Darkened Room

What experimental follies David Lynch loves to go into. And, of course, that's the prerogative of any artist with access to the equipment that Lynch has, and as part of how he goes about using the digital medium to put out ideas he wouldn't of had expressed out for everyone to see years ago. This one, however, shows what good and not so good qualities can come with the mental floodgates let open and with little cohesion. Darkened Room, which like Rabbits may have some connection to Lynch's magnum opus Inland Empire, has three parts to it, with the first two actually not bad at all really. The first, which is very random and hilarious in the vein of the director's absurd idiosyncrasies, shows a Japanese woman in her Tokyo apartment spouting off statistics about bananas, in a weird audio voice. Then, by way of the Japanese woman's 'friend', we move on to the darkened room of the title, where a blond girl sits, mascara smeared on her face, sobbing about something that no matter what she says in-between her cries, doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter too much, in this instance at least, that we don't know exactly why she's crying or how long she's been in the darkened room. The amount of emotional connection that can be felt though, and the subtext behind the words, make it something sort of special.

But then comes that last part, which feels MUCH longer than the other two parts combined, where another woman- another friend of the blonde girl- comes in and just talks and talks about something or this or that, and suddenly, like with a snip with a pair of scissors, the emotional connection is snapped, and what we're left with is Lynch's pretentious ramblings feed through and out of this other actress's mouth. In fact, this last part is one of the worst things I've ever seen from Lynch, as it committed something that I don't like seeing from the director much at all- as it doesn't happen too often for me at any rate- which is that it's dull and weird for the sake of it. Nothing gets resolved, and the end is just a 'huh' that isn't a satisfying one in the slightest. I was left with some good memories of Darkened Room, and some very bad ones too. In a sense it's Lynch working stuff out, via digital video and access on his website, and it'll either appeal to some sense or not. For me, it was both.

I finally got to have a look at this experimental Lynch short after waiting for so long....and unfortunately, it wasn't worth it! Even for a die hard Lynch fan, I found this to be really tedious....

nothing happens, there are long, long, long painful pauses where nothing happens, long, monotonous speeches where nothing is said and the whole thing finishes with the viewer not knowing, or caring, what the hell it was all about, what happened before and what happened afterward.

There was a Mulholland Drive allusion - the blonde girl and the brunette girl were very Diane and Rita -esque, and a Lost Highway moment with allusions to some significant event that happened but cannot be talked about clearly.

Unfortunately, It's all very uninteresting and very dull, nothing happens, it's very forgettable and I think i will delete it from my computer and forget I ever watched it. Sorry David!

Just saw "darkend room" and was very disappointed. Like other users here, i'm a huge lynch fan but this film really ISN'T it!

It's strange, right. it contains lynchian themes like a blond and brunette, a dark mysterious event taking place but we don't know what it is, great moody soundtrack, and of course hints that hide in the picture and all you have to do is to clinch them together to get the complete picture.

However, this movie, although containing all these ingredients, is a disappointment not only to lynch fans, but anyone who likes short and artistic films. I sense that lynch himself maybe was surprised with the result, but there was little he could do to fix it. the camera work is not interesting at all and the entire situation looks as if lynch and the actresses are actually rehearsing a scene to be filmed later to the real film. many student films, good and bad, are shot like that, and it seems that lynch, doing the camera work himself, was trying to learn along the way the benefits of using DV instead of 35 mm film.

Unfortunately, all I have to say is that you should'nt play with your audience. learn the technique first and then make the film, don't do it at the same time.

The interesting point in the film is that it might be connected, thematicaly, to another short film called "Rabbits". just a few days ago I read this great theory that the mystery in rabbits might be connected to the scene depicted in darkend room. for those who seen rabbits and try to understand what is it about, this is an intriguing idea.

But to those who didn't see rabbits and don't what i'm talking about, "Darkend room" is a short film that is unimportant and not really interesting. it's like someone else tried to follow the footsteps of the master lynch, but failed to do so. Lynch doing Lynch and not getting anywhere...

I'm not gonna lie, I am obsessed with David Lynch. My favorite movie of all time is his 1977 film, Eraserhead and close behind that is Elephantman, and Mulholland Drive. I also loved Lost Highway, Twin Peaks, and Blue Velvet. I however haven't been as pleased with his stuff after Mulholland Drive. I thought Inland Empire was a mess and a huge disappointment. This would bring me to Darkened Room. A film that ties into Inland Empire quite a bit but has the same pointless feel as that film. I guess I just have no idea what's going on so I didn't a point in filming it. I did like how it was shot though. It had a very low budget, independent feel and that is very inspiring to me as a young filmmaker. I'm making it a goal to see all of David Lynch's films but this one was a disappointment.

Darkened Room is a short film from David Lynch's digital video phase. It starts with an Asian girl who refers ambiguously to a troubled friend, who we then cut to. She is a visibly upset blonde woman alone in room on a sofa whose face is streaked by mascara from her tears. Later a third woman enters and verbally torments her.

This is a technically raw short film which brought me to mind the look and feel of Lynch's last feature film Inland Empire (2006), a film I have mixed feelings about. With that film, Lynch moved away from the gorgeous visual aesthetic he had hitherto been associated with. The change was mainly down to the move from film to digital video, which looks a lot uglier. The sound in this one is pretty amateurish as well, with the hum of the video camera audible at times. There is still an unmistakable Lynch feel to proceedings though with uncomfortably long pauses where little happens, a mysterious situation that is never fully explained (to say the least) and an ominous low soundtrack maintaining a certain feeling of dread. Lynch does generate an interesting tone to a certain extent but the short run-time never allows him to develop the material into anything very engaging, while it's also a little too lo-fi for its own good as well.