Lost Highway

It’s a fairly common nightmare: speeding down a highway and being unable to stop. Lynch elevates this anxiety to a new level, turning the nocturnal ride into a metaphor for the impossibility of escaping one’s own identity. Lost Highway is a fast-paced, hypnotic film whose magnetic pull resists any easy interpretation. Once again, Lynch proves he could easily be the dictionary definition of the word “unsettling.” Film noir and thriller conventions serve as the jumping-off point for a postmodern fantasy about what lies on the other side. When mysterious videotapes start arriving in the mail, it’s better not to watch them – but saxophonist Fred Madison and his wife don’t know that. Soon, they discover someone is regularly filming the exterior and interior of their home. After an encounter with the eerie Mystery Man, Fred will find his wife dead – and himself trapped in his own trauma. Ringing phones in the dark, sexual fetishes, and parallel realities – Lost Highway is a radical distillation of Lynch’s surrealist vision, a film you’ll either love or completely reject.

Joanna Najbor

David Lynch (1946 – 2025) – an American director, screenwriter, producer and visual artist, born in Missoula, Montana. He studied painting in Philadelphia, before moving to Los Angeles to make films. He began production on his feature-length debut, Eraserhead, while still a student at the American Film Institute’s Centre for Advanced Film and Television Studies, which initially provided funding for the project. Lynch was one of the most original and influential cinema visionaries. His signature mix of surrealism, genre tropes and experimental narration found favour with a wide audience. Lynch’s films relied heavily on striking visual and soundtrack elements, which always function as integral parts of the complex structure of his works. In addition to directing, he has practised painting, photography, meditation and experimented with new media. A three-time Oscar nominee, Lynch was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Wild at Heart (1990).