Lost Highway (1997)

13 Sep 2023

Rating: 4.5/5

Did I dream that you dreamed about me?

Fred does not feel safe in his home. His wife, Renee, is distant and fearful. He knows she is lying about what she does, and his dreams suggest that something has possessed her. His saxophone wails aimlessly, ungrounded from the rhythm of the band — his jealousy a barbaric power he attempts to kill in himself

— I want you — You'll never have me

At a party, Fred meets a mysterious man. A man who can be in two places at once — a man that Fred had invited into his home. The man is the personification of his rage — the anger he feels when he looks into his wife’s face and the turmoil he believes he keeps separate from himself. If anything went wrong, it wasn’t him — it was the mysterious man. But the body keeps the score, and reality tells a different story than memory

I like to remember things my own way — how I remember them, not necessarily how they happened

How does someone commit a terrible crime and keep on living? What trick does the mind pull to protect itself — who do you become so that you won’t experience that horrible power?

 We never should have come here in the first place

When I first saw this movie in college, all I could gather from it was that it was weird, it didn’t make immediate sense, and it had a darkness to it that scared me. At that point, I was deeply religious and trying to hide part of myself to feel congruent. So, to see sex and violence so vividly rendered triggered something I didn’t understand, and I dismissed the movie

— What do you mean? You're where right now? — At your house — That's fucking crazy, man

Here with the film again, I feel like I’m watching it for the first time, and I’m on board for this fucked-up little journey 

Stray Thoughts


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