Stefan Malesevic
Just the idea, the concept of having Lynch do commercial work sounded interesting enough for me to see the film. It was a bad decision. The film is awful and bears nothing Lynch-like to it. It feels like a 15-year-old is trying to do his vision of what Lynch is and fails at making even a recognizable copy. The fact that the whole thing is a commercial and that the ubiquitous Dior with its bags stings your eyes is actually far from being the worst problem of this film. The plot is so contrived. The acting is terrible, the whole thing is edited like a student film, and hits on so many clichés one must try to justify Lynch by saying he actually made fun of them while taking their money. All is there: silly flashbacks, slow-motion disappearance of a lover as the endless love-yous are being uttered, cheesy Instagram-like sequences of blurry images... I just couldn't believe my eyes, really.
leplatypus
This short movie (or long ads) could be played as a synthesis of Lynch movies as we can find all his personal world : the woman in danger / in love, the hotel, the investigators, the dreams, the red curtain, the mysterious box, the blue rose
What's really excellent here is that Lynch goes to Asia and it's a wonderful change from small town, USA. Furthermore, he is always the master in visual filmmaking and his use of this ultra fast camera allows him to deliver amazing shots with the neon in the nights ! That's why he is great : he is the only one to have the intuition to do that ! However, what's awful here is the cast of Cotillard ! I have never really understood why all the praises for such a bad, sad, actress ! Next, for an artist, doing is craft in order to sell goods, even if it's Dior and particularly if it's Dior, is just like losing own's soul ! Today, brands use their money to attract « celebrities » and use their « glamor » to vampire their goods : everyone thinks it's good, well not me !
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
I really love Marion Cotillard and her being in a David Lynch movie could be truly something special, even if it only goes for 15 minutes. This is part of Cotillard's Dior campaign, where each film represents one color. This one about the color blue is actually the longest of them. However, there really wasn't that much focus on the color as I thought there would be. Obviously the rose in the end, then maybe the blue tower and the lights of the cameras, but that's pretty much it. I guess Lynch didn't really know how to use the color best, so he simply used the rose in the end.A woman comes to her hotel room, but music is running and somebody must have been there as there is an item in her room which doesn't belong there. The woman is worried and calls security only to tell them the story of her and her significant other. I have to say the mystery parts early on were solid, but when this turned into a film about Cotillard and her Asian friend, it really got worse. What a shame. I truly wanted this to be better. I have to say, I even enjoyed Cotillard's one minute comedy short "Forehead Tittaes" from 2010 even more. "Lady Blue Shanghai", not recommended.
Luciano Marzo
David Lynch's new short is only 16 minutes but it's really good. It is everything you would expect from him, it is dreamy, surreal, and visually hypnotic. I have yet to see Inland Empire but I was not that impressed with his output over the last decade. Mulholland Drive was pretty good, but I didn't like the online releases very much. I think Lady Blue Shanghai shows promise for the rest of Lynch's career. Hopefully he will release some more shorts like this and maybe even a movie or two. I hope he does soon, I really enjoy his works. He has so much potential as a director, it's disappointing that he has been in a moderately dormant stage for the past few years. I think that Lady Blue Shanghai is Lynch's best short ever, and he has some very good shorts, such as The Alphabet, Lumiere, and Absurda. All of those were good, but this is even better. It's probably the most dream-like piece I've ever seen him do, and that's really saying something. If you are a David Lynch fan I would recommend you watch this right now. If you like his style then you will probably enjoy this a lot. If you're fairly new to David Lynch but are interested, I still suggest you watch it. It's really good and I hope to see more like it.