DAVID LYNCH
(20 January 1946 - 15 January 2025)
The filmmaker David Lynch, who has died aged 78 of emphysema after being evacuated from his home in the Los Angeles fires, was more than just a writer and actor-director - he was also a visual artist and a musician. He is mainly known through his films and television work which were usually shot through with surrealist images tied to meticulously weird music scores. This process heightened Lynch’s delight in not necessarily confusing his audience but making them work at what his visual and aural mystique was all about. He never explained his method of working but left it to others to unravel or disconnect his dreamlike view of life. Think Cocteau mixed with Dali and a little measure of Hitchcock and you have the recipe for Lynch’s modus operandi.
David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana, to the government research scientist Donald Lynch and his wife, an English language tutor Edwina. David seems to have led an idyllic childhood although he noticed that underneath the apparent tranquil surface lay evildoers which may have reflected his later view of the world. The family kept on the move according to where his father was working but they ended up in Alexandria, Virginia. Lynch became interested in painting and drawing from early on, although he was disappointed when he enrolled at art colleges but eventually attended the Pennsylvania Academy and met and married his first wife Peggy Reavey. They had a daughter Jennifer who became a film director. Lynch took up printing and considered the possibility of animation and in 1967 made his first short film, Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times). During his career he made a collection of over forty short films and just ten features.
His first feature was Eraserhead (1977), notable for its surrealist imagery, then came The Elephant Man (1980), in itself a disturbing subject about the deformed Joseph Merrick, played by John Hurt. Blue Velvet (1986) was a portrait of human psychosis, and Wild at Heart (1990) was about a couple fleeing from a mad mother. Lost Highway (1997) was a mystery story in the film noir style, unlike The Straight Story (1999) in which a septuagenarian, a non-driver, journeys cross country on a lawnmower to meet his sick brother. Mulholland Drive (2001) offered a crazy view of Hollywood. From these descriptions you can tell that Lynch never made it easy for his viewers. It was only his version of Dune (the first in 1984) that flopped. His last feature was Inland Empire (2006), a surrealistic psychological thriller.
Television enjoyed his skewed vision of soap operas in Twin Peaks. It came about when Lynch met the TV producer Mark Frost with whom he began to work on a project about Marilyn Monroe but that faltered. Instead, they considered a plot about a body being washed up which led to the main story of Twin Peaks in which high school student, Laura Palmer, is murdered. Kyle MacLachlan, who played Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet, played FBI agent Dale Cooper who is looking for the killer but is finding other secrets buried in the town of Twin Peaks. Lynch directed and also appeared in some episodes. It ran for two seasons from April 1990 but returned in 2017 for a third and final season. As well as the usual police procedure plotting, the series also introduced surrealist touches with odd characters walking and talking ‘backwards’, but because it was so different to all other US network cop shows, Twin Peaks became cult viewing. After the first season Lynch filmed a prequel feature, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me which added even more life to its cult following. One outstanding feature of Twin Peaks was its cunningly composed eerie theme music by Angelo Badalamenti.
David Lynch also mounted several exhibitions of his paintings and furniture and contributed to many music projects involving ambient, experimental rock, avant-garde electronica (often with Badalamenti). He also wrote a book on his life and transcendental meditation. Among the awards he won were three Oscar nominations, two Césars, the Palme d’Or and the Golden Lion at Venice. France awarded him the Légion d’Honneur. David Lynch had four wives and four children.
MICHAEL DARVELL