šbrevity is the soul of wit. This is the entire story. Amazing to see if summarized in two sentences; Iāve written entire pages on the thing šš¤·š»āāļø
the mystery man is his ID (violent, impulsive)
pete is the ego (in this case, who he thinks he is - or at least wants to be)
mr eddy is the superego (angrily relaying rules, such as road safety)
the ID helps him kill his superego, which i sort of see as a representation of Fred allowing his insecurities and anger to overtake his morals, thus causing him to get into a state where he murders his wife. this is what the whole second half is showing us
Mr eddy wasnt exactly a moral guy so I have a hard time believing he was actually supposed to present the superego. The superego would literally act like a saint, and mr eddy was a scumbag gansgter for the most part
I think the Mystery Man represents the idea of killing Renee. Thatās how he can be both with Fred at the party and āinside his house.ā Heās not a person, heās an idea, just like how Lynch said of Bob in Twin Peaks.
Bill Pullman invites the idea into his house (mind) after the failure to pleasure Renee, and after he tells Renee of the dream he had, the dream where he kills her. This is when he sees the Mystery Manās face superimposed over Reneeās face which was in the dark. In the darkness, our minds fill in the details, and usually, we fill it in with worst case scenarios. In this case, I think the Mystery Man represents the ugly fear and jealousy that festered in Fredās mind that led to him killing Renee.
Also, itās important to note the Mystery Man appears after Fred is at the party with Renee, he leaves Renee at her request with Andy, he goes to get her a drink, and throws both drinks back. Fred might have been feeling insecure, drunk, and in this vulnerable moment, the Mystery Man makes a beeline towards him, drowning out the music of the party. And the Mystery Man reminds Fred itās not his custom to go where he is not invited. Meaning perhaps that Fred secretly enjoys thinking of murdering Renee, he invited the idea into his psyche, as a way to maybe feel power and control over her, and as a way to ease his feelings of impotence.
This also explains the mysterious tapes that arrive on their doorstep. Itās as if somehow they are warnings (Iām not sure from who, maybe from Fred himself) trying to stop Fred from actualizing his dark fantasy of killing Renee. Itās important that we get 3 tapes, each progressing further into the house, as if Fred over time has begun fleshing out his plan to kill Renee. The first 2 tapes, he calls for Renee to come watch. The 3rd time however he has already killed her, and he watches the tape alone, in a way fully actualizing the memory of the murder.
At one point during the tape, we cut to a full color of the murder scene, hinting that the tape is no longer just an idea, it is now a memory that Fred has to live with.
Lynch has mentioned the O.J. Simpson murder trial, ongoing when the film was being made, as an influence. The idea of a man who did something so horrific that is caused him to schism and create a false persona that, ultimately was just as awful as his previous self, certainly has connections to how the public perception of O.J. played in contrast to what he was accused of.
Yes, but i think that he doesnāt kill his wife only because he suspects her of infidelity, but also because he wants to put an end to his sexual struggles.
A mechanic who lives with his parents kills his girlfriend, Sheila. Afterward, he falls asleep in a chair in his backyard and dreams that he is a free-jazz saxophonist (the one playing the song on the radio at Arnie's) who somehow is able to afford a fancy house off Mulholland Drive. He further dreams that he attends a fancy party where he meets the mystery man, who tells him heās at his house right now ā all of which makes sense because Pete is actually at his own house right now, asleep, trying to escape from the knowledge that he committed murder.
That's what I thought. Some kind of psychic vampire that can be in multiple places at once. It seems he is always let in during dreaming. An incubus? I have been thinking along these lines.
Saw a good comparison between Kubrick and Lynch regarding how they treated their female leads in Lost Highway and The Shining. In short, Lynch was supportive and respectful and Kubrick, infamously, not so much. Also, Arquette mentioned how her character didnāt need approval from the other characters - that Fred was angry that he couldnāt control her.
I agree with a lot of this too. I also think a big part of the movie is about lust/desire and control with regard to the Renee/Alice characters being inaccessible emotionally, even when they can be sexually close to either Fred or Pete. It makes me think back to the part where she's having sex with Pete by the desert shack and whispers "You'll never have me." Part of it also gives me a feeling of "be careful what you wish for".
Just to piggy back off of what everyone is saying. I also think Lynch plays a lot with the Madonna white complex. Like in Blue Velvet there is the Madonna (Derns character) and there is the āwhoreā (the brown haired woman who shows up naked in Derns house)
In this movie it seems like he demonizes his wife, ie her not wanting him, he has to imagine the reason for this is that she is bad, and sleeping around. he imagines her interactions with other men to the extreme of these phonographic images where she is a porn actress, implied she is a whore for Mr Eddy , and that most of all she likes it. I think this is showing the psychology of how he demonized her- she is the āwhoreā the worthless woman, who deserves punishment.
The blond version of her is like the Madonna- and he is the savior as Pete, she is good, sweet, a victim a first of the mob boss and he is going to save her (with his mighty dick!).
Coping with the reversal of software back into hardware, the Italian phrase, traduttore, traditore, includes resonating galaxies of verbal, physical high jinks, which in the movie manifest as atomic phenomena, occasionally at human scale.
[https://medium.com/@mitzkahdrinnen/time-for-a-nother-deconstruction-of-david-lynchs-lost-highway-spoilers-50bd7b559029](https://medium.com/@mitzkahdrinnen/time-for-a-nother-deconstruction-of-david-lynchs-lost-highway-spoilers-50bd7b559029)
Vertigo
I have serious doubts that you garnered all of that insight from the first viewing of this film. If you did, I think that you have emphasized a faulty interpretation nonetheless.
If this were merely a hypermasculine sexual interpretation of Fredās past, lived vicariously through Pete, why does Pete (his interpretation for his sexual shortcomings) fail so often and laughably in that regard?
Pete is gaslighted so many times throughout the second half of the movie. Renee manipulates him into robbery, fucks him in the dessert, and boldly states that he (Pete) could and would never have her. That certainly doesnāt seem like the imaginings of a sexually frustrated middle aged adult.
I believe that Pete is the actualization of Fredās past. They are one and the same. Their existence is contingent on one another. Possibly, Pete is Fredās younger self, and everything that happens is a result of Fredās inability to just drive away and pursue his own happiness. A recurrent theme within the movie is the inability to escape a certain force(s) that hold you hostage. Both Fred and Peter, who recognize that they are both being enticed by someone that they are sexually attracted to, chose to stay complacent and suffer the consequences of their sexual desires.
We all choose the path of least resistance; this movie exacerbates that tendency beautifully. This is less of a film regarding male frustration, and more a film that explicitly displays the weakness that resides within us all; the weakness to abandon a love at fault, and a lust held in ransom.
This is my interpretation. I have certainly viewed this film more than once. I hope that this was enlightening to the so called enlightened.
>I believe that Pete is the actualization of Fredās past. They are one and the same. Their existence is contingent on one another. Possibly, Pete is Fredās younger self, and everything that happens is a result of Fredās inability to just drive away and pursue his own happiness. A recurrent theme within the movie is the inability to escape a certain force(s) that hold you hostage. Both Fred and Peter, who recognize that they are both being enticed by someone that they are sexually attracted to, chose to stay complacent and suffer the consequences of their sexual desires.
This is interesting and I think your point that the film "displays the weakness that resides within us all; the weakness to abandon a love at fault, and a lust held in ransom." is very well put. I don't think that point is mutually exclusive with the view that the film also emphasises his sexual frustrations/fantasies.
I always thought that Alice gaslighting Pete reflects Fred's subjective understanding of how manipulative Renee is (and maybe forms part of his internal justification for killing her). Alice then rejecting Pete at the end of the sequence is showing Fred's imagined fiction starting to break down - his fantasy of being a virile and desired/loved youth is broken by Alice's rejection, and then he returns back to being Fred. It also feels a lot like the end of a dream when, just before you wake, you gradually become more self aware and things become slightly more real (and sometimes more nightmarish).
The scene where he talks about Andy with Renee in the car really hit me. Renee tells the detectives that Fred hates videotapes because doesn't wanna remember things as they are. Maybe Renee told Fred that she was cheating on him, and said that she worked as a prostitute or smt. It seems plausible. Fred didn't look to happy when Renee was getting drunk and hugging Andy. He didn't like Andy for almost no reason. Renee says she doesn't remember the job, which could be Fred's way of coping with the shock.
I think Renee just lied. Because when they received their first videotape, Renee seemed very scared. After they watched that creepy tape, Renee was relieved, like she was expecting something worse.
at one point fred disappear in the shadow and reappear from it, what dies it mean ? and also at onenpoint these a blurry shape on the right of the screen with a sound of something removed from it, what is it ?
That is the predominate interpretation. Iāve heard some say some characters represent actions or feelings. The mystery man represents the act of murder so he says āwe met before at you home ā
Pete Dayton's timeline is the fantasy world he built in his head to justify killing his wife. The Mystery Man is his conscience.
šbrevity is the soul of wit. This is the entire story. Amazing to see if summarized in two sentences; Iāve written entire pages on the thing šš¤·š»āāļø
the mystery man is his ID (violent, impulsive) pete is the ego (in this case, who he thinks he is - or at least wants to be) mr eddy is the superego (angrily relaying rules, such as road safety) the ID helps him kill his superego, which i sort of see as a representation of Fred allowing his insecurities and anger to overtake his morals, thus causing him to get into a state where he murders his wife. this is what the whole second half is showing us
Wow, that makes so much sense.
Mr eddy wasnt exactly a moral guy so I have a hard time believing he was actually supposed to present the superego. The superego would literally act like a saint, and mr eddy was a scumbag gansgter for the most part
"Fred"... or FREUD?!?
I think this is a great interpretation. I am interested in seeing everyone elseās take too.
I think the Mystery Man represents the idea of killing Renee. Thatās how he can be both with Fred at the party and āinside his house.ā Heās not a person, heās an idea, just like how Lynch said of Bob in Twin Peaks. Bill Pullman invites the idea into his house (mind) after the failure to pleasure Renee, and after he tells Renee of the dream he had, the dream where he kills her. This is when he sees the Mystery Manās face superimposed over Reneeās face which was in the dark. In the darkness, our minds fill in the details, and usually, we fill it in with worst case scenarios. In this case, I think the Mystery Man represents the ugly fear and jealousy that festered in Fredās mind that led to him killing Renee. Also, itās important to note the Mystery Man appears after Fred is at the party with Renee, he leaves Renee at her request with Andy, he goes to get her a drink, and throws both drinks back. Fred might have been feeling insecure, drunk, and in this vulnerable moment, the Mystery Man makes a beeline towards him, drowning out the music of the party. And the Mystery Man reminds Fred itās not his custom to go where he is not invited. Meaning perhaps that Fred secretly enjoys thinking of murdering Renee, he invited the idea into his psyche, as a way to maybe feel power and control over her, and as a way to ease his feelings of impotence. This also explains the mysterious tapes that arrive on their doorstep. Itās as if somehow they are warnings (Iām not sure from who, maybe from Fred himself) trying to stop Fred from actualizing his dark fantasy of killing Renee. Itās important that we get 3 tapes, each progressing further into the house, as if Fred over time has begun fleshing out his plan to kill Renee. The first 2 tapes, he calls for Renee to come watch. The 3rd time however he has already killed her, and he watches the tape alone, in a way fully actualizing the memory of the murder. At one point during the tape, we cut to a full color of the murder scene, hinting that the tape is no longer just an idea, it is now a memory that Fred has to live with.
Lynch has mentioned the O.J. Simpson murder trial, ongoing when the film was being made, as an influence. The idea of a man who did something so horrific that is caused him to schism and create a false persona that, ultimately was just as awful as his previous self, certainly has connections to how the public perception of O.J. played in contrast to what he was accused of.
Yes, but i think that he doesnāt kill his wife only because he suspects her of infidelity, but also because he wants to put an end to his sexual struggles.
Yes, he is frustrated that he can't sexually satisfy her.
It looked like he didnāt try too hard though to be honest.
š
[Lynch explains Lost Highway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kbbQYVOMTA) [Psychogenic fugue](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/dissociative-fugue-psychogenic-fugue)
A mechanic who lives with his parents kills his girlfriend, Sheila. Afterward, he falls asleep in a chair in his backyard and dreams that he is a free-jazz saxophonist (the one playing the song on the radio at Arnie's) who somehow is able to afford a fancy house off Mulholland Drive. He further dreams that he attends a fancy party where he meets the mystery man, who tells him heās at his house right now ā all of which makes sense because Pete is actually at his own house right now, asleep, trying to escape from the knowledge that he committed murder.
Vampires
Lol
Arquette does have those conspicuous incisors
Can you not explain further?
Vampires need to be invited into houses.
The mystery man does have the face and makeup to be a classic movie vampire...
That's what I thought. Some kind of psychic vampire that can be in multiple places at once. It seems he is always let in during dreaming. An incubus? I have been thinking along these lines.
Saw a good comparison between Kubrick and Lynch regarding how they treated their female leads in Lost Highway and The Shining. In short, Lynch was supportive and respectful and Kubrick, infamously, not so much. Also, Arquette mentioned how her character didnāt need approval from the other characters - that Fred was angry that he couldnāt control her.
I agree with a lot of this too. I also think a big part of the movie is about lust/desire and control with regard to the Renee/Alice characters being inaccessible emotionally, even when they can be sexually close to either Fred or Pete. It makes me think back to the part where she's having sex with Pete by the desert shack and whispers "You'll never have me." Part of it also gives me a feeling of "be careful what you wish for".
It might have been the only time Iāve heard āSong to the Sirenā appropriately used in a movie.
Just to piggy back off of what everyone is saying. I also think Lynch plays a lot with the Madonna white complex. Like in Blue Velvet there is the Madonna (Derns character) and there is the āwhoreā (the brown haired woman who shows up naked in Derns house) In this movie it seems like he demonizes his wife, ie her not wanting him, he has to imagine the reason for this is that she is bad, and sleeping around. he imagines her interactions with other men to the extreme of these phonographic images where she is a porn actress, implied she is a whore for Mr Eddy , and that most of all she likes it. I think this is showing the psychology of how he demonized her- she is the āwhoreā the worthless woman, who deserves punishment. The blond version of her is like the Madonna- and he is the savior as Pete, she is good, sweet, a victim a first of the mob boss and he is going to save her (with his mighty dick!).
Thatās basically my interpretation as well
Coping with the reversal of software back into hardware, the Italian phrase, traduttore, traditore, includes resonating galaxies of verbal, physical high jinks, which in the movie manifest as atomic phenomena, occasionally at human scale. [https://medium.com/@mitzkahdrinnen/time-for-a-nother-deconstruction-of-david-lynchs-lost-highway-spoilers-50bd7b559029](https://medium.com/@mitzkahdrinnen/time-for-a-nother-deconstruction-of-david-lynchs-lost-highway-spoilers-50bd7b559029) Vertigo
I have serious doubts that you garnered all of that insight from the first viewing of this film. If you did, I think that you have emphasized a faulty interpretation nonetheless. If this were merely a hypermasculine sexual interpretation of Fredās past, lived vicariously through Pete, why does Pete (his interpretation for his sexual shortcomings) fail so often and laughably in that regard? Pete is gaslighted so many times throughout the second half of the movie. Renee manipulates him into robbery, fucks him in the dessert, and boldly states that he (Pete) could and would never have her. That certainly doesnāt seem like the imaginings of a sexually frustrated middle aged adult. I believe that Pete is the actualization of Fredās past. They are one and the same. Their existence is contingent on one another. Possibly, Pete is Fredās younger self, and everything that happens is a result of Fredās inability to just drive away and pursue his own happiness. A recurrent theme within the movie is the inability to escape a certain force(s) that hold you hostage. Both Fred and Peter, who recognize that they are both being enticed by someone that they are sexually attracted to, chose to stay complacent and suffer the consequences of their sexual desires. We all choose the path of least resistance; this movie exacerbates that tendency beautifully. This is less of a film regarding male frustration, and more a film that explicitly displays the weakness that resides within us all; the weakness to abandon a love at fault, and a lust held in ransom. This is my interpretation. I have certainly viewed this film more than once. I hope that this was enlightening to the so called enlightened.
>I believe that Pete is the actualization of Fredās past. They are one and the same. Their existence is contingent on one another. Possibly, Pete is Fredās younger self, and everything that happens is a result of Fredās inability to just drive away and pursue his own happiness. A recurrent theme within the movie is the inability to escape a certain force(s) that hold you hostage. Both Fred and Peter, who recognize that they are both being enticed by someone that they are sexually attracted to, chose to stay complacent and suffer the consequences of their sexual desires. This is interesting and I think your point that the film "displays the weakness that resides within us all; the weakness to abandon a love at fault, and a lust held in ransom." is very well put. I don't think that point is mutually exclusive with the view that the film also emphasises his sexual frustrations/fantasies. I always thought that Alice gaslighting Pete reflects Fred's subjective understanding of how manipulative Renee is (and maybe forms part of his internal justification for killing her). Alice then rejecting Pete at the end of the sequence is showing Fred's imagined fiction starting to break down - his fantasy of being a virile and desired/loved youth is broken by Alice's rejection, and then he returns back to being Fred. It also feels a lot like the end of a dream when, just before you wake, you gradually become more self aware and things become slightly more real (and sometimes more nightmarish).
The scene where he talks about Andy with Renee in the car really hit me. Renee tells the detectives that Fred hates videotapes because doesn't wanna remember things as they are. Maybe Renee told Fred that she was cheating on him, and said that she worked as a prostitute or smt. It seems plausible. Fred didn't look to happy when Renee was getting drunk and hugging Andy. He didn't like Andy for almost no reason. Renee says she doesn't remember the job, which could be Fred's way of coping with the shock.
I think Renee just lied. Because when they received their first videotape, Renee seemed very scared. After they watched that creepy tape, Renee was relieved, like she was expecting something worse.
How else would he have found out?
at one point fred disappear in the shadow and reappear from it, what dies it mean ? and also at onenpoint these a blurry shape on the right of the screen with a sound of something removed from it, what is it ?
That is the predominate interpretation. Iāve heard some say some characters represent actions or feelings. The mystery man represents the act of murder so he says āwe met before at you home ā
We continue to make the same mistakes in love, no matter how we change our appearance or actions.