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David Lynch
b. January 20, 1946, Missoula,
Montana, USA.

by Thomas Caldwell
Thomas Caldwell is a Cinema Studies
graduate from The University of
Melbourne and a freelance film writer
based in Melbourne, Australia.

filmography bibliography articles in Senses web resources

The Evil That Men Do

In 1988 David Lynch painted "Shadow of a Twisted Hand Across My House" and in
1990 "Suddenly My House Became a Tree of Sores". They are simple childlike images
painted over a dark background, reflecting the darkness and fear a child can experience
within their home. When asked about the recurring theme of the house in his paintings
and films, Lynch replied that rather than being concerned with global issues, he is more
interested in what happens in the surrounding neighbourhood. He portrays houses so
threateningly because "the home is a place where things can go wrong". (1) Lynch uses
surreal, non-traditional narrative, and symbolism, to portray communities that represent a
dysfunctional society at large.

After a happy childhood despite a lot

of moving around, Lynch at age 19
enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Art in Philadelphia, to study
art. One of his projects was to
combine visual arts with cinema to
make Six Figures Getting Sick (1966),
a looped animation projected onto one
of his sculptures. On the strength of
this 'moving painting' Lynch was able
to secure funding to make his first two
short films The Alphabet (1968) and
The Grandmother (1970). The critical
success of these films, followed by a
move to Los Angeles with his new
wife and child, inspired Lynch to The Grandmother
spend the next six years making his first feature, the sublime Eraserhead (1976). Partly
inspired by his disgust of industrial and violent Philadelphia, and expressing many of his
anxieties over having just become a father, Eraserhead remains Lynch's most personal
film.

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Eraserhead is a nightmare vision of a world where men control all aspects of

reproduction, turning sex into a mechanised process. The result is a world of industrial
decay where life is more morbid than death itself. The infamous baby in Eraserhead is
not naturally conceived but created by The Man on the Planet (Jack Fisk), a deformed
monster who unnaturally creates life by pulling levers. Without love, life is an artificially
created abomination.

At the centre of this mechanical world is

Henry (Jack Nance), one of Lynch's many
alter egos, who is a mixture of innocence
and dark desires. Henry is forced to look
after his deformed baby who constantly
traps and enslaves him in the automated
world of death-like existence. In this
world, the baby, resembling an overgrown
penis, both represents male sexuality and
symbolises Henry's own sexuality. Similar
to uncontrollable sexual urges, the
baby-penis constantly demands attention
from Henry who becomes its slave. Henry
Eraserhead realises that he must kill the baby-penis in
an act of self-castration to rid himself of his loathed sexuality. The baby-penis is the
centre of the world created by unnatural sexuality, hence its destruction obliterates the
world of Eraserhead. (2)

One of Eraserhead's biggest fans was comic writer/director Mel Brooks who famously
once described Lynch as "Jimmy Stewart from Mars". Brooks introduced Lynch to
Hollywood by having him direct The Elephant Man (1980), the beautifully sad true story
of grotesquely deformed John Merrick (John Hurt). The Elephant Man was the first film
to combine Lynch's unique industrial and organic visuals with a truly moving story about
inner beauty and familial love. It was nominated for several Academy Awards including
Best Picture and Best Director.

Lynch's second Hollywood film, however, was his last. Adapted from the cult
science-fiction novel by Frank Herbert, Dune (1984) was a commercial and critical
disaster. Although there are visuals that reflect Lynch's fascination with the body and it
mutability, Lynch was denied the final cut and it was ultimately the studio's film.

Part of the deal Lynch made

with producer Dino De
Laurentiis when making Dune
was that Laurentiis would fund
his next film and give Lynch
free reign. What resulted was
the revisionist film noir classic
that brought Lynch into the
critical spotlight. The tale of
misogynist violence hidden
beneath the veneer of idealised
small town middle America
gained Lynch his second
Academy Award Nomination Blue Velvet
for Best Director.

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Blue Velvet (1986) is an exaggerated depiction of patriarchal society and a parable about
domestic violence. It establishes a metaphorical family - Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle
MacLachlan), the 'child', and his 'parents' Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) and Dorothy
Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) - through deliberate references to film noir and its underlying
Oedipal theme. (3) The resulting violence can be read as symbolic of domestic violence
within 'real' families. Frank's violent acts reflect the different types of abuse within
families, and the control he has over Dorothy represents the hold an abusive husband has
over his wife. Jeffrey is an innocent youth who is both horrified by the violence inflicted
by Frank, but also tempted by it as the means of possessing Dorothy for himself. (4)

The commercial success of Blue Velvet, which also began Lynch's on-going collaboration
with composer Angelo Badalamenti, then allowed Lynch to join forces with renowned
television writer Mark Frost to develop the television series Twin Peaks (1990-91).
Continuing themes established in Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks is an exploration of a small
town whose dark secrets are revealed during the murder investigation of high-school
prom queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Combining characters and storylines straight out
of soap operas, sit-coms, detective stories, science fiction, and horror, Twin Peaks was a
huge hit with its intertexuality, post-modern humour, and supernatural themes.

During the second series of Twin Peaks

Lynch directed Wild At Heart (1990),
adapted from the novel by Barry Gifford,
which won him the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
This ultra-stylised road movie tells the story
of two lovers on the run whose hopes of
romantic union are constantly thwarted by
the violence around and within them. Similar
to Blue Velvet, the sudden idealistic ending of
perfect happiness is so drenched in irony that
ultimately Lynch seems to be suggesting that
people who have the potential for violence
cannot find true happiness. Wild at Heart

When Lynch returned to Twin Peaks he found that not only had it been announced that a
third series would not happen, but that many of his ideas had been lost and replaced with
more conventional narratives. Originally the supernatural characters were metaphors for
the violence within the town. However during the second series these other-worldly
creatures became literal characters who actually possessed men and were hence
responsible for the sexually violent crimes that were committed. It steered towards the
dangerous waters of suggesting that men cannot be held responsible for their violent
actions. Lynch's alter-ego character Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) had
also become less the spiritual and intuitive detective, and more the romantic leading man.
Lynch wrote and directed the final episode where he 'punished' the show by either killing
off favourite characters or placing them in a personal hell.

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Although the series had finished,

Lynch was not ready to leave the town
of Twin Peaks. He returned by
making the prequel film, with
production company CIBY-2000,
about the last seven days of Laura
Palmer's life in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk
With Me (1992). The film was a
commercial and critical flop hated by
fans who missed the humour of the
series and were expecting explanations
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me to the mysteries left behind by the
series, and incomprehensible to the rest of the general public. Lynch's purpose was not to
clear up narrative threads but to reveal the true nature of the themes of domestic violence
and child sexual abuse that had taken a back seat in the second series of the television
show. When viewed as a film detached from the television series, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk
With Me is a brilliant exploration of the ugliness and horrific consequences of violence in
the home.

By totally abandoning realism in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lynch succeeded in
showing what the series could only hint at due to restraints of format and censorship
guidelines of prime time television. The horrors of domestic violence are amplified by
having a narrative about incest and by depicting the experience though the eyes of the
incest victim, Laura Palmer. Laura's world is a nightmare; her psychological defence
mechanism is to project her abuser as the demonic figure, BOB (Frank Silva) rather than
accept the reality that her father, Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), is the perpetrator. Lynch
deliberately makes it difficult for the viewer to watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me so
that they can experience the same confusion, terror and betrayal that Laura suffers. Lynch
creates sensations that cannot be easily forgotten, so that abuse cannot be witnessed at a
safe distance.

After various other short-lived television projects, Lynch's next project was a writing
collaboration with Barry Gifford, to be directed by Lynch. The result was "A 21st
Century Noir Horror Film", Lost Highway (1997). Similar to Eraserhead and Twin
Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway was a surreal nightmare from the perspective
of its lead character, Fred Madison (Bill Pullman). Unlike Lynch's previous work, the
setting was Los Angeles and the lead character, Fred, was anything but sympathetic. For
the first time Lynch showed a view of the world, not through the eyes of an innocent, but
through the eyes of an abusive male character. Fred is a paranoid misogynist who suffers
a complete reality breakdown through his self-denial of the fact he has murdered his wife
in a jealous rage.

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The first part of Lost Highway shows

us the relationship between Fred and
his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette).
Later in the film Fred suddenly
changes into the young Pete Dayton
(Balthazar Getty), who can be seen as
his idealised counterpart , an innocent
led astray by femme fatale Alice
Wakefield (also Patricia Arquette).
Wakefield embodies all the
promiscuity and threat of which Fred
had previous falsely accused Renee.
Lynch suggests that the traditional
image of the assertive women as a
Lost Highway dangerous femme fatale who threatens
society is a patriarchal construction. It is in fact misogynist men like Fred viewing women
in this way who are a threat to civilisation. The film ends with Fred physically in his cell,
but mentally hurtling down the dark highway of lost identity. (5)

Now backed by French companies Canal+ and Les Films Alain Sarde, Lynch made The
Straight Story (1999). It puzzled many fans with its nostalgic story of Alvin Straight
(Richard Farnsworth) travelling across America on a ride-on lawn mower to reconcile
with his brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton). The themes of family and tradition, however,
have always been present in Lynch's previous work, and sentimentality has always been
prominent, especially in episodes of Twin Peaks. The Straight Story remains Lynch's
most hopeful film with the male character actively working towards preserving the
sanctity of the bonds between family members.

Lynch attempted to return to television with a series about the artificiality and violence
surrounding Hollywood and its connections to organised crime. However, nervous
television executives shelved the project after the Colorado shootings redefined what was
acceptable on television. The loss for the small screen became a gain for the large screen
as Lynch reworked the material, shot extra footage and released the astonishing,
Mulholland Drive (2001), winning himself the Best Director award at Cannes, and
gaining another Academy Award Best Director nomination.

Similar to Lost Highway, the non-linear

narrative of Mulholland Drive
combines actual events that happen to
struggling actress Diane (Naomi Watts)
and her imagined idealised
interpretation of events. For the first
time Lynch portrays violence in a
relationship as something that does not
only happen between heterosexual
characters, but also between
homosexual ones. Mulholland Drive is
also an attack on the artificiality of
male-dominated Hollywood where Mulholland Drive
everybody has a hidden agenda, people are used up and then discarded, and anything that
appears to be beautiful or genuine is simply an illusion that will eventually collapse.

Lynch's films are tragedies about the overwhelming tendency for people to condemn
themselves to a world of darkness and confusion, by succumbing to violence and the

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desire to control others. The characters in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive create
fragile illusions to escape from reality; find happiness only through death in Eraserhead,
The Elephant Man, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me; or are cynically portrayed as
finding improbable contrived happiness in Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart. However, the
search for true love and beauty is a dominant theme in all of Lynch's work, and The
Straight Story suggests that it is possible for people to repair the mistakes of their past
and find peace. Moments of humour and joy are expressed in Lynch's films and he truly
believes in the powerful bonds of friendship and family. By abandoning objective
realism, and making visuals and music dominant over narrative, Lynch has generated a
body of work that captures a unique emotional reality, reflecting dread, sorrow, and,
sometimes, hope.

© Thomas Caldwell, May 2002

Endnotes:

1. Rodley, Chris (ed.), Lynch On Lynch, Faber and Faber, London, 1997, pp. 9-10

2. Godwin, K. George, "Eraserhead", Film Quarterly, 39, 1, Fall, 1985, pp. 37-43

3. Mulvey, Laura, "Netherworlds and the Unconscious: Oedipus and Blue Velvet",
Fetishism And Curiosity, British Film Institute, Suffolk, 1996, pp. 137-154

4. Atkinson, Michael, BFI Modern Classics: Blue Velvet, British Film Institute, London,
1997 Maxfield, James F., " 'Now It's Dark': The Child's Dream in David Lynch's Blue
Velvet", The Fatal Woman: Sources Of Male Anxiety In American Film Noir, 1941-1991,
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison, 1996, pp. 144-155

5. Caldwell, Thomas, "Lost in Darkness and Confusion: Lost Highway, Lacan, and film
noir", Metro, no. 118, 1999, pp. 46-50

Filmography
Films directed by Lynch:
The Alphabet (1968, short)

The Grandmother (1970, short)

The Amputee (1974, short)

Eraserhead (1976)

The Elephant Man (1980)

Dune (1984) David Lynch with Mulholland Drive cast at

Cannes.
Blue Velvet (1986)

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The Cowboy And The Frenchman (1988, short)

Wild At Heart (1990)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Lumière and Company (1995, short)

Lost Highway (1997)

The Straight Story (1999)

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Darkened Room (2002, short)

Television Series:
The Straight Story
Twin Peaks (1990-91)

American Chronicles (1990-91)

On The Air (1991-92)

Hotel Room (1992)

Other:
Six Figures Getting Sick (1966)
Animated loop projected onto a
sculptured screen.

The Angriest Dog In The World

(1983-92)
Comic strip in the LA Reader.

Twin Peaks (1989)

Video release of pilot episode with
extended alternate ending.

Industrial Symphony No. 1: The

Dream of the Broken Hearted (1990)
Theatrical/music performance, also
filmed for release as a video.
Six Figures Getting Sick
Pretty As A Picture: The Art Of David
Lynch (1998)
Documentary by Toby Keeler.

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Select Bibliography
Atkinson, Michael, BFI Modern Classics: Blue Velvet, British Film Institute, London, 1997.

Caldwell, Thomas, "Lost in Darkness and Confusion: Lost Highway, Lacan, and film noir",
Metro, no. 118, 1999, pp. 46-50.

Chion, Michel, David Lynch, British Film Institute, London, 1995.

Creed, Barbara, "A Journey Through Blue Velvet: Film, Fantasy and the Female
Spectator", New Formations, no. 6, Winter, 1988, pp. 97-118.

Geller, Theresa, "Deconstructing Postmodern Television In Twin Peaks", Spectator, vol. 12,
no. 2, Spring, 1992, pp. 64-71.

Godwin, K. George, "Eraserhead", Film Quarterly, 39, 1, Fall, 1985, pp. 37-43.

Hoberman, James and Rosenbaum, Jonathan, "Eraserhead", Midnight Movies, Harper &
Row, 1983, pp. 214-251.

Lavery, David (ed.), Full Of Secrets: Critical Approaches To Twin Peaks, State University
Press, Detroit, 1995.

Lopate, Philip, "Welcome to L.A.: Hollywood outsider David Lynch plunges into Tinseltown's
dark psyche." Film Comment, Volume 37, No. 5, (Sept-Oct 2001), pp 44-50.

Maxfield, James F., " 'Now It's Dark': The Child's Dream in David Lynch's Blue Velvet", The
Fatal Woman: Sources Of Male Anxiety In American Film Noir, 1941-1991, Fairleigh
Dickinson University Press, Madison, 1996, pp. 144-155.

Mulvey, Laura, "Netherworlds and the Unconscious: Oedipus and Blue Velvet", Fetishism
And Curiosity, British Film Institute, Suffolk, 1996, pp. 137-154.

Nochimson, Martha P., The Passion Of David Lynch: Wild At Heart In Hollywood, University
of Texas Press, Austin, 1997.

Rodley, Chris (ed.), Lynch On Lynch, Faber and Faber, London, 1997.

Taubin, Amy, "In Dreams", Film Comment, Volume 37, No. 5, (Sept-Oct 2001), pp 51-54.

Woods, Paul A., Weirdsville USA: The Obsessive Universe Of David Lynch, Plexus,
London, 1997.

Also:
Images (1994)

Book containing a selection of Lynch's artwork and photography, available from Hyperion,
New York.

Articles in Senses of Cinema

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The Straight Story by Martha P. Nochimson

David Lynch by Jared Rapfogel

Amnesia, Obsession, Cinematic U-Turns: On Mulholland Drive by Kirsten Ostherr and

Arash Abizadeh

In Dreams: A review of Mulholland Drive by Maximilian Le Cain

Web Resources Compiled by the author and Michelle Carey

David Lynch.com
David Lynch's own web site containing exclusive short films, serials, photography, artwork
and music.

Lynchnet: The David Lynch Resource

Excellent fan web site by Mike Dunn featuring up-to-date information on all things
concerned with Lynch and his various projects.

The Universe of David Lynch

An excellent and truly international site, based in Germany but featuring writings in many
languages, this is full of interviews, essays, reviews, stills, clips, DVD reviews & CD reviews,
as well as a messageboard and guestbook.

David Lynch Dreamworld

Everything you could ever want to know about the (dream)world of Lynch.

The City of Absurdity - The Mysterious World of David Lynch

Informative site looking at all his works (across all mediums) as well as the music, furniture
and painting used in his films. There are also the usual stack of articles, reviews,
quotations, store, interviews and papers.

The Lynch Link

Another tribute to the man and his various works.

Wrapped in Plastic Online

The Twin Peaks/David Lynch magazine featuring in-depth analyses, interviews and reviews
of this still-popular TV series.

Mulholland Drive.com
Commercial but informative and fun site with games, chatroom, trailers, stills and
biographies.

Lynch Universe: David Lynch Mailing List

Subscribe here.

Click here to search for David Lynch DVDs, videos and books
at

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