David Lynch's Mind Game - A Conversation with Crazy Diamond Originally featured in DVD Guide June 2005 (Bird Tango: Guide Editor) Bird Tango says: David Lynch himself once said However, he doesn't like his films being interpreted psychologically, but in fact, many of his films such as "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" have some Freudian psychological undertones. Crazy Diamond says: His resistance to psychoanalysis is probably a reverse psychology or defense mechanism. He projected a lot of his own into the movie, but he was afraid of others analyzing it, because analyzing his movie was analyzing David Lynch himself. Bird Tango said: How about a little more detail? Crazy Diamond said: People like to analyze a novelist through a novel, a painter through a painting, and a director can be analyzed through a film, especially when the film is largely the director's personal creation. This is because there is a projection theory in psychology that states that when cues from external stimuli are ambiguous, people respond to stimuli with ambiguous meaning according to their own personality. For example, when you are asked to imagine an ambiguous inkblot, the results may reflect your attitudes, underlying motivations, and inner conflicts. The process of artistic creation is also full of ambiguity and uncertainty, so those independently created films are a director's ink map. In Freud's view, the unconscious is filled with some instinct-based, pleasure-only desires, and consciousness suppresses the unconscious in order to make people survive in the real society and make people's behavior conform to moral norms. From this point of view, Consciousness and unconsciousness are opposites. The most basic things in the unconscious are always trying to find a way out, and in Freud's view, art is actually a deformation of the sublimation of the unconscious desire! "Artistic sense", "beauty", "imagination" and "inspiration" which are very important in artistic creation are largely unconscious rather than conscious. Therefore, artists are often unconscious with strong energy. people. Especially some artists, they indulge their unconscious, try to weaken their consciousness, let the unintentional become the dominant, and create in this state. Li Bai wrote poetry when he was drunk, and Van Gogh painted in a state of madness. I believe that David Lynch is also such a person with strong unconscious power, and he also "follows his feeling" to write the script. When talking about the creative process of "Demon Night Panic", he also said that he had some feelings first, and then used a plot to connect these feelings together. Bird Tango said: This is a good saying. David Lynch also doesn't like to talk much about his films in interviews. He doesn't like to explain, he only gives you a key, where is the keyhole, and you need to find it yourself. Crazy Diamond says: So, the Freudian mentality in David Lynch's films means he didn't put it in on purpose. He unintentionally verified the theories of Freud, Jung and others. Little Bird Tango said: However, where the height of the artwork will reach, it still often requires the explanation and analysis of future generations. Although our interpretation may not be the author's original intention. There are also many solutions to Dream of Red Mansions. Although it is like a mystery, I don't know which solution is correct, but everyone still enjoys it. 3 years ago, you published the famous interpretation of "Mulholland Drive" on the Internet, but you said that you did not understand "The Night of the Monster", so this time I re-watched the movie, do you understand what's going on? Crazy Diamond said: The biggest gain this time is to understand the "Monster Night Panic". In my opinion, "Darkness in the Night" is actually a movie about nightmares like "Mulholland Drive". The first 3/4 of "Mulholland Drive" is a dream, while the first 3/4 of "Mulholland Drive" is a dream. It is also a dream (or a fantasy) that Leddy becomes Pitt until the end of the film. Both films combine reality and nightmare at the end of the dream. For example, "Mulholland Drive" is a first perspective at the beginning of the film, accompanied by heavy breathing, walks to the bedside and begins to enter the dream, and in the silent theater section begins to combine the dream with the reality, until someone knocks on the door and removes the heroine wake. In "Monster Night Panic", Freddy began to enter a dream after taking medicine for a headache in prison (the head deformed means entering the dream), until the last shot of the film, the head is deformed again to represent the end of the dream. Among them, after the wooden house in the desert appeared, reality and dream were intertwined. Crazy Diamond said: According to this analysis, the whole story of the film is roughly like this: Crazy Diamond said: Until after reaching the wooden house on the highway, the scary old man (actually his subconscious) appeared and told him that there was no Alice , only Renee, so the dream is completely occupied by the terrifying reality, the next part is half-truth, although it is in a dream, but the general plot happened: that is, Freddy followed his wife's tryst, and then put Eddie Kill the corpse. Then he went back to his apartment and rang the doorbell and said, "Eddie is dead." In fact, he had merged himself with the terrifying old man at this time, representing his subconscious fear (and even a little conscience). Warning the real Freddy. In the end, the police chased him on the highway, and he had nowhere to escape, and his face began to deform again, representing waking from a nightmare. Bird Tango said: In this way, the theme of this film is basically clear. Crazy Diamond says: Yes. The film presents a murderer's fears and unease, his hallucinations, his dreams and nightmares. The reason why this film is obscure is that David Lynch is not very "honest" when shooting the reality part or the dream part. The reality part has a lot of imagination, and the dream part has a lot of scenes that happened in reality at the end. I think this explanation can still be justified, but I really can't be sure what Lynch's original intention is. Although Lynch keeps saying that he doesn't want others to use his films for psychoanalysis, he is actually a very playful person. Some works are not very complicated, but he seems to express them in very obscure language, such as The reality of Mulholland Drive is out of order in time and space. I always feel like he's having fun every time he confuses the audience. Bird Tango said: The interpretation of the film, as long as it can be justified, is correct. David Lynch's own interpretation of the film is "spiritual wanderlust". This movie is also called "Lost Highway". What role does the highway play in it? Is it an image, or a way out? Crazy Diamond says: This...I haven't thought about it yet. It seems to have this meaning. Bird Tango said: This reminds me of "Mulholland Drive", and the story also starts on the road. Is the highway the entrance of the dream? Haha Crazy Diamond said: Yes. It is possible that there are indeed some images in David Lynch's films to represent the interface (or bridge) between consciousness and unconsciousness, which is what you call the entrance of dreams. But in its films, the image is usually - "hole". Holes, containers, and houses generally symbolize the female genitals and uterus. These images have appeared in three films, such as the ear hole in "Blue Velvet", the bottomless blue box in "Mulholland Drive", The house that was burnt down in "Monster Night Panic". But these images don't seem to symbolize this, but just "the entrance between two worlds" (Lynch himself said in the blue velvet tidbit). In "Blue", it represents the entrance to the world of sunshine and the world of darkness and deformity. In "Yao" and "Mu", it represents the entrance between the conscious and unconscious (or the real world and the nightmare) world. Similar symbolic meanings are the dark staircase in "Blue" and the bottomless corridor in "Demon". I don't know if Lynch's arrangement was intentional or coincidental. Of course, the highway also seems to have this meaning. Crazy Diamond says: Or, an "escape" from reality. Because one of the themes of both "Mulholland Drive" and "Escape from Reality" is that an escapist dream turns into a nightmare. Bird Tango said: The highway at night is more open than the "hole", because it leads to the unknown. Crazy Diamond says: Yes, seems to imply "fear of the unknown". Little Bird Tango said: From 1997's "Monster Night Panic" to 2001's "Mulholland Drive", the two films have similarities, and what has changed? Crazy Diamond said: "Mulholland Drive" was filmed, "Monster Night Panic" was played. Typical David Lynch films have always been known for their eerie, gloomy, and confused imagery, and he found the best vehicle for expressing this imagery in "Dream Night" and "Mulholland Drive" - dreamland . This is indeed very clever. In Freud's theory, the dream can be said to be a stage on which the unconscious casts its fists. However, "Monster Night Panic" is obviously more presumptuous than "Mulholland Drive". "Mulholland Drive" has restrained its expression and is relatively normal (at least the first half), it seems that Lynch is compromising with reality. a little bit. And I think "Monster Night Panic" was shot completely according to his own feelings, so it is the work that can best represent his own. Little Bird Tango said: "Mulholland Drive" is the "Monster Night Panic" after domestication. Judging from your thorough analysis of Mulholland Drive in your previous article, Mulholland Drive is indeed not without a trace, and it can even be called a rigorous structure. Crazy Diamond Said: Yes, on the one hand, "Mulholland Drive" can be understood as the "Monster Night Panic" after domestication, but if you think about it on the other hand, "Mulholland Drive" is more ambitious. "Monster Night" confused the audience from the beginning, and most of the audience thought they understood the first 3/4 of "Mulholland Drive" before they found out that they were played by Lynch. When I look back, I find that there are hidden mysteries everywhere in the seemingly plain plot. So Lynch is a person who likes to trick the audience very much. Little Bird Tango said: What does the mysterious person in "Demon Night Panic" mean? Crazy Diamond says: Let's call him Old Terror for now. Old Terror is a hallucination of Freddy's subconscious. He was actually the fear and unease in Freddy's heart, as well as his conscience, constantly reminding him of the fact that he had killed, or arousing his unease. In the dream, the scary old man played a role that reminded him of reality, and the role was still to remind him of the fact of murder. In reality, the old man is more like Freddy's other personality than the hallucination that Freddie saw. Multiple personalities are a very rare disorder in psychology and clinical practice. Each personality is independent and has its own memory, attitude, and behavior. One personality may be introverted, reserved, and conservative, while the other personality is extroverted. Open and aggressive. Each personality appears at a certain time or at a certain occasion of the individual's activities. Multiple personalities are not fully recognized in psychology because some psychologists believe that reports of multiple personalities are the result of hypnosis and suggestion. However, it is a good subject for movies, such as "Fight Club" and "The Mechanic". Maybe the ideas of these two movies were inspired by "Demon Night Panic". Assuming the mysterious videotape wasn't imaginary in the real-life part of The Nightmare, it was filmed by the character "Old Man" (that is, Freddy himself), since it was never captured during the camera movement. Freddie himself (in the second videotape of himself lying on the bed, the figure is in a very strange pose and doesn't seem to have a head, so it could be a model of Freddie himself or just a clothes). Also, according to Jung's archetype theory, the terrifying old man is a "shadow" archetype in Freddy's heart. The shadow archetype is just the repressed and unshown part of the person's heart. When a man represses the shadow, he is devoid of energy and lurking in crisis (typical of Freddy). Shadows can appear in destructive forms when they are over-repressed. A classic example is religious wars. Jung said that people in Christian countries demanded their kindness and strongly suppressed their beastly shadows. After a long time, the shadows would fight back. Therefore, "the world has never witnessed a more cruel war between Christian countries." If the shadow is suppressed too much, in the dream or imagination or fantasy, the shadow will appear in all kinds of dangerous and terrible, ferocious and brutal images: such as "dangerous and mysterious man in black". Shadowed dreamers almost always wear black. The mysterious old man is a typical shadow who was suppressed and fled back. Bird Tango said: Your statement reminds me of another Lynch movie "Twin Peaks: Walking With Fire", in which the killed heroine is a young and beautiful school girl, but has an unknown gloomy past. And Dorothy in "Basket Velvet" seems to make sense. Crazy Diamond says: Yes. Freud and Jung's theories of repression, the unconscious, are universal and can be used to explain many things (which is both fascinating and maligned). Bird Tango said: But in contrast, "Blue Velvet" is not the same as the two nightmare works. There is a saying that it expresses a sexual anxiety. Crazy Diamond said: "Blue Velvet" is indeed a heterochromatic film. David Lynch has presumably focused on every sexual perversion he could think of on Frank alone: fetishes, suffocation, sexual abuse, regression, and Oedipus. Although people talk about "Blue Velvet" as a film about sexual abuse, Frank's behavior is not the typical sexual abuse described above. Frank's violence is rooted in his personality, generalized, hysterical violence, not confined to sexuality. As far as I know, the vast majority of sadomasochists have no violent tendencies at all in reality, but only bring a ritual into sexual behavior, and this ritual is not necessarily violent, but only has a violent Just a symbol. In fact, Frank's behavior of inhaling helium can be regarded as a kind of suffocation, which is a kind of masochistic tendency in some categories. Heavy inhalation of helium can cause mild hallucinations. Inhaling helium was the equivalent of taking drugs for Frank, blurring his consciousness and producing some psychedelic sensations. Once inhaled, the fierceness is revealed. Judging from the tidbits, it appears that David Lynch actually inhaled helium for the actor who played Frank. On the one hand, he was brought into the play, on the other hand, he inhaled a large amount of helium, and then spoke again, which changed the transmission medium of the sound. Since the atomic weight of helium is 2 and the main gas in the air—nitrogen, the atomic weight of nitrogen is 28. The difference is huge, so the voice changes, which adds to the character's spookiness (although this effect doesn't seem to be noticeable in the film). Bird Tango said: What does "backward" mean? Crazy Diamond said: "Regression" is a psychological defense mechanism emphasized by Freud, and it is one of the mechanisms that people use to fight setbacks and anxiety and gain a sense of security. Manifested as a regression to early childhood levels with immature behavior. For example, men who experience a midlife crisis are afraid of getting old and dying, and may regress into adolescence, becoming irresponsible, racing cars, dating women, and even eating baby food. Frank's self-proclaimed "baby" is probably a regressive behavior to avoid reality anxiety. Oedipus: Freud seems that everyone has an Oedipus complex. Most people transfer their love to their mothers at a certain stage of sexual and psychological development, thereby gradually completing their sexual and psychological maturity, while Frank does not seem to have it. After passing that stage, his sexual psychology seems to be frozen at a certain stage, that is, "fixation" occurs. Freud believed that the development of human sexual psychology roughly went through the oral stage, anal stage, genital stage, latency stage, adolescence stage and so on. From the strong Oedipus complex, Frank seems to be fixed in the genital stage, and his behavior also shows the fixation in the oral stage, such as sucking blue velvet. bird tango Says: Frank is a very clear character in the film, and Dorothy is the crux of the story. Dorothy starts out as a victim. But she turned out to be a person who enjoyed being abused. Crazy Diamond says: Yes. She doesn't enjoy Frank's abuse, but she wants others to abuse her. Birdie Tango said: "The actor said that Dorothy put on a mask for herself because she was afraid to see herself as she really was. She was ashamed, she hated herself. Crazy Diamond says: Probably. Helen Deutsch once believed that women are inherently masochistic. Narcissistic and passive, and believe that this is the most basic characteristic of women. Her main point is that since a woman can only feel sexual arousal when she is subjugated by a man, this process makes her masochistic. (This view is often criticized by feminist organizations.) Bird Tango said: Many people do not understand but like David Lynch. How did he impress ordinary audiences? Especially some young people. Crazy Diamond said: Well, the resonance in the unconscious. Because there are many images in the film that people also exist in their subconscious. I can't directly express or realize it myself, but Lynch has shown these indescribable things vividly, so it is very rare, and it is easy to resonate with some people. Text: Wei Zhichao, still called Crazy Diamond Say: Well, the resonance in the unconscious. Because there are many images in the film that people also exist in their subconscious. I can't directly express or realize it myself, but Lynch has shown these indescribable things vividly, so it is very rare, and it is easy to resonate with some people. Text: Wei Zhichao, still called Crazy Diamond Say: Well, the resonance in the unconscious. Because there are many images in the film that people also exist in their subconscious. I can't directly express or realize it myself, but Lynch has shown these indescribable things vividly, so it is very rare, and it is easy to resonate with some people. Text: Wei Zhichao, still called Crazy Diamond
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