by Eric Blume
David Lynch during quarantine this past summer
One of the greatest living American film directors, David Lynch, turns 75 today, so it's only fitting we take a moment to celebrate this unique visionary and his wonderful contributions to our cinema. Lynch is so rightfully esteemed and exulted that it's easy to forget he's only made ten feature films during his 40+ years in the industry!
But right out of the box, with 1977's Eraserhead, he delivered a film so singular that it was clear a new voice had arrived. He followed it with 1980's The Elephant Man, for which he received his first Best Director nomination, and while his second film was a bankrolled studio movie on one hand, it still bears Lynch's dark imagination throughout. Lynch was the perfect director to see the soul of John Merrick, as he's always seen the beauty in the "ugly" and spent most of the rest of his career blurring those two ideas, visually and psychologically...
on the set of Elephant Man
Lynch's other two Best Director Oscar nominations came for 1986's Blue Velvet and 2001's Mulholland Drive, and most Lynchaphiles consider one or the other to be his finest masterpiece. Both films could ONLY have come from David Lynch, and both confusing, labyrinthine tales are spun with such deft control and mastery that they'll always be mainstays of cinephile culture.
You can see why actors can't wait to work with Lynch: when they surrender to his vision, he rewards them with high-wire acts that nobody else could serve up. Dennis Hopper's work in Blue Velvet is so out there it's unforgettable. Naomi Watts delivered probably the performance of the decade for him in Mulholland Drive. And of course Laura Dern had several turns with him where she soared into another stratosphere.
A quick story. I saw 2006's Inland Empire at its first screening at the New York Film Festival. During the Q&A after the film, one of those eye-rolling bozos in the audience stood up, never really asked Lynch a question, but proceeded to do a 3-minute recap of the movie's "plot" to show how smart he was. At the end of his tirade, Lynch said to him, "I have to say, I'm impressed. Your interpretation is almost one hundred percent totally wrong."
on the set of Mulholland Drive
Lynch has so many special qualities as a director, but my favorite thing about him is that he really harnesses the power of film, the language of film, to fuck with our subconscious, to uncover fears and thoughts we tuck away to keep safe. Never has a film felt more like a dream than Mulholland Drive...the recurring images that don't add up, the loopholes of time, the juxtaposition of real and imagined locations, unleashed desires, the playing of roles, etc. Lynch realizes the power of having people sit in the dark, and he's unafraid to throw us into the middle of his fever dream. He's trying to get at you not just with your head and your heart, but with your soul, that part of you you're not in touch with yourself.
He's a titan of the cinema, and here at TFE, our birthday wish to him is to please make one more masterpiece.