MovieChat Forums > Duran Duran: Unstaged (2014) Discussion > Did anyone see this just to see what Dav...

Did anyone see this just to see what David Lynch did?

posted 10 years ago by TheHungryAndAngryShow
4 replies | jump to latest

I am a fan of both David Lynch and Duran Duran, and was surprised to hear he directed this. Then I was more surprised when it was coming to a theater. Even more so when I saw it was directed 3 years earlier. So yesterday I skipped seeing one movie over this, and boy do I regret that decision.

The film starts off with David Lynch explaining what this is going to be, which is basically images shown over this concert video. He said something about the music of Duran Duran giving him interesting dreams, and how he hoped there would be some happy "accidents" with the images over the performances tonight. I am guessing that the idea was to show this live via satellite in many countries at once, or at least that's how they billed it.

Well, this failed about as miserably as you could expect. In 1980 this might have been considered to be great, but by 2011 standards any college student with a Macbook could make the same exact thing, more or less. There was little about this production that was Lynchian, minus a few touches here and there. The concert was filmed as most concerts would be, and I am guessing he didn't have much to do with the filming of the concert, though I could be wrong. It was obvious that all the pieces that ran over the live performances were pretaped, so I don't see how any happy accidents could happen unless someone ran the wrong piece over a song. All in all as far as a Lnych project goes, I would rank this pretty far down the line, I might even watch Inland Empire again over this one. (I am not a fan of Inland Empire).

As for Duran Duran, well, they were Duran Duran. They performed WAY too many new songs, and other they have obviously settled into that comfortable place of knowing their own songs so well that the performance of Hungry Like The Wolf actually sounded a bit like a lounge group doing a cover of it. There were some special guests to join them, the one standout being Kelis. But she is always amazing. I think if she just stood on stage throughout the whole performance it would have been improved.

All in all this failed on many fronts, and I hope Lynch got a nice paycheck for this, though I do think he phoned it in. At the end of the performance Duran Duran invites all the guests back on stage, Lynch included, but he never shows. My guess is he set the videos to automatically play, got in his car, and drove away about 2 minutes after this disaster started.

[–] tay-15 10 years ago

Your post is filled with misinformation, including Lynch's involvement - which covered everything down to the design within the Mayan theater.

It was originally broadcast live, thus the references.

I had more to write here, but I'm just wasting my time as your ignorance of both Duran and Lynch is so apparent.

The bear does not quit. The bear will not die.

[–] TheHungryAndAngryShow 10 years ago

I'm not sure how my post can be filled with misinformation, since most of what I talked about was my opinion of how the movie was. I gave my impression, and clearly said at some point, "I am guessing he didn't have much to do with the filming of the concert, though I could be wrong." If I came off as if I knew a lot about this production, then either I wrote something completely different than I meant, or you did not read what I wrote too carefully.

If David Lynch did the design in the theater, well, I sure couldn't see anything that looked special or Lychian in the set design at all. In fact the whole thing was not exactly memorable, and I only saw this yesterday.

I get that it was broadcast live, I mentioned that it myself that it probably was.

If you have actual information, I am sure some people would love to hear about it, I did not say my opinion mattered any more than anyone else's. As for being ignorant, I never said I was knowledgeable about this particular production, but I am pretty knowledgeable on David Lynch as a director, and Duran Duran as musicians. The fact that I thought both failed on this project has nothing to do with how knowledgeable I am, it's called an opinion.

[–] ILikeDirt420 9 years ago

i agree, the crappy special effects made it almost un-watchable.

[–] TheHungryAndAngryShow 9 years ago

They were just ordinary, the whole thing was, I expect way more from Lynch, and even more from Duran Duran, who I generally feel are very good at what they do, and have outlasted and out performed many of their contemporaries. I've seen almost every single Lynch movie, and heard at least 75% of Duran Duran's catalog and seen them live a couple times. I know they can perform, I know they are talented, and I like their music. As for Lynch, I like most of his movies, think he's a fine director, and a talented guy all around. But this whole thing stank for some reason. It would be interesting to hear from someone close to the production what happened here.