Lost Highway

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Synopsis
“We’ve met before, haven’t we?” A mesmerizing meditation on the mysterious nature of identity, Lost Highway, David Lynch’s seventh feature film, is one of the filmmaker’s most potent cinematic dreamscapes. Starring Patricia Arquette and Bill Pullman, the film expands the horizons of the medium, taking its audience on a journey through the unknown and the unknowable. As this postmodern noir detours into the realm of science fiction, it becomes apparent that the only certainty is uncertainty.
Picture 9/10
David Lynch’s Lost Highway receives an all-new Blu-ray edition through The Criterion Collection. Delivered in the aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc, the 1080p/24hz high-definition presentation has been sourced from a new 4K restoration scanned from the 35mm original A/B negative. I am working from the Blu-ray disc included with Criterion’s 4K edition, which is the same disc found in Criterion’s solo Blu-ray edition. While the 4K edition comes in a DigiPak it does appear the Blu-ray edition comes in a standard Scanavo case.
Compared to Kino’s previous Blu-ray edition this presentation, very minor issues aside, just betters it in every conveivable way. The older presentation was so murky and fuzzy to the point the darker sequences flattened the shadows out almost entirely. It looks as though that master was created with only DVD in mind. Now, having said that, how the film was shot does seem to play a little bit into the look found on that disc with some of those perceivable “faults” carrying over a wee bit here. Details around the photography do get brought up here and there through the features found on the disc but it is clear Lynch did have a specific look in mind for the film and to achieve that look filters were employed almost entirely throughout filming, leading to the film inheriting a dirtier, drabber look (an article around cinematographer Peter Deming and Lost Highway gets more in-depth into all of this and the use of a "chocolate" filter). Yellows, reds and browns have all been enhanced while blues are almost non-existent, which Lynch took down right to the colours present in the production design (they do pop up here and there but are rare). This all lends a certain dreariness to the image yet despite that I found the limited colours still there had a nice pop to them.
Those filters sound to have also impacted other areas of the presentation, including the shadows, and while the shadows present in Criterion's offering deliver better depth and delineation when compared to previous presentations things still come off a little murky or flat in a handful of sequences. There’s one scene where Pullman’s character looks down a pitch-black hallway, as though he’s staring into a void, and even though the shadows here look a bit better going down along the walls into the darkness that void itself still looks slightly murky and flat. Yet this isn't a consistent issue and other sequences, like a scene in a cabin near the end, deliver more depth and range in the shadows and are accompanied by deeper blacks.
Even then, the improved contrast and dynamic range afforded here (even if it’s still not up to what the 4K presentation found on the UHD edition is able to do) still aids in delivering a far sharper and cleaner picture compared to what Kino’s Blu-ray did, and this even carries on into the film’s brighter sequences like the bright, blown-out sex scene near the end of the film. A few sequences can feature a softer look compared to other portions of the film, though considering this is Lynch (along with the nature of the film), the softness found in these few shots is almost certainly intentional.
Despite that softness in places grain is always sharp and present, delivered in a far cleaner and natural manner than what Kino’s could deliver, their edition limited more by the dated master in this area. Criterion’s encode does a solid job a lot of the time and I didn’t find much to complain about except for a few dark shots baked in red light where things could appear a bit noisy. I can’t say I noticed any heavy macroblocking but I’ve missed it before on my television screen only to notice them in screen captures (though even then I can’t say I noticed anything in the captures I took for this film). Past that I was happy with this aspect.
All said this is a sharp and drastic improvement over Kino’s edition, the end image retaining a nice film look.








































Audio 10/10
Criterion presents two English audio options: a PCM stereo soundtrack and a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround soundtrack. I only listened to the surround presentation.
The notes mention that the soundtrack here is a near-field remaster, which I would assume was done to better optimize the audio presentation for home theater systems. As I’ve noted before I’m not great at picking out differences between audio tracks, and there are times where I know I can delude myself into thinking there is a clear difference between tracks when there isn’t, but I really did find the audio presentation here so much sharper and varied in comparison to the Kino disc.
As with a lot of Lynch’s films audio plays an important role and there is a lot going on in this one. Lynch loves his lower frequencies and there are many low-key rumblings throughout, causing that unease that I assume Lynch is going for yet it’s all still so subtle you barely notice. Range is incredibly wide going from quiet whispers to loud bangs with the greatest of ease, and the audio spreads out naturally to the surrounds, from music to thunderclaps to squealing tires and more. One of the most effective sequences (I thought) was during the scene where Bill Pullman’s character first meets Robert Blake’s Mystery Man, where he’s both talking to him in person and another version of him over the phone at the same time. When the two versions of Blake's character laugh in unison there’s a terrific, unnerving “stereo” effect that adds a delightful little punch to the whole sequence. It all sounds just wonderful and is just one of the small pleasures to be found in this presentation.
Extras 7/10
If any one of Lynch’s films deserves a thorough deep dive into its themes and possible interpretations it’s likely this one, yet that sadly won’t be in the cards since Lynch is hesitant in having such material appear on any releases for his films (Tim Lucas had recorded a commentary for Kino’s previous Blu-ray edition only to have it pulled at Lynch’s insistence). That said, despite the features here being primarily about the film’s production and its director, there are still plenty of hints to be found around what many of the elements in the film represent, or what they possibly mean to Lynch.
Some of this first comes up in this release’s biggest inclusion, a 1997 documentary by Toby Keeler entitled Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch, running around 80-minutes. Made around the time Lynch was filming Lost Highway the documentary does work to a certain degree as a behind-the-scenes making-of, complete with on-set footage, coverage around specific aspects of the production (like the creation of the score) and interviews with members of the cast and crew. Yet it’s ultimately all just part of the documentary's larger framework in covering and exploring Lynch’s work and craft as a whole, venturing all the way back to his early shorts and his first feature, Eraserhead. Even his paintings and photography even come up. Through all of this the documentary explores many of the subjects that fascinate and interest the director, and how it all comes back into his work. 14-minutes’ worth of outtakes from the documentary are also included and feature a discussion between Lynch and artist Bushnell Keeler, who sounds to have been a sort of mentor to Lynch. Additional footage featuring Jack Fisk (expanding on the story shared by Lynch and Keeler about Lynch first moving out on his own), Peggy Reavey, Barry Gifford, Mel Brooks, and Lynch himself (the director talking about the Log Lady from Twin Peaks) is also included.
Also covering the film’s production is a new audio recording of Kristine McKenna and Lynch reading the chapter entitled “Next Door to Dark” from their 2018 book Room to Dream. How the idea for the film came to Lynch and how he expanded upon it (with writer Gifford) comes up elsewhere but this 40-minute clip manages to probe deeper into what Lynch was trying to create with the film, which sounds to have been a way to explore what it would be like for someone to enter a fugue state (or a “psychogenic fugue state” as he calls it in another interview on this disc) after committing a horrible act, the O.J. Simpson trial being a major influence for Lynch. Various story elements are covered here, most of which sound to have started out as an inkling of an idea, as are details around casting. Lynch pops up 28-minutes in to talk a little about the period before he made Lost Highway, which included his attempt to make a film called Dream of the Bovine that he hoped would star Marlon Brando. He did actually meet with Brando and, despite the actor calling the script “pretentious bullshit,” it sounds as though the two struck up a bit of a friendship and Lynch shares some wonderful stories about the man.
Criterion then creates two new features incorporating archival interview footage: The Making of Lost Highway, running about 13-minutes and featuring Lynch and actors Patricia Arquette, Bill Pullman and Robert Loggia, along with a separate 11-minutes’ worth of footage from a 1997 interview with Lynch. Between the two featurettes there’s more about Lynch’s intentions with the film, Lynch explaining how the film represents a mind tricking itself in order to keep living after doing something horrible, and Arquette talks about what fascinated her most about her role, which entailed playing a real person and then a figment of a man’s imagination. Loggia also appears to be having great fun in trying to interpret what’s going on and how his character plays into things (though it’s clear he’s just ecstatic to be there). Interestingly, it also comes out here that the house that appears in the first half of the film was bought for the production and since they owned it Lynch had it repurposed exactly for what he needed.
Sadly, no music video for Nine Inch Nails’ The Perfect Drug has been included—which I figured would have been a gimme—but the disc does close with the film’s re-release trailer that simply presents a chat window on an iPhone that features images related to the film. It has a real Lynchian vibe and only runs about 50-seconds.
The included booklet then features another excerpt from Chris Rodley’s book Lynch on Lynch, which Criterion has been referencing through their booklets for all of their releases for Lynch’s films so far (Arrow even included excerpts in the booklet for their release of Dune). As expected this excerpt presents Lynch talking about Lost Highway. Lynch is again surprisingly open about the film, and he’s insistent he wasn’t trying to confound audiences at all but was simply telling the story the only way he felt it could be told. It’s a wonderful read, especially for people coming to the film for the first time and are just not sure what to make of it.
I would have loved some scholarly or academic material obviously but the material that Criterion has put together pulls off an admirable job in both covering the film’s production and delving into possible meanings for the film, thanks to Lynch being quite open in talking about what inspired him and how he developed the story. Honestly, there's more here than I was initially expecting.
Closing
Criterion’s Blu-ray offers a drastic improvement over all previous editions of the film in every way, with the supplements being meatier than I had initially expected.

