Psychological thriller from director David Lynch, starring Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette and Balthazar Getty. Jazz saxophonist Fred Madison receives a series of videotapes showing the interior of the house he shares with his wife Renee. As the tapes become increasingly menacing and violent, Fred is plagued by nightmarish visions of a mystery man.
Four years after the Twin Peaks phenomenon, David Lynch came up with this narrative-defying psychological thriller about a jazz saxophonist in a disturbed domestic limbo (an exemplary Bill Pullman), who suddenly and inexplicably transforms into a younger man (Balthazar Getty). Though never together in a scene, the men share what appears to be the same elusive, deceptive woman (Patricia Arquette in contrasting wigs). It's not the most accessible scenario, but the delivery is hypnotising. And, while other modern films about bad people, paranoia and deceptive women get labelled film noir, Lynch reinvents the form rather than just relying on its storyline formula. Painterly, impenetrable and creepy, but never consciously hip, this is a painful, nightmarish vision of suffering and yearning that echoes Hitchcock's Vertigo, another great work that was under-appreciated in its day.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Fred Madison | Bill Pullman |
| Renee Madison / Alice Wakefield | Patricia Arquette |
| Pete Dayton | Balthazar Getty |
| Mystery man | Robert Blake |
| Sheila | Natasha Gregson Wagner |
| Mr Eddy / Dick Laurent | Robert Loggia |
| Bill Dayton | Gary Busey |
| Arnie | Richard Pryor |
| Andy | Michael Massee |
| Guard Henry | Henry Rollins |
| Phil | Jack Nance |
| Forewoman | Mink Stole |
| Steve "V" | Giovanni Ribisi |
| Porno Star No 1 | Marilyn Manson |
| Porno Star No 1 | Twiggy Ramirez |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | David Lynch |
