DREAM IMAGERY IN MOVIES
A Case Study on David Lynch‘s Dreamlike Movies
Master thesis:
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . 3
DREAMS AND THE MOVIES . . . 7
The Dreaming brain and the Cinematic process . . . 8
External factors . . . . 14
Body and mind union . . . . 16
Structural similarities . . . . 18
DREAM IMAGERY IN DAVID LYNCH‘S FILMS . . . . 23
David Lynch . . . . 24
THE GRANDMOTHER (1970) . . . . 28
The story . . . . 29
Painting qualities and Image . . . . 36
CONCLUSION . . . . 50
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . 52
ONLINE SOURSES . . . . 53
I
NTRODUCTION
Dreams, these bizarre, uncanny imageries that the mind generates during sleep, are highly appreciated by the field of fine arts and are acclaimed to have provided artists with inspiration in abundance for their creative work. Thus, elements from the realm of dreams are frequently depicted in all kinds of artworks. Giuseppe Tartini‘s Devil’s Thrill Sonata (1799), Salvador Dali‘s The Persistence of Memory (1931), Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein (1818) and Robert Luis Stevenson‘s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) are only a few examples of artworks which attribute their influence to dreams and to dream logic. All the aforementioned artists either drew inspiration from their own dreams, or assert to have adapted dream logic into their artistry. Although the field of fine arts is immensely affected by dreams and dream logic, the influence is rather a mutual interplay between the two, thus there is a reciprocal relation between artworks and dreams. As Marsha Kinder mentioned1:
"We are bombarded daily by thousands of prefabricated moving visual images that can be incorporated into our dreams. Television and movies, in particular, have influenced not only their content but also their style. Many researchers report seeing newsreels, animation, fades, dissolves, superimpositions, freezes, and instant replays in their dreams. Some of these techniques may have appeared in dreams before being developed in media; perhaps they even contributed to their invention" (Kinder, 1980, 54).
Fine arts provide the human brain with a plethora of remarkable imagery, which can be incorporated into dreams. Similarly, dreams influence artists by providing them with novel and grotesque, but still really interesting ideas. Yet, from all artistic branches, movies are able to depict dreams and dream logic more competently, due to their combined use of moving images, sound and special effects.
Hence, the interest of this dissertation is swiveling around dreams and dream logic and the influences of the former on the art of cinema. Its subject, though, is not revolving around the dream sequences incorporated into filmic text. My intention is to compile all the mutual
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characteristics of dream logic and movies in terms of their narration, structure and the impact they have on the viewer, study them and afterwards illustrate how those implement into the film work of David Lynch.
In the first chapter, I will associate dreams with movies in general. The interchange of features between dreams and movies, in terms of narrative and structure, is debated a lot by a plethora of theorists and movie experts, such as Gilles Deleuze, Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg, Bertram D. Lewin, among others. According to Robert W. Rieber and Robert J. Kelly, ―an analogy between cinema and dreaming has long been drawn, film appearing to us as dream-like, while our dreams are experienced -at least to our waking minds- like movies‖ (Rieber and Kelly, 2013, 2). More specifically, the aforementioned similarities correspond, namely, to the functions of the dreaming brain and the cinematic process, to the common external factors which occur during both ―screenings‖ and lastly to the bodily reactions towards the spectacle due to the relationship between the human mind and body.
Foremost, I will introduce the relation between the human brain and the cinematic process, focusing the attention on the functions of the dreaming brain which operates as an instant camera. In accordance to Allan Hobson‘s theory,
―it is quite legitimate to compare the function of the dreaming brain with the multifaceted cinematic process. It seems to me that the dreaming brain works, in a sense, as an instant camera (by transforming the stimuli immediately into an image), an editing table (by juxtaposing the images without following the narrative continuity and spatiotemporal logic), and a projector (by activating the dreamer‘s sensorimotor centers with a kinesthetic intensity). This is where film and dreams meet in creating a surreal landscape and a bizarre course of events‖ (Atchity and Petric, 1980, 87).
In chapter two, my field of research will be narrowed down specifically to the case of David Lynch and to his tendency to create dream-like films. His movies can be characterized as postmodern and avant garde, and this multidimensionality offers a fertile ground for analysis in terms of its affinity to dreams. In fact, there are certain aspects found in his filmic oeuvre which make the affinity between dreams and his films even more apparent. The aspects I will refer to are the nonlinear storyline which is characterized by the ambiguous timeline (flashbacks, flash forwards, temporal gaps, time loops), the multi-character narration, the irrational transformation of characters/scenery and the complex structure of shots. Those features of Lynch‘s films obscure the viewer‘s perception, generating a perplexed attitude towards the comprehension of his movies. Dreams could be easily characterized by those features as well. I will refer to each one of the features individually, associating them with dreams‘ features respectively, in order to suggest that these aspects make Lynch‘s films seem far more dream-like to viewers. To illustrate my point I will carry out a close reading on two medium length films of David Lynch, The
Grandmother (1970) and Rabbits (2002), both characteristic to the typical ‗Lynch-film‘. The
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REAMS AND THE MOVIES
From the very early years of cinema, filmmakers, especially the surrealists, were amazed at how dramatically this medium could portray-create sensations analogous to dreams. Therefore, it is not uncommon to detect an overabundance of dream sequences, as well as a dream logic impact, both in narration and in structure, incorporated into filmic texts. From Robert Wiene‘s
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and the exerted influence on a ―guinea pig‖ somnambulist, to
Alfred Hitchcock‘s and Salvador Dali‘s collaboration for the creation of the dream sequence in Hitchcock‘s Spellbound (1945), films seem to have been profoundly drenched by the realm of dreams. Similarly, the cases of filmmakers who drew inspiration from their own dreams in order to create a movie, are not few either. Robert Altman‘s Three Women (1977), as well as Akira Kurosawa‘s Dreams (1990), are examples of movies which are based partially or exclusively on the dreams of their creators. This tendency of the filmmakers, who highly appreciate what dreams have to offer to the art of cinema, attracted the attention of film theorists, critics, as well as philosophers, who observed, studied and analyzed the phenomenon in depth. Robert W. Rieber and Robert J. Kelly characteristically describe this phenomenon, mentioning that ―an analogy between cinema and dreaming has long been drawn, film appearing to us as dream-like, while our dreams are experienced—at least to our waking minds—like movies‖ (Rieber and Kelly, 2013, 2).
THE DREAMING BRAIN AND THE CINEMATIC PROCESS
The incorporation of dream elements into works of art is not unusual. Painters, like Salvador Dali, adopted dream logic while working on their artistry. Musicians, writers and sculptors tried to fuse their work with dream elements as well. Moreover, ―dreams‖, as the philosopher Colin McGinn indicates, ―consist of images‖ (McGinn, 2004, 4). The father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud also frequently refers to them in his Interpretation of Dreams (1899) as ―dream-pictures‖ or ―dream-images‖.
―In most dreams, perceptual modalities and submodalities that dominate in wakefulness are heavily represented. Dreams are highly visual, in full color, rich in shapes, full of movement, and incorporate typical wakefulness categories such as people, faces, places, objects, and animals. Dreams also contain sounds (including speech and conversation), and more rarely tactile percepts, smells and tastes, as well as pleasure and pain. Experiences in typical dreams have a clear sensory character (i.e. they are seen, heard, and felt) and are not mere thoughts or abstractions‖ (Nir and Tononi, 2010).
dream-like moving images, encompassing anybody eager to attend the viewing. Furthermore, filmmaker Gabriel Byrne referred to the resemblance between dreams and movies focusing on their tendency to reflect perceptions from the waking life. Dreams, according to Byrne, form a private screening inside the dreamer‘s mind, out of one‘s fears, needs, desires or deepest secrets. Byrne, specifically pointed out that
―films and dreams mirror our reality, especially the deeply felt areas of our lives which give us fear, joy, anticipation, or puzzlement. Dreams are like movies played out in our sleep and movies are like dreams played out on a blank wall in a dark room for a mass audience2‖.
He draws an analogy between this private screening of dreams and a movie screening, with the only difference being the audience who attends the screening. He also mentions briefly the projection screen upon which each spectacle unfolds. Since both dreams and movies are basically sequences of moving images, there is a necessity for a background upon which they can be projected. Byrne does not provide a name for the dreamers‘ screen, yet he mentions that movies are ―played out on a blank wall in a dark room‖. It is generally acknowledged that movies are projected upon a big white screen when they are played in movie theaters, or upon smaller size screens at home, like computer screens, television or home theaters. Although Byrne does not give a name to the dreamers‘ screen, there is a term for that screen upon which dreams are projected. Bertram D. Lewin in his book Interferences from the Dream Screen (1950) discusses the concept of a ―dream screen‖, in an attempt to describe ―[...] the blank background upon which the dream picture appears to be projected‖ (Lewin, 1950, 420). Hence, both dreams and movies are spectacles which consist of moving images and are projected upon some sort of screens.
Moreover, the attitude of the spectators, both the dreamer and the film viewer, coincide. In both situations, the spectators tend to either ignore the blank background or not acknowledge
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its existence at all. The excitement of the viewer to attend a movie, and his/her impatience for the spectacle to get started, does not allow the blank background to gain any ground on the minds of the spectators. However, this apathy for the blank background from the viewers‘ part could probably turn out to be a welcoming reaction after all. As one is waiting for the spectacle to begin, the realization of the existence of a screen can only trigger a negative reaction due to the anticipation of the viewer to stop facing that blank screen and be overwhelmed with light, color, movement, sound and all that which constitute a screening. It is when there are technical problems that cause disturbance and inconvenience when people tend to give attention to such trivia like blank backgrounds. On the other hand, dream screen normally is not noted by the sleeping person, because by the time the dream projection begins into the dreamer's mind, they are so overwhelmed and drifted away by the spectacle of the moving images.
Before the actual projection of the spectacle upon either screen though, there is a need of footage, a need for an actual projecting subject material. How is this footage being processed, prior to the screening and what are the resemblances between dreams and movies at this stage? The process in cinema happens consecutively, under the guidance of the director of the movie. At first, the pre-production takes place, then the production, the post-production and lastly the projection of the final product, the movie itself. In dreams, although there is no director to lead the process, the dreaming brain is directing, editing and projecting all at the same time, as there is an ―invisible director‖ inside the dreamers mind. In both cases the spectators are been presented with a given product, movie or dream, and the only effort they need to make is to attend the viewing.
An elegant formulation of this analogy between the human brain and the cinematic process is offered by the psychiatrist and dream researcher Allan Hobson during Bergman and Dreams Conference3, who noticed that
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―it is quite legitimate to compare the function of the dreaming brain with the multifaceted cinematic process. It seems to me that the dreaming brain works, in a sense, as an instant camera (by transforming the stimuli immediately into an image), an editing table (by juxtaposing the images without following the narrative continuity and spatiotemporal logic), and a projector (by activating the dreamer‘s sensorimotor centers with a kinesthetic intensity). This is where film and dreams meet in creating a surreal landscape and a bizarre course of events‖ (Atchity and Petric, 1980, 87).
Those similarities briefly form the core analogy between the (dreaming) human brain and the cinematic process and have also been acknowledged several times by theorists and film critics. Hence, it would be beneficial to analyze those operations of the human brain a little more thoroughly.
Hobson refers to the activity of the human brain as an instant camera, an editing table and a projector. Those are the basic stages of the creation and the projection of a movie and Hobson uses them to describe how the human brain works when creating dream screenings during sleep. The concept of the brain working as an instant camera is pretty close to what Gabriel Byrne discussed about the concept of films and dreams mirroring one‘s reality. As a camera is
collecting shots, the raw material of the locations and the actors of the film, likewise the human eye acts like the lens of the camera, which collects raw material that is going to be adapted and used later during the dream screening. Dreams and films indeed capture in a way the events that take place in everyday life. It might not always be the case that these events are depicted on film or dreams realistically, yet the human mind will always try to use common sense in order to rationalize them, bringing them down to a more perceivable, realistic level. As the journalist John Alexander explains:
―The dream recipient structures the random imagery of the dream into a kind of narrative; similarly, the viewer structures the images of a film, if order doesn't exist, into a
After the collection of the raw material, both the director, as well as the human brain, have the materials to start ―constructing‖ the spectacle. At this point, the director starts the editing process by connecting the shots in order to form a comprehensible sequence of images and sounds. Similarly to this process, the dreaming brain, we may assume based on our own experiences, links together bits of raw material, namely images, experiences, and sounds, that the particular individual carries in the vast of their mind, in order to create a dream.
The last stage of the process is the projection, which as aforementioned takes place in the case of films on the projection screen (or either on a computer screen, TV or home cinema screen) or in the case of dreams on each individuals‘ inner dream screen. Film theorist Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg discussed this concept of the brain being compared to a projector mentioning that ―much as a projector is fed information that it then displays onto a screen through a lens like an eye, so the brain is fed a variety of images and sounds that are then projected onto a screen‖ (M. Rowan-Legg, 2012, 33). Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg sums up the information in this sentence, by claiming that the projector, in order to generate a screening, needs to be provided with some raw material. In the case of movies the raw material is gathered via the eye of the camera, while in the case of dreams raw material is gathered via the human eyes. Then, after it has been fed the raw material, the spectacle is being projected onto a screen, projection screen for the case of movies, or dream-screen for the case of dreams.
Basing the resemblance between the dreaming human brain and the cinematic process on a more technical context, the primitive affinities between the two namely are:
1) dreams and movies consist of moving images and sound
2) dreams and movies mirror the reality of their creator (in the case of movies) or of their dreamer (in the case of dreams)
However, unrelated to their technical affinities, there are two connecting links in regards to the aftereffect both screenings have to their viewers. Hence, at this point, it would be a good idea to address those two more similarities before proceeding to the next part of this chapter. The two connecting links are the fragmental memory recollection, and the difficulty both viewers face in returning to reality upon the completion of the screening.
The first aftereffect which is going to be discussed has to do with the fragmental memory recollection of the viewers upon the completion of the spectacle. Recollection of dreams is a tricky venture, as one cannot fully remember their dreams, except from a small part of them and the sensation that lingers after waking from the particular dream. The same thing might apply to the viewing of movies, especially if the film is more abstract and experimental in nature. The spectator is not capable of remembering each and every detail of a movie by only watching it once. The only thing that remains is an overall feeling about the movie. The film theorist and critic Robert T. Eberwein supports this notion in his book Film and the Dream Screen, by stating that “if we want to retrieve the images from dreams or cinema, we must rely on memory. In both cases, we must be content with fragments - the images left in our minds of what we experienced‖ (Eberwein, 1984, 23).
fiction‖ state of mind and needs some time in order to get back to real-conscious state of mind. Therefore, dreams and movies can be more confidently asserted to have the same impact on their viewer‘s mindset, and thus strengthen the statement that movies can be experienced like dreams and vice versa.
EXTERNAL FACTORS
Other than the relation between the dreaming human brain and the cinematic process, there is more to be sited in regards to the resemblance between dreams and movies. The external factors that prevail during both ―screenings‖ is another commonality between the two. Those external common factors are namely the darkness which surrounds each viewer and the fact that the viewer remains relevantly still while engaged with the spectacle.
In his book Mindscreen (1978), Bruce F. Kawin mentions this extra link between the spectators of both movies and dreams, in regards to the darkness of each viewer‘s surroundings. Kawin states that ―one rests in the dark, and sees; one is silent, and hears. One submits to the dream field, yet actively scans it - for play, for release, for community, solitude, truth‖ (Kawin, 1978, 3). Primarily, it is essential to mention that Kawin suggests that dreams are audiovisual in nature, since the dreamer, who rests in the dark, ―sees and hears‖ what the dream spectacle is presenting them with. This point of view, actually complies with the concept that has been discussed earlier, about McGinn‘s idea of ―moving images‖ being the nature of dreams. Moreover, it complies with Sigmund Freud‘s dream-images, as well as Gilles Deleuze‘s movement image.
viewer of a movie, darkness helps with the immersion and the total engagement with the spectacle. A good example is the tendency of many people to turn the lights on in order not to be fully engaged with the moving images. For instance during a horror movie screening, a huge number of viewers turn the lights on to lessen the horrifying impact the movie has on them. Darkness can be attained either by the lights that dim prior to the screening, or by eyes wide shut, the implicit necessity of falling asleep, and, as a result, elicit the coveted dream.
BODY AND MIND UNION
“The sensory-motor schema is defined by the action-oriented exchange between perception and memory characteristics of inattentive perception”
(Lefebvre, 2009, 175).
The human body and mind have always been closely related to one another and the connection between the two has been widely known and accepted. The body responds to what the mind commands, and vice versa. When visual or oral information are provided to the mind screen, it is inevitable for the body to stay expressionless. As Merleau-Ponty discusses in his book Sense And Non-Sense (1964), ―the movies are peculiarly suited to make manifest the union of mind and body, mind and world, and the expression of one in the other‖ (Merleau-Ponty, 1964, 58). The initiative of the human body to express itself according to the provided information on screen can be implemented as sexual arousal, sweating, shudder with horror, et cetera. During a horror movie screening for instance, or a nightmare in the case of dreams, sweating, shuddering or even a feeling of numbness could be the expected physical reactions.
The spectators of a movie or of a dream are both provided with a plethora of visual as well as oral information. The spectacle addresses at first the human mind, since the viewer watches the moving images and tries to mentally connect their pieces in order to form a coherent, comprehensible story to follow. When this information is provided to the viewer, it is a natural reaction for them to consider themselves as a witness of the story being told. Hence, spectators due to the fact that they get highly involved with the spectacle, are prone to interacting both mentally and somatically with the moving images. The viewer, although not actively participating in the story, is witnessing the events as if unfolding before their own eyes. As the cognitive scientist Todd Oakley mentions in his article Toward a General Theory of Film
Spectatorship (2013):
life-world (lebenswelt) determines the ―natural attitudes‖ taken when allocating attention (noesis) to a piece of film (noema)‖ (Oakley, 2013, 18).
―[M]y body is not only an object among all objects [...] but an object which is sensitive to all the rest, which reverberates to all sounds, vibrates to all colours, and provides words with their primordial significance through the way in which it receives them. It is not a matter of reducing the significance of the word ‗warm‘ to sensations of warmth by empiricist standards. For the warmth which I feel when I read the word ‗warm‘ is not an actual warmth. It is simply my body which prepares itself for the heat and which, so to speak, roughs out its outline. In the same way, when a part of my body is mentioned to me, or when I represent it to myself, I experience in the corresponding part a quasi-sensation of contact which is merely the emergence of that part of my body into the total body image‖ (Merleau-Ponty, 2002, 275).
STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES
Other than the resemblance in terms of technical means, the external factors and the phenomenological scope dreams share with movies, there is one more notable structural similarity between the two. The last analogy in regards to the dreams and movies affiliation involves their resemblance in terms of narration. More specifically the prime focus will fall on the use of time and sequence of the images. Movies often make use of some structural, storyline based techniques that are very close to the way dream storylines unfold during sleep. Namely these techniques are the nonlinear storyline and structure of shots, the montage of attractions, the multi-character narration, the weird transformation of characters and scenery and the fragmental memory recollection of the viewer after the screening.
close-ups, the not clear timeline and theirabsurdity. Those characteristics are going to be addressed in this chapter, providing the theoretical basis for the following chapter where these examples are going to be analyzed due to their implementation in David Lynch‘s filmography. Let us forthwith examine these characteristics one at a time.
Montage is the setting of the moving images one after the other, in order to create the illusion of a sequence. Montage can either be ―invisible‖ or ―highly manifested‖. Invisible can be characterized the montage that goes unnoticed by the viewer. The montage of the moving images has as prior aim to place the shots in such an order, that the viewer understands easily their meaning and the overall story that this montage forms. Moreover, this kind of montage aims towards a more ―carefree‖ viewing, in terms of the attendance of the sequence of images. This ―carefree‖ viewing is achieved by the sequence of the shots, which are placed one after the other in such a way that seems more natural and easy for the human eye to follow. When invisible montage is used, the spectacle unfolds more as a common everyday perception to the viewers.
Opposed to the invisible kind of montage is the montage of attractions, concept conceived and largely employed by the filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. Montage of attractions is a form of metaphorical editing of aggressive moments which shock the audience, in order to elicit a desired emotion from the viewer. More specifically, Sergei Eisenstein and the professor of theater and comparative literature Daniel Gerould explain the function of montage of attractions in the article Enough Stupidity in Every Wiseman4:
―An attraction (in relation to the theatre) is any aggressive aspect of the theatre; that is, any element of the theatre that subjects the spectator to a sensual or psychological impact, experimentally regulated and mathematically calculated to produce in him certain emotional shocks which, when placed in their proper sequence within the totality of the production, become the only means that enable the spectator to perceive the ideological side of what is being demonstrated-the ultimate ideological conclusion‖ (Eisenstein and Gerould, 1974, 78).
In fact, this trick of triggering a certain feeling through the opposition of contradictory images is something that dreams do naturally. A dreamer‘s mind is programmed to make those kinds of
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arbitrary, metaphorical associations on its own. The arts scholar Bethany D. McClellan comments in her dissertation Science of Sleep (2013) on the matter of the creation of metaphorical images seemingly incoherent to one another, both as an artistic expression and as a dreaming states characteristic. She notes that ―[...] the ability to form extraordinary connections is inherent in both the dreaming mind and the creative process‖ (D. McClellan, 2013, 62). This particular editing technique is the first similarity between movies and dreams in terms of narration and I am referring precisely to this kind of montage because David Lynch is very fond of the impression it makes in the viewers and uses it in abundance in his artwork. For the case of dreamers it comes naturally to follow a nonlinear, puzzled arrangement of events without fully acknowledging the awkwardness of the situation. This happens due to the fact that the dreamer does not consciously attend the viewing, thus they are open to a more abstract translation of the spectacle.
Complementary to the editing technique of Sergei Eisenstein, dreams and movies share analogical ways of transferring camouflaged information and messages to their viewers via the use of metaphors. As the architect William J. Devlin and the film scholar Shai Biderman explain in their book The Philosophy of David Lynch (2011):
―With metaphorical imagery, we view the characters as neither literally experiencing the events depicted, nor as dreaming or fantasizing about those events. Instead, the relation between what we see and what it means is allegorical (i.e., one thing is represented visually as some other thing). In doing this, the filmmaker intends the viewer to come to a specific understanding of the first thing in a way that would be impossible using literal imagery alone. For example, if a man is dressed in a diaper instead of normal clothes, we are meant to see him as a baby, and we can then draw some conclusions about the
in depth, the auteur provides his actors with animal qualities, in order to transfer messages in regards to their true nature.
Other than the complex juxtaposition of the shots, movies and dreams share also the complexity of a nonlinear storyline. It is not uncommon for both cases to provide the viewer with a spectacle that lacks of chronologically ordered events. More specifically, Robert J. Hoss, scientist, researcher and educator in the area of dream science for over 30 years, refers to a nonlinearity which often occurs in dreams. More specifically Hoss mentions in his book Dream
Language (2005) that ―[…] dream story […] does not follow a strict time sequence. Thus dream
sequences can suddenly switch on us, and we fail to even notice or reflect on what changed until we wake up‖ (Hoss, 2005, 27). Continuing with Rieber and Kelly‘s theories, they also refer to this not clear timeline which often occurs in movies as well, one more similarity that should not be omitted. The use of flashbacks, flash forwards, temporal gaps, time loops and other means of manipulating time have been discussed to encounter frequently in both types of ―screenings‖. Rieber and Kelly comment specifically on the matter of time manipulation, connecting that to the way the human mind works and write that
―by the canny (or uncanny) use of such techniques as flashbacks and flash-forwards, jump cuts and montages, the technicians of cinema have been able to imitate to some extent the way memory works and how emotion alters the way we perceive the external world‖ (Rieber and Kelly, 2013, 2).
As Rieber and Kelly mention, those techniques of time manipulation in movies utilize a way of mirroring how the human brain works when creating a story of its own during a dream. Therefore, since in so many cases of dreams and movies there is no coherent train of thought, the viewer has to assemble the pieces of the narrative puzzle together, in an attempt to understand the story (if there is any to be understood).
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REAM IMAGERY IN DAVID LYNCH‘S FILMS
In a sense all film is entering into someone else’s dreams.
David Lynch
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AVID LYNCH
―For a small-town boy, the violence and squalor of Philly (Philladelphia) – especially in Lynch‘s run-down post-industrial neighborhood – is nightmarish but it‘s also where he starts to find his footing as an artist, where he has his ‗first original thought.‘ His paintings become literally and figuratively darker. One afternoon, while he‘s working on a nearly all-black painting of a garden at night, he senses a wind emanating from within the canvas, seeming to stir the leaves under his brush. He wonders: What if paintings could move? What if they had sound?‖ (Lim, 2015, 2).
triggering those impressions by creating highly abstract and experimental pieces of art, endeavoring to mirror the impressions dreams have on dreamers. Although he incorporates dreamlike qualities and dream logic into his artwork, Lunch mentions that he does not draw inspiration from his own dreams per se, but from the overall characteristic of dreams and the general sensations dreams generate into the human mind. Specifically, during an interview in the documentary Meditation Creativity Peace (2012), he mentions that:
―My dreams do not influence my movies. But I love, as I say, dream logic. Dream logic is so beautiful. I like daydreaming and I love what cinema can do with abstractions. Dreams are very abstract and this dream logic is something cinema can say. Cinema being sound and picture flowing together in time, such a beautiful language. It can say concrete things and it can say many, many beautiful abstractions that can only be said through cinema, things that conjure a thing in a person that is only conjured from this beautiful language5‖
David Lynch started his artistic carrier as a painter and later on transmitted his painting skills to the field of cinema, due to his inner passion for experimentation. He made his first attempt in creating moving images because he was eager to see his paintings in motion and with sound. This was the impetus of his great interest in the medium of cinema and in the use of film language, the desire to fuse his paintings with motion and sound. From the very beginning of his carrier as a filmmaker he adopted this approach of creating moving paintings.
David Lynch highly appreciates film medium‘s visual trickery and the potential capability of providing such puzzling, enigmatic pieces of art to the public. He uses the medium‘s language in a highly abstract way, engaging contradictory images and sounds together, with sole objective to create a new world full of emotions and thoughts that cannot be expressed in any other way or by any other medium. David Lynch tried to express his feelings towards the medium of cinema via the following words:
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―Cinema is a language. It can say things—big, abstract things. And I love that about it. I‘m not always good with words. Some people are poets and have a beautiful way of saying things with words. But cinema is its own language. And with it you can say so many things, because you‘ve got time and sequences. You‘ve got dialogue. You‘ve got music. You‘ve got sound effects. You have so many tools. And so you can express a feeling and a thought that can‘t be conveyed any other way. It‘s a magical medium. For me, it‘s so beautiful to think about these pictures and sounds flowing together in time and in sequence, making something that can be done only through cinema. It‘s not just words or music—it‘s a whole range of elements coming together and making something that didn‘t exist before. It‘s telling stories. It‘s devising a world, an experience that people cannot have unless they see that film‖ (Lynch, 2006, 18).
Before caring on with the close reading of the two movies, it would be practical to indicate a proper way of experiencing a David Lynch movie. David Lynch as a filmmaker has a very devoted fan club, yet many moviegoers avoid attending his movies due to the difficulty they face in comprehending and rationalizing their concept. People make great efforts to logically understand films. They strive to make sense out of every single detail and when they fail, they label the movie as ―too abstract one‖. Consider for a moment the way human beings act during a dream screening. Even the most abstract things or conversations can be accepted by the dreamer. Nothing really seems impossible while dreaming. As the neuroscientists and cognitive researchers Yuval Nir and Giulio Toroni describe this experience:
―dreaming is almost always delusional since events and characters are taken for real. Reflective thought is altered in that holding contradictory beliefs is common, and a dreamer easily accepts impossible events such as flying, inconsistent scene switches, sudden transformations and impossible objects such as a pink elephant. There is often uncertainty about space, time, and personal identities‖ (Nir and Tononi, 2010, 88-100).
understand a lot more than they think, and they limit their understanding when they try to forcefully make sense out of a text. In his book Catching the Big Fish, he specifically mentions that it would be easier to understand his movies if viewers simply observed the filmic text in a more passive way, instead of actively striving to understand and to make sense of the things that take place on screen:
―People sometimes say they have trouble understanding a film, but I think they understand much more than they realize. Because we‘re all blessed with intuition—we really have the gift of intuiting things. Someone might say, I don‘t understand music; but most people experience music emotionally and would agree that music is an abstraction. You don‘t need to put music into words right away—you just listen. Cinema is a lot like music. It can be very abstract, but people have a yearning to make intellectual sense of it, to put it right into words. And when they can‘t do that, it feels frustrating. But they can come up with an explanation from within, if they just allow it‖ (Lynch, 2006, 19).
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HE GRANDMOTHER (1970)
In respect to their chronological order, the first movie to be analyzed is Lynch‘s first medium length attempt, The Grandmother (1970). Before analyzing the filmic text though, it would be beneficial to provide some knowledge on Lynch‘s artistic and personal status when he was filming the movie. This would make the interpretation of the film more coherent.
When directing The Grandmother, David Lynch was still a painter with passion for experimentation. As a painter, David Lynch was intrigued by the idea of instilling motion and sound in his paintings. Thus, The Grandmother is an attempt of his to create a moving painting and it bears an abundance of Lynch‘s painting artistry. As David Lynch mentions:
―I started out being a painter and the film came out of wanting to make a picture move, so I always say the same rules of painting apply to a lot of cinema, and you could say that films are moving paintings that tell a story with sound‖ (Hoban, 2014, 1).
Dark color tones, color reduction and extreme high contrast prevail during the whole screening. Those characteristics, which describe the image of the movie The Grandmother, are going to be analyzed subsequently.
David Lynch married his first wife, Peggy Lynch, in 1967 and had his firstborn child in 1968. In the course of directing The Grandmother, he was still a novice of married life and was experiencing parenting for the first time. These experiences and the stress which originated from them are plainly depicted in the movie The Grandmother. Lynch from then on shows great interest in married, family life, and in the stress this puts upon the members of a family.
THE STORY
The story is about a young boy, approximately at the age of 10, who is dealing with a dysfunctional family. His parents, weary by their daily lives, have lost their ―human‖ as well as their ―parental‖ qualities, and are abusive and harsh towards him. Their behavior is making him nervous and frightened. This situation and the abusive behavior, lead to an ordinary outcome of him wetting his bed every single night due to the tension he experiences. The young boy lacks the feeling of a secure and loving home and needs to replenish it. On this account he founds and plants some seeds, which grow in the loving, caring and accepting grandmother he needs. As David Lynch mentions in regards to the reason this boy ―conjures up‖ a Grandmother,
―there‘s something about a grandmother [...] It came from this particular character's need - a need that that prototype can provide. Grandmothers get playful. And they relax a little, and they have unconditional love. And that's what this kid, you know, conjured up‖ (Lynch and Rodley, 1997, 50).
From the very start of the story, the viewers are presented with animated kids drawings. This feature of the film is exactly what made Lynch so interested in the medium of cinema, this desire of his to instill motion and sound into his paintings and sketches. Those kids‘ animated drawings represent the way the young boy sees and understands the world.
germinate. These kinds of parallelisms, as it has been mentioned previously, occur pretty often in dreams as well. Dream language, as stated in chapter one, is full of metaphors and parallelisms which make sense while dreaming, but upon waking seem highly arbitrary and do not match together easily. However, if someone tries to close read their own dreams it is very possible that they make much more sense than we think. This is exactly the case with David Lynch‘s films. The first reading/viewing of a Lynch film is very probable to seem abstract. However, after a second more careful reading/viewing the pieces start falling into place.
Thus, the story begins with the concept of giving birth. The first to be born is the boy‘s father. Right after that his mother‘s birth takes place. His parents meet and engage in some sort of cuddling, but not in sexual intercourse. This provides the viewer with the knowledge that the narrator of the story is the little boy, who does not know yet how kids are born, neither how sexual intercourse looks like. Therefore, his interpretation of the lovemaking of his parents is being depicted as a weird cuddling and kissing accompanied by dog cries.
The ―cuddling‖ of the parents is followed by the birth, or more precisely the sprout of the little boy. The boy germinates like a flower, through the earth and ground, just like his parents. His birth is followed by the immediate aggressive behavior of his father towards him. This can be explained by the laws of the nature, since his parents are acting like fierce animals. A valid explanation for his aggressive behavior could be that his father tries to establish himself as the alpha male in his territory, in this case of their home and family. Therefore he is brutal and highly aggressive towards his newborn baby boy. This is another example of Lynch‘s metaphorical way of presenting a situation on screen. Moreover, he infuses his characters with animal qualities, in order to add further attributes to their temperament.
Moving on to the young boy, who lives and grows up in this environment. There is a pattern of him going to bed at night, watching a dream and wetting his bed. However, this pattern changes its character through time [see Figure 1].
Figure 1 - The sequence of screenshots illustrated above, shows the four dream-screens the young boy sees during the film. The screenshots are placed in chronological order, with the first dream being the one in the left. It is clear that his dreams become darker with time. The sun sets and the night prevails.
melody and also by the sound of running water. The happy melody is an indication that in this dream almost everything is happy, in comparison to his waking life which is a chaos. The sound of the water is an analogy of the emptying of his bladder. In the second dream the sound of the water that implies the emptying of his bladder does not exist, although he does wet his bed. The boy knows that wetting his bed is wrong, thus the sound of water in his dream starts having a different, unpleasant meaning. Things change to worst and one by one the happy elements of his childhood vanish. The third and fourth dreams, other than the tremendous change in terms of their color palette, lack the sound of the happy music as well. The only sound that is heard during those dreams is a vague, monotonous buzz.
When the boy wakes up for the first time after having experienced that dream in which he wets himself, he does not understand that he has done something inappropriate. He notices the orange spot on his bed, yet he does not react towards it. On the contrary he acts pretty normal, making his bed. Kids at a young age do not know the concept of right and wrong, unless an adult teaches them the difference. In that case, the father of the boy is the one to show him that wetting his bed is wrong. However, instead of explaining to him, trying to make him understand why this act is wrong, the father acts like a fierce animal once more, or like a fierce dog owner, rubbing his sons face in the orange urine stain on his bed. This is another element that adds to the ―training of the bad puppy‖ behavior on behalf of the boy‘s father. After this unfortunate experience, the young boy is even more nervous and even though he cannot stop wetting himself, he feels embarrassed and insecure. The viewer, who witnesses the mistreatment of the young boy, is predisposed to feel disgusted and kindle immense hatred against the parents. Viewers as mentioned previously, feel the need to understand and interpret everything that happens on screen. For doing that they use their own past experiences in order to comprehend the story. As theevolutionary biologist Todd Oakley mentions:
level, different signs can develop a rapport with one another […] The overall coherence of a scene depends on the coherence of sensory information with background knowledge.‖ (Oakley, 5).
For example, when the viewers witness the young boy wetting his bed, they bring this experience down to their own level of understanding. They know how wet sheets feel like when in contact with skin. They are also familiar with the smell of urine. It is very probable to have experienced this unfortunate incident themselves at a younger age, or even remember the reaction of their parents to that. Thus, due to the desire of analyzing and comprehending each situation depicted on screen, or in a dream, the viewer looks back at their own experiences and knowledge. This helps the viewers relate to the characters, in terms of understanding the reasons of their reactions, and also helps the spectators commiserate with the feelings of the characters on-screen. In a dream screening, the dreamer interprets the events based on his/her own experiences as well, as it has been analyzed in the first chapter of this thesis. Moreover, in both film and dream screening the viewer has the impression that is witnessing the events unfolding on screen.
The fourth character of the movie is the grandmother. The boy, in an attempt to cover his need for maternal love and affection, grows a grandmother with those attributes. The Grandmother is a seed at first, as all creatures are, in the mind of the boy‘s, before birth. Therefore, he plants the seed, takes care of it, waters it and waits patiently for it to grow. The seed slowly starts to grow into a weird, ugly looking plant. The boy, though, is not disgusted by the looks of the plant; on the contrary he seems to love it fondly. He caresses it and keeps watering it in order for it to grow bigger. The plant grows bigger exactly like the womb of an impregnated woman. At some point, the plant/womb is ready to give birth to the boy‘s beloved Grandmother and he even helps willingly during the delivery.
child. In addition, whenever he goes to visit his Grandmother, he has to go up a couple of stairs, which implies that his Grandmother is located in a higher level both physically as well as emotionally into his mind.
Dream language is using our everyday life experiences and feelings, whether positive or negative, to create a storyline. Often times those experiences or feelings are depicted as metaphors or allegories. Those metaphors or allegories provide valuable knowledge of the characters of the movie or about the environment, in which the characters live. It has already been mentioned that the parents are menace in the eyes of the boy, thus metaphorically speaking they act like aggressive dogs. The Grandmother on the other hand is granted with the exact opposite characteristics compared to the parents. In those two examples David Lynch transmits animal qualities to his actors, in order for the viewer to understand clearly who is considered a threat for the boy and who can be trusted.
There is a scene where the boy is sitting at the dinner table with his parents. He is really disgusted by the food they have served him and he is not eating anything. His parents on the contrary eat with appetite, again like wild dogs. They grasp the food with their hands, eating with their mouths open, making repulsive noises. When they notice that their son is not eating his food, they try to force him violently to do so. There is a frame showing his mother‘s finger dictating him to eat. The boy tries to comply but he tries to grasp something that would make his food taste better, like salt or some sort of sauce. His parents get even angrier and finally he runs away from them. He heads to his beloved Grandmother only to find her asleep. He kisses her cheek, indulging in an act of motherly love, which, as a kid, he has never experienced from his own mother. Thereafter he realizes that his Grandmother has foreseen his need for tasty food, having left for him a meal that he really enjoys. Grandmothers always know what their grandchildren love to eat and always provide for them those dishes in abundance.
He also imagines that he is falling in a pool full of urine. His innermost agony of an upcoming punishment because of his bladder failure is been depicted in those sketches. Moreover the feelings of hatred towards his parents grow stronger, since he furtively desires to kill them. The fact that his parents never go up the stairs to the Grandmothers room, suggests that the Grandmother is an imaginary character who only exists inside Mutt‘s mind.
After the dinner scene, the Grandmother calms the boy down by whispering some words that cannot be heard by the viewer. However, the tranquil movement of her lips implies a calming voice and some comforting words. The boy instantly feels more relaxed and he is even in a playful mood, engaging in a game of poking one another. In terms of the relation of this scene with the realm of dreams, this game could also be interpreted as a kind of reality check. People use to poke one another in an attempt to make sure that they are not dreaming. The Grandmother is a fictional character made up by the young boy. Thus, it is possible for Mutt to engage in this game in order to be reassured that he is not imagining her company. It is probable for David Lynch to have placed that scene in order to provide food for thought to his audience in regards of the essence of reality. Moreover, it is not uncommon for dreamers to experience moments during their sleep when they are questioning whether their experience is a dream or reality.
After that game the viewer is presented with a sequence of animated sketches. Those sketches show the grandmother digging a hole in the ground for Mutt to go inside. The first interpretation of this action could be that the Grandmother provides a secure hideout for the boy. He hides inside the hole, away from unwanted people and situations. A second interpretation could be that the Grandmother digs the hole into the ground so he could be reborn/sprout one more time. In any case the Grandmother helps to ease his pain and agony.
into laughter, while his father acts brutally again. This fact strengthens the notion that the Grandmother is a fictional character. Kid‘s at a young age, especially when they face trouble coping with reality, create imaginary friends. The Grandmother is the imaginary friend of Mutt‘s. He created her in an attempt to feel loved and accepted again. This tendency of David Lynch‘s to use metaphors and symbolizations throughout the whole film, mirrors perfectly the metaphorical way of thinking of the dreaming mind.
PAINTING QUALITIES & IMAGE
The image of the movie is very dark, since almost every scene is directed in Lynch‘s total black painted house. Also, the shapes hiding in this dark environment are unclear. This creates an uneasy feeling. Discomfort emerges from the unknown figures, which might be hiding in the dark. This uneasy feeling is enhanced by the weird filmic angles Lynch chooses to use, since nothing is clearly identifiable at first glance. As Rudolf Arnheim states, weird filmic angles, in general, create a constant tension in the viewers, making them explore the dark environment in an attempt to rationalize the vague figures and shapes. Arnheim specifically mentions that ―by reproducing the object from an unusual and striking angle, the artist forces the spectator to take a keener interest, which goes beyond mere noticing or acceptance‖ (Arnheim, 1969, 44-45).
Moreover, Lynch manipulates the light so there are some objects which are considerably lit, standing out from all the dark vague figures. This was intended by Lynch in order to draw the attention of the viewers to certain, important pieces of information. The Philosopher Noël Carroll explains how directors are able to guide the viewer‘s attention at will. Specifically he mentions that:
SOUND
The sound of the movie is an outcome of the collaboration between David Lynch and Alan Splet, who have been partners in all David Lynch‘s movies up to Blue Velvet (1986). Yet,
The Grandmother was the first time they worked together. Lynch has also mentioned that they
spent 63 whole days recording sound effects for the movie. Electronic sound effects, as well as undefined noises which seem to be a result of household electronic appliances, characterize David Lynch‘s acoustic style. Hence, these characteristics occur in every scene of The
Grandmother as well, adding awkwardness and discomfort to the viewing experience.
A consistent element during the whole film is the sound of dog cries and barking. His parents communicate and express themselves via barking or dog cries. This use of metaphor probably shows how the little boy comprehends their behavior towards one another as well as towards him. To his eyes, his parents act like animals. They do not care about him or about his feelings. They are malicious, shouting, abusing him mentally and physically. Thus, in his mind he made this parallelism between their behavior, and how aggressive dogs could act. His parents, other than dog cries, use the boy‘s name, Mutt, to call him, and more precisely to rebuke him. The name they gave him means mongrel, stupid and incompetent. Judging by the name choice, the parents do not have feelings for their son and probably think that he is an unwanted outcome of their mating. Moreover, they call his name in an aggressive tone, as the enraged owner of a dog would do, in order to force his puppy to behave and to make the dog be afraid of its owner.
CHAPTER‘S SUMMARY
In regards to the relation of dreams to Lynch‘s The Grandmother, dreams play crucial role as they occur periodically, interrupting the narration and providing useful information in regards to the psychological state of the young boy. In respect to Byrnes theory, dreams reflect one's fears, needs, desires or deepest secrets. Hence, the dreams of Mutt change throughout the screening. They turn darker and gloomier, as they reflect his psyche, and change as his fears and terror grow stronger. The first two dreams are bright in color [see figure1], a happy melody is heard; they also last longer in comparison to his upcoming nightmares. Mutt's nightmares are dark in colors, there is no background music and they last less, as if Mutt is waking up earlier because of these bad dreams. Moreover, in the first two dreams, the blank background upon which Mutt's dreams have being projected, is visible, having the form of the stage of a play. Also the sun is moving inside this still frame. On the contrary, the outline of the theatrical stage‘s background is not visible anymore due to the darkness that prevails in the picture. In addition to that, there is no motion inside the frame, since the moon is still.
Another resemblance between dreams and The Grandmother is the reciprocal relation between body and mind. David Lynch beautifully articulates this relation via Mutt's dream content (picture and sound of running water) and the reflexive reaction of Mutt wetting his bed. As it has been mentioned in the first chapter, the body responds to what the mind commands, and vice versa. Therefore, Mutt‘s reflexive reaction, when presented with dreams which involve water, could be dream-wise related. The exposure to the sound and the image of running water, mostly amongst young children, very commonly concludes in emptying their bladder.
Lastly, there is an analogy between dreams and The Grandmother in terms of narration as well. In The Grandmother there is no coherent structure of narration and shots, since the narration is interrupted by the animated sketches and the dreams of the boy. In addition to that,
The Grandmother's editing can be characterized as a montage of attractions, since it is highly
aggressive in nature and evokes certain emotional responses from the viewers. The
Grandmother's editing bombards the audience with a plethora of extreme close up shots of the
tries to elicit an emotional response from his viewers, generating feelings of disgust, anger or sometimes comfort (whenever the Grandmother is been shown).
R
ABBITS (2002)
DAVID LYNCH
Right before directing Rabbits (2002), David Lynch released Mulholland Drive (2001) and won the Best Director award at Cannes, as well as an Academy Award Best Director nomination. In 2002, Lynch was a well-known filmmaker who had many devoted fans due to his unique style. Also, he no longer needed funding for the creation of his movies. He was autonomous and free to create his imagery without any restrictions. Although many things changed in David Lynch‘s personal life and artistic carrier, the thing that changed him the most, both as a human being, as well as an artist, was transcendental meditation. He started practicing transcendental meditation in 1973, a couple of years after directing The Grandmother. Although he advanced as a person and as artists throughout the years, the things that stay the same are his unique, characteristic art style and his passion for experimentation. This passion did not let him set aside his love for experimental short and medium length movies. Rabbits is another experiment of his, which utterly confused its audience and film critics due to the lack of coherence and the lack of storyline. Rabbits is one of the less analyzed films of David Lynch, probably because everything about this film is ambiguous. In the following paragraphs I intent to try to point out the affinity between Rabbits and the realm of dreams, in terms of the plasticity of image, sound design and narration.
THE STORY
The film addresses emotion, rather than logic. This is the major similarity Rabbits share with dreams. The conversation that takes place during the screening, for example, does not make sense, yet it aims in triggering certain emotions in its viewers. Lynch has a tendency of addressing the emotion of his viewers instead of their logic. As Kelly Bulkeley mentioned in her journal article Dreaming and the Cinema of David Lynch,
―the feelings that excite him most are those that approximate the sensations and emotional traces of dreams: the crucial elements of the nightmare that is impossible to communicate simply by describing events. Conventional film narrative, with its demand for logic and legibility, is therefore of little interest to Lynch‖ (Bulkeley, 2003, 49). In regards to this tendency of his, sound and image play crucial role in generating this nightmarish mood. The sound and image of Rabbits are going to be analyzed in the following paragraphs.
The other similarities between Rabbits and dreams are the lack of the notion of time and place. Throughout the whole viewing there is no indication where or when the action is taking place. In regards to time, the rabbits mention repeatedly the time of the day, yet they never provide any information on the broad time period, that is to say the year or decade, in which the drama is unfolding. Rabbits takes place in an unidentified city, in a non-specified time period. Although time and place are not clearly identified, judging by the decoration of the apartment and by the clothes the rabbits wear, it seems like the story is located in New York City, around 1950.
IMAGE
of a play. A different perspective on the utility of this still camera could be the former intention of David Lynch to instill motion and sound to his paintings. Hence, it could be validly argued that the still camera also gives the impression of a canvas, which content Lynch sets in motion. In terms of creating a moving painting, Rabbits is arguably Lynch‘s most accurate attempt. This characteristic of Rabbits also relates to the concept of dream screen. There is a still frame and a blank surface, upon which the action unfolds [see Figure 2].
Figure 2 – The frame is still during the whole duration of the movie, showing the interior of a living room. The angle from which the action is captured brings to mind the position from which viewers watch a play. The three Rabbits come and go in and out of the still frame.
The light plays crucial role, underscoring the emotional and psychological state of the three protagonists. As David Lynch mentions in regards to the purpose of light:
―Often, in a scene, the room and the light together signify a mood. So even if the room isn‘t perfect, you can work with the light and get it to feel correct, so that it has the mood that came with the original idea. The light can make all the difference in a film, even in a character. I love seeing people come out of darkness" (Lynch, 2006, 74).
The viewer has the feeling that those rabbits live in a home-like cage from which they cannot escape. Their home is both their sanctuary as well as a dangerous place to live, since periodically, when the lights dim, a demon shows up inside their living room. Every time this change of light happens, the rabbits get even more horrified. Also, Jane whenever the demon shows up, comes into the living room like been possessed by that demon, holding up a candle in each hand.
The film Rabbits provides an extravagant sight of rabbit heads on a human body. This alone makes the viewer feel uneasy and try to put reason into the viewing experience. In the realm of dreams, such occurrences take place very frequently, due to the allegorical nature of dreams. By using allegories and metaphors, David Lynch aims in adding different, contradicting qualities on a person or an object. For example, in this particular case human attributes are being added to rabbits, and vice versa. The choice of the rabbit‘s head refers both to rabbits as pets, as well as to rabbits as food. The two interpretations of those references are going to be forthwith explained.
The second scenario has to do with the trend of the first decade of the 20thcentury, the spate of reality TV shows. In this interpretation, the Rabbits are actually human beings that feel like they are treated like caged animals. Dreams are often affected and/or triggered by the incidents and trends that take place at the moment in the environment of the dreamer. The 20s are a time period during which reality TV shows leaded television, and people were brainwashed into attending them. Hence, it makes sense to have affected the dreams of people during that period, making their content swivel around reality TV shows.
live in constant stress, though they try to stay as united as possible. Moreover, the apartment is furnished 1950s style, which corresponds to the time period when TV entered in every household. The new trend of TV made human communication more complicated. Families engaged in less discourse, while most of their time they were apathetically sitting in front of the TV. It is very likely for Lynch to have thought metaphorically once more, having combined the big rush of TV of the 1950s with the rush of the Reality TV shows of 2000s in a surreal bizarre outcome.
SOUND
The sound of the movie is an outcome of the collaboration between David Lynch and Angelo Batolamenti, who work together since 1986. In Rabbits sound plays crucial role in terms of creating the aforementioned claustrophobic mood. Electronic sound effects are a typical characteristic of Lynch‘s movies and Rabbits is no exception. Vague sounds and noises accompany the viewing, adding mystery and horror to the image. The sound of rain is also heard as a background sound contributing to the film‘s mood.
Moreover, the three rabbits are in constant communication with each other. A dialogue takes place throughout the whole duration of the movie, yet, this dialogue is completely incomprehensible. In dreams, though, this occurrence of incomprehensive conversations, or even the uttering of random spoken words, is often encountered. As Robert J. Hoss mentions:
―With some exceptions, words in dreams, whether written or spoken, seldom convey literal meaning or ―messages‖ [...] Most often, words that appear in dreams are strange combinations of sounds and phrases that have no rational meaning, but that have a very direct symbolic meaning‖ (Hoss, 2005, 32-33).
implies a need for communication from the part of the protagonists. Jack for instance asks the time, although he is wearing a watch. They also talk in a caring tone to each other, like they are related in some way, although their relation status is not clearly stated in the film. This communication seems to be happening just for the sake of avoiding the feeling of loneliness. The incomprehensive dialogue, although the rabbits talk the same language, seems like the tower of Babel, in terms of loss of communication. They might try to talk to each other, but actual communication is not taking place.
Another acoustic characteristic of the movie is the cheering of the audience, which happens exactly like in a play. The sound of the applause does not let the viewer fully immerge with the spectacle, since it is an extra-diegetic sound and the audience is reflecting consciously on the moving images. However, extra-diegetic sounds can immerge in dreams as well, yet the dreamer‘s mind does not consider them noticeably incoherent. As Colin McGinn mentions in his book Mindsight (2004):
―Although the senses are closed down during sleep, it may happen, especially during the transition to waking consciousness, that an outside stimulus is registered in some way […] The external stimulus gets incorporated into the dream by way of an interpretation of it that fits the content of the dream‖ (McGinn, 2004, 86).
In addition to the cheering, in random moments during the screening, the audience hears the sound of laugh track. Laugh track is one of the main components of situation comedies and it aims in triggering a burst of laughter from the part of the viewer. The audience is supposed to laugh when the laugh track signifies a funny incident or a funny part of a dialogue. Although in
Rabbits, when the laugh track is heard, there is nothing funny to laugh about. The dialogue is
highly incomprehensible, and thus the laugh track seems to have been placed in random moments of the action, without giving a reasonable cause for laughter to the viewers. However, the viewers still feel the uncomfortable need to join in the laugh track, and they could even feel foolish for their ignorance. By using this laugh track, David Lynch creates an uncomfortable mood to his viewers. He makes them reflect on their own viewing experience and on the fact that they don‘t know why they are prone in joining in laughter when there is nothing apparent to laugh about. In dreams, people also tend to do unreasonable things that seem right while they are dreaming, and upon waking they reflect upon what they did, finding it absurd. Similarly, during the incomprehensive dialogue, rabbits mention their desire to be left alone, by specifically saying ―I wish they would go away‖. These words imply that the Rabbits are aware about their audience. They understand that everything they say or do is been observed by the keen eye of a spectator. This adds extra stress to them.
CHAPTER‘S SUMMARY
