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Rabbits (c) D.R.

By employing Rabbits rather than Humans, it creates a homogenisation of the imagery, this works well in Lynch’s favour as it denudes the characters of all familiar characteristics and identification and therefore forces the audience to focus on and evaluate the mechanics of construction. This alienating device makes the narrative rather than the characters the focal point of interest. We can now enter the world of the metaphysical and concentrate on the structure of the presentation.

As of this writing Rabbits has aired eight episodes of an ongoing series (Lynch has not divulged the exact number of episodes which will comprise the full set), which lasts approximately five minutes each. As with a great deal of Lynch’s works, Rabbits is not easy to encapsulate in narrative terms. It may superficially be mimicking the sitcom genre but themes of alienation and connection are the nucleus of this intriguing representation of metaphysics. Ever since his debut feature film Eraserhead, his body of work has been evolving into an ever complex fracturing of the human psyche. Lynch’s psychological excursions into inner space have always been a thematic concern for him (see the polarisation of opposites in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks) but it is with the recent movies Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive that he has expanded and taken identity crises into blurred unconfined terrains.

  Rabbits (c) D.R.

The tag line that describes Rabbits  on www.davidlynch.com is “In a nameless city, deluged by continuous rain, three rabbits live with a fearful mystery”. Mysteries are of course a quintessential theme that enables him to evade narrative resolution and concentrate on mood and atmosphere. The setting of this living room is very minimalist (keeping in fashion with Lynch’s real life interior décor) with only a few requisite props to pad out the ambience : a sofa, a telephone, a lampshade and an ironing board. This décor gives the appearance of a theatrical presentation and suits the subtext of artificiality and existentialism. These limitations form an artistic challenge for Lynch, who has gone on record as saying he enjoys restrictions as they help to create an artistic environment to work under (7). To this purpose Lynch has always been a master at magnifying and enhancing the dynamics of a room and giving it mood. (Take for example the scene in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks in which Laura Palmer’s school friends become aware of her death : Lynch focuses his camera on her empty classroom chair, and with a combination of sounds that resemble the wind, wonderful acting and skilful editing, her absence is conveyed to her colleagues in a subtle and profound way). In Rabbits, Lynch embraces the constraints of a singular set design and imbues every move, every utterance with loaded meaning. This situation has been dealt with before in two episodes of the claustrophobic Hotel Room written by his Lost Highway writing partner Barry Gifford for HBO television, but here in Rabbits he really takes the ball and runs. In the book Lynch On Lynch, he states that “As soon as you capture some space and design how the shape of it is, moods start occurring, lights start playing on the wall, and just to see it happening is unbelievable !(8). Shortly in Rabbits, the viewer will bear witness to the economical skill in which Lynch utilises, explores and opens up the limitations of confined space : he achieves this feat by creating an eerie atmosphere with sound, light, shadows, dialogue, repetitious body movements and pacing.