David Lynch’s Wild at Heart was one of those movies that, though disliked upon first viewing, became an outright obsession for me a few years later. Everything about it made me long to make something as beautiful and as rich…as utterly strange and captivating. The feeling lasted about a year and a half.
It’s always sad when something that once drew you close comes to leave you cold, but that’s how it felt when I recently sat down to watch the film again. Just like one of those horribly awkward moments when you realize, while having lunch with an old friend, that you have absolutely nothing to talk about anymore, sitting to watch the film felt completely forced and uninspiring.
Becoming smitten with a piece of artwork has so much in common with falling in love that it’s easy to forget that in art, there is never a perfect match, but instead a constant flux of things that hit you in the gut and then run. Searching, then briefly finding, that certain feeling over and over seems inevitable and frustrating, but I think it’s that longing that leads to the creation of new artwork.
While I search for something else, I am happy to rewatch a few of my old favourites. Currently watching Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth.
11:43 pm • 26 May 2009 • mirandalehman • Comments (View)
