David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmmaker and visual artist. Lynch has received three
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
nominations for Best Director, for
The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man is a American–British drama film based on the story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
(1980),
Blue Velvet (1986), and
Mulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
(2001). He also received a screenplay Academy Award nomination for
The Elephant Man. Lynch has won awards at the
Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals. The private festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France.The 62nd edition started 13 May and ended 24 May 2009...
and
Venice Film FestivalThe Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice,...
.
Over a lengthy career, Lynch has employed a distinctive and unorthodox approach to narrative filmmaking (dubbed
Lynchian), which has become instantly recognizable to many audiences and critics worldwide. Lynch's films are known for
surrealSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, nightmarish and dreamlike images and meticulously crafted
sound designSound design is a conceptually creative/technical field. It covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, a music performance or recording, computer game software or any other multimedia project...
. Lynch's work often explores the seedy underside of small town America (particularly
Blue Velvet and
Twin PeaksTwin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation, headed by Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the brutal murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
), or sprawling
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
metropolises (
Lost HighwayLost Highway is a 1997 American psychological thriller film that exhibits elements of both neo-noir and surrealism. Written and directed by David Lynch, the film stars Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty and Robert Loggia. Lynch co-wrote the screenplay with Barry Gifford, who also...
,
Mulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
and his latest release,
Inland EmpireInland Empire is a surrealistic, psychological thriller film, written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on september 6, 2006...
). Beginning with his experimental film school feature
EraserheadEraserhead is a surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch, and released in . In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to pursue an MFA degree at the AFI Conservatory. At the Conservatory, Lynch began working on his first feature-length film, Eraserhead, using a $10,000 grant from the AFI...
(1977), he has maintained a strong
cult followingA cult following is used to refer to a small or large group of fans that are either somewhat or highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture.-Cult media:...
despite inconsistent commercial success.
Early life
Lynch was born in
MissoulaMissoula is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, United States. The population was 57,053 at the 2000 census and the population of the Missoula Metropolitan Statistical Area was 95,802, making it the second-largest city and metropolitan area in Montana. It is the largest...
,
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
on January 20, 1946. His father, Donald, was a U.S. Department of Agriculture research scientist and his mother, Sunny Lynch, was an English language
tutorIn British, Australian, New Zealand, Italian, and some Canadian universities, a tutor is often but not always a postgraduate student or a lecturer assigned to conduct a seminar for undergraduate students, often known as a tutorial. The equivalent of this kind of "tutor" in the United States of...
. He was raised throughout the
Pacific NorthwestThe Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. There are several partially overlapping definitions of the region, but they generally include the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and...
and
Durham, North CarolinaNot to be confused with the U.K. city Durham.Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake county. It is the fifth largest city in the state by population, with 223,284 residents as of July 1, 2008. Durham County as of July...
. He attained the rank of
Eagle ScoutEagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . Those who attain this rank are called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
and, on his 15th birthday, served as an usher at
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's
Presidential InaugurationA Presidential Inauguration is a formal ceremony to mark the beginning of a leader's term of office. To see detailed information on specific presidents, see the links below:* Brazilian presidential inauguration* Irish presidential inauguration...
. Lynch was raised a Presbyterian. His mother's father, whose last name was Sundholm, moved to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
in the 19th century. Lynch is one of the best-known
Finnish AmericanFinnish Americans are Americans of Finnish descent, who currently number about 700,000.-History:Finns first started coming to the United States in large numbers in the late 19th century, and continued until the mid 20th century...
s.
Intending to become an artist, Lynch attended classes at Corcoran School of Art in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
while finishing high school in
Alexandria, VirginiaAlexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 128,283. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately 6 miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as...
. He enrolled in the
School of the Museum of Fine ArtsThe School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is an undergraduate and graduate college located in Boston, Massachusetts and is dedicated to the visual arts. It is affiliated with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in partnership with Tufts...
in Boston for one year (where he was a roommate of
Peter WolfPeter Wolf is an American rock and roll musician, best known as the lead vocalist for the J. Geils Band from 1967 to 1983.- Life and career :Wolf was born in the Bronx, New York...
) before leaving for Europe with his friend and fellow artist
Jack FiskJack Fisk is an Academy Award-nominated American movie industry professional, frequently working as either a production designer or art director on Hollywood movies....
, planning to study with
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n
expressionistExpressionism was a cultural movement originating in Germany at the start of the 20th-century as a reaction to positivism and other artistic movements such as naturalism and impressionism. It sought to express the meaning of "being alive" and emotional experience rather than physical reality...
painter
Oskar KokoschkaOskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes....
. Although he had planned to stay for three years, Lynch returned to the US after only 15 days.
Early career and short films (1966–1970)
In 1966, Lynch relocated to the
FairmountFairmount is a United States neighborhood in the North Philadelphia area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name "Fairmount" itself derives from the prominent hill on which the Philadelphia Museum of Art now sits, and where William Penn originally intended to build his own manor house...
neighborhood of
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...
,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
, attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) and made a series of complex mosaics in geometric shapes which he called
Industrial Symphonies. At this time, he also began working in film. His first short film
Six Men Getting Sick (1966), which he described as "57 seconds of growth and fire, and three seconds of vomit", was played on a loop at an art exhibit. It won the Academy's annual film contest. This led to a commission from H. Barton Wasserman to do a film installation in his home. After a disastrous first attempt that resulted in a completely blurred, frameless print, Wasserman allowed Lynch to keep the remaining portion of the commission. Using this, he created
The Alphabet.
In 1970, Lynch turned his attention away from fine art and focused primarily on film. He won a $5,000 grant (later extended to $7,200) from the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
to produce
The Grandmother, about a neglected boy who “grows” a grandmother from a seed. The 30-minute film exhibited many elements that would become Lynch trademarks, including unsettling sound and surrealistic imagery and a focus on
unconsciousThe unconscious mind is a term invented by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Ser Christopher Riegel and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...
desires instead of traditional narration.
Cult success (1975–1979)
In 1971, Lynch moved to
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
to study for an
MFAIn the United States, a Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring two to three years of study. In the United Kingdom, a typically requires two years, whereas a is usually one year of study....
(Masters of Fine Arts) degree at the
AFI ConservatoryThe AFI Conservatory is a division of the American Film Institute founded in 1969, located in Hollywood's Griffith Park. Dubbed by some as "Juilliard for Filmmakers," the school is the only existing Master of Fine Arts conservatory in advanced film education...
. At the Conservatory, Lynch began working on his first feature-length film,
EraserheadEraserhead is a surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch, and released in . In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to pursue an MFA degree at the AFI Conservatory. At the Conservatory, Lynch began working on his first feature-length film, Eraserhead, using a $10,000 grant from the AFI...
, using a $10,000 grant from the AFI. The grant did not provide enough money to complete the film and, due to lack of a sufficient budget,
Eraserhead was filmed intermittently until 1977. Lynch used money from friends and family, including boyhood friend
Jack FiskJack Fisk is an Academy Award-nominated American movie industry professional, frequently working as either a production designer or art director on Hollywood movies....
, a production designer and the husband of actress
Sissy SpacekMary Elizabeth "Sissy" Spacek is an American actress and singer. Her screen debut was in the 1972 film Prime Cut co-starring Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman....
, and even took a paper route to finish it.
A stark and enigmatic film,
Eraserhead tells the story of a quiet young man (
Jack NanceMarvin John Nance , known professionally as Jack Nance and occasionally credited as John Nance, was an American actor of stage and screen, primarily starring in offbeat or avant-garde productions...
) living in an industrial wasteland, whose girlfriend gives birth to a constantly crying
mutantA mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not found in the wild type. The natural...
baby. Lynch has referred to
Eraserhead as "my Philadelphia story", meaning it reflects all of the dangerous and fearful elements he encountered while studying and living in
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...
. He said "this feeling left its traces deep down inside me. And when it came out again, it became
Eraserhead".
The final film was initially judged to be almost unreleasable, but thanks to the efforts of the
Elgin TheaterThis article is about the theater in New York. For Canadian theatres of that name, see Elgin Theatre.The Elgin Theater opened in 1942 on Eighth Avenue in New York City. It was designed in the Art Moderne style by Simon Zelnik and was a popular movie house for decades seating 600. It served as a...
distributor
Ben BarenholtzBen Barenholtz has been a key presence in the independent film scene – as an exhibitor, distributor, and producer – since the late 1960s, when he opened the Elgin Cinema in New York City....
, it became an instant cult classic and was a staple of midnight movie showings for the next decade. It was also a critical success, launching Lynch to the forefront of
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
filmmaking.
Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American director, writer, producer, and photographer of films, who lived in England during most of the last 40 years of his career...
said that it was one of his all-time favorite films. It cemented the team of actors and technicians who would continue to define the texture of his work for years to come, including cinematographer
Frederick ElmesFrederick Elmes, A.S.C. is an American cinematographer who has won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography twice, for Wild at Heart and Night on Earth....
, sound designer
Alan SpletAlan Splet was an Academy Award winning sound designer and sound editor. He worked on numerous film projects throughout his career, including Eraserhead, Dune, Blue Velvet and The Black Stallion for which he won the Oscar. He had a long-lasting and fruitful working relationship with the director...
, and actor
Jack NanceMarvin John Nance , known professionally as Jack Nance and occasionally credited as John Nance, was an American actor of stage and screen, primarily starring in offbeat or avant-garde productions...
.
Rise to prominence (1980–1986)
Eraserhead brought Lynch to the attention of producer
Mel BrooksMelvin "Mel" Kaminsky , better known by his stage name Mel Brooks, is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer, best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. Brooks is a member of the short list of entertainers with the distinction...
, who hired him to direct 1980's
The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man is a American–British drama film based on the story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
, a biopic of deformed
Victorian eraThe Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements...
figure
Joseph MerrickJoseph Carey Merrick was an Englishman who became known as "The Elephant Man" because of his physical appearance caused by a congenital disorder. Because of his condition, he would garner the sympathy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the Victorian era...
. The film was a huge commercial success, and earned eight
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
nominations, including
Best DirectorBest Director may refer to:* Academy Award for Best Director, the Oscar* Golden Globe Award for Best Director* Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series* Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series...
and Best Adapted Screenplay nods for Lynch. It also established his place as a commercially viable, if somewhat dark and unconventional, Hollywood director.
George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic sci-fi franchise Star Wars and joint creator of the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, a fan of
Eraserhead, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, which he refused, feeling that it would be more Lucas's vision than his own.
Afterwards, Lynch agreed to direct a big-budget adaptation of
Frank HerbertFranklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
's
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
DuneDune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the 1966 Hugo Award and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
for
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
producer
Dino De LaurentiisAgostino De Laurentiis, usually credited as Dino De Laurentiis , is an Italian Academy Award-winning movie producer.-Biography:...
's
De Laurentiis Entertainment GroupDe Laurentiis Entertainment Group was a production company/distribution unit founded by producer Dino De Laurentiis. The company is notable for producing Manhunter and Blue Velvet, as well as distributing Transformers: The Movie. The company's main studios were located in Wilmington, North...
...on the condition that DEG release a second Lynch project, over which the director would have complete creative control. Although De Laurentiis hoped it would be the next
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
, Lynch's
DuneDune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles, including Sting, Jose Ferrer,...
(1984) was a critical and commercial dud; it cost $45 million to make, and grossed a mere $27.4 million domestically. Co-star
Brad DourifBradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is a BAFTA-winning and Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated American film and television actor, best known for his roles as Younger Brother in Ragtime, Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hazel Motes in Wise Blood, Gríma Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings:...
, who portrayed a
sociopathicPsychopathy is a psychological construct that describes chronic disregard for ethical principles and antisocial behavior.The term is often used interchangeably with sociopathy. This is a commonly made mistake. Sociopathy is no longer a correct term to use, and when it is used it actually refers to...
villain in the film, referred to it as "science fiction's answer to
Heaven's GateHeaven's Gate is a 1980 western movie based on the Johnson County War, a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s. The film's production was plagued by cost and time overruns, negative press, and rumors about director Michael Cimino's allegedly overbearing...
" (which Dourif also starred in).
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
released an "extended cut" of the film for syndicated television; this contained almost an hour of cutting-room-floor footage and new narration (this time by a male actor;
Virginia MadsenVirginia Madsen is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience. Two decades later, she once again became known after an Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated role in the 2004 film Sideways...
had narrated the theatrical version). Such was not representative of Lynch's intentions, but the studio considered it more comprehensible than the 2-hour version. Lynch objected to these changes and had his name struck from the extended cut, which has "
Alan SmitheeAlan Smithee is an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project, coined in 1968. Until its use was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America when a director dissatisfied with the final product proved to...
" credited as the director and "Judas Booth" (a pseudonym which Lynch himself invented, inspired by his own feelings of betrayal) as the screenwriter. The 3-hour version has since been released on video worldwide.
Lynch has never made another film under the pseudonym of "Judas Booth"; however, in 2009 - the movie's 25th anniversary - he was asked by a fan to sign "Booth's" autograph to a vintage paperback about the making of
Dune, at West Hollywood's famous
Book SoupBook Soup is an independent bookstore located at 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California, and is the largest general interest independent bookstore in Hollywood...
. Lynch obliged.
Lynch's second De Laurentiis-financed project was 1986's
Blue Velvet, the story of a college student (
Kyle MacLachlanKyle Merritt MacLachlan is an American actor.He graduated from the University of Washington in 1982 and, shortly afterward, moved to Hollywood, California to pursue his career...
) who discovers his small, idealistic hometown hides a dark side after investigating a severed ear he found in a field. The film featured memorable performances from
Isabella RosselliniIsabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background:Rossellini is the daughter of Swedish...
as a tormented lounge singer, and
Dennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper is an American actor, filmmaker and artist, with a career that spanned half of the 20th century. Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1955, and appeared in two films also featuring...
as a crude, psychopathic criminal, and the leader of a small gang of backwater hoodlums.
Although Lynch had found success previously with
The Elephant Man,
Blue Velvet's controversy with audiences and critics introduced him into the mainstream, and became a huge critical and moderate commercial success. Thus, the film earned Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director. The content of the film and its artistic merit drew much controversy from audiences and critics alike in 1986 and onwards.
Blue Velvet introduced several common elements of his work, including abused women, the dark underbelly of small towns, and unconventional uses of vintage songs.
Bobby VintonBobby Vinton is an American pop music singer of Polish origins.-Early life:Vinton is the only child of a locally popular bandleader, Stan Vinton At 16, Vinton formed his first band, which played clubs around the Pittsburgh area...
's "Blue Velvet" and
Roy OrbisonRoy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter and musician, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly / country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records...
's "
In Dreams"In Dreams" is a song composed and sung by rock and roll performer Roy Orbison. An operatic ballad of lost love, it was released as a single on Monument Records in February 1963. It became the title track on the album In Dreams, released in July of the same year...
" are both featured in unconventional ways. It was also the first time Lynch worked with composer
Angelo BadalamentiAngelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive.-Early life:...
, who would contribute to all of his future full-length films except
Inland EmpireInland Empire may refer to:In Geography:* Inland Empire , a geographic region in Southern California.* Inland Empire , a geographic region in Georgia....
.
Woody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, comedian, writer, musician, and playwright....
, whose film
Hannah and Her SistersHannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 comedy-drama film which tells the intertwined stories of an extended family, told over two years that begin and end with a family Thanksgiving dinner...
was nominated for Best Picture, said that
Blue Velvet was his favourite film of the year.
Continued success (1987-1996) and transition to TV
After failing to secure funding for several completed scripts in the late 1980s, Lynch collaborated with television producer
Mark FrostMark Frost is an American novelist, television/film writer, director, and executive producer. His work became famous in the seminal 1980s TV show Hill Street Blues. His other TV credits include Twin Peaks and On the Air...
on the show
Twin PeaksTwin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation, headed by Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the brutal murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
, which was about a small
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
town that is the location of several bizarre occurrences. The show centered around the investigation by FBI
Special Agent Dale CooperFBI Special agent Dale Bartholomew Cooper is a fictional character from the television series Twin Peaks, portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan. He is the lead protagonist of the series and also briefly appears in the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me....
(
Kyle MacLachlanKyle Merritt MacLachlan is an American actor.He graduated from the University of Washington in 1982 and, shortly afterward, moved to Hollywood, California to pursue his career...
) into the death of popular high school student
Laura PalmerLaura Palmer is a fictional character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Her death was the catalyst for the events of the series....
, an investigation that unearthed the secrets of many town residents, something that stemmed from
Blue Velvet. Lynch directed six episodes of the series, including the feature-length
pilotA television pilot is a test episode of an intended television series. It is an early step in the development of a television series, much like pilot lights or pilot studies serve as precursors to the start of larger activity, or pilot holes prepare the way for larger holes. Networks use pilots to...
, wrote or co-wrote several more and even acted in some episodes.
The show debuted on the
ABC NetworkThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
on April 8, 1990 and gradually rose from cult hit to cultural phenomenon, and because of its originality and success remains one of the most well-known television series of the decade.
Catch phraseA catch phrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...
s from the show entered the culture and parodies of it were seen on
Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a weekly late-night sketch comedy and variety show filmed in New York City. It made its debut on October 11, 1975, under a slightly different title. The show features a regular cast of comedy actors, joined by a guest host and musical act...
and
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
. Lynch appeared on the cover of
TimeTime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
magazine largely because of the success of the series. Lynch, who has seldom acted in his career, also appeared on the show as the partially-deaf FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole, who shouted his every word.
However, Lynch clashed with the ABC Network on several matters, particularly whether or not to reveal Laura Palmer's killer. The network insisted that the revelation be made during the second season but Lynch wanted the mystery to last as long as the series. Lynch soon became disenchanted with the series, and, as a result, many cast members complained of feeling abandoned. Later, in a roundtable discussion with cast members included in the 2007 DVD release of the series, he stated that he and Frost never intended to ever reveal the identity of Laura's killer, that ABC forced him to reveal the culprit prematurely, and that agreeing to do so is one of his biggest professional regrets.
It was at this time that Lynch began to work with editor/producer/domestic partner
Mary SweeneyMary Sweeney is an award-winning American film editor and film producer best known for collaborating with the avant-garde American film director, David Lynch...
who had been one of his assistant editors on
Blue Velvet. This was a collaboration that would last some eleven projects. During this period, Sweeney also gave birth to their son.
Adapted from the novel by
Barry GiffordBarry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness....
,
Wild at HeartWild at Heart is a 1990 American film written and directed by David Lynch, and based on Barry Gifford's 1989 pulp novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula...
was an almost hallucinatory
crimeCrime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
/
road movieA road film is a film genre in which the film's plot takes place during a journey.-History:The genre has its roots in spoken and written tales of epic journeys, such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid. The road film is a standard plot employed by screenwriters. It is a kind of bildungsroman, a kind of...
starring
Nicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor.Cage pursued acting as a career, making his debut on television in 1981...
and
Laura DernLaura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
. It won the
Palme d'OrThe Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded to competing films at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film...
at the
1990 Cannes Film Festival- Jury :*Bernardo Bertolucci *Alexei Guerman *Anjelica Huston *Bertrand Blier *Christopher Hampton*Fanny Ardant *Françoise Giroud *Hayao Shibata *Mira Nair *Sven Nykvist...
but was met with a muted response from American critics and viewers. Reportedly, several people walked out of
test screeningA test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release in order to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population, and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form...
s.
The missing link between
Twin Peaks and
Wild at Heart, however, is
Industrial Symphony No. 1Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted is a short, avant-garde musical play directed by David Lynch, with music by Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise.-Overview:...
: The Dream of the Broken Hearted. It was originally presented on-stage at the
Brooklyn Academy of MusicBrooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
on November 10, 1989 as a part of the New Music America Festival.
Industrial Symphony No. 1 is another collaboration between composer
Angelo BadalamentiAngelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive.-Early life:...
and David Lynch. It features five songs by
Julee CruiseJulee Cruise is an American singer, and actress.With a distinctive, airy voice, Cruise has recorded three albums, but is probably best known for the lead vocal on "Falling," the theme song for the cult U.S. television series Twin Peaks...
and stars several members of the
Twin Peaks cast as well as Nic Cage, Laura Dern and Julee Cruise. Lynch described this musical spectacle as the "sound effects and music and ... happening on the stage. And, it has something to do with, uh, a relationship ending." David Lynch produced a 50 minute video of the performance in 1990.
Twin Peaks suffered a severe ratings drop and was canceled in 1991. Still, Lynch scripted a
prequelA prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel .-History:Though the word "Prequel" is of...
to the series about the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer. The resulting film,
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), flopped at the box office.
As a quick blip during this time period, he and
Mark FrostMark Frost is an American novelist, television/film writer, director, and executive producer. His work became famous in the seminal 1980s TV show Hill Street Blues. His other TV credits include Twin Peaks and On the Air...
wrote and directed several episodes of the short lived comedy series
On the Air for ABC, which followed the zany antics at a 1950s TV studio. In the US, only three episodes were aired, although seven were filmed. In the Netherlands, all seven were aired by
VPROThe VPRO was established in the Netherlands in 1926 as a religious broadcasting organization. Falling under the Protestant "pillar", it represented the Liberal Protestant current...
. BBC2 in the UK also aired all seven episodes. Lynch also produced (with Frost) and directed the
documentaryDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
television series
American ChroniclesAmerican Chronicles is a documentary television program which was run by Fox Broadcasting Company as part of its 1990 fall lineup.American Chronicles was produced by David Lynch and Mark Frost, perhaps best-known as the producers of the contemporary program on ABC, Twin Peaks, and featured many of...
.
His next project was much more low-key: he directed two episodes of a three-episode HBO mini-series called
Hotel RoomHotel Room was a three episode 1993 HBO television series produced by David Lynch . Each drama takes place in the same New York City hotel room at different times .Barry Gifford wrote, and David Lynch directed, the first and third episodes; Jay McInerney wrote, and James Signorelli...
about events that happened in the same hotel room in a span of decades.
Comic strip (1983–1992)
Lynch also had a comic strip –
The Angriest Dog in the WorldThe Angriest Dog in the World is a comic strip created by film director David Lynch. First appearing in 1983, it was one of the originators of the constrained comics movement.- Publication history :...
– which featured unchanging graphics (various panels showing the angular, angry dog chained up in a yard full of bones) and cryptic philosophical references. It ran from 1983 until 1992 in the Village Voice,
Creative LoafingCreative Loafing is the name of four alternative weekly newspapers published in four different cities by Tampa, Florida-based Creative Loafing, Inc. All four papers share some columns and articles, but each city's edition focuses on local reporting of news, culture, and entertainment...
and other tabloid and alternative publications.
Recent works (1997–present)
In 1997, Lynch returned with the non-linear,
noirFilm noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
-like film
Lost HighwayLost Highway is a 1997 American psychological thriller film that exhibits elements of both neo-noir and surrealism. Written and directed by David Lynch, the film stars Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty and Robert Loggia. Lynch co-wrote the screenplay with Barry Gifford, who also...
, co-written by Barry Gifford and starring
Bill PullmanWilliam James "Bill" Pullman is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Pullman was born in Hornell, New York, the son of Johanna , a nurse, and James Pullman, a physician. His father's family descends from England and his maternal grandparents were immigrants from Holland...
and
Patricia ArquettePatricia T. Arquette is an American actress, perhaps best known as the star of the supernatural drama series Medium.-Early life and family:...
. The film failed commercially and received a mixed response from critics. However, thanks in part to a soundtrack featuring
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
,
Marilyn MansonMarilyn Manson is an American rock band founded by Brian Warner and Scott Putesky in the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The band advocates nonconformism and iconoclasm, often utilizing controversial imagery and lyrical content...
,
RammsteinRammstein is a German rock band from Berlin, formed in 1994. The band consists of members Till Lindemann , Richard Z. Kruspe , Paul H. Landers , Oliver "Ollie" Riedel , Christoph "Doom" Schneider and Christian "Flake" Lorenz...
,
Nine Inch NailsNine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
and
The Smashing PumpkinsThe Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan and James Iha , the band has included D'arcy Wretzky , Jimmy Chamberlin , and Melissa Auf der Maur among its membership.Disavowing the punk rock roots shared by...
, it helped gain Lynch a new audience of
Generation XGeneration X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is a term used to refer to the generation born after the baby boom ended, extending from the early 1960s to late 1970s. The term Generation X has been used in demography, the social sciences, and marketing, though it is most often used in popular...
viewers.
In 1999, Lynch surprised fans and critics with the
GThe Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences...
-rated,
DisneyWalt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company:Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner, was established as a designation in 1983, prior to which Disney films since 1954 were released under the name of the parent company, then named Walt Disney...
-produced
The Straight StoryThe Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch. It is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawnmower. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker. She co-wrote the script with John E...
, written and edited by
Mary SweeneyMary Sweeney is an award-winning American film editor and film producer best known for collaborating with the avant-garde American film director, David Lynch...
, which was, on the surface, a simple and humble movie telling the true story of Iowan
Alvin StraightAlvin Ray Straight was a resident of Laurens, Iowa. He gained fame for traveling on a 1966 John Deere riding lawn mower to visit his 80-year-old ill brother in Mount Zion, Wisconsin. His brother had recently had a stroke. At a top speed of , the journey took six weeks...
, played by
Richard FarnsworthRichard W. Farnsworth was an American actor and stuntman. His film career began in 1937, however he achieved his greatest success for his performances in The Grey Fox and The Straight Story , for which he received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor.- Early life :Farnsworth was born...
, who rides a lawnmower to
WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
to make peace with his ailing brother, played by
Harry Dean StantonHarry Dean Stanton is an American actor of film and television.-Early life:Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, the son of Ersel , a hair dresser, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber. His parents divorced when Stanton was in high school and later re-married...
. The film garnered positive reviews and reached a new audience for its director.
The same year, Lynch approached
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
once again with an idea for a television
dramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective...
. The network gave Lynch the go-ahead to shoot a two-hour pilot for the series
Mulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
, but disputes over content and running time led to the project being shelved indefinitely.
With seven million dollars from the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
production companyA production company is a company responsible for the development and physical production of performing arts, film, radio or a television program. The company may also be directly responsible for the raising of funding for the production or may do through an intermediary...
StudioCanalStudioCanal Image S.A. , is a French-based production and distribution company that owns the third-largest film library in the world...
, Lynch completed the pilot as a film.
Mulholland Drive is an enigmatic tale of the dark side of Hollywood and stars
Naomi WattsNaomi Ellen Watts is a British-Australian actress. Watts began her career in Australian Television, where she appeared in commercials and series, including the soap opera Home and Away, the award winning mini-series Brides of Christ and the family sitcom Hey Dad..!...
,
Laura HarringLaura Elena Harring is a Mexican actress and former Miss USA . She starred as Rita/Camilla Rhodes in David Lynch's 2001 film Mulholland Drive. She also starred as Dehlia Draycott in the 2007 film Nancy Drew.-Early life:...
and
Justin TherouxJustin Theroux is an American actor, screenwriter and director.-Early life:Theroux was born in Washington, D.C.. His mother Phyllis Theroux is a journalist and author; his father Eugene Theroux is a corporate lawyer...
. The film performed relatively well at the
box officeA box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a venue. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall, or at a wicket...
worldwide and was a critical success earning Lynch a
Best DirectorThe Best Director Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946....
prize at the
2001 Cannes Film FestivalThe 2001 Cannes Film Festival started on May 14 and ran until May 25. The Palme d'Or went to the Itallian film The Son's Room by Nanni Moretti.-Jury:* Liv Ullmann, President * Mimmo Calopresti * Charlotte Gainsbourg...
(shared with Joel Coen for
The Man Who Wasn't ThereThe Man Who Wasn't There is a 2001 neo-noir film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Billy Bob Thornton stars in the title role. Also featured are James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, Scarlett Johansson, and Coen regulars Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, and Jon Polito.-Concept and...
) and a Best Director award from the New York Film Critics Association.
Film critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
was notoriously unfavorable towards Lynch, accusing him of
misogynyMisogyny is hatred of women or girls. Misogyny comes from Greek misogunia from misos and gynē . It is parallel to misandry—the hatred of men or boys. Misogyny is also comparable with misanthropy which is the hatred of humanity in general...
in his reviews of
Blue Velvet and
Wild at HeartWild at Heart is a 1990 American film written and directed by David Lynch, and based on Barry Gifford's 1989 pulp novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula...
. Yet, Ebert reacted positively to
The Straight StoryThe Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch. It is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawnmower. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker. She co-wrote the script with John E...
and
Mulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
writing positive 4/4 star reviews for both. As of 2009, in responses to comments on his blogs, Ebert admits that, while he does not embrace some of Lynch's earlier hit films, it may just be something in him personally that resists. Ebert often mentions he can recognize in all Lynch films that 'something is there'.
In 2002, Lynch created a series of online shorts entitled
Dumbland. Intentionally crude both in content and execution, the eight-episode series was later released on DVD. The same year, Lynch treated his fans to his own version of a sitcom via his
website -
RabbitsRabbits is a 2002 film written and directed by David Lynch. It consists of an 8-episode series of short videos. The series was formerly shown exclusively on , but is no longer available there. Both the set and some footage of the rabbits are reused in Lynch's Inland Empire.Rabbits is presented...
, eight episodes of
surrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
in a rabbit suit. Later, he showed his experiments with Digital Video (
DVDigital Video is a digital video format created by Sony, JVC, Panasonic and other video camera producers, and launched in 1995. Its smaller tape form factor MiniDV has since become a standard for home and semi-professional video production; it is sometimes used for professional purposes as well,...
) in the form of the Japanese style horror short
Darkened RoomDarkened Room is a short 8-minute film directed by David Lynch. It first appeared on Lynch's website, DavidLynch.com, in 2002. It has subsequently been released on the DVD anthology Dynamic:01....
.
At the
2005 Cannes Film FestivalThe 2005 Cannes Film Festival started on May 11 and ran until May 22. Twenty movies from 13 countries were selected to compete. The awards were announced on May 21...
, Lynch announced that he had spent over a year shooting his new project digitally in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. The feature, titled
Inland EmpireInland Empire is a surrealistic, psychological thriller film, written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on september 6, 2006...
, included Lynch regulars such as
Laura DernLaura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
,
Harry Dean StantonHarry Dean Stanton is an American actor of film and television.-Early life:Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, the son of Ersel , a hair dresser, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber. His parents divorced when Stanton was in high school and later re-married...
, and Mulholland Drive star
Justin TherouxJustin Theroux is an American actor, screenwriter and director.-Early life:Theroux was born in Washington, D.C.. His mother Phyllis Theroux is a journalist and author; his father Eugene Theroux is a corporate lawyer...
, with cameos by
Naomi WattsNaomi Ellen Watts is a British-Australian actress. Watts began her career in Australian Television, where she appeared in commercials and series, including the soap opera Home and Away, the award winning mini-series Brides of Christ and the family sitcom Hey Dad..!...
and Laura Harring (voices of Suzie and Jane Rabbit), and a performance by
Jeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English film, television, and stage actor. He has won the Academy Award, the Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to many other awards and honors....
. Lynch described the piece as "a mystery about a woman in trouble". It was released in December 2006. In an effort to promote the film, Lynch made appearances with a cow and a placard bearing the slogan "Without cheese there would be no
Inland Empire".
Despite his almost exclusive focus on America, Lynch has found a large audience in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
;
Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive,
Lost Highway and
Fire Walk With Me were all funded through French production companies.
The most recent work that Lynch has directed is a fragrance short film/commercial for
GucciThe House of Gucci mane, better known as Gucci , is a Florentine fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company Pinault-Printemps-Redoute...
. It features 3 prominent models, dancing in what appear to be their own luxurious homes, to the soundtrack of
BlondieBlondie is an American rock band founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American new wave and punk rock scenes of the mid 1970s...
. A video of the commercial plus a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the commercial is available online at the Gucci website.
In May 2008, Lynch announced that he was working on a road documentary "about his dialogues with regular folk on the meaning of life, with the likes of 60’s troubadour
DonovanDonovan , is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and
John HagelinJohn Hagelin is an American scientist who was a researcher at the European Center for Particle Physics and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center , is an educator and author, and has been the Natural Law Party candidate for President of the United States three times...
, the physicist, as traveling companions".
In October, 2008, the OMMA Video Conference, Jen Gregono, chief content officer at On Networks, announced that her company signed Lynch to a webisode series based on his book,
Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity.
In June 2009,
Danger MouseBrian Joseph Burton, better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American artist and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined acappellas from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from the album The Beatles .He formed Gnarls Barkley with...
and
SparklehorseSparklehorse is an American alternative rock band led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous, who records much of the group's material in his home studio...
released an album called "Dark Night of the Soul", with a 100+ page booklet with visuals by Lynch. The album contained a complete packaging and a blank CD because of some dispute with the record label. The artists involved implied that consumers can get the music online and just burn the blank CD provided.
In July 2009, Lynch directed the animated music video for
MobyRichard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American DJ, singer-songwriter, and musician....
's song
Shot in the Back of the Head.
MobyRichard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American DJ, singer-songwriter, and musician....
said that the album on which the song is featured,
Wait for MeWait for Me is the ninth studio album by the musician Moby, released on June 30, 2009. Moby announced the title, track listing and release date of the album on his website on April 14, 2009....
was inspired by a speech given by Lynch about the value of
creativityCreativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight...
versus creating something with a set of standards imposed by the public in mind.
Awards and honors
David Lynch has twice won France's
César Award for Best Foreign FilmThis is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Foreign Film .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:...
and served as President of the jury at the
2002 Cannes Film FestivalThe 2002 Cannes Film Festival started on May 15 and ran until May 26. The Palme d'Or went to the Polish-French-German-British co-produced film The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski.-Awards :Feature films...
, where he had previously won the
Palme d'OrThe Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded to competing films at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film...
in 1990. On September 6. 2006 Lynch received a
Golden LionIl Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Biennale Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
award for lifetime achievement at the
Venice Film FestivalThe Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice,...
. He also premiered his latest work,
Inland Empire, at the festival.
Lynch has received four
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
nominations:
Best DirectorThe Academy Award for Achievement in Directing is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
for
The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man is a American–British drama film based on the story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
(1980),
Blue Velvet (1986) and
Mulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
(2001), as well as
Best Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
for
The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man is a American–British drama film based on the story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
(1980).
He was also honored by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
government with the
Legion of HonorThe Légion d'honneur or Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, the country's top civilian honor, as
Chevalier in 2002 then
Officier in 2007, and was named the best director in
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
's 'The world's 40 best directors' in 2008.
Frequent collaborators
Main article:
Frequent David Lynch collaboratorsDavid Lynch is known for his constant collaborations with many of the same actors and crew in his various productions. Most notably, Angelo Badalamenti to compose music for his productions.Lynch often uses the same actors and crew in his productions:...
Lynch is also widely noted for his collaborations with various production artists and composers on his films and multiple different productions. He frequently works with
Angelo BadalamentiAngelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive.-Early life:...
to compose music for his productions, former wife
Mary SweeneyMary Sweeney is an award-winning American film editor and film producer best known for collaborating with the avant-garde American film director, David Lynch...
as a film editor, casting director
Johanna RayJohanna Ray is an American casting director and film producer. She is sometimes credited as "Joanna Ray". She is a regular casting director under David Lynch. She has been nominated for five Artios Awards, and won once in 1990...
, and cast members
Harry Dean StantonHarry Dean Stanton is an American actor of film and television.-Early life:Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, the son of Ersel , a hair dresser, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber. His parents divorced when Stanton was in high school and later re-married...
,
Jack NanceMarvin John Nance , known professionally as Jack Nance and occasionally credited as John Nance, was an American actor of stage and screen, primarily starring in offbeat or avant-garde productions...
,
Kyle MacLachlanKyle Merritt MacLachlan is an American actor.He graduated from the University of Washington in 1982 and, shortly afterward, moved to Hollywood, California to pursue his career...
,
Naomi WattsNaomi Ellen Watts is a British-Australian actress. Watts began her career in Australian Television, where she appeared in commercials and series, including the soap opera Home and Away, the award winning mini-series Brides of Christ and the family sitcom Hey Dad..!...
,
Isabella RosselliniIsabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background:Rossellini is the daughter of Swedish...
,
Grace ZabriskieGrace Zabriskie is an American actress. She has appeared in many popular American films and television series.-Life and career:Zabriskie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana...
, and
Laura DernLaura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
.
Themes
Although interpretations vary, those who study Lynch's work generally find consistent themes. His narratives are typically set in the United States, either in remote small towns (
Twin PeaksTwin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation, headed by Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the brutal murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
,
Blue Velvet) or in sprawling metropolises (
Lost HighwayLost Highway is a 1997 American psychological thriller film that exhibits elements of both neo-noir and surrealism. Written and directed by David Lynch, the film stars Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty and Robert Loggia. Lynch co-wrote the screenplay with Barry Gifford, who also...
and
Mulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
, both set in
Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
). Beaten or abused women are also a common subject, as are intimations or explicit mention of incest and sexual abuse (most of his films).
Most of Lynch's male protagonists harbor some dark secret or have a "dark side" which they suppress;
Eraserheads Henry impregnates and abandons his girlfriend, Jeffrey in Blue Velvet
develops sadomasochistic tendencies that violently manifest themselves in his unfaithful couplings with Dorothy, and Leland Palmer has a latent sexual desire for his own daughter in Twin Peaks
.
Lynch also tends to feature his leading female actors in multiple or "split" roles, so that many of his female characters have multiple, fractured identities. This practice begins with his choice to cast Sheryl LeeSheryl Lee is an American actress. She came to international attention for her performances as Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson on the 1990 cult TV series Twin Peaks and in the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me...
as both Laura PalmerLaura Palmer is a fictional character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Her death was the catalyst for the events of the series....
and her cousin Maddy Ferguson in Twin Peaks
and continues in his later works. In Lost Highway
, Patricia ArquettePatricia T. Arquette is an American actress, perhaps best known as the star of the supernatural drama series Medium.-Early life and family:...
plays the dual role of Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield. In Mulholland Drive
, Naomi WattsNaomi Ellen Watts is a British-Australian actress. Watts began her career in Australian Television, where she appeared in commercials and series, including the soap opera Home and Away, the award winning mini-series Brides of Christ and the family sitcom Hey Dad..!...
plays Diane Selwyn/Betty Elms and Laura Harring plays Camilla Rhodes/Rita. In Inland EmpireInland Empire may refer to:In Geography:* Inland Empire , a geographic region in Southern California.* Inland Empire , a geographic region in Georgia....
,
Laura DernLaura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
plays Nikki Grace/Susan Blue. By contrast, Lynch rarely creates multi-character roles for his male actors.
Influences
Lynch has expressed his admiration for filmmakers
Federico FelliniFederico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian film director. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century.- Rimini :Federico Fellini was born on January 20, 1920 to...
,
Ingmar BergmanErnst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. His influential body of work often dealt with themes such as bleakness and despair, as well as comedy and hope, in his cinematic exploration of the human condition...
,
Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American director, writer, producer, and photographer of films, who lived in England during most of the last 40 years of his career...
and
Jacques TatiJacques Tati was a noted French comedic filmmaker. He was born Jacques Tatischeff, the son of Russian father Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff and Dutch mother Marcelle Claire Van Hoof, in Le Pecq, Yvelines, and died in Paris....
, writer
Franz KafkaFranz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
(stating "the only artist I felt could be my brother was Kafka"), and artist
Francis BaconFrancis Bacon was an Irish-born British figurative painter. His artwork is known for its bold, austere, homoerotic and often violent or nightmarish imagery, which typically shows room-bound masculine figures isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
. He states that the majority of Kubrick films are in his top ten, that he really loves Kafka, and that Bacon paints images that are both visually stunning, and emotionally touching. He has also cited the
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n
expressionist painterExpressionism was a cultural movement originating in Germany at the start of the 20th-century as a reaction to positivism and other artistic movements such as naturalism and impressionism. It sought to express the meaning of "being alive" and emotional experience rather than physical reality...
Oskar KokoschkaOskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes....
as an inspiration for his works. Lynch has a love for the 1939 version of
The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical / fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum...
and frequently makes reference to it in his films, most overtly in Wild at HeartWild at Heart is a 1990 American film written and directed by David Lynch, and based on Barry Gifford's 1989 pulp novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula...
.
An early influence on Lynch was the book The Art Spirit
by American turn-of-the-century artist and teacher Robert HenriRobert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
. When he was in high school, Bushnell Keeler, an artist who was the stepfather of one of his friends, introduced Lynch to Henri's book, which became his bible. As Lynch said in Chris Rodley's book Lynch on Lynch, "it helped me decide my course for painting — 100 percent right there." Lynch, like Henri, moved from rural America to an urban environment to pursue an artistic career. Henri was an urban realist painter, legitimizing every day city life as the subject of his work, much in the same way that Lynch first drew street scenes. Henri's work also bridged changing centuries, from America's agricultural 19th century into the industrial 20th century, much in the same fashion as Lynch's films blend the nostalgic happiness of the fifties to the twisted weirdness of the eighties and nineties.
His influences have also included
Werner HerzogWerner Herzog is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director....
,
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
,
Billy WilderBilly Wilder was an Austrian-American journalist, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
and
Luis BuñuelLuis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker who acquired Mexican citizenship and worked in Mexico, France, and also in his native Spain and the United States...
. Some of Lynch's influences have cited him as an influence themselves, most notably Kubrick, who stated that he modeled his vision of
The ShiningThe Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Though it had mixed reviews from the critics upon its release it was wildly popular with moviegoers and financially successful...
(1980) upon that of Eraserhead
and who, according to Lynch's book Catching the Big FishCatching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity is a book by fim director David Lynch.-The book:Catching the Big Fish was inspired by Lynch's experiences with Transcendental Meditation , which he began practicing TM in 1973...
, once commented while screening Eraserhead
for a small group that it was his favorite film.
Ronnie Rocket
Ronnie Rocket is an as-yet-unproduced film by David Lynch.
After finishing EraserheadEraserhead is a surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch, and released in . In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to pursue an MFA degree at the AFI Conservatory. At the Conservatory, Lynch began working on his first feature-length film, Eraserhead, using a $10,000 grant from the AFI...
, Lynch spent two years writing a script for a new project, entitled Ronnie Rocket, which was "about a three-foot tall guy with red hair and physical problems, and about 60-cycle alternating current electricity." Ronnie Rocket
was a strange mixture of the abstractness of Eraserhead and Lynch's love of America in the fifties. He has described it as "an American smokestack industrial thing -- it has to do with
coalCoal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
and
oilAn oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and is hydrophobic but soluble in organic solvents. Oils have a high carbon and hydrogen content and are nonpolar substances. The general definition above includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated chemical structures,...
and
electricityElectricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge...
."
Initially, Lynch and producer
Stuart CornfeldStuart Cornfeld is a film producer, business partner with Ben Stiller in the company, Red Hour Productions, and an actor. His hometown is Tarzana, California, and he attended the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1970s...
had hoped to get it made with
Dean StockwellRobert Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, active for over 60 years. He played Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci in the NBC television series Quantum Leap, and most recently appeared in the Sci Fi Channel revival of Battlestar Galactica as Brother Cavil. He also had a role...
,
Brad DourifBradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is a BAFTA-winning and Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated American film and television actor, best known for his roles as Younger Brother in Ragtime, Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hazel Motes in Wise Blood, Gríma Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings:...
,
Jack NanceMarvin John Nance , known professionally as Jack Nance and occasionally credited as John Nance, was an American actor of stage and screen, primarily starring in offbeat or avant-garde productions...
,
Dennis HopperDennis Lee Hopper is an American actor, filmmaker and artist, with a career that spanned half of the 20th century. Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1955, and appeared in two films also featuring...
and
Harry Dean StantonHarry Dean Stanton is an American actor of film and television.-Early life:Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, the son of Ersel , a hair dresser, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber. His parents divorced when Stanton was in high school and later re-married...
originally starring in it back in 1987 with it being set in
Hoboken, New JerseyHoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 38,577. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
. Later on
Isabella RosselliniIsabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background:Rossellini is the daughter of Swedish...
was intended to star in the film.
Various drafts of the script have languished at both
Dino De LaurentiisAgostino De Laurentiis, usually credited as Dino De Laurentiis , is an Italian Academy Award-winning movie producer.-Biography:...
and
Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an Italian-American film director, producer and screenwriter. Away from showbusiness, Coppola is also a vintner, magazine publisher and hotelier. He is a graduate of Hofstra University where he studied theatre. He earned an M.F.A. in film directing from the UCLA Film School...
's Zoetrope Studios. Lynch had a multi-picture deal with De Laurentiis that began with
DuneDune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles, including Sting, Jose Ferrer,...
. After Blue Velvet
, Lynch planned to make Ronnie Rocket
but then De Laurentiis' company went bankrupt in 1988 and this project ended up in legal limbo.
Lynch has stated that he is still very much interested in making the film, but anticipates that it will not be a commercial picture, but more personal like Eraserhead
. He has already considered Michael J. AndersonMichael J. Anderson is an American actor known for his roles as Samson Leonhart on the HBO series Carnivàle and as the Man from Another Place in David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks....
who was the Man from Another PlaceThe Man from Another Place is a fictional character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. He is an inhabitant of the Black Lodge, a realm of pure evil. Early on in the series, The Man gives Agent Dale Cooper clues to apprehending The Man's nemesis, BOB...
in the Twin PeaksTwin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation, headed by Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the brutal murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
TV show and feature film, as the man to play Ronnie Rocket.
Lynch would like to approach the film much in the same fashion as Eraserhead
. "I want to have time to go into that world and live in it for a while, and that costs money. I don't really want to have a normal eleven-week shooting schedule on Ronnie Rocket
. I'd rather go with a smaller crew, and build the sets and live in them for a while."
Other projects
Gardenback: After the success he had enjoyed with "The Grandmother", Lynch moved to Beverly Hills to participate in the AFI's Center for Advanced Film. Lynch began working on a script for a short film called "Gardenback" in 1970. Lynch spent the whole year working on a 45-page script. The film was to explore the physical materialization of what grows inside a man's head when he desires a woman that he sees. This manifestation metamorphoses into a monster.
Cinematographer/director
Caleb DeschanelJoseph Caleb Deschanel, A.S.C. is an American cinematographer.-Early life:Deschanel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a French father and an American mother, who raised him in her Quaker religion. He went to Severn School for high school...
, who was also at the AFI at the time and wanted to shoot the film, introduced Lynch to a producer at
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation , also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox, is one of the six major American film studios...
. The studio was interested in making a series of low-budget horror films and wanted to expand "Gardenback" into a feature film. The studio was willing to give Lynch $50,000 to make it but wanted the 45-page script to be expanded. This involved writing dialogue—something Lynch had never tried before. Lynch said in Lynch on Lynch
, "What I wrote was pretty much worthless, but something happened inside me about structure, about scenes. And I don't even know what it was, but it sort of percolated down and became part of me. But the script was pretty much worthless. I knew I'd just watered it down." Consequently, Lynch became disenchanted with the project. Some of the elements in "Gardenback" would later surface in Eraserhead
, such as its main characters Henry and Mary X.
Dune Messiah
: Lynch was in the process of writing the sequel to film Dune
(which was partially adapted from the book), but the box office failure of the first film killed the project. From the Inner Views
Lynch interview, "...I was really getting into Dune II
. I wrote about half the script, maybe more, and I was really getting excited about it. It was much tighter, a better story." From a Prevue
article from 1984: "Lynch has written two sequel screenplays to Dune
– Dune Messiah
and Children of Dune
, based on Herbert's succeeding novels – which currently await the author's approval. Back-to-back lensing is expected if the first film is a success. Although Kyle MacLachlan will portray Paul Atreides in the three Dune
spectacles, Lynch promises a different cast each time."
- Untitled animated short, 1969 or 1970: Though David doesn't remember what the film itself was about, he distinctly recalls that he was paid to produce a short film and the negatives came back from the lab messed up.
Red Dragon
: Before making Blue Velvet
, the film's producer, Richard Roth, approached Lynch with another project—an adaptation of Thomas HarrisThomas Harris is an American author and screenwriter, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter...
' novel, Red Dragon
. Lynch was turned off by the content of the book and Roth subsequently took the project to Michael MannMichael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. For his work, he has received nominations from international organizations and juries, including those at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cannes and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
who went on to direct the film as ManhunterManhunter is a thriller film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann, it features Brian Cox as the popular character Hannibal Lecter and stars William Petersen, Joan Allen, Kim Greist, Dennis Farina and Tom Noonan...
(1986).
The Lemurians
: This was a TV show that Lynch was going to do with Mark Frost based on the continent of LemuriaLemuria is the name of a hypothetical "lost land" variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concept's 19th century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography -- however, the scientific concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern understanding...
. Their premise for the show was that Lemurian essence was leaking from the bottom of the Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
and becomes a threat to the world. It was intended to be a comedy but when Lynch and Frost tried to pitch this show to NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
, the network rejected it.
Goddess: When Lynch and Frost first met, they began working on a project about
Marilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe , born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer and model....
. Lynch had been fascinated by the actress' life and met with
Anthony SummersAnthony Bruce Summers is a writer, television producer, and journalist in the United Kingdom. Educated in English literature at Oxford University, he worked for Granada TV’s “World in Action” program, and later as a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation.-Major writings:Summers has...
who wrote a biography of the same name. The more they worked on it, the more they became embroiled in conspiracy theories involving Monroe and the Kennedys which turned Lynch off the project. Twin Peaks was created soon after, which has similarities with the story of Monroe.
- One Saliva Bubble: This was a comedy that Lynch co-wrote with Mark Frost and intended to direct with Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician, and composer. He was raised in Southern California in a Baptist family, where his early influences were working at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm and working magic and comedy acts at these and...
and Martin ShortMartin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, singer and producer. He is best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live.-Early life:...
starring. It was set in Kansas. Robert Engels describes the premise of the film in Lynch on Lynch: "It's about an electric bubble from a computer that bursts over this town and changes people's personalities – like these five cattlemen, who suddenly think they're Chinese gymnasts. It's insane!"
- The White Hotel: Lynch was attached to Dennis Potter's adaptation of D.M. Thomas' novel during the late 1980s.
- I'll Test My Log With Every Branch of Knowledge: Around the time that Lynch and Catherine Coulson made "The Amputee", he had an idea for a TV show. He told Chris Rodley in Lynch on Lynch, "It's a half-hour television show starring Catherine as the lady with the log. Her husband has been killed in a forest fire and his ashes are on the mantelpiece, with his pipes and his sock hat. He was a woodsman. But the fireplace is completely boarded up. Because she now is very afraid of fire." The series would have been educational in nature and geared towards families, with the Log Lady teaching her young son a new lesson each week using the log as a demonstration tool. This project never got off the ground, but when it came time to film the pilot for Twin Peaks, Lynch remembered this idea and called Coulson up to appear as the Log Lady.
- Metamorphosis: This was intended to be an adaptation of the story written by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
. Lynch has expressed on several accounts his desire to film the story of Metamorphosis. He has even written a script. The main reason that Lynch has not filmed it is a matter of money and technology involving the transformation of a man into a beetle.
- The Dream of the Bovine: Lynch and Robert Engels wrote the screenplay for this film after Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. According to Engels in Lynch on Lynch, the film was about "three guys, who used to be cows, living in Van Nuys and trying to assimilate their lives."
- Untitled Twin Peaks Films: Were Fire Walk With Me to have been a success, the film's backers were prepared to offer Lynch the funding necessary to make two further films, which would have been sequels to the series' narrative. Additionally, Lynch has been trying since 1992 to get the rights to over an hour's worth of unused footage from Fire Walk With Me to be edited together and released.
Personal life
Lynch tends to keep his personal life private and rarely comments on his films. However, he does attend public events and film festivals when he or his films are nominated/awarded. Despite a belief that a film should be seen in its totality, the DVD release of Inland Empire is divided into chapters, with Lynch explaining why in the "Stories" feature. In addition, on his two DVD collections of short films, Lynch provides short introductions to each film.
In the 1980s, Lynch expressed that he liked
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
and at one point he had dinner with the Reagans at the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
, though he sees himself as a
LibertarianThe Libertarian Party is a United States political party founded on December 11, 1971.In the 30 states where voters can register by party there are over 200,000 voters registered with the Libertarian Party, making it one of the largest of America's alternative political parties...
or
DemocratThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
.
In the "Stories" feature on the
EraserheadEraserhead is a surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch, and released in . In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to pursue an MFA degree at the AFI Conservatory. At the Conservatory, Lynch began working on his first feature-length film, Eraserhead, using a $10,000 grant from the AFI...
DVD, Lynch mentions that he ate
French friesFrench fries , fries, or french-fried potatoes are thin strips of deep-fried potato...
and grilled cheese almost every day while on the set. Despite his professional accomplishments, Lynch once characterized himself simply as "
Eagle ScoutEagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . Those who attain this rank are called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
, Missoula, Montana".
In 1967, Lynch married Peggy Lentz in Chicago,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
. They had one child, Jennifer Chambers Lynch, born in 1968, who currently works as a film director. They filed for divorce in 1974. On June 21, 1977, Lynch married Mary Fisk, and the couple had one child, Austin Jack Lynch, born in 1982. They divorced in 1987, and Lynch began dating
Isabella RosselliniIsabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background:Rossellini is the daughter of Swedish...
, after filming Blue Velvet.
Lynch and Rossellini broke up in 1991, and Lynch developed a relationship with Mary SweeneyMary Sweeney is an award-winning American film editor and film producer best known for collaborating with the avant-garde American film director, David Lynch...
, with whom he had one son, Riley Lynch, in 1992. Sweeney also worked as long-time film editor/producer to Lynch and co-wrote and produced The Straight StoryThe Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch. It is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawnmower. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker. She co-wrote the script with John E...
.
The two married in May 2006, but divorced later in July.
Lynch married actress Emily Stofle, who starred in his 2006 film Inland EmpireInland Empire is a surrealistic, psychological thriller film, written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on september 6, 2006...
, in February 2009.
Transcendental meditation
In December 2, 2005, Lynch told the Washington Post that he had been practicing the
Transcendental MeditationThe Transcendental Meditation technique, or TM technique is a form of mantra meditation introduced in India in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi...
technique twice a day, for 20 minutes each time, for 32 years. He was initiated into the Transcendental Meditation technique in 1973 in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
by a teacher he thought "looked like Doris Day". Lynch advocates the use of this meditation technique in bringing peace to the world. In July 2005, he launched the
David Lynch FoundationThe David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace is a charitable foundation based in Fairfield, Iowa, which operates throughout the world....
For Consciousness-Based Education and Peace established to help finance scholarships for students in middle and high schools who are interested in learning the Transcendental Meditation technique, and to fund research on the technique and its effects on learning. He promotes his vision on college campuses with ongoing tours that began in September 2005.
Lynch is working for the building and establishment of seven buildings, in which 8,000, salaried people will practice advanced meditation techniques, "pumping peace for the world." He estimates the cost at $7 billion. As of December 2005, he had spent $400,000 of personal money, and raised $1 million in donations. In December 2006, the New York Times
reported that he continued to have that goal. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr formed half a Beatles reunion on April 4, 2009 at “Change Begins Within,” a benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall for the David Lynch Foundation. The concert’s lineup included Donovan, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Moby, Bettye LaVette, Ben Harper, and Mike Love of the Beach Boys. Lynch's book, Catching the Big FishCatching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity is a book by fim director David Lynch.-The book:Catching the Big Fish was inspired by Lynch's experiences with Transcendental Meditation , which he began practicing TM in 1973...
(Tarcher/Penguin 2006), discusses the impact of the Transcendental Meditation technique on his creative process. He is donating all author's royalties to the
David Lynch FoundationThe David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace is a charitable foundation based in Fairfield, Iowa, which operates throughout the world....
.
Other interests
Lynch maintains an interest in other art forms. He described the twentieth century artist
Francis BaconFrancis Bacon was an Irish-born British figurative painter. His artwork is known for its bold, austere, homoerotic and often violent or nightmarish imagery, which typically shows room-bound masculine figures isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
as "to me, the main guy, the number one kinda hero painter". He continues to present
art installationsInstallation art describes an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however the boundaries between these terms overlap....
and stage designs. In his spare time, he also designs and builds
furnitureFurniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
. He started building furniture from his own designs as far back as his art school days. He built sheds during the making of Eraserhead
, and many of the sets and furniture used in that movie are made by Lynch. He also made some of the furniture for Fred Madison's house in Lost Highway
.
Lynch was the subject of a major art retrospective at the Fondation Cartier, ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
from March May 3-27 2007. The show was entitled The Air is on Fire and included numerous paintings, photographs, drawings, alternative films and sound work. New site-specific art
installationsInstallation art describes an artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however the boundaries between these terms overlap....
were created specially for the exhibition. A series of events accompanied the exhibition including live performances and concerts.
Some of Lynch's art include photographs of dissected chickens and other animals as a "Build your own Chicken" toy ad.
Between 1983 and 1992, Lynch wrote and drew a weekly
comic stripA comic strip is a sequence of cartoons that tells a story, often humorous, though adventures and soap opera-like dramas are also prevalent. They are written and drawn by a comics artist or cartoonist, and many are published on a recurring basis in newspapers and on the Internet.In the UK and the...
called
The Angriest Dog in the WorldThe Angriest Dog in the World is a comic strip created by film director David Lynch. First appearing in 1983, it was one of the originators of the constrained comics movement.- Publication history :...
for the L.A. Reader
. The drawings in the panels never change — just the captions. The comic strip originated from a time in Lynch's life when he was filled with anger.
Lynch has also been involved in a number of musical projects, many of them related to his films. Most notably he produced and wrote lyrics for Julee CruiseJulee Cruise is an American singer, and actress.With a distinctive, airy voice, Cruise has recorded three albums, but is probably best known for the lead vocal on "Falling," the theme song for the cult U.S. television series Twin Peaks...
's first two albums, Floating into the NightFloating into the Night is the debut album by dream pop artist Julee Cruise, released in 1989. The album was produced and all songs were written by film director, David Lynch, and composer, Angelo Badalamenti. Lynch wrote the lyrics to Badalamenti's music...
(1989) and The Voice of LoveThe Voice of Love is the second album by dream pop artist Julee Cruise released in 1993.-Track listing:All tracks composed by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti; except where indicated#"This Is Our Night" – 4:06#"The Space for Love" – 3:24...
(1993), in collaboration with Angelo BadalamentiAngelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive.-Early life:...
who composed the music and also produced. Lynch has also worked on the 1998 Jocelyn Montgomery album Lux Vivens. He has also composed bits of music for Wild at Heart
, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
, Mulholland Drive
, and Rabbits
. In 2001 he released BlueBobBlueBob is an album of music cowritten and performed by David Lynch and John Neff. Two of the album's tracks, "Mountains Falling" and "Go Get Some," appeared in Lynch's film Mulholland Drive...
, a rock album performed by Lynch and John Neff. The album is notable for Lynch's unusual guitar playing style: he plays "upside down and backwards, like a lap guitar", and relies heavily on effects pedals. Most recently Lynch has composed several pieces for Inland Empire
, including two songs, "Ghost of Love" and "Walkin' on the Sky" in which he makes his public debut as a singer. 2009: his new book-CD set Dark night of the soul
is out. In 2008, he started his own record label called David Lynch MC in which its first release Fox Bat Strategy: A Tribute to Dave Jaurequi
was released in early 2009. In August 2009, it was announced that he will be releasing Afghani/American singer Ariana Delawari's Lion of Panjshir
album in conjunction with Manimal VinylManimal Vinyl is a Los Angeles based record label founded in 2006 by fashion stylist, Paul Beahan. They have released records from UK acts Bat for Lashes and Caroline Weeks, French band, Aquaserge which feature members of Stereolab and Acid Mothers Temple and a bulk of Los Angeles artists ranging...
Records in October 2009.
Lynch designed his personal website, a site exclusive to paying members, where he posts short videos and his absurdist series Dumbland
, plus interviews and other items. The site also features a daily weather reportWeather report may refer to:*Weather forecasting, the application of science and technology to predict the weather*Weather Report, a jazz fusion musical group*Weather Report, A fictional character from Jojo's Bizarre Adventures....
, where Lynch gives a brief description of the weather in Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
, where he resides. As of December, 2008, this weather report (usually no longer than 30 seconds) is also being broadcast on his personal YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
-channel David Lynch - Daily Weather Report
. An absurd ringtone ("I like to kill deer") from the website was a common sound bite on The Howard Stern Show
in early 2006.
Lynch is an avid coffee drinker and even has his own line of special organic blends available for purchase on his website. Called "David Lynch Signature Cup", the coffee has been advertised via flyers included with several recent Lynch-related DVD releases, including Inland Empire
and the Gold Box edition of Twin Peaks. The possibly self-mocking tag-line for the brand is "It's all in the beans ... and I'm just full of beans." This is also a quote of a line said by
Justin TherouxJustin Theroux is an American actor, screenwriter and director.-Early life:Theroux was born in Washington, D.C.. His mother Phyllis Theroux is a journalist and author; his father Eugene Theroux is a corporate lawyer...
's character in
Inland EmpireInland Empire is a surrealistic, psychological thriller film, written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on september 6, 2006...
.
Features
| Year |
Film |
Oscars |
BAFTA |
Golden GlobeThe Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television...
|
| Nominations |
Wins |
Nominations |
Wins |
Nominations |
Wins |
| 1977 |
Eraserhead Eraserhead is a surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch, and released in . In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to pursue an MFA degree at the AFI Conservatory. At the Conservatory, Lynch began working on his first feature-length film, Eraserhead, using a $10,000 grant from the AFI...
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| 1980 |
The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man is a American–British drama film based on the story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
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8 |
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7 |
3 |
4 |
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| 1984 |
DuneDune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles, including Sting, Jose Ferrer,...
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1 |
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| 1986 |
Blue Velvet |
1 |
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2 |
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| 1990 |
Wild at HeartWild at Heart is a 1990 American film written and directed by David Lynch, and based on Barry Gifford's 1989 pulp novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula...
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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| 1992 |
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me |
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| 1997 |
Lost Highway Lost Highway is a 1997 American psychological thriller film that exhibits elements of both neo-noir and surrealism. Written and directed by David Lynch, the film stars Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty and Robert Loggia. Lynch co-wrote the screenplay with Barry Gifford, who also...
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| 1999 |
The Straight Story The Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch. It is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawnmower. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker. She co-wrote the script with John E...
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1 |
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2 |
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| 2001 |
Mulholland DriveMulholland Drive is a 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring and Justin Theroux. The surrealist film was highly acclaimed by many critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
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2 |
1 |
4 |
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| 2006 |
Inland Empire Inland Empire is a surrealistic, psychological thriller film, written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on september 6, 2006...
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| Snootworld |
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Short films
- Six Men Getting Sick (1966) - available on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD
- Absurd Encounter with Fear (1967) - available on The Lime Green Set DVD
- Fictitious Anacin Commercial (1967) - available on The Lime Green Set DVD
- The Alphabet (1968) - available on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD
- The Grandmother (1970) - available on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD
- The Amputee (1974) - available on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD
- The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) - available on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD
- Industrial Symphony No. 1
Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted is a short, avant-garde musical play directed by David Lynch, with music by Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise.-Overview:...
: The Dream of the Broken Hearted (1990) - available on The Lime Green Set DVD
- Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1995) - available on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD
- Darkened Room
Darkened Room is a short 8-minute film directed by David Lynch. It first appeared on Lynch's website, DavidLynch.com, in 2002. It has subsequently been released on the DVD anthology Dynamic:01....
(2002) - available on the Dynamic 1 DVD
- Ballerina (2006) - available on the Inland Empire DVD
- Boat
Boat is a short film directed by David Lynch, released in 2007 on the DVD anthology Dynamic:01.-Synopsis:Shot on digital video, Boat features closeup shots of a man taking a speedboat onto a lake, while a young woman provides a dreamy, confused description of what is happening...
(2007) - available on the Dynamic 1 DVD
- Bug Crawls (2007) - available on the Dynamic 1 DVD
- Scissors (2008) - available on The Lime Green Set DVD
TV and digital
- Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation, headed by Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the brutal murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
(TV series, 30 episodes) (1990-91)
- On the Air (TV series, 7 episodes) (1992)
- Hotel Room
Hotel Room was a three episode 1993 HBO television series produced by David Lynch . Each drama takes place in the same New York City hotel room at different times .Barry Gifford wrote, and David Lynch directed, the first and third episodes; Jay McInerney wrote, and James Signorelli...
(TV series, 3 episodes) (1993)
- Rabbits
Rabbits is a 2002 film written and directed by David Lynch. It consists of an 8-episode series of short videos. The series was formerly shown exclusively on , but is no longer available there. Both the set and some footage of the rabbits are reused in Lynch's Inland Empire.Rabbits is presented...
(Online series) (2002) - most of the episodes available on The Lime Green Set DVD
- Dumbland (Online series, 8 episodes) (2002) - available on The Lime Green Set DVD
- Out Yonder (Online series) (200?) - one episode available on the Dynamic 1 DVD and two episodes on The Lime Green Set DVD
- Shot in the Back of the Head
"Shot in the Back of the Head" is a song by electronic artist Moby released as the first single from his upcoming ninth studio album, Wait for Me . It was released as a free download on his website on April 15, 2009. The song features heavy synthsizer use and a repeating drum pattern. The song...
(2009) - music video for the song from Moby's summer 2009 album Wait for MeWait for Me is the third album by American blues artist Susan Tedeschi, released in 2002 .-Track listing:#"Alone" – 4:21#"Gonna Move" – 4:23#"Wrapped in the Arms of Another" – 3:03...
.
- Interview Project (Online series) (2009)
Sources
- Lynch on Lynch
Lynch on Lynch is a book of interviews with David Lynch, conducted, edited, and introduced by Chris Rodley, himself a filmmaker. The interviews took place between 1993 and 1996. Each chapter is devoted to a separate film, from his beginnings up to Lost Highway.It was published by Faber & Faber...
, a book of interviews with Lynch, conducted, edited, and introduced by filmmaker Chris Rodley (Faber & Faber Ltd., 1997, ISBN 0-571-19548-2; revised edition published by Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2005, ISBN 0-571-22018-5).
- The Passion of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood by Martha Nochimson (University of Texas Press, 1997, ISBN 0-292-75565-1).
- The Complete Lynch by David Hughes
David Hughes may refer to:*David Hughes , former fullback for the Seattle Seahawks*David Hughes , interim president and CEO of Amtrak, 2005–2006*David Hughes , English astronomer specialising in comets...
(Virgin Virgin, 2002, ISBN 0-7535-0598-3)
- Weirdsville U.S.A.: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch by Paul A. Woods (Plexus Publishing. UK, Reprint edition, 2000, ISBN 0-85965-291-2).
- David Lynch (Twayne's Filmmakers Series) by Kenneth C. Kaleta (Twayne Publishers, 1992, ISBN 0-8057-9323-2).
- Pervert in the Pulpit: Morality in the Works of David Lynch by Jeff Johnson (McFarland & Company, 2004, ISBN 0-7864-1753-6).
- Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch. (Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2006, ISBN 1585425400 / 978-1585425402)
- Snowmen by David Lynch, (Foundation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, 2008 ISBN 978-3-86521-467-6).
External links