Drawing on many of noir’s most familiar themes – the crumbling of a guilty psyche, the distrust between men and women, the erotic allure of the dark side – Lost Highway brazenly deconstructs a noir narrative and reconfigures it all as balls-to-the-wall cinematic poetry. Most of David Lynch’s later films straddle (at least) two realities, and their most ominous moments arise from a dawning awareness that one world is about to yield to another. In Lost Highway, returning to the Cinema Arts Centre in a new 4K restoration, we are introduced to brooding jazz saxophonist Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) while he lives in a simmering state of jealousy with his listless and possibly unfaithful wife Renee (Patricia Arquette). About one hour in, a rupture fundamentally alters the narrative logic of the film and the world itself becomes a nightmare embodiment of a consciousness out of control. Lost Highway marked a return from the wilderness for Lynch, and the arrival of his more radical expressionism—alternating omnipresent darkness with overexposed whiteouts, dead air with the belligerent soundtrack assault of industrial metal bands, and the tactile sensation that everything is really happening with the infinite delusions of schizophrenic thought.

Cost: $16 Public | $10 Members

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