Obituary: David Lynch (1946-2025)

 

With great sadness the Slammer mourns the passing of David Lynch whose work both inspired and sometimes frustrated us with its ambiguity over the years. 

(From wikipedia)

His first feature-length film was Eraserhead (1977), which found success as a midnight movie. Lynch was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the biographical drama The Elephant Man (1980), the mystery Blue Velvet (1986) and the neo-noir Mulholland Drive (2001). His romantic crime drama Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His other credits include the space opera Dune (1984), the neo-noir Lost Highway (1997), the road movie The Straight Story (1999) and Inland Empire (2006).

Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–91), for which he 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. He acted in Twin Peaks, Lucky (2017) and Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022). He also guest-starred in TV series such as The Cleveland Show (2010–13) and Louie (2012). He directed music videos for artists such as 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 albums and a variety of collaborations; a visual artist, including painting, furniture design, and photography; and author, publishing the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006) and Room to Dream (2018). A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, he founded the David Lynch Foundation to fund meditation lessons for students, veterans, and other "at-risk" populations. A lifelong smoker, he was diagnosed with emphysema in 2020, and died in January 2025 after being evacuated from his home due to the Southern California wildfires. The adjective Lynchian came into use to describe works or situations reminiscent of his art,[2] with the Oxford English Dictionary noting his penchant for "juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace".

Personally, my first Lynch film was Eraserhead I saw at a midnight show and I loved it, followed by The Elephant Man which one of the best films ever made in my opinion. I did love most of his films and projects over the years but not all. Wild at Heart did not interest me, it seemed violently excessive and his last full length film Inland Empire I really disliked thinking it showed he needed to have some restraints put on him to keep his ideas in focus. I was obsessed like everyone else with Twin Peaks and like the new more recent series of that quite a bit as well. If nothing else, Lynch was always challenging us to see things in his odd, often disturbing way. 

Eraserhead (1977) Directed by David Lynch

 As David Lynch's first feature, this introduces us to many of the ideas, obsessions, as well the visual and audio ticks that find themselves all through the director's multi-decade career. Best described as horror film, the images are strange and sometimes shocking with very little explanation as to why events happen or what their consequences are. 

The basic story can be boiled down to a guy who discoveres he is the father to a deformed child and has to take care of it. As in most of Lynch's films, this does not even come close to covering what the film transmits to the viewer. The plot is almost superfluous in this movie while the feelings of dread, loneliness, alienation and confusion take centre stage and lead the viewer from start to finish but with no answers to any questions that may have come up along the way. It sorts of drags you along with the protagonist who is as bewildered by what is going on as we are. 

Visually and sound-wise the film is a tour de force of weirdness. It plays with horror, particularly gothic horror tropes and presents them as a sort of no man's land, post apocalyptic world with no meaning left in it but all the horror remaining. It's film you have to watch to understand and come to your own conclusions about. 

The effects, particularly of the "baby" are haunting in their realism.

Mother: There’s a baby. It’s at the hospital. And you’re the father.

Henry: Well, well that’s impossible! It’s only been…

Daughter: Mother, they’re still not sure it is a baby!

Filmed over  period of years on American Institute's Centre for Advanced Film Studies campus and financed by grants and Sissy Spacek, Lynch took his time with the production and released it to a 25 person audience in a short run which led to midnight showings where the film found it's true audience and defined what cult movies are. The poster was a punk staple to people who had not even seen the film and its influence on Lynch's further work and the works of other director's has been felt since its release. 

How on earth his film has never been highlighted here in the Slammer by me or any of the previous inmates is beyond comprehension. It's a midnight movie classic made by someone whose filmography I imagine most of our readers know inside and out. 

Twin Peaks - the Return 2017 by David Lynch

It's hard to criticize the work of David Lynch under the best of circumstances. His mix of genres, notable film noir and surrealism is unique in the creative world. He takes chances and for that at least, the new season of Twin Peaks, 25 years after the last one, is something to watch, appreciate but not really to understand.

In many ways this is a followup to his film "Fire Come Walk with Me" over the TV show as he seems to be following the ideas presented in that film. He doesn't forget the TV show, not by a long shot and there is plenty (maybe too much) fan service in this Showtime special event series. He is David Lynch and could have avoided following up on our favourites from the past, but instead goes full in and because of that his affection for the material shows through and his desire to include the fates of actors who died in real life over the preceding ¼ century is truly touching.

The story of this new series explore the identities of doppelgäners, the most notable is that of agent Dale Cooper who is trying to return to the corporale world while his evil twin is loose and causing violence and havoc. There is a third version of Copper, Dougie Jones who we spend the most time with, who has the real Cooper trapped inside him. This show has entire episodes of just flat out bizarre imagery and odd story lines and goes in and out of colour and black and white, traversing dimensions and timelines. It does this without any exposition to explain any of it. You are truly on your own but Lynch has enough "real" plot to keep you going if you just get completely lost in the more out there segments.

Overall this is a worthy successor to Lynch's maybe best known work and Showtime should be commended  for (eventually) giving him free reign over it. It's not without its flaws though. I don't buy the relationship between Cooper and Diane who we finally meet in the flesh and some of the returning characters don't add much to the new story. Some of those nostalgic bits are the most heartwarming so it's difficult to argue they shouldn't be included. Dale Cooper is not the same person we saw in the original which makes sense, but he is a sombre much less fun version of himself. All those quirks about the Dali lama and his free form investigating techniques are gone which is a shame. This lacks much of the humour that helped us through the horror of the shows first 2 seasons.

The series ends in a way which I'm sure is exactly at Lynch intended, but as an audience member, it falls short of satisfying. Maybe after 25 years of suffering, I feel the residents of Twin Peaks merited something a little more upbeat. I was happy to see this on air and happier to see it was done without compromise but I doubt I'll got back to it like I do the first 2 seasons.

Lumberton's hottest disco?

We've been soaking in "Blue Velvet" nostalgia down here in Wilmywood/"Lumberton" and suddenly everybody-and not just the hipsters-is toasting their Pabst Blue Ribbons to their fucks:



Patrick Swayze was way ahead (or behind) Frank Booth in getting to Pussy Heaven, Lumberton's only disco.

Oh, and here's a juicy tidbit to go with your PBR. Peter was in town and shared his fantastic film with us and told some great stories:




It's a strange world, isn't it?

Dino De Laurentiis Dies at 91

In no particular order: Serpico, War and Peace, Three Days of the Condor, Dune, La Strada, Conan the Barbarian, Army of Darkness, Barbarella, Blue Velvet, and my personal favorite, Nights of Cabiria. Those are just a few of the cinematic landmarks that Dino left behind.

It hits close to home as he built the studio in North Carolina that facilitated my initiation into film production. Ciao, Dino.

'Tailgating is One Thing I Cannot Tolerate'

I've always had the hots for Bob Loggia.

I know this stretch of Mulholland well and drive it fairly often. There's a sign right there that makes me laugh because it says "Caution: Scenic Overlook." I feel like doing this all the time out here.

Have Yourself a Lynchy Little Xmas!

Okay, so David Lynch didn't create this, but it sure feels like it.



Speaking of DL--the other one!--here he is finally discussing the much-rumored job interview with George Lucas regarding "Return of the Jedi":

David Lynch Friday

Hey all you Slammerers (Slammerites?), if you every wondered what DIRTY DANCING would look like had David Lynch directed it, I've got your answer right here.



And on the flip side of that coin:

What if BLUE VELVET was a romantic comedy?

I'm In Your House

I took the liberty of changing some of the template numbers to allow clips like "Let the Right One In" as well as the TCM widget on the right to fit properly. If it's not displaying correctly, let me know.

The Lady In My Radiator - In Heaven

Did anyone know this?

In 2001, Sony commisioned David Lynch to create promos for its new gaming system, the PlayStation 2. I'm guessing Sony wanted an ad showing how awesome PlayStation 2 was going to be. What Lynch gave them was a maze, a disembodied arm, a mummy, and a talking duck. God bless David Lynch.

David Lynch has an opinion.

I'm not going to ruin this with a long lead in. Here are two clips of David Lynch expressing his opinion on product placement and iPhones. God bless him.