David Lynch, who died yesterday at the age of 78, had a career that made him the most influential filmmaker in the history of American arthouse cinema. But his unique voice extends far beyond film, into television, music, internet fame, coffee making, furniture design, transcendental meditation and just about any other creative endeavor you can imagine. He is a brand, albeit a fiercely independent one: from his debut film, EraserheadIn 1977, Lynch became the rare artist whose last name seemed to describe an entire genre. He established a style that offered an otherworldly reflection on the way we live our lives, while blending classic Hollywood storytelling, pulp romanticism, and abstract surrealism.
Lynch's classic is so great that his many fans and followers may all have different entry points. A strange phenomenon occurred during the midnight screening Eraserhead 1970s; a terrifying mix of retro folklore and depraved sexuality blue velvet The 1980s; and the strange but incredible television phenomenon twin peaks Early 1990s. Others found him in 2001 mulholland drive, A surprising collision of Hollywood dreams, or a unique one in 2017 Twin Peaks: The Returnwhich subverted the "prestige television" format that its predecessor helped sow the seeds for. These are just some of Lynch's achievements in a body of work that spans big and small budgets, high and low. His work is also defined by his personal celebrity: He's an approachable, chain-smoking former Eagle Scout who creates highly complex art while also embracing the simple pleasures of a donut and a cup of coffee.
The first Lynch movie I saw in a theater was mulholland driveAt 15 years old, as a budding cinephile, I was only vaguely aware of the director's immense reputation and the film's winding journey to the silver screen. (It was originally intended as a television pilot, twin peaks successor ABC ultimately declined. ) mulholland drive It was an artistic thunderbolt like no other for me, and watching it for the first time may still be the most transformative experience I've ever had in a movie theater. I vividly remember my fear during an earlier scene in Winky's, in which two men discuss a dream, one of which involves some unspeakable monster in the background; and one of Lynch's many screen environments The shocking mystery of Club Silencio seems to tap into multiple realities. The film is a chilling representation of fear, trauma, and death at some points, yet hauntingly endearing and funny at other times. It opened my eyes to what movie to watch Can Yes, and not just their usual entertainment offerings.
mulholland drive As with all of the director's stories, he resists simple explanations. But at the end of the day, there's a sweet purity to many that involves the struggle of good versus evil and the harsh realities that pure souls endure. It is known that the director had a charming and normal childhood. He was born in Montana but moved across the country as a child, living in Washington, North Carolina, Idaho and Virginia at various times. Still, he later recalled moments that shattered the idyll. "When I was little, my brother and I were outdoors late one night, and we saw a naked woman walking down the street toward us, looking dazed and crying. I will never forget that moment," he once told Rowe Jay Albert, evokes a person who can be blue velvetA central piece many years later.
However, more adult life events inspired his first feature film. A quiet, quirky, dark comedy about an idiosyncratic young man working in a factory in an industrial dystopia, Eraserhead Apparently, this is how Lynch dealt with life as a parent in Philadelphia during his early years. Its protagonist struggles to raise a mutated creature while dealing with nagging in-laws and a mundane job. Most theatergoers would probably find the film off-putting - with its tinkling, crude score, beautifully cloying interludes of simple songs, and unabashedly non-narrative strangeness. Eraserhead It could have died in obscurity, but instead it became a cult film sensation, circulating at art parties, comic book stores and other underground scenes, like much of Lynch's current filmography.
Veteran comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks saw the movie and, for some reason, it resonated with him. He then hired Lynch—rather than a more objective, well-known name—to direct a program that Brooks had been nurturing, Elephant Man. It was a critically acclaimed film that garnered multiple Oscar nominations, and Lynch's rise to prominence in the industry seemed certain. His follow-up was a science fiction epic duneAdapted from the best-selling novel by Frank Herbet, Lynch claimed that he had died Return of the Jedi. But it was a box office failure that suffered artistically. The director never made another big-budget movie. Instead, once he turned to more personal obsessions, he had greater success: his next film was as surprising as it was revolting. blue velveta nasty black A fairy tale of gangsters and abuse set in a picturesque suburban town.
Lynch has taken many, many creative risks over the years, but blue velvet The film perhaps best blended brutal violence with white-picket-fence joy—a vision that became his defining feature in the public eye. The director continued to mine the rot of idealism for the rest of his career, premiering in 1990 twin peaks bringing his worldview to a wider audience. Co-created by writer Mark Frost, the ABC show was a quirky soap opera powered by a murder mystery that briefly captured the nation's imagination. twin peaks Ratings quickly burned out during its initial two-season run, but it has since become a quintessential Lynch production. The series' legacy is powered by its empathy (the raw and sincere emotion that the director could convey so perfectly) and the way it has shifted between mediums over time. twin peaks Evolving into a larger, decades-spanning project including the aggressively tragic and beautiful prequel film, Fire walks with me1992, and its confusing, hilarious, formally provocative sequel, returnpremiered 25 years later.
Later in life, Lynch broke into the digital frontier in typically unique fashion. He uses grainy digital cameras to capture California's bizarre epic inland empire Mostly on his own money; he uploads original, offbeat scenario projects and raunchy animations exclusively for his site's subscribers. The director is a brilliant marketer in his own right, despite his penchant for alienating themes and aesthetic choices: his signature non-sequitur humor and rambling sincerity have connected him and his work to generation after generation. More than many of his peers, Lynch exposes audiences to the most brutal and disturbing images while also viciously commanding them to "heal their hearts or die." If there's a cinematic poet of the American experience, it's him. The news that Lynch is leaving us is shocking only because it seemed like he would be with us forever.