Re: RARA-AVIS: Wild Things

Mark Sullivan (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Wed, 29 Jul 1998 15:10:54 -0400 (EDT) I think you're mixing up Gifford's Wild at Heart, the basis of the David
Lynch movie which was the beginning of his decline, with the movie Wld
Things, which was shot from an original script. (Also, Wild Things was
directed by John McNaughton, who did the essential Henry: Portrait of a
Serial Killer.)

I actually like Gifford quite a bit for exactly the same reasons Greg
Swan seems to dislike him. I like Gifford's matter of fact
storytelling, the aimless but fascinating just-passing-the-time dialog
between characters and its leisurely pace, where nothing much happens
until it does. That's why I thought the book was so superior to Lynch's
movie. Lynch had to graft a whole superstructure onto it (Diane Ladd,
Laura Dern's mother--in real life and in the movie--being behind the big
conspiracy that initially put Sailor into jail) that not only wasn't
needed, but betrayed the pace of the novel, which is actually just a
road trip with a lot of stops and conversation along the way.

If you like the book Wild at Heart, you will also like Sailor and Lula,
which follows up with novellas on many of the characters, including
Perdita Durango, whose story was adapted into a graphic novel in that
series Art Speigelman was editing. Speaking of which, weren't they
supposed to do an adaptation of Nightmare Alley? What ever happened
with that?

Mark

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