Toward the crystal: David Lynch’s Lost Highway as a path to thinking Gilles Deleuze’s cinema

Abstract

This article proposes a philosophical reading of David Lynch’s film Lost Highway (1997) in light of Gilles Deleuze’s film theory, with particular attention to the concept of the crystal-image formulated in The Time-Image. By analyzing the collapse of classical sensory-motor schemata and the emergence of crystalline images, we argue that cinema becomes a site for the creation of thought rather than mere representation. The study highlights how modern cinema breaks away from the encyclopedic drive of classical cinema, abandoning the search for truth and realism in favor of the “powers of the false” and the exploration of aberrant movements that disrupt narrative conventions. Drawing on Deleuze’s concepts of fabulation and falsification, the article demonstrates how Lynch’s fragmented narratives, temporal ruptures, and disorienting visual strategies embody a philosophy of cinema that resists judgment and embraces difference. Through the analysis of key scenes, we show how Lost Highway serves as an example of cinematic thought, where the image no longer reflects the world but creates new realities and perceptions. In this sense, the cinema of time-image reveals itself as both pedagogical and political, inviting viewers to think through images that challenge habitual ways of seeing and understanding.