think of the scene in Lost Highway where Pete is lying in the garden lounger. Doesn't that seem straight out of Blue Velvet?

I suspect that Lynch views the world of 'real' experience as no more privileged than that of the imagination and considers that all experiences and identities, good and bad, are inextricably interconnected. So with that said I can see him categorizing all his work in the same world of fluid perception of interconnected experiences.

I believe a connection between the films was made explicit on the old DL.com website many years ago. I certainly don't have an issue with different films and shows occupying the same universe.

It never occurred to me to question that TP, MD and LH didn't occupy the same world. I suppose I think of a 'Lynchverse' that is elastic enough to accommodate all of his stories!

I've always thought of it as "Lynchland" but Lynchverse is fine, too!

In my opinion all his films sort of take place in the same world. Red curtains everywhere are the most sign of it but I wouldn't take it so literally. As one of the posters above said, it's a universe inside the creator's head, it's his vision of the world which blows through all those movies.

But Twin Peaks and Lost Highway in particular - I don't see why they'd be especially connected.

Medard wrote:Browsing trough Wikipedia I stumbeld upon this:

Lynch has also stated that Twin Peaks and Lost Highway take place in the same world.

It's been a while since I've seen Lost Highway, but it's never occored to me that Twin Peaks and Lost Highway where connected.
Has anyone else noticed any connection between the two?

It can sound obvious but all Lynch's work taken place in the same world. I think DL created a small universe that only exists in his brain.

I don't think the point is to prove anything like this, but I am one who will definitely argue that it's true.

It seems almost a shame if one denied themselves the opportunity to look at it like this....

I mean Laura calls BOB her mystery man so how far fetched is it? Lynch has always said names are very important, so if a name repeats like that, if there is a Pete in Twin Peaks and a Pete in LOST HIGHWAY can't that mean something?

There's also an Andy in LOST HIGHWAY, so....

Anyway, I do think there is a Lynchverse, not just in terms of style and tone but narratively as well. If we go back to the Petes, if you look closely you can see a lifetime of Petes.

Pierre Tremond -- Boyhood Pete.
Pete Dayton -- young man Pete.
Piotrek Krol -- middle aged Pete.
Pete Martell -- golden years Pete.

So I would argue all these Petes are magicians to some degree, Pierre is studying, Pete is the magical representation of Fred, Lou Reed's cover of "This Magic Moment" plays when he meets Alice, the new neighbor waves to the mansion and says "and then there is the magic"... It's Piotrek Krol's mansion... Pete Martel is getting a little old so maybe when he's praciticing magic a fish might end up in a percolator. so who is the Pete in MULHOLLAND DRIVE? Why the magician of course (some call him Bondar, I never knew why) ... And he looks about old enough to be the Pete in between Dayton and Krol.


All those Petes. a lifetime of Petes. All the same magician Pete.

I watched Lost Highway a couple of days ago, and somewhere in the middle they talk about 'Sycamore'. I think it is an adress (a hotel where Alice is waiting for Pete?).

This seems to be a clear connection to TP.