Certainly David Lynch’s most moving film. “A True Story” returns to the cinema in a splendid restored 4K version. This sublime and poignant feature film is absolutely unmissable.
Released in theaters on November 3, 1999, A True Story returned to cinemas on February 21 thanks to Carlotta, who gave David Lynch’s feature film a 4K facelift! As a reminder, this poignant story follows the character of Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old veteran played by the late Richard Farnsworth. The latter lives with his daughter Rose (Sissi Spacek) in a small town in Iowa.
When he learns that his brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has been the victim of an attack, the old man decides to reconnect with him, after ten years of silence. Despite his problematic health, Alvin is determined to undertake the long journey that separates him from his brother. Deprived of a driving license because of his poor eyesight, he will have to travel several hundred kilometers on his lawn mower.
A slow and contemplative road movie
“This road movie shot at 7 km per hour, celebrating the majesty of the landscapes of the Midwest, is a priori far removed from Lynchian themes and motifs. However, A True Story can be seen as the B side of his cinema, the one where Lynch’s usual places and characters would this time be exposed to the light.”
“It is another facet of the United States that it shows, that of Americana, of wide open spaces, populated by ‘simple’ men and women sharing among themselves values of fraternity and solidarity. An invitation to contemplation and beauty.”underlines the distributor Carlotta Films.
Indeed, after the enigmatic Lost Highway, David Lynch took everyone by surprise with this story of indescribable sweetness and disarming tenderness. This story of an old man with a broken heart taking to the road on a lawnmower to reconcile with his brother is the antithesis of the habits of a director like David Lynch, who has rather accustomed us to convoluted and esoteric stories like in Twin Peaks.
Carlotta Films
David Lynch upset
Based on a true story recounted in an article in the New York Times, the feature film is produced and written by Mary Sweeney, who acquired the rights to this story in 1998. The latter had her companion read the script, who is other than David Lynch!
“When reading the script, I started to feel things. Emotions coming from a scene, a word, a look”, explains the director. Upset, he takes this story so much to heart that he decides to adapt it for the cinema himself.
An inhabited actor
The lead actor, Richard Farnsworth, aged 78 at the time of filming in late 1998, starred in the film while ill. Knowing he was condemned, he ended his life in October 2000, after obtaining an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his performance. He was then 80 years old, becoming the oldest candidate in his category.
Carlotta Films
Richard Farnsworth
“Richard Farnsworth, in A True Story, did a wonderful job. He didn’t need to act. He was straight and true”, Quentin Tarantino would later confide about the actor. The film returned to theaters on February 21 in a restored 4K version supervised by David Lynch himself.