Hi!

Yeah too bad there's no Ontkean interview.

But what are you gonna do :( 

Lol. Good God 12rainbow, thanks for bringing to my attention the fact that the woman's a tramp! I felt uncomfortable watching her in Vampires because I thought her scenes were misogynistic. I realise that's an odd thing to say given that I'm a Lynch fan but the women in his films are stronger and better developed (no pun intended) than the men. And lest we forget, in Blue Velvet DL shows Jeffrey naked with a knife held to his throat. If it had been a woman that scene would have been far more confrontational. I honestly don't believe DL is a sleazy beast who lures unsuspecting young starlets onto his casting couch even though female nudity in his work does seem to have increased 500% over the last few years and the breasts in Inland Empire were gratuitious and reminded me of a scene from Airplane. Maybe it's because I'm gay that I don't pay attention to things like whether or not Sheryl Lee's wearing knickers under her plastic shroud but either way nudity (whether it's my own or other people's) doesn't bother me.  Admittedly I had an enormous crush on Sheryl Lee as a teenager and she'll always remind me of my brief and strange flirtation with heterosexuality. I was in love with a woman who played a corpse. It would never have worked out!     

Phoebe Augustine seems like a doll and I don't think what she said was vindictive, but it implies (whether intentional or unintentional) that the role hinged on how willing an actress was to appear naked. I also agree with OSF that it's impossible to imagine her as Laura. Sheryl Lee would still have been the perfect Laura if they'd found her dressed in a boiler suit, snow shoes and three layers of thermal underwear... The nudity comment didn't interest me so much as La Augustine's suggestion that she could have played Sheryl Lee's role, and vice versa. Come to think of it she probably shows more flesh as Ronette than she would have as Laura... D'oh!

The suggestion of nudity was important to the storyline because Laura's body had to hint at something dark and possibly sexual without being too explicit for television audiences. The description of the body in the script was much more grisly.

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

That "pretty t*tties" scene?  Oh, yeah. That was an excuse to show boobage.  I started to wonder when Dave's nudies (tasteful in Images) turned full on bondage and beaver on his website.  But I'm sure ladies beg him to do this kind of stuff, no luring necessary.  Can't really blame him for letting his freak flag fly, hehe.

But seriously, I can imagine Phoebe as a compelling, very fragile Laura.  The only thing I think that would hold her back would be her dark looks.  TP needed a blonde centerpiece with all those brunettes running around.  (We all know Lynch/Frost had Marilyn Monroe in mind when they were thinking of Laura, anyway.)   

I should begin by stressing that I'm a big fan of all Lynch's work and was referring to his paintings, photography and exhibition, not just the films. I also included Eraserhead, The Elephant Man and Dune (aka the early films) when I worked out my percentages. None of them feature nudity, to the best of my knowledge. In the 90s films there's a full frontal in Blue Velvet, a few tame Dynasty style sex scenes in Wild At Heart, some bare boobs in Fire Walk With Me and a few nude or semi-nude women wandering around in the background in each of them. I consider Lost Highway to be one of Lynch's post-FWWM comeback films, along with Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. Oh and just because a pair of boobs are intended to be funny it doesn't make them any less gratuitous, hence my comment about Airplane. I'm going to overlook your suggestion that I review the films because I already know them off by heart... I should also point out my tongue's in my cheek most of the time and it was weird to read such a serious, sour reply to my post. There was a point apart from me not taking myself terribly seriously but you missed it completely... Moving swiftly on...

 Thank you 12 rainbow! I couldn't agree more. I was thinking of the Fetish book, Distorted Nudes and The Air Is On Fire as much as the films, if not more so. His approach to nudity and sexuality has become much darker recently and a couple of the paintings on display in Paris ('Do You Want To Know What I Think' and 'I Can Dream Can't I') were quite shocking because of the texture of the paint.

It's a shame there wasn't more of Ronette in the series. Laura's behaviour was influenced by her relationship with Bob but Ronette's motivations were never explained. It always seemed like a wasted opportunity. Especially in light of Lanagate! I thought Sheryl Lee depicted Laura's fragility beautifully in Fire Walk With Me... the scene where Leland says goodnight, her reflection in the door of the Roadhouse and her face when Ronette's angel appears...     

"Slapshot"  was my only intro to Ontkean, and he is not very memorable to say the least. 

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