New York Post 1999
By LIZ SMITH
 
1999 was a year when directors famous for one type of movie made films in another genre. First, there was Wes Craven's "Music of the Heart" -- a radical departure for this king of horror (the "Scream" movies, etc.) Unfortunately for Wes, the most significant aspect of his schmaltzy violin teacher drama was that it received decidedly mixed reviews. The only music at the box office was a dirge. The next time Miramax has Madonna on tap for a movie, and she says, "I don't think this is going to work as it is," maybe they should listen, rather than going with another more "cooperative" actress. (Meryl Streep, in this case.)
 
The year's other breakthrough effort has been more successful: David Lynch's lovely "The Straight Story," a fact-based, G-rated Disney release about an elderly man who takes a slow tractor ride across country to visit his brother after he learns of his sibling's stroke. The old man, played magnificently by Richard Farnsworth, cannot walk without the aid of two canes, cannot see well enough to hold a driver's license and has little cash. So the tractor, a rickety, ornery thing, is his only option. Sissy Spacek, also marvelous, plays the man's daughter. Talk about a film imbued with a reverence for life, pride and the beauty of experience and old age. That this exquisite slice of mid-American reality comes from the director of "Blue Velvet," "Dune," "Eraserhead" and "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," seems utterly amazing.
 
And yet, after talking with Lynch, it seems not so amazing after all. The Montana native and I met at the Four Seasons hotel here. He is tall and distinguished-looking, with a marvelous head of steel-gray hair.
 
"It was my partner, Mary Sweeney, who wrote and produced the movie, who first came across the story in The New York Times," says Lynch. "She was fixated by the tale, and eventually wrote a screenplay and said she saw it as a film for me. I kept insisting it was not my thing. If I said '˜No way' once, I said it a thousand times. But she is persuasive, obviously."
 
So how was making this movie different from his other, more outré offerings? "Not very, really. I was dealing with much earthier, far more realistic material than I often do, but the process is the same. Films are parts of a story. Each part talks to you. After you have had the 'conversation,' so to speak, then you arrange the story. In 'The Straight Story' I wanted to convey the importance of time, sounds and silence. And I hope it inspires others to tell the histories of older people. These are critical stories of our times, illuminating, and too often lost." Lynch paused. "Disney loves the film. It's playing in about 150 theaters." Do you have Oscar hopes, I asked? "I'm hoping fate smiles on it," Lynch replied gently.
 
Talk of Oscar reminded the director, who paints and writes music between films, of his most memorable experience at the Academy Awards, when he was up for "Blue Velvet."
 
"I lost, of course," laughs Lynch, "to Oliver Stone. And so I had to sit there and watch Elizabeth Taylor hand Oliver his Oscar and kiss him. That was my big beef, not getting kissed by Elizabeth Taylor. Later, at Swifty Lazar's party, Anjelica Huston brought me over to meet her dad, John. Well, who's sitting next to him but Elizabeth Taylor. She looked fantastic in this really low-cut gown. She said, "I loved "Blue Velvet"!' And I said, '˜Well, the worst thing about losing was not kissing you.' With that, she threw her head back, closed her eyes, and allowed me to kiss her full on those luscious pillow lips. I didn't mind losing at all, after that. And yes, I'd love to work with her someday."
 
Miss Taylor would be in good hands with this guy.