779 Mulholland Dr.

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domino harvey
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#151 Post by domino harvey » Sun Dec 20, 2015 1:42 pm

Image

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Randall Maysin
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#152 Post by Randall Maysin » Sun Dec 20, 2015 3:17 pm

Wowwa WEEwa! That's exquisite, should have been the cover. And other unnecessary comments.

Where the heck didja get that?

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domino harvey
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#153 Post by domino harvey » Sun Dec 20, 2015 3:19 pm

It was a limited print from Mondo, unfortunately long sold out

EDIT: I just checked, there are a few copies going for a couple hundred bucks on eBay if you're really devoted to the idea of having it on your wall

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Randall Maysin
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#154 Post by Randall Maysin » Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:49 am

Too rich for my blood! I'm probably the most impoverished member of this forum. :D ........ :cry:

criterion10

Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#155 Post by criterion10 » Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:08 pm

A perhaps miniscule error, but it bothered me that the opening shot of the jitterbug dance does not quickly fade in on this release, as it has on the past ones. I'm assuming that this is an error, similar to what happened with Eraserhead, but can anyone else clarify?

Also: I only fast forwarded to a few scenes to spot check them, but if you want to see an example of Criterion's awful encoding as of late, take a look at the long shot of the person cleaning that the clumsy hitman eventually kills. Numerous digital artifacts are perfectly visible on the floor of the hallway, that slowly dissipate as the shot continues onward. Now to exaggerate, but I'm sure Lynch would be pretty angry if he saw the final product. (Mind you, I'm assuming he hasn't.)

I do, however, give Criterion the utmost credit for making the most possible out of the extras -- the interviews I watched were all surprisingly excellent.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#156 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Feb 08, 2016 7:51 pm

I got around to watching this. Still love it, after all the years. I thought the supplements were terrific. At first announced it felt slighted but they are not. The interviews are wonderful and full of how Lynch works. I thought the on-set video supplement was great. I was a bit surprised at the insecurity Watts displayed. If a couple of his shorts were included that would have made this the release of the year for me.

Can someone tell me if Susan Arosteguy was the CC producer for the Eraserhead release?

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CSM126
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#157 Post by CSM126 » Mon Feb 08, 2016 8:00 pm

She was indeed.

Numero Trois
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#158 Post by Numero Trois » Tue Feb 09, 2016 3:49 am

FrauBlucher wrote: I was a bit surprised at the insecurity Watts displayed.
It wasn't that she doubted her abilities as much as it took years and years of rejection and lesser jobs until she got this her first major role.

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hearthesilence
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#159 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Apr 01, 2016 12:02 am

The notes in the booklet are worth reading - it includes a vintage interview where Lynch addresses those video bootlegs that are still circulating. They're often tagged as the "original pilot" version, i.e. what would have been broadcast, but Lynch makes it clear that he HATES this cut. It's basically the second cut he had to make after ABC told him that his two-hour plus cut was too long and they the pilot had to be less than 90 minutes (to fit it into a two-hour slot loaded with commercials - Lynch then proposed a two-part pilot, but they shot that down). Before StudioCanal agreed to buy the pilot and finance its completion as a feature, they apparently looked at this cut, just so they had some idea what they would have (Lynch was very reluctant to give them a copy and made it clear that he hated the cut).

I have to say, I'm very disappointed in the night scenes of this transfer - the pixelated noise looks horrible, definitely not what I can recall from seeing this projected in 35mm. Does a 4k DCP circulate? It must look better than this. A shame.

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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#160 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:33 am

Interview with Bonnie Aarons, about her rather remarkable (and utterly terrifying) few seconds in it. Found it a little funny, watching the special features on Filmstruck, that this was based on an incident where Lynch left a restaurant and was scared stiff by a hobo who he just kind of bumped into. It speaks to his ability to fuse his life into his art, because even watching it on a miniscule device like the iPhone the Winkie's scene is still damn scary.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#161 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Nov 22, 2016 9:28 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:...Found it a little funny, watching the special features on Filmstruck, that this was based on an incident where Lynch left a restaurant and was scared stiff by a hobo who he just kind of bumped into...
This also speaks to a directness that Lynch achieves even with material that appears surrealistic. For me, the "hobo" represents the worst fear of the Hollywood achiever: failure and destitution. This is the fear that plagues and drives Diana, who...
SpoilerShow
...in her dream world, allows it to have a face, but distances herself from it by imagining the encounter behind Winkies is a dream that "Rita" is having when she falls into unconsciousness after the car accident.

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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#162 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 10:43 am

I now think of this as a parable as what happens when love collides with ambition, and all the wounds it can leave behind, self-inflicted and otherwise. At least this and Lost Highway, I feel are about the inner demons we have that push us towards doing dangerous things with ourselves.

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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#163 Post by calculus entrophy » Tue Nov 22, 2016 6:33 pm

For me, the "hobo" represents the worst fear of the Hollywood achiever: failure and destitution.
So true. And then he juxtaposes it with the mundane (Winkie's) to fully capture the fantasy/reality of Hollywood.

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R0lf
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#164 Post by R0lf » Tue Nov 22, 2016 10:27 pm

No one ever took the literal meaning of the hobo
SpoilerShow
that Camilla died in the hit and her body was dumped behind Winkies
?

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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#165 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 11:38 pm

R0lf wrote:No one ever took the literal meaning of the hobo
SpoilerShow
that Camilla died in the hit and her body was dumped behind Winkies
?
SpoilerShow
Feels too obvious since the hit was arranged at Winkie's

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colinr0380
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#166 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Nov 23, 2016 6:20 am

I think just as interesting is that the ‘bag lady behind Winkies’ is portrayed as another minor character’s view of the ‘ultimate horror’ hiding behind the surface, so its viewed at rather a remove from the main story even on first viewing (and I agree that it feels most intended to be the dream-world sublimation of that location becoming ‘corrupted’ after having been used to confirm the hit). That might represent a feared end of total artistic failure that dogs Diane (and interestingly anticipates some scenes in Inland Empire) of just ending up as somebody else’s boogeyman, or cautionary tale. Yet in the end:
SpoilerShow
I think it is important that the thing that drives Diane to suicide is the vision of the caring elderly couple sending Betty off on her adventure at the beginning of the fantasy turning mocking. That’s sort of the Winkies scene working the other way, with the dreamworld breaking into reality, and revealing shattering truths that cannot be lived with (maybe the Winkies scene is Diane’s premonition of her own death? Or of at least of living with a monster under the bed, or behind the diner).

Its both the failure of the attempt to retreat back into the already ‘solved’ mystery of the fantasy world (though I’d have loved another ‘imperfect’ loop through the Betty and Rita story in which the sunny positivity was falling apart around the edges even more!) and the move from being tormented by just the murder to the entire sense of curdled ambition, and love, (really desires as a whole) itself being implicated in the tragedy.
It’s the Star Is Born for the new millennium! Only a version in which the star is never discovered, or perhaps one in which the ‘wrong’ star is.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Wed Nov 23, 2016 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

calculus entrophy
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#167 Post by calculus entrophy » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:01 pm

It’s the Star Is Born for the new millennium! Only a version in which the star is never discovered, or perhaps one in which the ‘wrong’ star is.
...or the truth behind the myth is actually a corrupt sham, and ultimately hollow.

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colinr0380
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#168 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:35 pm

Yes, although I think its a seductive sham that we're all complicit in, in that sense (for the more upbeat take on this, see The Muppet Movie!). The dangers, and exciting sparks, come from the spots where naive dreams and harsh reality (or naive reality and harsh dreams) collide against one another. How you can express, or sublimate, your deepest desires (or acknowledge your own guilt) through acts of self-created artifice. And how both characters in the film and the audience watching it deal with events not turning out the way they hoped. The collapse only seems to be made worse by living in a protective fantasy world to keep more troubling thoughts at bay. (One where for example you never got that part not because you were not a great actress but because you were actually just right but became the unwitting victim of some nebulous consipracy that had already chosen the right actress in a backroom deal long before the auditions were held. But no need to be so concerned about (literally!) skipping out on that audition anyway, when you are off on your own, more important mystery! There'll be other auditions!) Perhaps that's also like the picket fences of the suburbia of Blue Velvet.

I also just found this video which is a great piece suggesting the film is about subverted or suspended expectations, and the dangerous but still powerful belief in the possibility that you can make it in Hollywood, or find the girl of your dreams. And one of the amazing things about the film is the way it can make the audience empathise with the feelings driving murderous jealousy, or at least understand the reasons why they might arise.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

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hearthesilence
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#169 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Mar 28, 2017 4:21 pm

The 4k restoration of this film is about to hit theaters in the UK followed by their own BD release, which hopefully will be free of the compression (i.e. low bit-rate) issues plaguing the Criterion release.

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Ashirg
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#170 Post by Ashirg » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:46 pm

StudioCanal to the rescue of Criterion edition!!!

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Ribs
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#171 Post by Ribs » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:55 pm

Don't get too excited - StudioCanal's ain't exactly got a sterling reputation of late either.

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swo17
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#172 Post by swo17 » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:57 pm

Third time's the charm.

Emilio
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#173 Post by Emilio » Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:35 pm

Ribs wrote:Don't get too excited - StudioCanal's ain't exactly got a sterling reputation of late either.
Well, according to his posting on the other forum, David Mackenzie will do the compression...!

I'm getting my hopes up.

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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#174 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:52 pm

I read the specs on the features, is it basically everything from the Criterion disc and a few others?

oh yeah
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Re: 779 Mulholland Dr.

#175 Post by oh yeah » Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:37 am

Lynch just can hardly catch a break on quality R1 or US transfers of his films, can he? Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but besides Criterion's disappointing (if still good) transfer of MD, there's also the lack of a proper Lost Highway transfer on blu... no, those European ones don't count - they have such horribly inaccurate color-correction, tinted bluish instead of the yellow/brown/green cast much of the film has; hell, night scenes look like day almost, plus those transfers just totally botch the super-dark, pitch-black blacks throughout the film as seen in 35mm, a look which the Universal R1 actually captured well, making it ironically the best release yet.

We're also lacking a Straight Story blu besides apparently one rarely-mentioned Japanese release (which I do hear is good), and Inland Empire only has gotten a UK blu (which either wasn't good quality or just showed the limitations of putting such a film in HD). I guess Wild at Heart and Dune got great blu-rays in the US, though naturally neither are films I'd rate among Lynch's best.

Regardless, though, I should just be thankful that the best Lynch film of all, FWWM (plus the whole TP series and Missing Pieces) got such a beautiful, beautiful treatment, in terms of quality as well as extras and packaging and fucking menus and overall design and... well, everything possible. I think that Entire Mystery set may be one of the best treatments anything's gotten on blu, period. It certainly should be a gold standard for how to put out a perfect release for a TV show -- especially if it's one with lots of complimentary material, whether a theatrical feature or long-pined-for deleted scenes, or whatever else.

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