David Lynch

David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946 in Missoula, Montana) is an American filmmaker.

Career

Early days

Lynch grew up an archetypal all-American boy. His father was a U.S. Department of Agriculture research scientist, he was raised throughout the Pacific Northwest. He attained the rank of Eagle Scout, and served as an usher at John F. Kennedy's Presidential inauguration on his fifteenth birthday.

Related Topics:
U.S. Department of Agriculture - Pacific Northwest - Eagle Scout - John F. Kennedy

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With intentions to become a painter, Lynch attended classes at Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. while finishing high school. He enrolled in the Boston Museum School for one year before leaving for Europe with the plan to study with expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka. Planning to stay for three years, Lynch returned to the US after 15 days.

Related Topics:
Corcoran School of Art - Washington, D.C. - Boston Museum School - Europe - Expressionist - Oskar Kokoschka

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Philadelphia and the Short Films

In 1966, Lynch relocated to Philadelphia, where he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and began working with film. His first short film Six Figures 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, Lynch created The Alphabet.

Related Topics:
1966 - Philadelphia - Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts - Short film - Six Figures Getting Sick - The Alphabet

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In 1970, Lynch turned his attention away from visual art and focused primarily on film. He won a $5,000 grant from the American Film Institute 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 imagery and a focus on subconscious desires instead of traditional narration.

Related Topics:
1970 - American Film Institute - The Grandmother - Seed - Subconscious

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Eraserhead

In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to attend the M.F.A. studies 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. The grant did not provide enough money to complete the film and, due to lack of a sufficient budget, Eraserhead was filmed intermittently from 1972 until 1977. Lynch used money from friends and family, including boyhood friend Jack Fisk, a production designer and husband of actress Sissy Spacek, and even took a paper route to finish it.

Related Topics:
1971 - Los Angeles - AFI Conservatory - Eraserhead - 1972 - 1977 - Jack Fisk - Sissy Spacek

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A stark and enigmatic film, Eraserhead tells the story of a quiet young man (Jack Nance) living in an industrial wasteland, whose wife gives birth to a constantly hissing mutant freak of a baby. The film shows the influence of pioneering experimental filmmakers, such as Maya Deren and Luis Buñuel. 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 Philadelphia (http://www.davidlynch.de/tiplynchtrans.html). He said "this feeling left its traces deep down inside me. And when it came out again, it became Eraserhead".

Related Topics:
Jack Nance - Mutant - Experimental film - Maya Deren - Luis Buñuel - Philadelphia story - Philadelphia

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The film also reflects the director's own fears and anxieties of fatherhood, personified in the form of the bizarre baby, which has become one of the most notorious props in film history. Lynch refuses to discuss how the baby was made and a long-standing urban legend claims that it was created using an embalmed cow fetus http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Interview/4749/Eraserheadfaq.htm#6.%20How%20the%20heck%20did%20Lynch%20make%20the%20baby?.

Related Topics:
Urban legend - Cow - Fetus

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The final film was initially judged to be almost unreleasable, but thanks to the efforts of distributor Ben Barenholtz, 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-garde filmmaking. 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 Elmes, sound designer Alan Splet, and actor Jack Nance.

Related Topics:
Ben Barenholtz - Cult classic - Avant-garde - Frederick Elmes - Alan Splet

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The Elephant Man, Dune and Blue Velvet

Eraserhead brought Lynch to the attention of producer Mel Brooks who hired him to direct 1980?s The Elephant Man, a biopic of deformed Victorian era socialite Joseph Merrick. The film was a huge financial and commercial success and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including a Best Director nod for Lynch. It also established his place as a commercially viable, if somewhat dark and unconventional, Hollywood director.

Related Topics:
Mel Brooks - 1980 - The Elephant Man - Biopic - Victorian era - Joseph Merrick - Academy Award - Best Director - Hollywood

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Afterwards, Lynch agreed to direct a big budget adaptation of Frank Herbert?s science fiction novel Dune for Italian director Dino de Laurentiis?s De Laurentiis Entertainment Group on the condition that the company release a second Lynch project, over which the director would have complete creative control.

Related Topics:
Frank Herbert - Science fiction - Novel - Dune - Italian - Dino de Laurentiis - De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

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Although de Laurentiis hoped it would be the next , Lynch?s Dune (1984) was a critical and commercial dud, costing $45 million to make and grossing a mere $15 million domestically. This is somewhat because the 137 minute film was cut down from Lynch?s three and a half hour director's cut in a way that made the plot incomprehensible. Lynch has since disowned it.

Related Topics:
Dune - 1984 - Director's cut

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Lynch?s second Laurentiis-financed project was 1986?s Blue Velvet, the story of a college student (Kyle MacLachlan) who discovers the dark side of his small hometown after investigating a severed ear he finds in a field. The film featured memorable performances from Isabella Rossellini as a tormented lounge singer and Dennis Hopper as a crude, sociopathic criminal and leader of a small gang of backwater hoodlums.

Related Topics:
1986 - Blue Velvet - Kyle MacLachlan - Isabella Rossellini - Dennis Hopper - Sociopath

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Blue Velvet was a huge critical success, earning Lynch his second Academy Award nomination and introducing several common elements of his work, including abused women, the dark underbelly of small towns and unconventional uses of vintage songs (Bobby Vinton?s "Blue Velvet" and Roy Orbison?s "In Dreams" are both featured in disturbing ways). It was also the first time Lynch worked with composer Angelo Badalamenti, who would contribute to all of his future full-length films.

Related Topics:
Bobby Vinton - Roy Orbison - In Dreams - Angelo Badalamenti

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Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart and Hotel Room

After failing to secure funding for several completed scripts in the late 1980s, Lynch collaborated with television producer Mark Frost on the show Twin Peaks, about a small Washington town that is the site of several bizarre happenings. The show centered around FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper?s (Kyle MacLachlan) investigation into the death of popular high school student Laura Palmer, an investigation that unburied the secrets of many town residents. Lynch directed four episodes of the series, including the pilot, and wrote or co-wrote several more.

Related Topics:
1980s - Television - Mark Frost - Twin Peaks - Washington - FBI - Special Agent Dale Cooper - Laura Palmer

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The show debuted on the ABC Network on April 8, 1990 and slowly rose from cult hit to cultural phenomenon. No other Lynch-related project has gained such mainstream acceptance. Catch phrases from the show entered the cultural dialect and parodies of it were seen on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons. Lynch appeared on the cover of Time 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, continually-shouting FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole.

Related Topics:
ABC Network - April 8 - 1990 - Catch phrase - Saturday Night Live - The Simpsons - Time magazine

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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 (many cast members would complain of feeling abandoned) and, after shooting the Twin Peaks pilot episode, set-off to work on the film Wild at Heart.

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Adapted from the novel by Barry Gifford, Wild at Heart was an almost hallucinatory crime/road movie starring Nicholas Cage and Laura Dern. It won the coveted Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival but met with a muted response from American critics and viewers. Reportedly, several people walked out of test screenings.

Related Topics:
Barry Gifford - Crime - Road movie - Nicholas Cage - Laura Dern - Palme d'Or - 1990 - Cannes Film Festival - Test screening

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Meanwhile, Twin Peaks suffered a severe ratings drop and was cancelled in 1991. Still, Lynch scripted a prequel to the series, about the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer. The resulting film, ' (1992), flopped at the box office and gathered the most negative reviews of Lynch?s career.

Related Topics:
1991 - Prequel - 1992

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His next project was much more low-key; a three-episode HBO mini-series called Hotel Room about events that happened in the same hotel room in a span of decades.

Related Topics:
HBO - Mini-series - Hotel Room

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Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE

In 1997, Lynch returned with the non-linear, noir-like film Lost Highway, co-written by Barry Gifford and starring Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette. The film failed commercially and received a mixed response from critics. However, thanks in part to a soundtrack featuring Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins, it helped gain Lynch a new audience of Generation X viewers.

Related Topics:
1997 - Noir - Lost Highway - Bill Pullman - Patricia Arquette - Marilyn Manson - Nine Inch Nails - Smashing Pumpkins - Generation X

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In 1999, Lynch surprised fans and critics with the G-rated, Disney-produced The Straight Story, which was, on the surface, a simple and humble movie telling the true story of an Iowa man (Richard Farnsworth) who rides a lawnmower to Wisconsin to make peace with his ailing brother. The film gathered positive reviews, although most reviewers missed the darker, more typically Lynchian story hidden within. http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/revicontent_97_p.htm

Related Topics:
G - Disney - The Straight Story - True story - Iowa - (Richard Farnsworth) - Wisconsin

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The same year, Lynch approached ABC once again with an idea for a television drama. The network gave Lynch the go-ahead to shoot a two hour pilot for the series Mulholland Drive, but disputes over content and running time lead to the project being shelved indefinitely.

Related Topics:
ABC - Mulholland Drive

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With seven million dollars from the French distributor Canal Plus, Lynch completed the pilot as a film. Mulholland Drive was an enigmatic tale of the dark side of Hollywood and starred Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux. Although it fared dismally at the box office, the film was a critical success, earning Lynch a Best Director prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival (shared with Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There) and a Best Director award from the New York Film Critics Association.

Related Topics:
French - Canal Plus - Hollywood - Naomi Watts - Laura Harring - Justin Theroux - 2001 - Cannes Film Festival - Joel Coen - The Man Who Wasn't There - New York Film Critics Association

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At the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, Lynch announced that he had spent over a year shooting his new film digitally. The film, titled INLAND EMPIRE (in capitals), includes Lynch regulars such as Laura Dern, Harry Dean Stanton, Justin Theroux, as well as Jeremy Irons. Lynch described the film as "a mystery about a woman in trouble." It is scheduled to be released in 2006.

Related Topics:
2005 - INLAND EMPIRE - Laura Dern - Harry Dean Stanton - Jeremy Irons - 2006

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