The Wild World of Lydia Lunch (1983) User Reviews

The Wildly Dull World of Lydia Lunch

[mphtower · 7 July 2002]

So, what the heck is the point of this thing? I like Lydia Lunch and this thing made me want to sleep. A lot. Featuring shots of her sitting in bed being grumpy with overdubs of her grumpily speaking grumpy poetry the only thing of note or interest in this film is a very cute dog. Amazingly, for a Nick Zedd film, no harm comes to the dog. Nor to Lydia Lunch.

In fact, nothing happens to, with, for, around, or near young Miss Lunch throughout the 18+ hours of this film. Or so. I think it's about 20 minutes.

At the least, in Right Side of My Brain, aside from the uncomfortable J.G. Thirlwell scene, we get to see Hank Rollins whap her upside the head. Not at all meant to be misogynistic (thought the film is), but at least it's something.

Lame...

[EVOL666 · 2/10 · 2 January 2008]

There's really nothing at all interesting, good, or otherwise worth watching in this Nick Zedd short. I'll keep this one SUPER brief.

THE WILD WORLD OF LYDIA LUNCH consists of 20 minutes of mostly really dark, almost black shots of Lydia Lunch and then some scenes of her walking the streets or hangin' out in a park or whatever, along with spoken-word drabness that I can't tell if it's some sort of "letter" or poem - either way - it's far too long and drawn out (not to mention dull...) to give a sh!t about. This goes on for about 10 minutes, and then there's 10 or so more minutes of Lunch doing more walking around, set to some weird, drony, and extremely annoying music...

I don't know if this was supposed to be some sort of "poetic" type thing or what - but it was really nothing but a 10-minute rant with no real purpose that I could discern, other than to hear Lydia Lunch ramble on and complain about stuff - and then 10 minutes of bad music. If that sounds good to you - peep this one out. If not there's nothing at all of note here other than the fact that Lydia is pretty hot in that ragged-out and depressed pre-goth/punk sorta way - but since she ain' nekkid in any of it, that doesn't count for much...2/10

A good example of Nick Zedd's uncompromising art.

[erskine-bridge · 7/10 · 12 February 2018]

I note that the other reviewers of this short film are less than enthusiastic about it. I can understand that it's not immediately accessible and has a non-conventional structure, but don't let that put you off. For what it's worth, I enjoyed this. Zedd is a legend among no-budget directors and he has a particular aesthetic that is designed to be confrontational. In this film he moves beyond confrontation to produce something that made me feel genuinely sombre and wistful.

Some background - to make this film, Zedd followed Lunch to the British Isles and spent a month in London and Ireland following her around with a camera, basically filming their breakup. The voice-over that Lunch provides at the start of the film was her "fuck-off-and-leave-me-alone recording" that she had taped and mailed to Zedd when he was still in the US. I find the voice-over very revealing of Lunch's mental state at the time, but it's interesting to hear that she is still enough of a spoken word artist to make it so eloquently bitter and darkly humorous. While on camera, Lunch clearly doesn't want to be filmed and her scowling, sulky expression and dark gothic demeanour throughout the film contrasts strangely with the suburban and rural British locations. There is one great incongruous scene where Lunch is pushing a small boy on a swing that conjures up feelings of loss and yearning for me. You really sense that neither Zedd nor Lunch are at all in a happy place during the making of this.

The fact that Zedd travelled all that way too make it after being told he wasn't welcome at all says a lot about him as a film maker. Lunch has said of him - "That he was bold enough to come and track me down anyway is a testament to his stubborn dedication to his art." For me that's exactly what this film is - a testament to Zedd's stubborn dedication to his art.