Lynch, David

David Keith Lynch was born on January 20, 1946 in the small American city of Missoula , Montana . He grew up in forest regions in the northwestern United States.

The early years

In 1965, Lynch attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts in Philadelphia , where he was interested in painting , sculpture and photography . Admiration for Kokoschka's expressionism for a short time led the aspiring artist to Austria, where his idol lived. Among his favorite artists, Lynch also names F. Bacon and E. Hopper .

In experimental art courses in 1966, Lynch became interested in animation and realized his first short animated film “The Six Get Sick ” as the final work. In 1967, Lynch acquired a movie camera and shot his first short film , Alphabet, which combined animation and motion pictures. The picture is based on the nightmare of the niece of the wife of director Peggy. Peggy played the role of a girl in the film.

At the same time, Lynch worked on the script for the film "Grandmother." Having provided the finished script and his other works, he takes part in the competition for scholarships from the American Film Institute . To his great surprise, Lynch received a scholarship. The 35-minute film "Grandmother" has a rather delicately thought-out line of narration and insightful content.

In 1971, Lynch began work on his full-length debut, The Eraserhead . Due to financial problems, filming was repeatedly interrupted, and only five years later in 1976, work on the film was completed. In this work, Lynch for the first time demonstrates his talent for creating intricate, surreal and impressive with his gloom paintings. The film is not so much a narrative in the usual sense of the word as a journey inside someone’s consciousness. If you think about it, the heroes and rooms in this film are not real heroes and real rooms, but some metaphors and categories that can flow into each other or collapse, as is typical of images and categories of human consciousness. This approach to space, heroes and history will be fundamental to the further work of Lynch. Despite the fact that they were very skeptical about the film at the film studio, in a short time it became a cult . Stanley Kubrick himself expressed regret that he did not remove this tape ^[8] .

1980s Movies

In 1980, commissioned by Mel Brooks, Lynch worked on the film Elephant Man , which subsequently received eight Academy Award nominations , including directing. The film touches on the theme of humanity , presenting the disfigured protagonist as much kinder, more honest and more humane than the "normal" people around him.

After that, Lynch received an offer to remove the third part of the Star Wars epic, but he preferred the novel Dune . Despite an unprecedented budget of $ 40 million for those times, the adaptation of this fantastic epic in 1984 - the eponymous film “ Dune ” - was not successful with the audience. The expanded television version of the film, which was then released, raised objections from the director himself, who vowed not to take up the film again if he did not have full control over the final version.

In 1986, with the financial support of the legendary producer Dino De Laurentis , the scandalous thriller Blue Velvet was released, telling about a secret criminal network that controls life in a patriarchal American town. The film receives awards from the National Society of Film Critics in the nominations "Best Film" and "Best Director"; in the context of film criticism, this is generally the most successful film of the director. Starting with Blue Velvet, Lynch has gained a large number of fans in Europe and especially in France; many of his subsequent film projects are funded by French Canal + .

In 1990, Lynch directed the wild-hearted Wild Movie . Despite the mixed reaction of critics, the Cannes jury, led by Bernardo Bertolucci, awarded the Golden Palm Branch .

1990s movies

In the same 1990, the first Lynch television series , Twin Peaks, was launched. The plot of the series is based on the investigation of the mysterious murder of schoolgirl Laura Palmer, which occurred in the small American town of Twin Peaks. The series was initially very successful, but after a year the filming was canceled due to low ratings. Nevertheless, the series became an iconic cultural phenomenon of the early 1990s . Every year, a rally of Twin Peaks fans takes place near Seattle ^[9] .

In 1992, a psychedelic prequel to Twin Peaks was released - Twin Peaks: Through the Fire . The premiere of the picture in Cannes was a failure, the press was full of devastating reviews. The director himself explained this reaction by the fact that they expected to see the continuation of Twin Peaks in the film, but they got something completely different. The critics' objections to the film in many ways boiled down to the fact that it consists of two parts that are not closely related to each other. Over the years, the movie “Twin Peaks: Through Fire” is no longer perceived as an unconditional failure; positive reviews prevail among critical reviews ^[10] .

Lynch continued to experiment with the fragmentation of the narrative in the film Highway to Nowhere (1997). It consists of two parts of approximately equal duration with a different plot and characters - these are two versions of the same life. The film was again shared by film critics - some (such as Roger Ebert ) considered him the nadir of Lynch’s career, others (in particular, Slava Zizek and Jonathan Rosenbaum ) enthusiastically accepted him. The film featured new songs by Lou Reed , David Bowie , Rammstein ; The soundtrack was prepared by Trent Reznor ( Nine Inch Nails ). Composer Olga Neuwirth and Nobel laureate in literature Elfrida Jelinek wrote an opera on his plot.

Lynch rehabilitated himself in the eyes of mainstream film critics, removing in 1999 the simple story based on the real events of the road movie , which, due to its deliberate straightforwardness, puzzled fans of more experimental projects of the director. In 2002, he led the jury of the Cannes Film Festival ; the main prize was also awarded to Roman Polansky, who was quite traditional in the directorial style of “The Pianist ”.

2000s Movies

In the early 2000s, Lynch worked on a new television series, which was discontinued after unsuccessful test shows. Remounted and pre-recorded episodes formed the picture “ Mulholland Drive ” (2001), which, after the mixed reaction of the first spectators in Cannes, became a cult and was named the main film of the decade by the magazine Caillet du Cinema . “Mulholland Drive” continues the main line of Lynch’s work and his searches in the field of narrative art (objectification of subjective experiences, splitting of the plot structure in the tradition of “ Doctor Caligari’s Study ”).

In September 2006, as part of the Venice Film Festival , the premiere of Lynch’s 3-hour film “ Inland Empire ” filmed on a hand-held digital camera of a rather primitive model took place ^[11] . Filming was done without a ready-made script, mainly in Poland , where Lynch often happens because of the film festival in Lodz . After the premiere, the director was awarded the Golden Lion Award for his contribution to the development of world cinema. In his last film, the director finally breaks with the traditional narrative and continues to design his own symbols and mythologies, conditionally connected by the inner life of the main character.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Lynch shot several short commercials and music videos. For example, in 2010, Christian Dior introduced a 12-minute commercial from Lynch, and a year earlier, an animated video of Lynch appeared on the Internet for Moby 's electronic song “ Shot in the Back of the Head ”. Some experimental materials of the director (amateur animation, a series of short films "Rabbits", a large project for interviewing ordinary Americans from the hinterland) are available only on his website. There you can listen to how Lynch reads out the weather forecast for the day.

Leaving the movie

On May 5, 2017, David Lynch announced his retirement from the cinema.

In a conversation with the Australian edition of Sydney Morning Herald, Lynch complained that the film industry has changed dramatically in recent years. And, in his opinion, not for the better:

“Everything has changed a lot. So many films do not show good fees, even though they are great. And those that are collected perfectly are not what I would shoot. ”

When asked about whether "Inland Empire" will be his last full-length film, the director hesitated, answered: "Yes."

After the Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28, 2017), David Lynch decided to stay in the movie. On this he was prompted by stormy applause for the third season of the series “ Twin Peaks ” under his direction.

In early July 2018, a Netflix employee shared photos of David Lynch at the company's office. After that, some media outlets suggested that the streaming service will release a new project for the director. ^[12]

In June 2019, the Governing Council of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to give Lynch an honorary Oscar for his outstanding contribution to the cinema (Academy Honorary Award) ^[13] .

The analysis of Lynch’s films is often addressed by the followers of Freud and Lacan , who see in them a demonstration of an obsessive repetition: the inevitable return of psychological trauma caused by the “first stage” ^[14] . Jonathan Rosenbaum states that the heroes of Lynch films often refuse to accept the painful truth about themselves, but the crowded out of their consciousness invariably returns to their lives in even more bizarre and frightening forms ^[15] . The style of the director is characterized by the fullness of films with vivid details of a surreal, psychedelic or mystical property. According to the conjecture of the famous avant-garde researcher J. Hoberman , this line goes back to the experimental short films by Maya Deren ( Midday Networks ) ^[16] . Lynch himself avoids giving interpretations of his films in every possible way, repeating that cinema is a special experience that you must experience yourself, preferably on a large screen, but which cannot be retold in words.

Despite the fact that Lynch is far from the Hollywood mainstream, he was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Director (1981, 1987, 2002).

In 2018, a derivative adjective from the name of the director Lynchian was included in the Oxford English Dictionary ^[17] .

David Lynch lives in California in a house of modern architecture designed by his son F.L. Wright . An important motive in the films of David Lynch are paintings ^{[18] [19]} . In his free time he is engaged in painting ^[20] and photography. Favorite photographers include Diane Arbus , Joel-Peter Whitkin and William Eggleton ^[21] . One of Lynch’s photos was selected in 2008 as a poster for the 61st Cannes Film Festival ^[22] . He is the author of the Fetish Show photo series, where models are imprinted in the shoes of designer Christian Louboutin . “Fetish show” was exhibited, in particular, in the Moscow Center for Contemporary Culture “Garage” (2009) ^[23] .

Music plays a big role in Lynch’s films. Until the 2000s, Lynch worked closely with film composer Angelo Badalamenti , who, according to him, revealed to him the true potential of music ^[24] . In 1989, Lynch and Badalamenti produced the debut album of singer Julie Cruz . In the zero years, the director became interested in electronic music; his first music album, BlueBob, was released in 2001. In November 2010, his first single was released - the dance tune “Good Day Today” with distorted vocals ^on computer technology ^[24] . November 7, 2011 released the first solo album of Lynch called Crazy Clown Time . July 15, 2013 released his second album, The Big Dream .

It is believed that some of the shots, camera angles and stage scenes of David Lynch’s films are directly or indirectly borrowed from paintings ^{[18] [25]} , and that the painting element is part of the content of his works. Images from the director’s films find direct parallels in the works of such artists as Francis Bacon , Diego Velazquez , Claude Monet , Max Ernst , Marcel Duchamp , Rene Magritte , Edward Hopper ^{[18] [26]} . The painting system remains a fundamental element of David Lynch’s films, determining the content of the film and the specificity of its cinematic language ^[18] . “Picturesque thinking” can be considered one of the essential features of the cinematic works of David Lynch ^[19] . “The proximity of Lynch’s films to the baroque picture is an interesting circumstance. ... Lynch’s films are characterized by a baroque spirit, which affects not only the structure of the frame, but also the character of Lynch’s films as a whole ” ^[27] . Here, the authors of the study note: “Lynch's Baroque film system can be supported and demonstrated in two main directions. The first is the literal resemblance or citation of famous Baroque works ... The second is the use of baroque visual principles: excessiveness, redundancy, mismatch of effort and achieved result. ” ^[28]

Since the late 1970s, David Lynch has been engaged in transcendental meditation through the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi system twice a day. In the 2000s, the director, formerly known for his shyness during the interview, became known “as a wandering orator and preacher of meditation around the world” ^[29] .

In June 2002, Lynch paid $ 1 million for an internship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Flodrop ^[29] . Returning to California as a “different person”, he began to agitate for the transformation of the world on the basis of Maharishi’s teachings on the “single field”. Since then, he made only one full-length film, but he traveled to at least 30 countries, speaking to students with lectures on transcendental meditation ^[29] .

In 2006, Lynch released an audio book on the technique of immersion into the depths of consciousness, where, in particular, he told how meditation helps him in his work on films. In February 2009, Lynch’s book was published in Russian under the title “ Catch a Big Fish ” at Eksmo Publishing House. David Lynch’s visit to Moscow (in April 2009) was timed to coincide with this event. In Moscow, Lynch also met with students at VGIK .

The David Lynch Foundation aims to raise $ 7 billion to disseminate Maharishi's ideas. Hollywood megastars, for example, directors Clint Eastwood ^[30] and Martin Scorsese, spoke in support of his work. In 2009, the foundation organized the first joint performance of surviving members of The Beatles for seven years ^[31] .

The first time David Lynch married in 1967 in Chicago, to Peggy Lenz. A year later, in 1968, they had a daughter, Jennifer Chambers Lynch , who became a film director. In 1974, they divorced.

In 1977, Lynch married Mary Fisk, the sister of his longtime friend Jack Fisk , who has worked as a production designer for Terry Malik since the early 1970s and is married to Sissy Spacek . In 1982, the couple had a son, whom they named Austin Jack Lynch.

After breaking up with Mary in 1987, Lynch began dating Isabella Rossellini , the star of his movie " Blue Velvet ." After breaking up with Isabella in 1991, he was married to his editor Mary Sweeney , and in 1992 their son Riley was born. The couple formalized their relationship in May 2006, but two months later announced a divorce.

In February 2009, Lynch married actress Emily Stoughle, who is more than 30 years younger than him. They met on the set of the film "Inland Empire". In 2012, the director gave birth to a second daughter, named Lula Boginia ^[32] in honor of the main character of his film “Wild at Heart”.

Feature Films

Short films

• 1967 - “ Absurd Encounter with Fear ” / Absurd Encounter with Fear
• 1968 - The Alphabet
• 1970 - The Grandmother / The Grandmother
• 1974 - “The Woman with the Amputated Leg” / The Amputee
• 1988 - The Cowboy and the Frenchman
• 1990 - Industrial Symphony No. 1. The Dream of Broken Hearts / Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted
• 1995 - Premonitions of the Evil Deed / Lumière: Premonitions Following an Evil Deed
• 2002 - Dark Room
• 2002 - "Rabbits" / Rabbits (mini-series)
• 2007 - The Boat
• 2007 - “Absurdity” / Absurda (episode of the movie almanac “ Everyone has his own movie ” / Chacun son cinéma ) ^[33]
• 2010 - Lady Blue Shanghai (12-minute commercial for Dior)
• 2011 - “ The 3 Rs ” (minute clip for the Vienna Film Festival )
• 2013 - Idem Paris (8-minute video illustrating the creation of lithographs in an old Parisian studio)

TV Series

• 1990 - 1991 , 2017 - Twin Peaks
• 1992 - On the Air / On the Air
• 1993 - “ Hotel Room ” / Hotel Room

Animation

• 1966 - Six Figures Getting Sick
• 2002 - "The Country of Dumb " / Dumbland (mini-series)

Music videos

• 1982 - "I Predict", Sparks ^[34]
• 1990 - The Wicked Game (first version), Chris Isaac
• 2003 - “Thank You Judge”, BlueBob (duet of Lynch and J. Neff )
• 2009 - “ Shot in the Back of the Head ”, Moby
• 2011 - “I Touch a Red Button Man”, Interpol ^[35]
• 2012 - Crazy Clown Time
• 2013 - Came Back Haunted , Nine Inch Nails ^[36]

Albums

• BlueBob (with John Neff, 2001)
• Ghost of Love EP (2007)
• The Air is on Fire: Soundscape (2007)
• Polish Night Music (with Marek ебebrowski, 2008)
• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse : Dark Night of the Soul (2010; Lynch took part in the creation of two songs.)
• This Train (with Krista Bell , 2011)
• Crazy Clown Time (2011)
• The Big Dream (July 15, 2013) ^[37]
• Somewhere in the Nowhere EP (with Krista Bell , 2016)
• Thought Gang (with Angelo Badalamenti , 2018) ^{[38] [39]}

Singles

• “Good Day Today” / “I Know” (2010)

Remixes

• Zola Jesus - In Your Nature (David Lynch remix) (2012)
• Ultraísta - Strange Formula (David Lynch remix) (2012)
• Moby - The poison tree (David Lynch remix)
• John Foxx and Jori Hulkkonen - Evangeline (David Lynch remix) (2013)
• Agnes Obel - Fuel To Fire (David Lynch Remix) (2014)

In 2019, David Lynch recorded a video course with 13 videos on creating films and finding ideas for films ^[40] .

• Vasilieva E .; Bannikov I. The picturesque program of films by David Lynch: artistic affiliation and the phenomenon of fashion // Fashion Theory: body, clothing, culture. 2018. No. 48. S.11-26.
• David Lynch, Chris Rodley. Interview: Conversations with Chris Rodley = Lynch on Lynch. - Moscow: ABC, 2009, - 450 p. - ISBN 978-5-9985-0374-0.s
• David Lynch Catching Big Fish: Meditation, Mindfulness, and Creativity = Catching the Big Fish. - Moscow: EKSMO, 2009 .-- 208 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-32205-3 . c
• Boyd N. Dark Reflections: Fantasy and Duality in the Work of David Lynch. Wake Forest University, 2014.
• Cozzolino R., Rockwell A. David Lynch: The Unified Field. Berkeley: Philadelphia and the University of California Press, 2014.
• Gleyzon F.-X. David Lynch in Theory. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2010.
• Mactaggart A. The Film Paintings of David Lynch: Challenging Film Theory. Bristol: Intellect Ltd, 2010.

• Azarenka N. Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt and 5 other artists who influenced David Peaks by David Lynch. // Arthive.
• David Lynch Official Website
• David Lynch Foundation
• Personal exhibition of David Lynch in Moscow, as part of the Fashion and Style in Photography 2009 festival
• Black Wigwam - A site dedicated to David Lynch
• Russian site about David Lynch (rus.)
• David Lynch: non-cinematic work (Russian)
• Interview with David Lynch at the presentation "Catch the Big Fish" in Moscow (2009) (Russian)
• Lynch on the start of his career on YouTube