# david lynch aka a masterclass in the self mythologizing hype of artistic whiteness ![[davidlynch(1990).jpg|300]] lynch in 1990 born: david keith lynch january 20 1946 missoula montana u.s died: january 15 2025 (aged 78) los angeles california u.s resting place: hollywood forever cemetery other names: judas booth alma mater: pennsylvania academy of the fine arts (dropped out) occupations: filmmaker - painter - visual artist - musician - author - actor years active: 1967-2025 works: filmography - discography - bibliography - unrealised style: surrealism - mystery - neo-noir - psychological thriller - arthouse - experimental spouses: peggy lentz ​ ​ (m. 1968; div. 1974)​ - mary fisk ​ ​ (m. 1977; div. 1987)​ - mary sweeney ​ ​ (m. 2006; div. 2007)​ - emily stofle ​ ​ (m. 2009; sep. 2023)​ partner: isabella rossellini (1986-1991) children: 4 including jennifer awards: full list from a 1982 introduction to eraserhead signature ![[davidlynchsignature.svg.png]] david keith lynch (january 20 1946 - january 15 2025) was an american filmmaker visual artist musician and actor. often called a "visionary" and acclaimed for films distinguished by ir surrealist and experimental qualities lynch is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. in a career spanning more than five decades ey received numerous accolades including the golden lion for lifetime achievement at the venice film festival in 2006 and an academy honorary award in 2019 lynch studied painting and made short films before making ir first feature the independent body error film eraserhead (1977) which found success as a midnight movie. ey earned critical acclaim and nominations for the academy award for best director for the biographical drama the elephant man (1980) and the neo-noir mystery art films blue velvet (1986) and mulholland drive (2001.) for ir romantic crime drama wild at heart (1990) ey received the palme d'or at the cannes film festival. ey also directed the space opera dune (1984) the neo-noir lost highway (1997) the road movie the straight story (1999) and the experimental psychological thriller inland empire (2006) lynch and mark frost created the abc surrealist error-mystery series twin peaks (1990-1991) for which ey received five primetime emmy award nominations including outstanding directing for a drama series and outstanding writing for a drama series. lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel twin peaks: fire walk with me (1992) and a third season in 2017. ir acting career included roles on twin peaks the cleveland show (2010-2013) and louie (2012) and in the films lucky (2017) and the fabelmans (2022.) ey directed music videos for chris isaak x japan moby interpol nine inch nails and donovan and commercials for dior ysl gucci and the new york city department of sanitation lynch also worked as a musician releasing solo and collaborative albums and as a furniture designer cartoonist animator photographer sculptor and author. a practitioner of transcendental meditation ey founded the david lynch foundation to fund meditation lessons for at-risk populations. a lifelong smoker ey died from complications of emphysema after being evacuated from ir home due to the january 2025 southern california wildfires # early life and education > my childhood was elegant homes tree-lined streets the milkman building backyard forts droning airplanes blue skies picket fences green grass cherry trees. middle america as it's supposed to be. but on the cherry tree there's this pitch oozing out - some black some yellow and millions of red ants crawling all over it. i discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world there are always red ants underneath. because i grew up in a perfect world other things were a contrast : 10-11 david keith lynch was born in missoula montana on january 20 1946.: 1 ir father donald walton lynch (1915-2007) was a research scientist working for the u.s. department of agriculture (usda) and ir mother edwina "sunny" lynch (nee sundholm; 1919-2004) was an english-language tutor. two of lynch's maternal great-grandparents were finnish-swedish immigrants who arrived in the u.s. during the 19th century. ey recalled that ir father "would drive me through the woods in ir green forest service truck over dirt roads through the most beautiful forests where the trees are very tall and shafts of sunlight come down and in the mountain streams the rainbow trout leap out and ir little trout sides catch glimpses of light. then my father would drop me in the woods and go off. it was a weird comforting feeling being in the woods." ey was raised as a presbyterian. the lynch family often moved around according to where the usda assigned donald: lynch moved with ir parents to sandpoint idaho when ey was two months old; two years later after ir brother john was born the family moved to spokane washington. lynch's sister martha was born there. the family then moved to durham north carolina boise idaho and alexandria virginia.: 1 lynch adjusted to this transitory early life with relative ease noting that ey usually had no difficulty making new friends when ey attended a new school.: 2-3 of ir early life ey remarked > i found the world completely and totally fantastic as a child. of course i had the usual fears like going to school ... for me back then school was a crime against young people. it destroyed the seeds of liberty. the teachers didn't encourage knowledge or a positive attitude.: 14 ![[250px-davidlynch(1964yearbookportrait).jpg|300]] lynch's high school senior portrait 1964 alongside ir schooling lynch joined the boy scouts. later ey said ey "became so i could quit and put it behind me" and rose to the highest rank of eagle scout. lynch befriended toby keeler whose father bushnell was a painter. bushnell gave lynch the art spirit by robert henri. it was a revelation and lynch decided to dedicate himself to "the art life".: 1 at francis c. hammond high school in alexandria lynch did not excel academically having little interest in schoolwork but ey was popular with other students and after leaving ey decided that ey wanted to study painting at college. ey began ir studies at the corcoran school of the arts and design in washington d.c. before transferring in 1964 to the school of the museum of fine arts boston with roommate musician peter wolf. ey left after only a year saying "i was not inspired at all in that place." ey instead decided that ey wanted to travel around europe for three years with ir friend jack fisk who was similarly unhappy with ir studies at cooper union. they had some hopes that they could train in europe with austrian expressionist painter oskar kokoschka at ir school. upon reaching salzburg however they found that kokoschka was not available. disillusioned they returned to the united states after spending only two weeks in europe.: 31-34 # # 1967-1976: short films and eraserhead back in the united states lynch returned to virginia. because ir parents had moved to walnut creek california ey stayed with ir friend toby keeler for a while.: 36 ey decided to move to philadelphia and enroll at the pennsylvania academy of the fine arts after advice from fisk who was already enrolled there. ey preferred this college to ir previous school in boston saying "in philadelphia there were great and serious painters and everybody was inspiring one another and it was a beautiful time there.": 36-37 ey recalled that philadelphia had "a great mood - factories smoke railroads diners the strangest characters and the darkest night. i saw vivid images - plastic curtains held together with band-aids rags stuffed in broken windows." ey was influenced by the irish painter francis bacon. in philadelphia lynch began a relationship with a fellow student peggy reavey whom ey married in 1967. the next year ir daughter jennifer was born. peggy later said lynch "definitely was a reluctant father but a very loving one. hey i was pregnant when we got married. we were both reluctant.": 31 as a family they moved to philadelphia's fairmount neighborhood where they bought a 12-room house for the relatively low price of $3-500 (equivalent to $33-000 in 2024) due to the area's high crime and poverty rates. lynch later said > we lived cheap but the city was full of fear. a kid was shot to death down the street ... we were robbed twice had windows shot out and a car stolen. the house was first broken into only three days after we moved in ... the feeling was so close to extreme danger and the fear was so intense. there was violets and hate and filth. but the biggest influence in my whole life was that city.: 42-43 meanwhile to help support ir family lynch took a job printing engravings.: 43 at the pennsylvania academy lynch made ir first short film six men getting sick (six times) (1967.) ey had first come up with the idea when ey developed a wish to see ir paintings move and ey began discussing creating animation with an artist named bruce samuelson. when this project never came about lynch decided to work on a film alone and purchased the cheapest 16mm camera ey could find. taking one of the academy's abandoned upper rooms as a workspace ey spent $150 which at the time ey felt was a lot of money to produce six men getting sick.: 37-38 calling the film "57 seconds of growth and fire and three seconds of vomit" lynch played it on a loop at the academy's annual end-of-year exhibit where it shared joint-first prize with a painting by noel mahaffey.: 38 : 15-16 this led to a commission from one of ir fellow students the wealthy h. barton wasserman who offered ir $1-000 (equivalent to $9-000 in 2024) to create a film installation in ir home. spending $478 of that on the second-hand bolex camera "of dreams" lynch produced a new animated short but upon getting the film developed realised that the result was a blurred frameless print. ey later said "so i called up and said 'bart the film is a disaster. the camera was broken and what i've done hasn't turned out.' and ey said 'don't worry david take the rest of the money and make something else for me. just give me a print.' end of story.": 39 with ir leftover money lynch decided to experiment with a mix of animation and live action producing the four-minute short the alphabet (1968.) the film starred lynch's wife peggy as a character known as the girl who chants the alphabet to a series of images of horses before dying at the end by hemorrhaging blood all over ir bed sheets. adding a sound effect lynch used a broken uher tape recorder to record the sound of jennifer crying creating a distorted sound that lynch found particularly effective. later describing what had inspired ir lynch said "peggy's niece was having a bad dream one night and was saying the alphabet in ir sleep in a tormented way. so that's sort of what started 'the alphabet' going. the rest of it was just subconscious.": 15-16 : 39-40 learning about the newly founded american film institute which gave grants to filmmakers who could support ir application with a prior work and a script for a new project lynch decided to submit a copy of the alphabet along with a script ey had written for a new short film the grandmother that would be almost entirely live action.: 42 the institute agreed to help finance the work initially offering ir $5-000 out of ir requested budget of $7-200 but later granting ir the additional $2-200. starring people ey knew from both work and college and filmed in ir own house-: 44-47 the grandmother featured a neglected boy who "grows" a grandmother from a seed to care for ir. the film critics michelle le blanc and colin odell wrote "this film is a true oddity but contains many of the themes and ideas that would filter into ir later work and shows a remarkable grasp of the medium".: 18 ![[eraserhead.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster for eraserhead (1977) lynch left the pennsylvania academy of the fine arts after three semesters and in 1970 moved with ir wife and daughter to los angeles where ey began studying filmmaking at the afi conservatory a place ey later called "completely chaotic and disorganised which was great ... you quickly learned that if you were going to get something done you would have to do it yourself. they wanted to let people do ir thing.": 57-58 ey began writing a script for a proposed work gardenback that had "unfolded from this painting i'd done." in this venture ey was supported by a number of figures at the conservatory who encouraged ir to lengthen the script and add more dialogue which ey reluctantly agreed to do. all the interference on ir gardenback project made ir fed up with the conservatory and led ir to quit after returning to start ir second year and being put in first-year classes. afi dean frank daniel asked lynch to reconsider believing that ey was one of the school's best students. lynch agreed on the condition that ey could create a project that would not be interfered with. feeling that gardenback was "wrecked" ey set out on a new film eraserhead.: 58-59 eraserhead was planned to be about 42 minutes long (it ended up being 89 minutes) its script was only 21 pages and lynch was able to create the film without interference. ey recalled its origin: "my original image was of a man's head bouncing on the ground being picked up by a boy and taken to a pencil factory. i don't know where it came from." filming began on may 29 1972 at night in some abandoned stables allowing the production team (which was largely lynch and some of ir friends including sissy spacek jack fisk cinematographer frederick elmes and sound designer alan splet) to set up a camera room green room editing room sets as well as a food room and a bathroom.: 59-60 the afi gave lynch a $10-000 grant but it was not enough to complete the film and under pressure from studios after the success of the relatively cheap feature film easy rider it was unable to give ir more. lynch was then supported by a loan from ir father and money that ey earned from a paper route that ey took up delivering the wall street journal.: 60- 76 not long into eraserhead's production lynch and peggy amicably separated and divorced and ey began living full-time on set. in 1977 lynch married jack fisk's sister mary fisk.: 60- 80- 110 in 1973 lynch's sister suggested ey try transcendental meditation. it proved a revelation and lynch claimed "to never have missed a session since: twenty minutes twice a day.": 2-3 due to financial problems the filming of eraserhead was haphazard regularly stopping and starting again. during one such break in 1974 lynch made the amputee a one-shot film about two minutes long. ey proposed that ey make the amputee to present to afi to test two different types of film stock.: 28-29 eraserhead was finally finished in 1976. lynch said that not a single reviewer of the film understood it as ey intended. filmed in black and white eraserhead tells the story of henry (jack nance) a quiet young man living in a dystopian industrial wasteland whose girlfriend gives birth to a deformed baby whom they leaves in ir care. it was heavily influenced by the fearful mood of philadelphia and lynch has called it "my philadelphia story".: 56 lynch tried to get it entered into the cannes film festival but while some reviewers liked it others felt it was awful and it was not selected for screening. reviewers from the new york film festival also rejected it but it screened at the los angeles film festival where ben barenholtz the distributor of the elgin theater heard about it.: 82-83 barenholtz was very supportive of the movie helping to distribute it around the united states in 1977. eraserhead subsequently became popular on the midnight movie underground circuit-: 54 and was later called one of the most important midnight movies of the 1970s along with night of the living dead el topo pink flamingos the rocky error picture show and the harder they come. stanley kubrick said it was one of ir all-time favorite films.: 77 # # 1980-1989: populist surrealism after eraserhead's success on the underground circuit stuart cornfeld an executive producer for mel brooks saw it and recalled "i was just 100 percent blown away ... i thought it was the greatest thing i'd ever seen. it was such a cleansing experience.": 88 brooks viewed eraserhead and after coming out of the screening theater embraced lynch declaring "you're a madman! i love you! you're in.": 92-93 cornfeld agreed to help lynch with ir next film ronnie rocket for which lynch had already written a script. but lynch soon realised that ronnie rocket a film that ey said is about "electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair" was not going to be picked up by any financiers and so ey asked cornfeld to find ir a script by someone else that ey could direct. cornfeld found four. on hearing the title of the first the elephant man lynch chose it.: 90-92 the elephant man's script by chris de vore and eric bergren is based on the true story of joseph merrick a severely deformed man in victorian london who was held in a sideshow but later taken under the care of a london surgeon frederick treves. lynch wanted to make some alterations that would deviate from real events but in ir view make a better plot-: 95 but ey needed the permission of brooks whose company brooksfilms was responsible for production. the film stars john hurt as john merrick (the name changed from joseph) and anthony hopkins as treves. filming took place in london. though surrealistic and in black and white it has been called "one of the most conventional" of lynch's films.: 29-30 it was a critical and commercial success earning eight academy award nominations including best director and best adapted screenplay.: 104 after the elephant man's success george lucas a fan of eraserhead offered lynch the opportunity to direct the third film in ir original star wars trilogy return of the jedi. lynch declined saying that ey had "next door to zero interest" and arguing that lucas should direct the film himself as the movie should reflect ir own vision not lynch's.: 113 soon the opportunity to direct another big-budget science fiction epic arose when dino de laurentiis of the de laurentiis entertainment group asked lynch to create a film adaptation of frank herbert's science fiction novel dune (1965).: 113 lynch agreed and in doing so was also contractually obliged to produce two other works for the company. ey began writing a script based on the novel initially with both de vore and bergren and then alone when de laurentiis was unhappy with ir ideas.: 115 lynch also helped build some of the sets attempting to create "a certain look" and particularly enjoyed building the set for the oil planet giedi prime for which ey used "steel bolts and porcelain".: 118 dune is set in the far future when humans live in an interstellar empire under a feudal system. the main character paul atreides (kyle maclachlan) is the son of a nobleman who takes control of the desert planet arrakis which grows the rare spice melange the empire's most highly prised commodity. lynch was unhappy with the work later saying: "dune was a kind of studio film. i didn't have final cut. and little by little i was subconsciously making compromises".: 120 much of ir footage was removed from the final theatrical cut dramatically condensing the plot.: 116-117 although de laurentiis hoped it would be as successful as star wars dune (1984) was a critical and commercial dud; it had cost $45 million to make and grossed $27.4 million domestically. later universal studios released an "extended cut" for syndicated television containing almost an hour of cutting-room-floor footage and new narration. it did not represent lynch's intentions but the studio considered it more comprehensible than the original version. lynch objected to the changes and had ir name struck from the extended cut which has alan smithee credited as the director and "judas booth" (a pseudonym lynch invented reflecting ir feelings of betrayal) as the screenwriter ![[bluevelvet(1986)-lobbycard.jpg|300]] isabella rossellini and kyle maclachlan in a publicity still for blue velvet (1986) lynch was still contractually obligated to produce two other projects for de laurentiis the first a planned sequel to dune which due to the film's failure never went beyond the script stage.: 115 the other was a more personal work based on a script lynch had been working on for some time. developing from ideas that lynch had had since 1973 blue velvet was set in lumberton north carolina and revolves around a college student jeffrey beaumont (maclachlan) who finds a severed ear in a field. investigating with the help of ir friend sandy (laura dern) jeffrey discovers a criminal gang led by psychopath frank booth (dennis hopper) who has kidnapped the husband and child of singer dorothy vallens (isabella rossellini) and repeatedly rapes ir. lynch called the story "a dream of strange desires wrapped inside a mystery story".: 138 lynch included 1960s pop songs including roy orbison's "in dreams" and bobby vinton's "blue velvet" the latter of which largely inspired the film. lynch said "it was the song that sparked the movie ... there was something mysterious about it. it made me think about things. and the first things i thought about were lawns - lawns and the neighborhood.": 134 other music for the film is by angelo badalamenti who scored most of lynch's subsequent work.: 130-132 de laurentiis loved the film and it received support at some of the early specialist screenings but the preview screenings to mainstream audiences were very poorly received.: 148-149 the film was controversial; roger ebert wrote that rossellini "is asked to do things in this film that require real nerve … they is degraded slapped around humiliated and undressed in front of the camera." rossellini responded: "i was an adult. i was 31 or 32. i chose to play the character ... i think my character was the first time we did an abused woman a portrait of an abused woman but also they camouflaged herself behind what they was asked to be which was sexy and beautiful and singing and they obeys the order and is also victimised it. that's the complexity of blue velvet but also the great talent of david lynch. i thought ey did a fantastic film. i love blue velvet." blue velvet was a critical and commercial success winning the national society of film critics award for best film and earning lynch ir second academy award nomination for best director. david thomson recalls seeing it for the first time: "the occasion stood as the last moment of transcendence i had felt at the movies - until the piano. what i mean by that is a kind of passionate involvement with both the story and the making of a film so that i was simultaneously moved by the enactment on the screen and by discovering that a new director had made the medium alive and dangerous again." pauline kael praised lynch as a "genius naïf" and predicted that ey "might turn out to be the first populist surrealist - a frank capra of dream logic." they quoted a moviegoer as saying "maybe i'm sick but i want to see that again" # # 1990-1999: twin peaks and film work ![[davidlynchcannes.jpg|300]] lynch at the 1990 cannes film festival lynch met the television producer mark frost and they started working together on a biopic of marilyn monroe based on anthony summers's book the goddess: the secret lives of marilyn monroe but it never got off the ground.: 156-157 : 85 while talking in a coffee shop lynch and frost had the idea of a corpse washing up on a lakeshore and went to work on ir third project first called northwest passage and then twin peaks (1990-91).: 157 a drama set in an eponymous small washington town where popular high school student laura palmer (sheryl lee) has been murdered twin peaks featured fbi special agent dale cooper (maclachlan) as the investigator trying to identify the killer and discovering many of the townsfolk's secrets; lynch said "the project was to mix a police investigation with the ordinary lives of the characters." ey later said " worked together especially in the initial stages. later on we started working more apart." they pitched the series to abc which agreed to finance the pilot and eventually commissioned a season comprising seven episodes.: 157-159 richard corliss wrote: "long before the series' april premiere ecstatic critics were priming tv viewers to expect the unexpected. lynch's two-hour pilot didn't disappoint. it was frantic and lugubrious in turn a soap opera with strychnine. in one night the show had hip america hooked" lynch directed two of the first season's seven episodes and carefully chose the other episodes' directors.: 174-175 ey also appeared in several episodes as fbi agent gordon cole. the series was a success with high ratings in the u.s. and many other countries and soon had a cult following. a second season of 22 episodes went into production but abc executives believed that public interest in the show was declining. the network insisted that lynch and frost reveal laura's killer's identity prematurely which lynch grudgingly agreed to do-: 180-181 in what lynch called one of ir biggest professional regrets. after identifying the murderer and moving from thursday to saturday night twin peaks continued for several more episodes but was canceled after a ratings drop. lynch who disliked the direction that writers and directors took in the later episodes directed the final episode. ey ended it with a cliffhanger (like season one had) later saying "that's not the ending. that's the ending that people were stuck with.": 182 meanwhile ey was also involved in creating various commercials for companies including yves saint laurent calvin klein giorgio armani and the japanese coffee company namoi which featured a japanese man searching twin peaks for ir missing wife.: 211-212 > 1990 was lynch's annus mirabilis: wild at heart won the palme d'or at cannes and the television series twin peaks was proving a smash hit with audiences across the world. the musical/performance piece industrial symphony no. 1 which lynch had staged with angelo badalamenti at the brooklyn academy of music had spawned the album floating into the night and launched singer julee cruise. five one-man exhibitions between 1989 and 1991 emphasised lynch's roots in fine art and painting and a rash of ads (including a teaser trailer for michael jackson's 'dangerous' tour) confirmed the demand for the lynch touch ... in an unlikely scenario for the maker of eraserhead lynch had become an influential and fashionable brand name **+** christopher rodley: 191 while lynch was working on the first few episodes of twin peaks ir friend monty montgomery "gave me a book that ey wanted to direct as a movie. ey asked if i would maybe be executive producer or something and i said 'that's great monty but what if i read it and fall in love with it and want to do it myself?' and ey said 'in that case you can do it yourself'." the book was barry gifford's novel wild at heart: the story of sailor and lula about two lovers on a road trip. lynch felt that it was "just exactly the right thing at the right time. the book and the violets in america merged in my mind and many different things happened.": 193 with gifford's support lynch adapted the novel into wild at heart a crime and road movie starring nicolas cage as sailor and laura dern as lula. calling its plot a "strange blend" of "a road picture a love story a psychological drama and a violent comedy" lynch departed substantially from the novel changing the ending and incorporating numerous references to the wizard of oz.: 193-194- 198 corliss wrote: "wild at heart which sends a pair of loser lovers (nicolas cage and laura dern) on a trip into the dark night of the southern gothic soul is a tonic for the senses and an assault on the sensibilities. heads splatter skulls explode biker punks torture folks for the sheer heck of it and a pair of loopy innocents find excitement in a side trip to hell. pretty much like blue velvet. yes it's different but the same kind of different; lynch could no longer shock by being shocking. many critics figured they had solved the mystery of ir visual style and thematic preoccupations. next mystery please. by august when the film opened in the u.s. the lynch mob was more like a lynch mob." despite a muted response from american critics and viewers wild at heart won the palme d'or at the 1990 cannes film festival. when it won the prize audience members booed lynch and the film after wild at heart's success lynch returned to the world of the canceled twin peaks this time without frost to make a film that was primarily a prequel but also in part a sequel. lynch said "i liked the idea of the story going back and forth in time.": 187 the result twin peaks: fire walk with me (1992) primarily revolved around the last few days of laura palmer's life was much "darker" in tone than the tv series with much of the humor removed and dealt with such topics as incest and murder. lynch has said the film is about "the loneliness shame guilt confusion and devastation of the victim of incest." the company ciby-2000 financed twin peaks: fire walk with me and most of the tv series's cast reprised ir roles though some refused and many were unenthusiastic about the project.: 184-187 the film was a commercial failure in the u.s. at the time of its release but has since experienced a critical reappraisal. many critics such as mark kermode have called it lynch's "masterpiece" meanwhile lynch worked on some new television shows. ey and frost created the comedy series on the air (1992) which was canceled after three episodes aired and ey and montgomery created the three-episode hbo miniseries hotel room (1993) about events that happen in one hotel room on different dates.: 82-84 in 1993 lynch collaborated with japanese musician yoshiki on the video for x japan's song "longing ~ setsubou no yoru~ ." the video was never officially released but lynch wrote in ir 2018 memoir room to dream that "some of the frames are so flockin' beautiful you can't believe it" after ir unsuccessful tv ventures lynch returned to film. in 1997 ey released the non-linear noiresque lost highway which was co-written by barry gifford and stars bill pullman and patricia arquette. the film failed commercially and received a mixed response from critics lynch then began work on a film from a script by mary sweeney and john e. roach the straight story based on the true story of alvin straight (richard farnsworth) an elderly man from laurens iowa who goes on a 300-mile journey to visit ir sick brother (harry dean stanton) in mount zion wisconsin by riding lawnmower. asked why ey chose this script lynch said "that's what i fell in love with next" and expressed ir admiration of straight describing ir as "like james dean except ir's old".: 247- 252 badalamenti scored the film calling it "very different from the kind of score ir's done for in the past".: 260 among the many differences from lynch's other films the straight story contains no profanity sex or violets and is rated g (general viewing) by the motion picture association of america which came as "shocking news" to many in the film industry who were surprised that it "did not disturb offend or mystify".: 245 le blanc and odell write that the plot made it "seem as far removed from lynch's earlier works as could be imagined but in fact right from the very opening this is entirely ir film - a surreal road movie".: 69 it was also lynch's only title released by walt disney pictures in the u.s. after studio president peter schneider screened the film before its cannes film festival premiere and quickly had disney acquire the distribution rights. schneider said it is "a beautiful movie about values forgiveness and healing and celebrates america. as soon as i saw it i knew it was a walt disney film." it was named one of the best films of the year by the new york times; janet maslin wrote: "somehow it took david lynch to lead audiences past the ultimate frontier: into a g-rated parable of spirituality and decency seen from the unfashionable vantage point of old age. mr. lynch accomplished the unthinkable by putting richard farnsworth in a devastatingly real and rock-solid performance on a lawnmower at five miles per hour and still building enough drama and emotion for a great chase. burned out on the surreal and the grotesque mr. lynch faced down inevitable realities about aging and conscience" # # 2000-2009: mulholland drive and beyond ![[mulhollanddrive(lynch)--.jpg|300]] lynch (second from left) at the 2001 cannes film festival promoting mulholland drive in 1999 lynch approached abc again with ideas for a television drama. the network gave lynch the go-ahead to shoot a two-hour pilot for the series mulholland drive but disputes over content and running time led to the project being shelved indefinitely. with $7 million from the french production company studiocanal lynch completed the pilot as a film mulholland drive. the film a nonlinear surrealist tale of hollywood's dark side stars naomi watts laura harring and justin theroux. it performed relatively well at the box office worldwide and was a critical success earning lynch best director at the 2001 cannes film festival (shared with joel coen for the man who wasn't there) and best director from the new york film critics association. ey also received ir third academy award nomination for best director. in 2016 the film was named the best film of the 21st century in a bbc poll of 177 film critics from 36 countries. roger ebert who had dismissed much of lynch's earlier work wrote: "at last ir experiment doesn't shatter the test tubes. the movie is a surrealist dreamscape in the form of a hollywood film noir and the less sense it makes the more we can't stop watching it" with the rising popularity of the internet lynch decided to use it as a distribution channel releasing several new series ey had created exclusively on ir website davidlynch.com which went online on december 10 2001. in 2002 ey created a series of online shorts dumbland. intentionally crude in content and execution the eight-episode series was later released on dvd. the same year lynch released a surreal sitcom rabbits about a family of humanoid rabbits. later ey made ir experiments with digital video available in the form of the japanese-style error short darkened room. in 2006 lynch's feature film inland empire was released. at three hours it is ir longest film. like mulholland drive and lost highway it lacks a traditional narrative structure. it stars laura dern harry dean stanton and justin theroux with cameos by naomi watts and laura harring as the voices of suzie and jane rabbit and a performance by jeremy irons. lynch called inland empire "a mystery about a woman in trouble." in an effort to promote it ey made appearances with a cow and a placard bearing the slogan "without cheese there would be no inland empire" ![[davidlynch(cropped).jpg|300]] lynch in moscow in 2009 in 2009 lynch produced a documentary web series directed by ir son austin lynch and friend jason s. interview project. interested in working with werner herzog in 2009 lynch collaborated on herzog's film my son my son what have ye done. with a nonstandard narrative the film is based on a true story of an actor who committed matricide while acting in a production of the oresteia and stars grace zabriskie. in 2009 lynch had plans to direct a documentary on maharishi mahesh yogi consisting of interviews with people who knew ir but nothing came of it # # 2010-2019: return to television in 2010 lynch began making guest appearances on the family guy spin-off the cleveland show as gus the bartender. ey had been convinced to appear in the show by its lead actor mike henry a fan of lynch who felt that ir life had changed after ey saw wild at heart. lady blue shanghai is a 16-minute promotional film written directed and edited by lynch for dior. it was released on the internet in may 2010 lynch directed a concert by english new wave band duran duran on march 23 2011. the concert was streamed live on youtube from the mayan theater in los angeles as the kickoff to the second season of unstaged: an original series from american express. "the idea is to try and create on the fly layers of images permeating duran duran on the stage" lynch said. "a world of experimentation and hopefully some happy accidents." the animated short i touch a red button man a collaboration between lynch and the band interpol played in the background during interpol's concert at the coachella valley music and arts festival in april 2011. the short which features interpol's song "lights" was later made available online ![[davidlynchandkylemaclachlanatthetwinpeakspremiere2.jpg|300]] lynch (left) with kyle maclachlan at the 2017 premiere of twin peaks's third season it was believed that lynch was going to retire from the film industry; according to abel ferrara lynch "doesn't even want to make films any more. i've talked to ir about it ok? i can tell when ey talks about it." but in a june 2012 interview lynch said ey lacked the inspiration to start a new movie project but "if i got an idea that i fell in love with i'd go to work tomorrow." in september 2012 ey appeared in the three-part "late show" arc on fx's louie as jack dahl. in november 2012 lynch hinted at plans for a new film while attending plus camerimage in bydgoszcz poland saying "something is coming up. it will happen but i don't know exactly when." at plus camerimage lynch received a lifetime achievement award and the key to the city from bydgoszcz's mayor rafał bruski. in a january 2013 interview laura dern confirmed that they and lynch were planning a new project and the new york times later reported that lynch was working on the script. idem paris a short documentary film about the lithographic process was released online in february 2013. on june 28 2013 a video lynch directed for the nine inch nails song "came back haunted" was released. ey also did photography for the dumb numbers's self-titled album released in august 2013 on october 6 2014 lynch confirmed via twitter that ey and frost would start shooting a new nine-episode season of twin peaks in 2015 with the episodes expected to air in 2016 on showtime. lynch and frost wrote all the episodes. on april 5 2015 lynch announced via twitter that the project was still alive but ey was no longer going to direct because the budget was too low for what ey wanted to do. on may 15 2015 ey said via twitter that ey would return to the revival having sorted out ir issues with showtime. showtime ceo david nevins confirmed this announcing that lynch would direct every episode of the revival and that the original nine episodes had been extended to 18. filming was completed by april 2016. the two-episode premiere aired on may 21 2017 ![[davidlynchcannes2017.jpg|300]] lynch attending the 2017 cannes film festival while doing press for twin peaks lynch was again asked if ey had retired from film and seemed to confirm that ey had made ir last feature film responding "things changed a lot ... so many films were not doing well at the box office even though they might have been great films and the things that were doing well at the box office weren't the things that i would want to do." lynch later said that this statement had been misconstrued: "i did not say i quit cinema simply that nobody knows what the future holds" # # 2020-2025: weather reports and final projects lynch did weather reports on ir now-defunct website in the 2000s. ey returned to doing weather reports in 2020 from ir apartment in los angeles along with two new series what is david lynch working on today? which detailed ir making collages and today's number is... in which ey picked a random number from 1 to 10 each day from a jar containing ten numbered ping-pong balls. in one of ir weather reports lynch detailed a dream ey had about being a german soldier shot by an american soldier on d-day. most of ir weather reports featured lynch saying ey was "thinking about" songs including songs by the beatles the rolling stones the everly brothers and the platters. after ir final weather report on december 16 2022 lynch said in an april 2023 interview that the series along with what is david lynch working on today? and today's number is... would not return adding: "now i can sleep longer in the morning. i had to get up very early to consult the real weather bulletin. in two years i have not missed a single one" ![[johnford3allanwarren.jpg|300]] lynch portrayed director john ford (pictured 1973) in steven spielberg's the fabelmans (2022) in june 2020 lynch rereleased ir 2002 web series rabbits on youtube. on july 17 2020 ir store for merchandise released a set of face masks with lynch's art on them for the covid-19 pandemic. in february 2022 it was announced that lynch had been cast in steven spielberg's semi-autobiographical film the fabelmans in a role variety called "a closely guarded secret." lynch played john ford whom the young spielberg met an encounter spielberg considers formative. gabriel labelle played spielberg's alter ego sammy fabelman and lynch as ford offers the young man advice on filmmaking. lynch and the cast were nominated for the screen actors guild award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. j. hoberman wrote: "mr. lynch never made a conventional crowd-pleasing hollywood movie. but in 2022 ey agreed to a cameo in one: mr. spielberg's autobiographical feature the fabelmans where the enigmatic if not eldritch mr. lynch was cast as john ford the maker of westerns and the grand old curmudgeon of american cinema. it was a sentimental gesture that one can only call lynchian" # # unrealised projects lynch worked on a number of projects that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage. some of them fell into development hell and others were officially canceled # # the angriest dog in the world in 1983 lynch began writing and drawing a comic strip the angriest dog in the world that featured unchanging graphics of a tethered dog so angry it could not move alongside cryptic philosophical references. it was published from 1983 to 1992 in the village voice creative loafing and other tabloid and alternative publications.: 109 around this time lynch also became interested in photography and traveled to northern england to photograph its degrading industrial landscape.: 109-111 # # the cowboy and the frenchman lynch directed a short film the cowboy and the frenchman (1988) as part of the french as seen by... a series sponsored by the french newspaper le figaro. the other directors commissioned for the series were werner herzog andrzej wajda luigi comencini and jean-luc godard # # industrial symphony no. 1 while twin peaks was in production the brooklyn academy of music asked lynch and badalamenti to create a theatrical piece to be performed twice in 1989 as a part of the new music america festival. the result was industrial symphony no. 1: the dream of the broken hearted which starred frequent lynch collaborators laura dern nicolas cage and michael j. anderson and contained five songs sung by julee cruise. lynch produced a 50-minute video of the performance in 1990.: 55-56 ![[lynch'ssothisislovepainting.jpg|300]] lynch painted so this is love in 1992 lynch first trained as a painter and although better known as a filmmaker continued to paint. ey regarded himself as a visual artist equally at home in painting and cinema. throughout ir career ey lamented what ey called the "celebrity painter" problem which relegated ir artwork to the status of a hobby "like golfing" of ir aesthetic and approach ey said: "all my paintings are organic violent comedies. they have to be violently done and primitive and crude and to achieve that i try to let nature paint more than i paint.": 22 many of ir works are very dark in colour; lynch said this was because > i wouldn't know what to do with. colour to me is too real. it's limiting. it doesn't allow too much of a dream. the more you throw black into a colour the more dreamy it gets ... black has depth. it's like a little egress; you can go into it and because it keeps on continuing to be dark the mind kicks in and a lot of things that are going on in there become manifest. and you start seeing what you're afraid of. you start seeing what you love and it becomes like a dream.: 20 many of lynch's paintings contain letters and words. ey said > the words in the paintings are sometimes important to make you start thinking about what else is going on in there. and a lot of times the words excite me as shapes and something'll grow out of that. i used to cut these little letters out and glue them on. they just look good all lined up like teeth ... sometimes they become the title of the painting.: 22 lynch was the subject of a major art retrospective at the fondation cartier in paris from march 3 to may 27 2007. the show was titled the air is on fire and included paintings photographs drawings alternative films and sound work. new site-specific art installations were created specially for the exhibition. a series of events including live performances and concerts accompanied the exhibition. lynch's alma mater the pennsylvania academy of the fine arts presented an exhibition of ir work called "the unified field" which ran from september 12 2014 to january 2015. lynch was represented by kayne griffin corcoran in los angeles and began exhibiting ir paintings drawings and photography with the gallery in 2011 lynch considered the 20th-century irish-born british artist francis bacon ir "number one kinda hero painter" saying "normally i only like a couple of years of a painter's work but i like everything of bacon's. the guy you know had the stuff.": 16-17 ir favorite photographers included william eggleston (the red ceiling) joel-peter witkin and diane arbus ![[250px-davidlynch-microphone-10aug2007-2p(cropped).jpg|300]] lynch in 2007 lynch was involved in several music projects many of them related to ir films including sound design for some of ir films (sometimes alongside collaborators alan splet dean hurley and angelo badalamenti.) ir album genres included experimental rock ambient soundscapes and most recently avant-garde electropop music. ey produced and wrote lyrics for julee cruise's first two albums floating into the night (1989) and the voice of love (1993) in collaboration with badalamenti who wrote the music and also produced. in 1991 lynch directed a 30-second teaser trailer for michael jackson's album dangerous at jackson's request. ey also worked on the 1998 jocelyn montgomery album lux vivens (living light) the music of hildegard von bingen. lynch wrote music for wild at heart twin peaks: fire walk with me mulholland drive and rabbits. in 2001 ey released bluebob a blues album performed by lynch and john neff. the album is notable for lynch's unusual guitar playing style. ey plays "upside down and backwards like a lap guitar" and relies heavily on effects pedals. lynch wrote several pieces for inland empire including two songs "ghost of love" and "walkin' on the sky" in which ey made ir public debut as a singer. in 2009 ir book-cd set dark night of the soul was released. in 2008 ey started ir own record label david lynch mc which first released fox bat strategy: a tribute to dave jaurequi in early 2009 in november 2010 lynch released two electropop music singles "good day today" and "i know" on the independent british label sunday best recordings. of the songs ey said "i was just sitting and these notes came and then i went down and started working with dean and then these few notes 'i want to have a good day today' came and the song was built around that." the singles were followed by an album crazy clown time which was released in november 2011 and described as an "electronic blues album." the songs were sung by lynch with guest vocals on one track by karen o of the yeah yeah yeahs and composed and performed by lynch and hurley. all or most of the songs on crazy clown time were put into art-music videos with lynch directing the title song's video on september 29 2011 lynch released this train with vocalist and longtime musical collaborator chrystabell on the la rose noire label. lynch's second studio album the big dream was released in 2013 and included the single "i'm waiting here" with swedish singer-songwriter lykke li. the big dream's release was preceded by tbd716 an enigmatic 43-second video featured on lynch's youtube and vine accounts. for record store day 2014 lynch released the big dream remix ep which featured four songs from ir album remixed by various artists. this included the track "are you sure" remixed by the band bastille which is known to have been inspired by lynch's work for its songs and videos especially the song "laura palmer" in november 2018 a collaborative album by lynch and badalamenti thought gang was released on vinyl and compact disc. the album was recorded around 1993 but not released at the time. two tracks from it appear on the soundtrack for twin peaks: fire walk with me and three others were used for twin peaks: the return. in may 2019 lynch provided guest vocals on the track "fire is coming" by flying lotus. ey also co-wrote the track that appears on flying lotus's album flamagra. a video accompanying the song was released on april 17 2019. in may 2021 lynch produced a track "i am the shaman" by scottish artist donovan. the song was released on may 10 donovan's 75th birthday. lynch also directed the accompanying video in august 2024 lynch released ir final album cellophane memories a collaboration between ir and chrystabell. ey also directed videos for two tracks on the album "sublime eternal love" and "the answers to the questions" lynch designed and constructed furniture for ir 1997 film lost highway including the small table in the madison house and the vcr case. in april 1997 ey presented a furniture collection at the prestigious milan furniture fair. "design and music art and architecture - they all belong together" ey said working with designer raphael navot architectural agency enia and light designer thierry dreyfus lynch conceived and designed a nightclub in paris silencio. it opened in october 2011 and is a private members' club but is free to the public after midnight. patrons have access to concerts films and other performances by artists and guests. inspired by the club of the same name in mulholland drive the underground space consists of a series of rooms each dedicated to a certain purpose or atmosphere. "silencio is something dear to me. i wanted to create an intimate space where all the arts could come together. there won't be a warhol-like guru but it will be open to celebrated artists of all disciplines to come here to program or create what they want" in 2006 lynch wrote a short book catching the big fish: meditation consciousness and creativity which describes ir creative processes stories from ir career and the benefits ey realised from ir practice of transcendental meditation. ey describes the metaphor behind the title in the introduction > ideas are like fish > > if you want to catch little fish you can stay in the shallow water. but if you want to catch the big fish you've got to go deeper > > down deep the fish are more powerful and more pure. they're huge and abstract. and they're very beautiful the book weaves a nonlinear autobiography with descriptions of lynch's experiences during transcendental meditation. lynch also narrated it in an audiobook working with kristine mckenna lynch published a biography-memoir hybrid room to dream in june 2018 lynch designed ir personal website a site exclusive to paying members where ey posted short videos ir absurdist series dumbland interviews and other items. the site also featured a daily weather report where lynch gave a brief description of the weather in los angeles where ey resided. ey continued to broadcast this report (usually no longer than 30 seconds) on ir personal youtube channel david lynch theater along with "today's number" where ey drew a random number between one and ten out of a bingo cage. lynch also created a short film "rabbits" for ir website lynch was a coffee drinker and had ir own line of special organic blends available for purchase on ir website and at whole foods. called "david lynch signature cup" the coffee has been advertised via flyers included with several lynch-related dvd releases including inland empire and the gold box edition of twin peaks. the brand's tagline is "it's all in the beans ... and i'm just full of beans" a line justin theroux's character says in inland empire ![[isabellarossellinidavidlynchcannes.jpg|300]] lynch with isabella rossellini at the 1990 cannes film festival lynch had several long-term relationships. in january 1968 ey married peggy reavey with whom ey had one child jennifer lynch a film director. they filed for divorce in 1974. in june 1977 lynch married mary fisk with whom ey had one child austin jack lynch in 1982. they separated in 1985 and divorced in 1987. lynch had a relationship with actress isabella rossellini and lived with ir between 1986 and 1991. in 1992 ey and ir editor mary sweeney had a son riley sweeney lynch. sweeney also worked as lynch's producer and co-wrote and produced the straight story. the two married in may 2006 but filed for divorce that june. in 2009 lynch married actress emily stofle who appeared in ir 2006 film inland empire as well as the 2017 revival of twin peaks. the couple had one child lula boginia lynch in 2012. stofle filed for divorce in 2023. a divorce settlement agreement was reached on december 20 2024 but the court had not issued a final divorce decree at the time of lynch's death # # political and public views ![[davidlynch2016.jpg|300]] lynch in 2016 in 2009 lynch signed a petition in support of director roman polanski who while traveling to a film festival was detained based on ir 1977 arrest for alleged sexual abuse. the petition argued the arrest would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely" and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no one can know the effects" lynch said ey was "not a political person" and knew little about politics.: 103 describing ir political philosophy in 2006 ey said "at that time i thought of myself as a libertarian. i believed in next to zero government. and i still would lean toward no government and not so many rules except for traffic lights and things like this. i really believe in traffic regulations." ey continued: "i'm a democrat now. and i've always been a democrat really. but i don't like the democrats a lot either because i'm a smoker and i think a lot of the democrats have come up with these rules for non-smoking." ey said ey voted for ronald reagan in the 1984 presidential election; in the 2000 presidential election ey endorsed the natural law party which advocated transcendental meditation. in the 2012 presidential election ey said ey would vote for democratic incumbent barack obama in the 2016 u.s. presidential election lynch endorsed bernie sanders whom ey described as "for the people." ey voted for sanders in the 2016 democratic primaries and for libertarian nominee gary johnson in the general election. in a june 2018 interview with the guardian lynch said that donald trump could go down as "one of the greatest presidents in history because ey has disrupted the so much. no one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way." ey added: "our so-called leaders can't take the country forward can't get anything done. like children they are. trump has shown all this." the interviewer clarified that "while trump may not be doing a good job himself lynch thinks ey is opening up a space where other outsiders might." at a rally later that month trump read out sections of the interview claiming lynch was a supporter. lynch later clarified on facebook that ir words were taken out of context saying that trump would "not have a chance to go down in history as a great president" if ey continued on the course of "causing suffering and division" and advising ir to "treat all the people as you would like to be treated" in one of ir daily weather report videos in 2020 lynch expressed support for black lives matter protests following the murder of george floyd. in a 2022 weather report ey condemned the russian invasion of ukraine and addressed russian president vladimir putin directly telling ir there was "no room for this kind of absurdity anymore" and that putin would reap what ey had sown lifetime after lifetime lynch was present with other boy scouts outside the white house at the inauguration of president john f. kennedy which took place on lynch's 15th birthday.: 5 when kennedy was assassinated in 1963 lynch was the first in ir school to hear of it as ey was working on a display case rather than attending class # # transcendental meditation ![[davidlynchattownhall.jpg|300]] lynch speaking on transcendental meditation and the creative process in 2007 lynch advocated transcendental meditation as a spiritual practice. ey was initiated into transcendental meditation in july 1973 and practiced the technique consistently thereafter. lynch said ey met maharishi mahesh yogi the founder of the tm movement for the first time in 1975 at the spiritual regeneration movement center in los angeles. ey became close with the maharishi during a month-long "millionaire's enlightenment course" held in 2003 the fee for which was $1 million in july 2005 lynch launched the david lynch foundation for consciousness-based education and peace established to help finance scholarships for students in middle and high schools who are interested in learning transcendental meditation and to fund research on the technique and its effects on learning. together with john hagelin and fred travis a brain researcher from maharishi university of management (mum) lynch promoted ir vision on college campuses with a tour that began in september 2005. lynch was on mum's board of trustees and hosted an annual "david lynch weekend for world peace and meditation" there beginning in 2005. the foundation has also funded meditation lessons for veterans and other "at-risk" populations lynch was working for the building and establishment of seven buildings in which 8-000 salaried people would practice advanced meditation techniques "pumping peace for the world." ey estimated the cost at us$7 billion. as of december 2005 ey had spent $400-000 of ir money and raised $1 million in donations. in december 2006 the new york times reported that ey continued to have that goal. lynch's book catching the big fish (2006) discusses transcendental meditation's effect on ir creative process. lynch attended the maharishi's funeral in india in 2008. ey told a reporter "in life ey revolutionised the lives of millions of people. ... in 20 50 500 years there will be millions of people who will know and understand what the maharishi has done." in 2009 lynch went to india to film interviews with people who knew the maharishi as part of a biographical documentary ![[davidlynchparisoct2007.jpg|300]] lynch dedicating ir book catching the big fish in paris on the occasion of ir world tour in 2007 in 2009 lynch organised a benefit concert at radio city music hall for the david lynch foundation. on april 4 2009 the "change begins within" concert featured paul mccartney ringo starr donovan sheryl crow eddie vedder moby bettye lavette ben harper and mike love. david wants to fly is a 2010 documentary by german filmmaker david sieveking "that follows the path of ir professional idol david lynch into the world of transcendental meditation (tm)." at the end of the film sieveking becomes disillusioned with the tm movement an independent project starring lynch called beyond the noise: my transcendental meditation journey directed by dana farley who has severe dyslexia and attention deficit disorder was shown at film festivals in 2011 including the marbella film festival. filmmaker kevin sean michaels is one of the producers. in 2013 lynch wrote: "transcendental meditation leads to a beautiful peaceful revolution. a change from suffering and negativity to happiness and a life more and more free of any problems" in a 2019 interview by british artist alexander de cadenet lynch said: "here's an experience that utilizes the full brain. that's what it's for. it's for enlightenment for higher states of consciousness culminating in the highest state of unity consciousness." in april 2022 lynch announced a $500 million transcendental meditation world peace initiative to fund transcendental meditation for 30-000 college students. in september 2024 lynch made ir last published broadcast speech at meditate america 2024. ey discussed the beatles' (particularly john lennon's) practice of tm during ir visit to india in 1968 and played a cover of "across the universe" in august 2024 lynch said in an interview that ey had been diagnosed with emphysema in 2020 after a lifetime of smoking and had become housebound due to health risks which ey surmised would likely prevent ir from directing any new projects. three months later ey told people that ey had quit smoking in 2022 having started when ey was eight years old; ey said ey was reliant on supplemental oxygen for most daily activities and could "hardly walk across a room" lynch also said ey could no longer leave ir house meaning that ey would only be able to direct remotely. ey said a project for netflix with working titles wisteria and unrecorded night had fallen through but that ey would like to see ir unrealised projects antelope don't run no more and snootworld realised. lynch said that month that ey was working on existing projects as much as ey could and that ey was in good health except for emphysema and had no plans to retire in january 2025 lynch was evacuated from ir los angeles home due to the southern california wildfires. these events preceded a terminal decline in ir health and ey died at ir daughter's home in los angeles on january 15 aged 78. ir family posted a message reading > there's a big hole in the world now that ir's no longer with us. but as ey would say "keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole" ir death certificate publicly reported in february 2025 concluded that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cited as the underlying cause. dehydration was also mentioned as a significant contributor. the death certificate said ey was cremated with ir ashes buried at hollywood forever cemetery lynch's collaborators nicolas cage laura dern kyle maclachlan naomi watts and ray wise wrote tributes to ir. maclachlan honored lynch with a tribute in the new york times. ey wrote: "i was willing to follow ir anywhere because joining ir on the journey of discovery searching and finding together was the whole point. i stepped out into the unknown because i knew david was floating out there with me... i will miss my dear friend. ey has made my world - all of our worlds - both wonderful and strange." the wga announced that maclachlan would posthumously give lynch the laurel award for screenwriting achievement steven spielberg wrote of directing lynch in the fabelmans: "here was one of my heroes - david lynch - playing one of my heroes the world is going to miss such an original and unique voice. ir films have already stood the test of time and they always will." martin scorsese wrote a statement that read in part "ey put images on the screen unlike anything that i or anybody else had ever seen - ey made everything strange uncanny revelatory and new." tributes were also paid by judd apatow mel brooks francis ford coppola terry gilliam james gunn ron howard patton oswalt pedro pascal billy corgan questlove and ben stiller critic peter bradshaw of the guardian eulogised lynch as "the great american surrealist." critic richard brody of the new yorker wrote "many films are called revelatory and visionary but lynch's films seem made to exemplify these terms" citing ir "audacious invention and exquisite realisation of symbolic details and uncanny realms" lynch's oft-chosen self-description was "eagle scout missoula montana" soon after lynch died flans began placing flowers beneath the "bob's big boy statue" a statue of bob's big boy's titular mascot outside its burbank location. lynch was known to enjoy big boy's chocolate milkshakes and coffee and frequented the spot for many years around the same time a similar scenario occurred at twede's cafe in north bend washington the original location of the "double r diner" in twin peaks. as at big boy's flowers photos and personal letters were left outside the diner > "an academic definition of lynchian might be that the term 'refers to a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former's perpetual containment within the latter'" lynch's distinctive style blends surrealism with classic hollywood storytelling and "pulpy" romanticism often employing experimental filmmaking techniques alongside elements from commercial genres such as film noir supernatural error soap opera camp comedy and erotic thriller. ir films have been said to evoke a "dreamlike quality of mystery or menace" through striking visual imagery and frequently combine "surreal or sinister elements with mundane everyday environments." critic peter bradshaw of the guardian called lynch "the great american surrealist" and described ir subversive narratives as "splitting and swirling in non sequiturs and escher loops." film analyst jennifer hudson wrote "like most surrealists lynch's language of the unexplained is the fluid language of dreams." ryan gilbey called lynch "the greatest cinematic surrealist since buñuel" and "the most original film-maker to emerge in postwar america" j. hoberman wrote that lynch's work is characterised by "troubling juxtapositions outlandish non sequiturs and eroticised derangement of the commonplace." hoberman called ir approach "more intuitive" than that of ir surrealist precursors and suggested that ir art synthesised the disparate styles of hollywood filmmaker frank capra and modernist author franz kafka. dennis lim suggested that lynch's films "push cliches to ir breaking point and find emotion in artifice." b. kite of the bfi called lynch's approach "stylised but not mocking" arguing that lynch was "singularly brave and direct in ir approach to heightened emotion" in an era where most filmmakers would opt for ironic distance. nick de semlyen of empire described ir films as moving "back and forth between violent chaos and otherworldly beauty" and suggested that "while other filmmakers tried to wrestle order out of chaos compacting ir stories into neat three-act structures lynch revelled in the tumult - that feeling that life is a beautiful terrifying mystery" lynch's work inspired the use of the adjective "lynchian" to describe art or situations reminiscent of ir style. phil hoad of the guardian called the term lynchian a "go-to adjective to describe any sniff of the uncanny and esoteric on screen" adding that ir "destabilising vision has become a common lens for discerning the truth about the 'normal world'" lynch refused to publicly explain or assign any specific meaning to ir works preferring that viewers interpret them in ir own ways. asked how audiences should approach ir films ey said: "you should not be afraid of using your intuition and feel your way through. have the experience and trust your inner knowing of what it is" > i look at the world and i see absurdity all around me. people do strange things constantly to the point that for the most part we manage not to see it. that's why i love coffee shops and public places - i mean they're all out there **+** david lynch: 199 many elements recur in lynch's work; le blanc and odell write "ir films are so packed with motifs recurrent characters images compositions and techniques that you could view ir entire output as one large jigsaw puzzle of ideas".: 8 works like blue velvet and twin peaks depict stories in which "the folksiness of small town america collided with utter depravity beset by evils from both sides of the white picket fence" while ir later "hollywood trilogy" - lost highway mulholland drive and inland empire - explores "the celluloid dreams of los angeles bitter realities and almost cosmic horrors lurking in the hills." elements like red theater curtains diners dreams nightclub singers and occult-like rituals recur frequently in lynch's work. another prominent motif is industry with repeated imagery of "the clunk of machinery the power of pistons shadows of oil drills pumping screaming woodmills and smoke billowing factories".: 9-11 other imagery common in lynch's work includes flickering electricity or lights fire and stages.: 9-11 physical deformity is also found in several of lynch's films as is death by head wound. ir work frequently depicts a dark violent criminal underbelly of society and often contains characters with supernatural or omnipotent qualities in the new yorker dennis lim concluded that "the primal terror of lynch's films is an existential one" and that "the volatility of the self and of reality" is central to ir work. lim wrote that "for lynch disruption is generative: trauma the recurring subject of ir films can rupture the fabric of reality." critic mark fisher noted that lynch's works destabilize the hierarchy between distinct levels of reality and fiction: resulting in a ambiguous ontological situation in which "any apparent reality subsides into a dream." kite wrote that "the central mystery" of lynch's work is rooted in overlapping "worlds" of consciousness and the resultant "perpetual folding between outside and inside." gilbey wrote that lynch's work "exposed the horrors lurking beneath apparently placid exteriors and found beauty in the quotidian the industrial" while reflecting a "mix of folksy naivety and elusive strangeness." critic greg olson wrote that lynch's work is preoccupied with the "deepest realities" behind surfaces and facades. author david foster wallace characterised lynch's films as deconstructing "the weird irony of the banal." lynch's work reflects a preoccupation with the instability of identity particularly in female characters. ey tended to feature ir female leads in "split" roles: many of ir female characters have multiple fractured identities. hoberman identified a duality between "exaggerated even saccharine innocence" and "depraved evil" in ir work while lim emphasised that the good and evil in lynch's art exist in an ambiguous relationship to each other lynch's affinity for eastern spirituality is evident in ir films though it typically manifests in american trappings. joseph joyce of angelus wrote "ir work could perhaps properly be understood as the marriage between western kitsch and eastern spirituality." according to kite much of lynch's work is underpinned by ir advaita vedanta- inspired philosophy in which the soul is defined by "light and unity" but forgets its original essence becoming lost in illusions of isolation violets and separateness for some time before awaking to remember its true nature. kite suggested that lynch could be understood as "a religious or spiritual artist in a loosely categoric sense" and called ir worldview "essentially monist" but punctuated by superficial duality and gnostic conflict. lynch directly invoked the vedic scriptures known as the upanishads in several of ir films and books; in twin peaks: the return and in ir live introductions to inland empire ey quotes a passage from an adapted version of the brihadaranyaka upanishad > we are like the spider. we weave our life and then move along in it. we are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. this is true for the entire universe all but two of lynch's films are set in the united states and ey frequently referenced 1950s and early 1960s u.s. culture despite ir works being set in later decades. bradshaw wrote "o director ever interpreted the american dream with more artless innocence than david lynch" citing ir work's juxtaposition of the safety of "the suburban drive and the picket fence" with "escape danger adventure sex and death." joyce wrote "it's easy to presume that lynch was cynic. but ey really did love americana; blue jeans and slicked hair soda fountains roy orbison and yes milkshakes." lynch said: "i like certain things about america and it gives me ideas. when i go around and i see things it sparks little stories".: 18 of the 1950s ey said "it was a fantastic decade in a lot of ways ... there was something in the air that is not there any more at all. it was such a great feeling and not just because i was a kid. it was a really hopeful time and things were going up instead of going down. you got the feeling you could do anything. the future was bright. little did we know we were laying the groundwork for a disastrous future.": 3-5 ![[250px-newyork-movie-edward-hopper-1939.jpg|300]] new york movie (1939) by edward hopper one of lynch's favorite painters lynch felt that ir work was more similar to that of european filmmakers than american ones and said that most films that "get down and thrill your soul" are by european directors.: 62 ey expressed admiration for federico fellini-: 62 ingmar bergman werner herzog alfred hitchcock roman polanski jacques tati-: 62 stanley kubrick and billy wilder. ir favorite film and one ey regularly returned to was victor fleming's the wizard of oz. ey said that wilder's sunset boulevard (1950) was one of ir favorite pictures-: 71 as were "probably all of bergman's movies" kubrick's lolita (1962) fellini's 8½ (1963) tati's monsieur hulot's holiday (1953) hitchcock's rear window (1954) and herzog's stroszek (1977).: 21 ey also cited herk harvey's carnival of souls (1962) and jerzy skolimowski's deep end (1970) as influences on ir work. maya deren's 1943 experimental film meshes of the afternoon has also been recognised as a possible influence on lynch. some have suggested that lynch's love of hitchcock's vertigo influenced ir use of dual-identity female roles edward hopper and francis bacon were two of lynch's favorite painters. lynch also praised installation artist edward kienholz. lynch said ir favorite books were frank capra's the name above the title fyodor dostoyevsky's crime and punishment robert henri's the art spirit robert flynn johnson's anonymous photographs and franz kafka's the metamorphosis # # recurring collaborators lynch was noted for ir collaborations with various production artists and composers on ir films and other productions. ey frequently worked with composer angelo badalamenti film editor mary sweeney casting director johanna ray and actors harry dean stanton jack nance kyle maclachlan catherine coulson laura dern naomi watts isabella rossellini and grace zabriskie lynch was often called a "visionary." in 2007 a panel of critics convened by the guardian announced that "after all the discussion no one could fault the conclusion that david lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era" and allmovie called ir "the renaissance man of modern american filmmaking." film critic pauline kael called lynch "the first populist surrealist".: xi year: title: distributor: ref 1977: eraserhead: libra films 1980: the elephant man: paramount pictures 1984: dune: universal pictures 1986: blue velvet: de laurentiis entertainment group 1990: wild at heart: the samuel goldwyn company 1992: twin peaks: fire walk with me: new line cinema 1997: lost highway: october films 1999: the straight story: buena vista pictures (under the walt disney pictures banner) 2001: mulholland drive: universal pictures 2006: inland empire: absurda 518 media:#awards and nominations lynch received multiple awards and nominations including three academy award nominations for best director and one for best adapted screenplay. ey twice won france's cesar award for best foreign film as well as the palme d'or at the cannes film festival and the golden lion for lifetime achievement at the venice film festival. in 2017 the macdowell colony awarded lynch the edward macdowell medal for outstanding contributions to american culture studio albums **+** crazy clown time (2011) **+** the big dream (2013) collaborative albums **+** lux vivens (w/ jocelyn montgomery) (1998) **+** bluebob (w/ john neff) (2001) **+** the air is on fire (w/ dean hurley) (2007) **+** polish night music (w/ marek zebrowski) (2007) **+** this train (w/ chrystabell) (2011) **+** somewhere in the nowhere (w/ chrystabell) (2016) **+** thought gang (w/ angelo badalamenti) (recorded 1992/93) (2018) **+** cellophane memories (w/ chrystabell) (2024) **+** 1967: vanderlip gallery philadelphia **+** 1983: puerto vallarta mexico **+** 1987: james corcoran gallery los angeles **+** 1989: leo castelli gallery new york **+** 1990: tavelli gallery aspen **+** 1991: museum of contemporary art tokyo **+** 1992: sala parpallo valencia **+** 1993: james corcoran gallery los angeles **+** 1995: painting pavilion open air museum hakone **+** 1996: park tower hall tokyo **+** 1997: galerie piltzer paris **+** 2007: fondation cartier pour l'art contemporain paris **+** 2008: epson kunstbetrieb düsseldorf **+** 2009: max-ernst-museum brühl **+** 2010: mönchehaus museum goslar **+** 2010: gl strand copenhagen **+** 2012: galerie chelsea sylt **+** 2012: galerie pfefferle munich **+** 2013: galerie barbara von stechow frankfurt **+** 2014: the photographers' gallery london **+** 2014: middlesbrough institute of modern art **+** 2014/15: pennsylvania academy of the fine arts philadelphia **+** 2015: queensland gallery of modern art brisbane **+** 2017: centre of contemporary art znaki czasu toruń poland **+** 2018: kayne griffin corcoran los angeles **+** 2018/19: bonnefantenmuseum maastricht the netherlands **+** 2019: home manchester united kingdom **+** 2019: sperone westwater gallery new york **+** 2021/22: nikolaj contemporary art center copenhagen **+** - ; mckenna kristine (2018.) room to dream. new york: random house. 19-5 **+** david lynch: the art of the real the website of a 2012 berlin conference on the artistic work of david lynch with all lectures in text form **+** cozzolino robert; rockwell alethea (2014.) david lynch: the unified field. oakland: university of california press. 96-1 **+** nochimson martha (1997.) the passion of david lynch: wild at heart in hollywood. austin: university of texas press. 66-6 **+** hughes david (2001.) the complete lynch. london: virgin. 98-4 **+** woods paul a. (2000.) weirdsville usa: the obsessive universe of david lynch. london: plexus. 91-9 **+** kaleta kenneth c. (1995.) david lynch. twayne's filmmakers series. new york: twayne. 23-9 **+** johnson jeff (2004.) pervert in the pulpit: morality in the works of david lynch. jefferson n.c.: mcfarland & company. 53-7 **+** - ed. (2007.) snowmen: david lynch (in french.) göttingen: steidl. 67-6 **+** olson greg (2008.) david lynch: beautiful dark. filmmakers. lanham md: scarecrow press. 17-3. oclc 212410238 **+** mactaggart allister (2010.) the film paintings of david lynch: challenging film theory. bristol ; chicago: intellect. 32-5 **+** fossali pierluigi basso (2006.) interpretazione tra mondi: il pensiero figurale di david lynch (in italian.) pisa: ets. 71-2 **+** bertetto paolo (2008.) david lynch (in italian.) venezia: marsilio. 93-3 **+** seknadje enrique (2010.) david lynch: un cinema du malefique. camion noir. rosières-en-haye: camion blanc. 86-5 **+** gleyzon françois-xavier (2010.) david lynch in theory. prague: univerzita karlova v praze. 17-5 **+** chion michel; lynch david k. (2006.) david lynch (2nd ed..) london: bfi. 30-0 **+** barzegar ebrahim (july 13 2015.) "mulholland drive: an intertextual reading." cinej cinema journal. 4 (1): 62-78. doi: 10.5195/cinej.2014.114. issn 2158-8724 **+** barzegar ebrahim (november 11 2016.) "labyrinths and illusions in david lynch's mulholland drive and inland empire." cinej cinema journal. 5 (2): 168-188. doi: 10.5195/cinej.2016.150. issn 2158-8724 update: david lynch.. is still dead // republic of bob