Rest in peace. There’ll never be another David Lynch. There might have been greater filmmakers in hollywood, but I don’t know if there has ever been a greater artist in hollywood. Pauline Kael called him “the first populist surrealist - a Frank Capra of dream logic" in her review of Blue Velvet. He was involved in every aspect of the production of his films, the scripts, the directing, the music and sound effects, the set design and costumes, the editing. You could just listen to his films and get more out of them than out of dozens other movies from lesser filmmakers. That he was somehow able to make the movies he made, with real budgets and often times with actual popular success might be the biggest miracle in this culture industry of ours that often times feels less and less alive and creative with each passing year. And if you watch his less-surrealist films, like Elephant Man or The Straight Story, those are masterpieces of their own and he could have been up there with the greats, even if he hadn’t been as experimental, quirky and with his works as he was. And even in addition to all that, has there ever been a filmmaker who has been as willing and successful in “getting with the times”? When he went from the cinema to the television, he didn’t lose anything, he gained. When the internet became popular, he made his own website and released shorts to his subscribers. When he went to poland and met some theatre students there, he took that inspiration and filmed parts of inland empire there, a film he shot himself using a cheap prosumer camcorder. He wrote Twin Peaks: The Return with Mike Frost over Skype and when he wasn’t able to shoot that on film, he shot digital and created a look that I have never seen before and since, mixing the most simplest of special effects with incredibly impressive state-of-the-art CG. Wherever he went and with whatever means he had, he made art. He has been a huge inspiration to me, ever since I first watched Twin Peaks like fifteen years ago.
Even though he was obviously never idle, some part of me had always hoped he would have been given the chance to make another “big thing”. A movie, tv show, it wouldn’t have mattered. Twin Peaks: The Return is a work of such depth, such pits of despair, but also of hope and relief, happiness and love and acceptance. And maybe the greatest thing and the most inexplicable thing about it, is that this 71 year old man somehow made what in my mind might be the only work of art in our 21st century to get where we are at. It still feels to me as current and contemporary in a way no other piece of media has managed to feel. There is so much death and aging in that show, in all the people involved in it, but it always felt like me to a show made by people who have made peace with the passing of time and the inevitability of death. I hope his final days were as peaceful as they could be and know that he and his films will live on for as long as people are inspired by them. “Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.” How can you do anything else other than smile when you read that?
Rest in peace. There’ll never be another David Lynch. There might have been greater filmmakers in hollywood, but I don’t know if there has ever been a greater artist in hollywood. Pauline Kael called him “the first populist surrealist - a Frank Capra of dream logic" in her review of Blue Velvet. He was involved in every aspect of the production of his films, the scripts, the directing, the music and sound effects, the set design and costumes, the editing. You could just listen to his films and get more out of them than out of dozens other movies from lesser filmmakers. That he was somehow able to make the movies he made, with real budgets and often times with actual popular success might be the biggest miracle in this culture industry of ours that often times feels less and less alive and creative with each passing year. And if you watch his less-surrealist films, like Elephant Man or The Straight Story, those are masterpieces of their own and he could have been up there with the greats, even if he hadn’t been as experimental, quirky and with his works as he was. And even in addition to all that, has there ever been a filmmaker who has been as willing and successful in “getting with the times”? When he went from the cinema to the television, he didn’t lose anything, he gained. When the internet became popular, he made his own website and released shorts to his subscribers. When he went to poland and met some theatre students there, he took that inspiration and filmed parts of inland empire there, a film he shot himself using a cheap prosumer camcorder. He wrote Twin Peaks: The Return with Mike Frost over Skype and when he wasn’t able to shoot that on film, he shot digital and created a look that I have never seen before and since, mixing the most simplest of special effects with incredibly impressive state-of-the-art CG. Wherever he went and with whatever means he had, he made art. He has been a huge inspiration to me, ever since I first watched Twin Peaks like fifteen years ago.
Even though he was obviously never idle, some part of me had always hoped he would have been given the chance to make another “big thing”. A movie, tv show, it wouldn’t have mattered. Twin Peaks: The Return is a work of such depth, such pits of despair, but also of hope and relief, happiness and love and acceptance. And maybe the greatest thing and the most inexplicable thing about it, is that this 71 year old man somehow made what in my mind might be the only work of art in our 21st century to get where we are at. It still feels to me as current and contemporary in a way no other piece of media has managed to feel. There is so much death and aging in that show, in all the people involved in it, but it always felt like me to a show made by people who have made peace with the passing of time and the inevitability of death. I hope his final days were as peaceful as they could be and know that he and his films will live on for as long as people are inspired by them. “Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.” How can you do anything else other than smile when you read that?
If we are going to share some more lighthearted material from him, this video made for the promotion of the “lime green set” dvd box is one of my favorites and I’m sure even many real lynchheads haven’t seen it yet.