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Eraserhead is a great and deeply disturbing film. It’s the only feature-length film I’ve seen of his. While I haven’t seen much of his work, his legacy looms large, especially on Hextube where his short films get shown often. Rest in Peace David Lynch.
Looking up at night for his superimposed face
He had a unique surreal style that not many accomplished, in my opinion.
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?
His version of Dune is unironically one of my favorite movies. I’m not feeling so good.
It’s the first of his works I ever saw and I thought it was quirky and strange in all the right ways it should be for year 10,000 sci-fi.
patrick stewart holding a pug and going into battle
He just had to evacuate his house due to the fires. I guess that was too much on top of his health problems.
His emphysema had gotten so bad that he couldn’t leave the house for the past year or so withiut risking catching a respiratory infection. That, plus not being able to breathe without oxygen and all the stuff in the air because of the fires… Now that I think of it, him and people like him in the LA area are marked for death.
And they won’t be counted among the dead because they didn’t die burning.
CLIMATE CHANGE KILLED DAVID LYNCH
That and a lifetime of smoking, if we’re being fair
Huge bummer. Probably my favorite overall artist of all time. RIP to a surreal one
Best weatherman, ever.
Twin Peaks was essential watching when I was in my teens, and I later discovered his films. I was elated when he returned to the TP universe.
I can’t think of any other filmmaker/story teller who could convey humor, wonder and dread simultaneously. Ugh. What a bummer.
i am so lucky for getting to see both Fire Walk With Me and Eraserhead for the first time in a theater.
Edit: I forgot I also caught Blue Velvet for the first time in a theater too. god i love living five minutes away from a sick indie theater.
FWWM is my favorite Lynch movie you’re so lucky.
Very touching and inspiring words by Kyle MacLachlan on Lynch's passing and their relationship
Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.
What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to.
Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I’d ever met.
David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.
While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own.
I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice. We’d talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh.
His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other.
I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.
David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything.
This video of “Kale” and David is super fun: https://youtu.be/0wl4kFeADJU
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Eraserhead is still the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen and one I love, rest in peace David.
I didn’t even know he was sick. ☹️
Emphysema from smoking. What’s even weirder is that he said he didn’t regret smoking at all, even as he couldn’t leave the house and create because of it.
RIP Hope he’s on a wild metaphysical journey now
We will never ever know what the fuck that baby was made with in Eraserhead. One of the best films on existing ever made imo.
Whatever the equivalent of pouring one out for the homies is for ciggies 😢
Now I’m more steadfast in my resolve to quit smoking. I loved his work and I will miss him.
Stay strong, homie.
Pour out a black coffee
That looks like a delicious chocolate pudding.
Every day, once a day, give yourself a present.
Unless it’s a pack of cigarettes
Damn that sucks. I was just getting into his stuff too. I watched Mulholland drive 4 times in a week, and sunset boulevard just so I could better understand Mulholland drive. I never rewatch movies let alone multiple times. I’m halfway through season 2 of twin peaks now. His stuff just hits perfectly for me for some reason. RIP to a great
I am also watching these things on my phone so mr lynch’s ghost please forgive me
on your FFFFFFFFFFFFFUCKING TELEPHONE
:(
Your comment reminded me of a random comment on Reddit where they said they watched the Handmaiden daily for like, several months. And I love both movies to death (I swear, not for the obvious reason, they’re legitimately amazing movies about women’s liberation and many other things) but I just can’t imagine watching them those many times. But more power to you and them!
It’s ONLY Mulholland drive. I swear. The thing is just so layered and there’s so much symbolism it’s less a movie and more a puzzle to unpack. Like collecting all the stars after you beat the game. I’ve even cooked up yet another theory in the diner scene thread and now I feel like I gotta watch it again and pay extra close attention to anything that happens around Winkie’s
