MovieChat Forums > Lemming (2005) Discussion > A total David Lynch rip off !!!

A total David Lynch rip off !!!


When a film has a very earie look en feel and when you hear a lot of strange sounds with odd characters, people tend to speak out the "L"-word. But this movie goes all the way with stealing from Lynch. The main character is just nobody else than Fred Madison (Lost Highway) and the souddesign/music could have been easily taken from Angelo Badalamenti.

This director is a fraud!

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I happen to be a David Lynch fan and I must say that what you wrote is ridiculous. The two are not the same by any means and never was there a time when the film descended into a psychogenic fugue. The film doesn't simply borrow from lynch, it borrows from MANY directors. It may not be original but that doesn’t constitute calling it a "rip off.” Also, the soundscape used is similar but it's become a technique, one used by many filmmakers. If it compliments the film; why not use it.

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Many of the characters in'Lemming' are named in direct reference to 'Lost Highway': Richard (Dick) and Alice, the Getty couple (after Balthazar Getty), etc. I prefer to view 'Lemming' as an affectionate tribute/ unofficial sequel/ companion piece to 'Lost Highway', but either way the comparison is inescapable. There are far too many references and tributes for this to be accidental. I enjoyed 'Lemming', but if you didn't notice the constant Lynch references, then you need to re-watch his films, starting with 'Lost Highway, 'Mulholland Dr.' then ' Wild at Heart'.

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And you, Ventiel, totally ripped of the review in Humo. For shame!

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And David Lynch blatantly ripped of Luis Buñuel.
As well as all previous filmmakers.
Eraserhead was obviously a ripoff of Casablanca as both were in black and white.

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Thank you for this answer darkbhudda, that's what I'm thinking.
I'm totally bored of the rip-off discussions on the imdb board.
To all rip-off arguers: Can you show me a contemoprary film that is not influenced in some way by another one in film- history? That it can be rip-off free...

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I did remind me of Lost Highway a little but in a good way. There's nothing wrong with being influenced. It was also a lot more subtle than Lynch's movie. And the music was entirely different. Lynch used Rammstein and David Bowie as I recall, whereas Moll had a pristine modern classical soundtrack here.

Also Lynch's movie didn't have any small furry rodents that I can remember.



"I don’t like the term torture. I prefer to call it nastiness."

Donald Rumsfeld

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I assume everyone noticed that the young couple's surname was Getty - and that Balthazar Getty was the second lead actor in 'Lost Highway'

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Yes, like Lynch never recycled other people's ideas or images. Lost Highway/Detour. Wild at Heart/Wizard of Oz (and the dog with the hand was straight out of "Yojimbo").



I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

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I agree. I wish people would stop using the term "rip-off" so much (how do you say that in French, by the way?). Clearly, the director had seen a few David Lynch movies, but I supect he'd also seen movies by Luis Bunuel, Claude Chabrol, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Francio Ozon, and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock (and the same is probably true of Lynch himself). Most film directors didn't grow up in a cave somewhere, never having watched anyone else's movies.

This movie isn't highly original, but I didn't find it highly derivative either. I actually liked it better than a lot of recent French "cause celebre" horror movies like "High Tension".

Exterminate the Brutes!

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I just checked the DVD last weekend, and in an interview with the director of Lemming he actually say's something about Lynch

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all films are about other films. give the guy a break. it's pretty much impossible to be totally original nowadays anyway

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I'm a Lynch fan, and I didn't particularly notice during the film or think about any similarity until I read this thread, as the film was fresh and engaging. but Rip-off? Stealing? Fraud? Oh, come on! Lynch doesn't have a copyright on eerie feels and oddball characters!
It reminded me much more of the feel of 'Hidden(Cache)' than 'Lost Highway' if anything. This was a fine film, and Rampling in particular was superb. In the absence of any cinematic output from Lynch of late, I'll happily take this sort of quality French output every day of the week!

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I didn't really get any rip-off feeling while watching either, and I am a huuuuuge Lynch junkie. Although, now this thread has got me thinking what this film would have been like in the hands of Lynch, and I can't help but drool a little...

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I did find the cpl's house in both Lemming and Lost Highway looked similiar from the outside.

x

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'Lemming' is a decent film, but it's very much a tribute to David Lynch's 'Lost Highway'. There are numerous references to 'Lost Highway' in 'Lemming', & some of the characters are even named in tribute to 'Lost Highway'- Richard/ Dick & Alice, the Getty couple, etc. Denying the references to 'Lost Highway' is philistinism. Lemming is an interesting film in it's own right, but can't be properly appreciated without watching 'Lost Highway' first. Re-watch 'Lost Highway', then watch 'Lemming' again. Seriously- it's basically an unofficial sequel.

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But that is really the point, isn't it? It is by no means a "rip-off", it is an intentional tribute, and it doesn't ever try to hide this fact. On the contrary, it is making it quite obvious by including all these hints, positively inviting the viewer to look for Lynchian references.

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[deleted]

the film may have borrowed from other films in the same genre, but it definitely is not a rip off of anyone in particular. for example, the fading in/out in the nurse scene reminded me of lynch and the zooming in on alain's eyes with accompanying music reminded me of hitchcock (along with the mass appearance of the lemmings a la "the birds"). im sure more experienced viewers have seen the less blatant ones

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Strange sounds? Odd Characters? Were you watching the same movie or were you on drugs?

<~~I caught a falling star - it cut my hands to pieces~~>

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Mulholland Dr had so many influences from other, earlier films that thinking about it makes yer head spin - the most obvious ones pointing at Sunset Boulevard & Godard´s Le Mepris. That, howerer doesn´t make the film any less remarkable work of art. With over a hundred years of cinematography, it´s pretty much impossible to make a film that doesn´t contain echoes of earlier films, even if the director isn´t aware of the films he borrows or steals from. Lynch, for example claims not having ever seen Le Mepris.

And, as someone brought up Cache by Haneke - that didn´t only concern itself with mysterious videotapes, but the family that received them went by the surname Laurent.

What goes around that comes around, as they say.

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