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| David Lynch: The Straight Story (US//FR/GB 1999) with Richard Farnsworth (Alvin Straight). |
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| David Lynch: The Straight Story (US//FR/GB 1999). In the morning, Alvin Straight discovers the bundle tied by the hitch-hiker Dorothy. |
Una storia vera.
US/FR/GB 1999. D: David Lynch. Scen.: John Roach, Mary Sweeney. F.: Freddie Francis. M.: Mary Sweeney. Scgf.: Jack Fisk. Mus.: Angelo Badalamenti. Int.: Richard Farnsworth (Alvin Straight), Sissy Spacek (Rose Straight), Harry Dean Stanton (Lyle Straight), Jane Galloway Heitz (Dorothy), Dan Flannery (dottor Gibbons), Everett McGill (Tom), Kevin Farley (Harald), John Farley (Thorvald). Prod.: Mary Sweeney, Neal Edelstein per Asymmetrical Productions, Canal+, FilmFour Productions, Ciby 2000, Le Studio Canal+. DCP. 112 min
US/FR/GB 1999. D: David Lynch. Scen.: John Roach, Mary Sweeney. F.: Freddie Francis. M.: Mary Sweeney. Scgf.: Jack Fisk. Mus.: Angelo Badalamenti. Int.: Richard Farnsworth (Alvin Straight), Sissy Spacek (Rose Straight), Harry Dean Stanton (Lyle Straight), Jane Galloway Heitz (Dorothy), Dan Flannery (dottor Gibbons), Everett McGill (Tom), Kevin Farley (Harald), John Farley (Thorvald). Prod.: Mary Sweeney, Neal Edelstein per Asymmetrical Productions, Canal+, FilmFour Productions, Ciby 2000, Le Studio Canal+. DCP. 112 min
Restored in 4K in 2023 by courtesy of StudioCanal at Fotokem and L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratories, from the original negative. Soundtrack remastered by Ronald Eng and David Lynch. Restoration supervised by David Lynch.
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, 2023: Recovered and Restored.
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, 2023: Recovered and Restored.
Introduced by Mary Sweeney (screenwriter, producer and editor).
Piazza Maggiore, open air screening, 2 July 2023.
Piazza Maggiore, open air screening, 2 July 2023.
Roy Menarini (Bologna 2023 catalog): " The Straight Story is a bedrock film in which Lynch inverts all his places, objects and characters by exposing all of them without exception towards the sun. Clearly, it is a film of contrast, capable of demonstrating that the “matter” of Lynch’s cinema, when solarized, can take on a classic and moving tone… "
" An elderly man wants to reach his brother to make peace with him but has only one way of getting there: taking a small tractor across half of America. The Straight Story recaptures, although in a deconstructed version, the spirit of the classic road movie. Somehow, Lynch intends to suggest that The Straight Story is Wild at Heart turned upside down: Big Tuna is replaced with a hospitable and very human rural community, the most ferocious accidents are replaced with tragic conflicts of a benign nature, and man-on-man violence is healed through a journey and forgiveness. Now, there are two ways of interpreting The Straight Story: there are those who think that Lynch has not changed much and look for the film’s disturbing elements to prove that we are still dealing with a world that is more like a nightmare than a dream; and those who think Lynch is (too) conciliatory… Both seemingly feuding factions are wrong. The Straight Story is pure Lynch, but upside down. The film seems to be an easy win: use all of Lynch’s materials, expose them “to the sun”, shape them positively and tell the story of America… The Straight Story is a story of decency, dignity and honour in all its forms through a journey in stages (and a false start) that presents itself as “straight” like the direct and stubborn protagonist. The deviations do not impede the journey – unlike its antithesis Wild at Heart – on the contrary, they reinforce it. In fact, Alvin not only chose to make the journey, but he chose to do it slowly. Respectful of his age, the protagonist travels at eight kilometres an hour and takes the time he needs to walk across the slab of America that separates him from his sick brother. The road becomes the space of earning forgiveness. " Roy Menarini
AA: I avoid Piazza Maggiore night screenings, because open air circumstances distract my focus especially in subtle and intimate movies or passages. And because I am a morning person, an early bird, with a farmer's genes. I am the one who might wake up the rooster. But today I fortified myself by taking an afternoon nap.
The Straight Story was also programmed in the Midnight Sun Film Festival two weeks ago, with Mary Sweeney as a guest of honour (her morning discussion was one of the best ever). In Sodankylä, I only view new films, but Otto Kylmälä recommended The Straight Story and claimed that it is David Lynch's best. It was the only theatrical film by Lynch that I had never seen.
Otto was right.
The Straight Story is completely different from the other films by David Lynch. Yet it is also the film with the strongest and purest essence of his work. Gone is the fantasy, the dreamwork and the surreal nightmare ambience.
But the sense of the mystery of life is even greater. The Straight Story is Lynch's simplest and most cosmic work. It is based on a true story and takes place in circumstances that are familiar to David Lynch and his screenwriter-producer-editor Mary Sweeney.
Until today, my favourite David Lynch work (the one I selected to my MMM Film Guide, of the 1000 best, and in the second edition, 1100 best films) was the Twin Peaks Special Pilot (1989), the 113 minute extra long, alternative version that was released in Europe on home video. There is an emotional connection in The Straight Story, and in Angelo Badalamenti's opening theme I imagine a reference to the sound of Twin Peaks.
The Straight Story is a road movie and a pilgrimage. It is a restrained celebration of the best in America, the unsung virtues beyond surface markers of success.
Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) disarms everyone with his Quixotic project: to visit his brother by a lawn tractor which means that it will take months to reach him. They smile, they are amazed, but they admire him. Everywhere he makes friends.
Alvin, a war veteran, meets a fellow veteran, and shares a traumatic war memory of "friendly fire": in the darkness, Alvin shot the scout of his own unit. He never told anyone.
Alvin meets a hitch-hiker, a young pregnant woman who has left home and family. At the campfire Alvin takes a stick and breaks it into half. A single stick is vulnerable, but a bundle is strong. In the morning, when Alvin wakes up, the hitch-hiker is gone, but there is a bundle tied together by a ribbon.
During the journey, we learn of the tragedy of Alvin's daughter (Sissy Spacek).
Finally, Alvin comes to the destination, his brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton), who has become his enemy. Lyle takes a look at Alvin's pathetic vehicle. Did you ride it just to see me? "I did, Lyle".
It is night. The brothers look at the stars. Today, Piazza Maggiore is the perfect place to experience this, because it is midnight, and the stars are shining over Bologna in the last screening of the festival.
AA: I avoid Piazza Maggiore night screenings, because open air circumstances distract my focus especially in subtle and intimate movies or passages. And because I am a morning person, an early bird, with a farmer's genes. I am the one who might wake up the rooster. But today I fortified myself by taking an afternoon nap.
The Straight Story was also programmed in the Midnight Sun Film Festival two weeks ago, with Mary Sweeney as a guest of honour (her morning discussion was one of the best ever). In Sodankylä, I only view new films, but Otto Kylmälä recommended The Straight Story and claimed that it is David Lynch's best. It was the only theatrical film by Lynch that I had never seen.
Otto was right.
The Straight Story is completely different from the other films by David Lynch. Yet it is also the film with the strongest and purest essence of his work. Gone is the fantasy, the dreamwork and the surreal nightmare ambience.
But the sense of the mystery of life is even greater. The Straight Story is Lynch's simplest and most cosmic work. It is based on a true story and takes place in circumstances that are familiar to David Lynch and his screenwriter-producer-editor Mary Sweeney.
Until today, my favourite David Lynch work (the one I selected to my MMM Film Guide, of the 1000 best, and in the second edition, 1100 best films) was the Twin Peaks Special Pilot (1989), the 113 minute extra long, alternative version that was released in Europe on home video. There is an emotional connection in The Straight Story, and in Angelo Badalamenti's opening theme I imagine a reference to the sound of Twin Peaks.
The Straight Story is a road movie and a pilgrimage. It is a restrained celebration of the best in America, the unsung virtues beyond surface markers of success.
Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) disarms everyone with his Quixotic project: to visit his brother by a lawn tractor which means that it will take months to reach him. They smile, they are amazed, but they admire him. Everywhere he makes friends.
Alvin, a war veteran, meets a fellow veteran, and shares a traumatic war memory of "friendly fire": in the darkness, Alvin shot the scout of his own unit. He never told anyone.
Alvin meets a hitch-hiker, a young pregnant woman who has left home and family. At the campfire Alvin takes a stick and breaks it into half. A single stick is vulnerable, but a bundle is strong. In the morning, when Alvin wakes up, the hitch-hiker is gone, but there is a bundle tied together by a ribbon.
During the journey, we learn of the tragedy of Alvin's daughter (Sissy Spacek).
Finally, Alvin comes to the destination, his brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton), who has become his enemy. Lyle takes a look at Alvin's pathetic vehicle. Did you ride it just to see me? "I did, Lyle".
It is night. The brothers look at the stars. Today, Piazza Maggiore is the perfect place to experience this, because it is midnight, and the stars are shining over Bologna in the last screening of the festival.
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