Lost Highway – The Criterion Collection (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: France/USA, 1997
Director: David Lynch
Writers: David Lynch, Barry Gifford
Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Blake

Release Date: October 11th, 2022
Approximate Running Time: 134 Minutes 45 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: R
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 English, LPCM Stereo English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region A (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: $49.95

"A mesmerizing meditation on the mysterious nature of identity, Lost Highway, David Lynch’s seventh feature film, is one of the filmmaker’s most potent cinematic dreamscapes. Starring Patricia Arquette and Bill Pullman, the film expands the horizons of the medium, taking its audience on a journey through the unknown and the unknowable. As this postmodern noir detours into the realm of science fiction, it becomes apparent that the only certainty is uncertainty." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD), 4.5/5 (Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original A/B camera negative and was supervised by David Lynch."

Lost Highway comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 88.3 GB

Feature: 86.5 GB

This is a solid transfer that takes full advantage of HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression look very good, and the image retains an organic look. When compared to Lost Highway’s other home video releases, these new transfers look different. That said, being that David Lynch oversaw this new transfer, it is safe to say that this is the way he intended Lost Highway to look.

Lost Highway on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 45.7 GB

Feature: 34.3 GB

The transfer for the Blu-ray, which comes from the same new transfer supervised by David Lynch, looks great, and it is a noticeable improvement over Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray transfer.

Audio: 5/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 English), 4.75/5 (LPCM Stereo English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English and a LPCM stereo mix in English. You can’t go wrong with either audio mix. They both sound clear, balanced, and robust when they should. Also, the newly created DTS-HD 5.1 track sounds phenomenal; it does an amazing job of expanding the original stereo source. Included with this are removable English SDH.

Extras:

There are no extras on the 4K UHD disc.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a theatrical re-release trailer (55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with director David Lynch from 1997 (11 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival featurette titled The Making of Lost Highway (13 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio recording of Next Door to Dark, a chapter from Room to Dream, David Lynch’s memoir that he co-wrote with Kristine McKenna (43 minutes 39 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), Toby Keeler's feature-length documentary Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch features Lynch and his collaborators Angelo Badalamenti, Peter Deming, Barry Gifford, Mary Sweeney, and others, as well as Lost Highway on-set footage (80 minutes 39 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch outtakes (14 minutes 17 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles).

Other extras include a 30-page booklet with cast and crew credits, excerpts from an interview with Lynch from filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley’s book Lynch on Lynch, titled The Home Is A Place Where Things Can Go Wrong, and information about the transfer.

Summary:

Fred Madison: “I like to remember things my own way.”, “How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened.”

David Lynch, more than any other modern filmmaker, likes to test his audience’s patience with his complex stories that are not easy to solve the first time around. David Lynch would direct Lost Highway in 1997, which remains his most difficult film to date. With its schizophrenic narrative, Lost Highway, on the surface, looks like a series of scattered ideas that were just thrown together. When in reality, it is exactly the opposite. And in order to solve the mystery, one must listen very closely to every word of dialog being said, because the dialog, more than anything else in Lost Highway, is the key to what is going on.

The cast delivers excellent performances, particularly Patricia Arquette (True Romance) in the roles of Renee Madison and Alice Wakefield. She is utterly convincing as she creates two tangible different characters that, in some ways, are mirror images of each other. Another performance of note is Robert Blake’s (In Cold Blood) utterly terrifying portrayal of Mystery Man. This is an ominous character who more than lives up to his name.

Without a doubt, the cinematography is Lost Highway’s greatest asset. And visually, Lost Highway features some of David Lynch’s most picturesque compositions to date. The most surprising aspect of Lost Highway is how much flesh and nudity are on display. And not surprisingly, the way in which David Lynch handles these moments is never exploitative. Ultimately, Lost Highway is a film that needs to be seen several times to fully appreciate it, since there is just way too much going on to fully digest everything in one viewing.

Lost Highway gets an exceptional release from The Criterion Collection that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a wealth of insightful extras, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer