It’s been a little over a month since David Lynch’s death, and even now, when I come across a Twin Peaks poster on a screen, I almost feel the moral obligation to press “play” once again. As one of the most acclaimed and influential directors of our time, Lynch gave us some of the most exciting and mysterious journeys in modern cinema and television. Twin Peaks, for instance, represents the perfect encounter between these two media, so much so that it earned him the credit for being the first director to show the potentialities of television series.
Lynch was one of those artists capable of giving birth to an adjective of his own, “lynchian”, which describes the surreal and disturbing atmospheres of his films; atmospheres that could be expressed in plots of naive everyday life, but also in narratives characterized by impressive violence. Provincial America was the backdrop of these works, so we want to retrace those places by going through the stages that marked his cinema.
The Beginnings
David Lynch took years to complete his first film, Eraserhead (1977), a bizarre black-and-white story about a couple raising a monstrous child. Initially misunderstood by critics, it became a cult classic in the underground circuit after being screened every Friday night for three years at midnight at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles. Mel Brooks, impressed by the film, hired Lynch to direct The Elephant Man (1980), starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins. This more conventional film was a huge critical and commercial success, earning eight Oscar nominations and making Lynch famous.
The Flop
Lynch turned down an offer to direct Return of the Jedi, believing George Lucas was the right director for that project. However, he accepted Dino De Laurentiis’s offer to direct Dune (1984), another ambitious sci-fi but, at the same time, a troubled production, in which many of his ideas were altered. The film was a commercial failure, but over time it became a cult sci-fi classic with a loyal fan base. It’s based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert and it chronicles the conflict between different rival noble families as they battle for control of the extremely harsh desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune.
Maturity
Blue Velvet (1986), starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, and Dennis Hopper, set in a small North Carolina town and revolving around a dark mystery uncovered by the discovery of a severed ear in a field, was well-received and earned Lynch his second Oscar nomination for Best Director. Essentially, Blue Velvet is a story about transitioning into adulthood, which is kind of symbolic of Lynch’s maturity already.
As we can see, the provincial America that we mentioned above now becomes Lynch’s go-to place to refine his voice and poetic expression. The protagonist, Jeffrey, is initially a naive, innocent young man, until he willfully exposes himself to the darkness of the world around him and to sex in a way that’s more disturbed than simply “making love”. While it had the power to unsettle the viewer for its scenes, the film became one of the most extraordinarily erotic and mesmerizing experiences in a theater.
Television Success
The tone of Blue Velvet paved the way for Lynch’s landmark TV series Twin Peaks (1990), co-created with Mark Frost. Centered on the murder of a young woman in a small Washington town, Twin Peaks revolutionized television by blending noir, mystery, and soap opera elements. Its surreal scenes, humor, and romance captivated millions worldwide, sparking discussions in offices and media globally and turning the question “Who killed Laura Palmer?” into an international catchphrase. No other project by Lynch would achieve such success with the public. Lynch made even the cover of the Time thanks to the huge success of the show.
Cinematic Masterpiece
David Lynch’s most acclaimed film, Mulholland Drive (2001), began as a TV pilot for ABC but was turned into a film with funding from Canal+. Starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, and Justin Theroux, it tells a complex, nightmarish story about two women trapped in a filmic narrative suspended between dream and reality, where they get lost together with the spectator in a sinister Hollywood. The film was a major success at the Cannes Film Festival, earning Lynch the Best Director award. Afterwards, 177 critics voted it the best film of the 21st century in a BBC poll.