Film Picks: David Lynch retrospective at The Projector, Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown

Dreamscapes: A David Lynch Retrospective

American film-maker David Lynch, who died on Jan 16 at the age of 78, was an auteur whose works greatly influenced many in the industry.

The Projector celebrates the late director with a month-long programme of some of his most influential works.

From March 1 to April 2, film buffs can revisit six of Lynch’s acclaimed films in Dreamscapes: A David Lynch Retrospective.

The curated films include Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Wild At Heart (1990), Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001).

The programme kicks off with Wild At Heart, a dark comedy starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as a young couple on the run from her mother and the gangsters hired to find them. The film, which also stars Willem Dafoe and Isabella Rossellini, saw Lynch winning the Palm d’Or at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.

Another must-watch is Mulholland Drive, a psychological thriller that stars Naomi Watts. Considered Lynch’s masterpiece, it not only earned him Best Director at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, but also put the then-struggling Watts on the Hollywood map.

Where: 05-01 Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road; and 05-00 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road
MRT: Somerset/Nicoll Highway
When: March 1 to April 2, various timings
Admission: From $12
Info: 

str.sg/7tbt

Nosferatu (M18)

132 minutes, now showing
★★★★☆

Estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is given a lucrative assignment: Travel to Transylvania to meet the reclusive nobleman Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) to close a transaction. Hutter, eager to get out of debt, takes the job against the wishes of his new bride Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), who has been afflicted with horrifying visions of a figure coming to claim her.

American film-maker Robert Eggers’ expansion of the story from a single protagonist to an ensemble piece is reflected in the visual style – from the first frame, viewers are treated to a masterclass in framing, composition and colour control.

In this world, shadows are not just representations of evil; they are also characters in themselves through Orlok’s occult powers.

The film’s power comes from its performances as much as its atmosphere. Depp is outstanding as the woman plagued by a demonic stalker – the physicality of her performance makes her terror painfully visible. – John Lui

A Complete Unknown (PG13)

141 minutes, now showing
★★★★☆

Star-producer Timothee Chalamet channels American folk poet Bob Dylan in this musical biopic, which is up for eight Academy Awards, including best actor, director, picture and screenplay.

An adaptation by American director James Mangold and his co-writer Jay Cocks of the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric!, this account of the musician’s four formative years – ascending from scruffy vagabond in 1961 to cultural force in 1965 – is a straightforward celebrity origin story like Mangold’s Walk The Line (2005) on American country legend Johnny Cash.

The actors are excellent at singing and playing their instruments, their passion for the material palpable. Edward Norton plucks his banjo as benevolent balladeer and Dylan’s mentor Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbaro’s dulcet songbird Joan Baez is the lover-cum-rival making Dylan’s girlfriend (Elle Fanning) jealous.

Both, too, have been Oscar-nominated, while Chalamet mesmerises in his subsuming of his subject’s vocals and mannerisms as well as shifty, prickly opacity.

The troubadour remains ever elusive, but his mystique and music captivate through Chalamet’s bravura performance. – Whang Yee Ling