Music as narrative device in David Lynchs Lost Highway

In this essay I will examine the music in the David Lynch film Lost Highway. I will analyse the relationship the music has not only with the on-screen image, but also how it relates to the narrative. Lost Highway was directed by David Lynch while the script was co-written by Lynch and Barry Gifford; it was released in 1997. The soundtrack consists of a composed and compiled score. The original composed soundtrack was written by Angelo Badalamenti (a long-time collaborator with Lynch), Trent Reznor (of the band Nine Inch Nails), and Barry Adamson. The compiled score was hand-picked by Lynch and consists largely of bands within the genre of alternative rock. As we will see, David Lynch attributes a great deal of importance to the music in his film. The plot of the movie is rather complex. The first third of the movie revolves around the life of Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) and his attempts to cope with the belief that his wife Renee Madison (Patricia Arquette) is being unfaithful to him. Through a bizarre set of circumstances Fred finds himself sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. While on death-row, Fred inexplicably metamorphoses into a young man by the name of Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty). Pete is subsequently released from prison and the final two-thirds of the film involve his affair with Alice Wakefield (also played by Patricia Arquette); a woman whose physical features are almost identical to those of Freds murdered wife, Renee. The end of the movie sees Pete transformed back into the body of Pete and any obvious conclusion is left unresolved. It is a well-known fact that David Lynch declines to contribute any detailed explanation for his complex plots,

instead preferring the viewer to engage in the film by interpreting this themselves. There is no definitive meaning of the film. A possible conclusion could be that the reality lies in the life of Fred; attempting to cope with his mental instability he creates an alternate reality or fantasy in which he is an attractive young man (Pete), but even this fantasy world derails. David Lynch has himself likened the film to a mbius strip1; a figure which can be analogously compared to a ribbon with a half-twist looping back on itself. If we were to traverse the surface of this mbius strip we would find that every part of the surface will have been covered by the time we reach the starting point. Likewise, the linearity of the plot and overall temporality of the film can be viewed in this fashion. There is no grounded temporality in this film, and time and space seem at times to be folding back on themselves. Lynch uses music as a tool to represent this aspect of the film and I will discuss a number of musical examples he uses in this process. The film begins with Fred answering the intercom at his apartment and hearing a mystery voice state that Dick Laurent is dead. We then hear a faint hint of a police siren while Freds attempt to catch a glimpse of the man is unsuccessful. During the final scene of the movie we see Fred approach his own house and speak the very same words into the intercom before he is pursued at high speed by police cars with wailing sirens. We are by now aware that temporality of the film is seriously disjointed. Michel Chion suggests that the scene of the highway in the opening and closing credits in which we see the continuous image of the median line is representational of this mbius strip2. I am not sure that this was Lynchs intention but it is more likely a stylistic feature used to
1

Anne Jerslev, Beyond Boundaries: David Lynchs Lost Highway, in The Cinema of David Lynch, ed. Erica Sheen and Annette Davison (London: Wallflower, 2005), 151-164: 157. 2 Michel Chion, David Lynch (London: BFI Publishing, 2006), 195.

encapsulate the entire film. Likewise, the David Bowie song Im Deranged that is used during the opening and closing credits can be also seen to encapsulate the film. The use of one single song for opening and closing credits not an uncommon feature for any film, however. Nevertheless, the song does serve a special function for Lynch: he stated that the first time he heard the song the beginning of the movie visually appeared to him and he knew instantly that this was the song to use. 3 He stated also that the song lyrically works with the mood and the story of the film in many ways; it expresses the mental instability of the character of Fred and imposes the mood of the film on the viewer from the very beginning. Arguably the most striking musical feature in the film is the use of Song to the Siren by This Mortal Coil, which we know is one of David Lynchs favourite songs. He also wanted to use this song over 10 year previously for Blue Velvet but had to do without it as his budget would not allow for acquiring the musical rights4. The song is used three times in total during the film so we can gather that David Lynch attributed a certain amount of importance of this song to the plot. Firstly, during a strangely forced and ultimately failed love-making scene between Fred and Renee, we can softly hear a segment of the song which is surrounded by sound design in the form of ominous sounding drones. The song suddenly stops as Fred acknowledges the failure of the lovemaking. The second time we hear the song is while we see Fred in his prison cell, just before his metamorphosis. Again the song is surrounded by some sound design in the form of drones. We see a close up of Freds face, which appears to be in some amount of pain, the drones are reflective of this pain. Slowly the song becomes more prominent

3 4

David Lynch, Lynch on Lynch, ed Chris Rodley (London: Faber and Faber, 1997), 241. Lynch, Lynch on Lynch, 242.

until we see the image of a burning shack in the middle of the desert (in reverse). The scene proceeds with Fred seeing an image of this same shack with the Mystery Man (Robert Blake) standing at its doorway before Fred is agonisingly transformed into the body of Pete. The third time the song appears is towards the end of the film, and is heard during a love-making scene between Pete and Alice at the same shack envisaged by Fred. This time the song is very prominent in the sound track along the sounds of the desert winds. Instead of incongruity, the song fits the scene perfectly and reflects the passion of the love-making. Things are not as they appear, however. Just as Pete passionately whispers to Alice I want you the song begins to fade and an overpowering amount of shrill and frantic sounding strings come to the fore. At its conclusion Alice rejectingly replies Youll never have me. There is an obvious anti-climax and the next time we see Pete he has transformed back into the body of Fred. For me, this scene reflects the climax of the movie and also reflects a significant aspect of the meaning of the film: the unconscious desires of Fred to satisfy his wife but the eventual and inevitably failure and jealousy which forces this mental instability upon him. Fred appears to have dreamt up this life as an attractive young man engaged in a love affair but even this fantasy ends in failure. With regards to the temporality of the film, Song to the Siren also links the final appearance before transformation and first appearance after transformation of Fred. If we are to believe that the life of Pete is a construction of Freds imagination then this musical cue would provide an encapsulation of this fabricated life. This leads to the possibility of the song as being metadiegetic to Fred, and representative of his passionate desires.

Early on in the film we see Fred playing saxophone in a club. The music he creates becomes rather frantic and chaotic and ends in a shrieking sounding frenzy. While he is playing in the club, it is obvious that he feels even at this very moment that his wife could be being unfaithful to him: she told him that she would stay at home alone while he played but when he tries to call her there is no answer. There is a very interesting moment in Petes section of the film that correlates directly to this scene. As he is working in a garage as a mechanic, he hears an exact copy of the music we hear Fred play during the club scene appear on the radio. It causes obvious discomfort to Pete as he is urged to turn it off immediately, much to the annoyance of his co-worker. Pete is not quite sure why this music has caused him discomfort. If we are to read into it, it could be possible to come to the conclusion that the music caused a subconscious reminder to Pete of the inherent jealousy felt by Fred. It is possibly a minor disturbance in the fantasy of Fred. The eponymously titled song by Rammstein also features twice during the film, once during Petes section and again during Freds reappearance. We first hear the song in the house of Andy (Michael Massee) after Pete has murdered him. The same Andy appears in the beginning of the film and it is implied that Fred is jealous of a possible relationship between this man and Renee. The introduction to the song begins as Pete climbs the stairs looking for a bathroom, he is quite disoriented and the introduction works to build anticipation and reflect his anxiety. As he enters a mysteriously long hallway we begin to see and hear flashes of thunder and lightning as the visual image also becomes quite extreme and distorted. When the main part of the song powerfully kicks in, Pete opens a door only to see the image of Alice with another man. The image here becomes so distorted and saturated that it is easy to connect it and the music to the

disorientation of Pete. As he closes the door behind him the music suddenly stops and all images and diegetic sounds return to normal. K.J. Donnelly sees this scene as the climactic moment of the film and explains that the non-diegetic music is so powerful that it forces the image to become non-diegetic as well.5 It clearly displays that Pete is beginning to lose his mind. The second time this song appears is after Fred has fled the scene in which he has found himself after his retransformation, and takes shelter in a Lost Highway hotel. It is also here that we see a reappearance of Renee, and witness her engagement in lovemaking with Dick Laurent/Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia). The hallway in the hotel is identical to the one we see in the house of Andy previously and we witness Fred approach the room in which Dick Laurent is staying. The music begins as before but this time the image of the hallway remains lucid (though we do see a flash of thunder/lightning), this reflects the determination of Fred. The music kicks in once again as Dick Laurent opens the door to Fred and we witness Fred physically beating Laurent which is matched closely in tempo and rhythm to the music. The reappearance of the Rammstein song in the same hallway (though in two different locations) is telling of David Lynchs use of this song to link the two scenes together. The first appearance of the song can be seen as representative of the jealousy and ultimate mental instability of Fred (through another disturbance in his fantasy). When we see the second scene in which the song appears, we are aware that Fred is attempting to overcome these emotions (or perhaps they are overcoming him). We see a powerful release in the form of his attack on the man who has ultimately caused his jealousy, anger, and mental anguish.
5

K.J. Donnelly, The Spectre of Sound: Music in Film and Television, (London: BFI Publishing, 2005), 30.

The above mentioned musical examples can be seen as illustrative of David Lynchs uses of music to connect significant sections of the plot together, and in doing so creating an anomalous temporality. Another musical feature of the film is the use of music to set the tempo of the narrative, or on-screen action. Two examples of this are two songs in the soundtrack: This Magic Moment by Lou Reed and Hollywood Sunset credited to Barry Adamson. This Magic Moment begins as Pete first catches a glimpse of Alice as she exits Dick Laurent/Mr. Eddys car. Pete appears to be struck by the beauty of the woman he sees before him and stands in a trance-like state; the scene is shown in slow-motion which emphasises the passionate gaze between the two. To further emphasise this aspect, all diegetic sounds are removed from the scene and the music takes full control. The long droning sound of the distorted electric guitars seem to move in parallel with the slow movements of Alice as she exits the car, while the overall uptempo feel to the song strangely seems to match the slow-motion image on the screen. This first meeting of Pete and Alice is indeed a magic moment, but knowing David Lynchs fondness for dark humour the song is possibly used with tongue-in-cheek. Lynch is using the song to reflect the magical or fantastical alternate reality in which Fred is currently abiding as Pete. Hollywood Sunset, with its repetitive bass-line and heavily reverb-treated drums, is a rather slow song at 80bpm and appears as we witness the first meeting between Pete and Alice. As we see the slow panning image of a sunset, the song begins as the only source of sound. Slowly all diegetic sounds appear though the song remains prominent throughout the scene, it sets a slow and relaxed mood for the entire scene. The softly sweeping strings at the fore of the song are indicative imminent relationship

between Pete and Alice, and add an element of passion and seduction to the relaxed music. As the conversation between Pete and Alice commences we can note that even the dialogue is rhythmically in time with the music, we can clearly witness Alice wait for the beginning of the next bar of music to begin before she responds to Pete. This happens three times in succession which leads me to the conclusion that David Lynch used this as a device of fusing the dialogue and music together; constructing an on-screen rhythm which matches the rhythm of the music. We know this is possible as Lynch has explained that he always uses music on the set of the film while filming.6 The song is audible for six minutes in total, through the seduction and passion between the couple, which reflects Lynchs desire to create a sustained mood throughout the affair. Overall, the song has a dream-like quality to it which is quite possibly indicative of the fantasy which appears to be taking place. In Lost Highway, David Lynch has created a film which is tied together by the music of its soundtrack. K.J. Donnelly argues that the soundtrack provides some of the logic for what is primarily a difficult and perplexing film.7 I would agree with this statement as music is used to establish and make connections between the disjointed temporality of the film. Lynch is very interested in the power that music has in a film and treats the relationship between film and music with equal importance. He usually envisages the music that will be present in the scene before filming takes place, in this way he can ensure that the music is present while filming and he can witness both sound and vision of the final cut while filming.

6 7

Lynch, Lynch on Lynch, 133. Donnelly, The Spectre of Sound, 19.