David Lynch
David Lynch
I’m not sure if anyone could ever “get” one of his movies completely beyond the experience and the narrative. He always left so much unsaid and open to interpretation, just like life. They are movies designed to make the viewer feel a certain way, rather than literally what’s in the screen. He was one of the few directors that I thought of as making weird things that I would enjoy (most of the time), but how could anyone else?
“I like to remember things my own way. How I remembered them, not necessarily the way they happened.”
- Bill Hicks
There's no other options :P
His movies are not supposed to be "got" completely. They are surrealist. They have the logic of dreams. Or nightmares. There are things in them that won't ever make literal sense.
Any film school graduate can string together some random images and call it "surreal", and mostly those would be boring. but Lynch was a master: in his films, all too often, just as your conscious mind was going "wait, what?" some subconscious voice would be nodding "yes, that fits".
Some more than others, perhaps—the man produced Dune and Eraserhead pretty damn close together, and Eraserhead is not generally considered an easy movie to watch. But the man was never afraid or dismissive of giving us straightforwardly enjoyable cinema, even if we can't easily articulate why!
The plots of his movies are often more concrete than people expect. I'm not saying a movie like Mulholland Drive is easy to follow, but it does have a legible plot. Feel free to read the wiki or something if you are not sure who some character is or what they are doing.
If you are just letting the experience wash over you, you may be missing some plot points that are not meant to be mysterious.
Obviously his movies are weird and not entirely legible, but don't assume everything in them is meant to be inscrutable.
That’s, in my opinion, where some of the intractability comes from: is this bug buzzing around a ceiling light meaningful to the plot or just something he saw one day and wanted others to experience as well. Every once in a while he’d give a tell, often unintentionally, while talking about something else. But most of the time he let things into the world without explanation.
I actually found "Mulholland Drive" to be incredibly accessible for a Lynch movie. Twin Peaks remains an absolute (and highly fascinating) enigma to me, especially the third season, but "Mulholland Drive" always felt like an enigma with a satisfying solution.
First video was May 11, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krIj6eLF4mU
Last video was December 16, 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l21GFyOO8Ug
He also released a daily video in which he drew a bingo number. I can't really imagine any other major director doing something like that in their late 70s.
https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/1fg3npu/david_l...
These were the very last words he spoke:
______
May everyone be happy.
May everyone be free of disease.
May auspiciousness be seen everywhere.
May suffering belong to no-one.
Peace.
Jai guru dev
________
And the fact that it actually was released 25 years after Laura said "I'll see you in 25 years"? I'm not a spiritual person, but it does feel like the universe wanted that show to be made!
Yes, she was terminally ill and in hospice care. Lynch moved up the filming of her scenes as well as writing the part so she wouldn't need to travel. The fans really embraced her in the years after the original show aired, inviting her to conventions, etc. She wanted to finish her character's role for the fans before she died.
The fact that The Return exists at all is amazing. The fact that it is not what you expected or wanted is really compelling. I absolutely loved it, even if I honestly have no idea what much of it means. Lynch's ability to use pacing -- lingering on a scene -- to cause unease is really something special.
I forget if this is something Lynch ever explicitly talked about, but the way he pulled this off was masterful. We’re in an era of franchises, sequels, and reboots, and all a lot of people wanted from The Return was more Dale Cooper being Dale Cooper. And we get what, maybe 15 minutes of that out of 15 hours? Yet it’s one of the best seasons of television I’ve ever seen.
I finished that show with such mixed emotions. Dismay at the lack of closure. Foolishness for ever thinking that a Lynch production would provide anything approaching closure. But after letting things settle, it was the perfect ending.
Discovering it existed and watching it a couple years ago was such an awesome experience.
The Mitchum (sp?) brothers arc evokes so much joy it’s just hilarious.
The greatest ending ever to a TV show is the end of season 2. Nothing can ever touch that as an ending. Season 3 was not needed but I am just glad I got to watch the show when it aired originally.
That ending in 1991 on prime time network TV next to corny sitcoms is just so out of time. Like a transmission from another dimension.
I disagree! I consider it Lynch's best work.
I still enjoyed the season, but arguably, it's the most un-Lynchian.
The compelling thing here is that Lynch disagreed with you.
Julee Cruise/Lynch/Badalamenti - Floating into the Night album is really fitting music for right now.
Into the Night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsLJxUEbkG8
We need that kind of crazy.
https://youtu.be/C0Cvtu2FfGw?si=1_wk8fPMeeHYLrxl
I love that DFW wrote an essay about Lost Highway and used the term “Lynchian” (something horrific sitting right next to something mundane in a scene).
Charlie Rose asked Lynch about the phrase and didn’t really know how to respond.
Rose then brings this up with DFW who kinda chuckles and implies that was what he would expect.
Two extremely talented and intelligent creatives, but where DFW cared quite a bit how he was perceived, I don’t think Lynch ever gave a shit.
Lynch was on another plane of creativity and I’m not sure he even really knew it. He just did what he wanted to do (except for the original Dune film…)and let people take away from it what they might.
I honestly cant say I “enjoy” Lynch films but I will be the first to admit there is heart and soul poured into them by a genius.
https://variety.com/2025/film/news/david-lynch-dead-director...
Another relevant link people may want to look at:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/david-ly...
Looks like NYT haven't published their full obituary yet.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/16/david-lynch-twi...
(I’m not someone who knows anything about film…)
RIP.
"There's safety in thinking in a diner. You can have your coffee or your milk shake, and you can go off into strange dark areas, and always come back to the safety of the diner. "
"The light can make all the difference in a film, even in a character. I love seeing people come out of darkness."
What an interesting man. RIP.
I’ve seen three versions of this movie. The theatrical and the longest one both sucked for anyone not a Herbert fan. I thought the longest was the director’s cut but he never did one. Perhaps it was the TV movie cut. But I don’t know what the “good” one was called.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087182/alternateversions/
A non-theatrical "director's cut" is a Mandela Effect moment for me. I don't know what I watched. It wasn't the TV version, because that was the first version I watched. I can only guess that it was a common mistake to call some version "the director's cut" among viewers (or maybe just my friends) in the past.
The list I've linked to certainly wasn't illuminating for me, but maybe it will be for you.
I was also in awe how time travel was depicted by music; might help that the cheesy guild navigator scene operating the spacecraft wasn't shown (or was it? I didn't notice it when I first viewed it, and I like to think that's one of those scenes David Lynch would've rather left out).
I blame this on the muddled mess that was the release edit and how misleadingly the film was promoted by the studio. I was a huge fan of pop sci-fi like Star Wars, Alien and Blade Runner and the advertising set a very different audience expectation than what the film delivered. Unfortunately, that experience kind of tainted Lynch's Dune for me.
I didn't really begin to appreciate Lynch as a great filmmaker until Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, both of which I loved. Someone linked a 'highly-regarded' three hour fan edit of Lynch's Dune which I've bookmarked to check out.
Hopefully it will get reappraised, now
His Dune was the only one close to the book and the atmosphere of the book.
In addition to his incredible film/television work, I'd like to give a shout-out to his other forms of artistic expression which often got less attention. His musical output captured the same unique vibe as his films, for example his album Crazy Clown Time is almost certainly best enjoyed in a smoky room with syncopated strobe lights and patterned flooring. His mixed-media paintings and sculpture were also impressively unsettling.
Here's a nationally televised discussion he had with the President of Ukraine about teaching 100,000 veterans to meditate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf7-mErKWlc
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His final public appearance was a video he sent to a fundraiser for his foundation last year:
https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/1fg3npu/david_l...
______
* May everyone be happy.
May everyone be free of disease.
May auspiciousness be seen everywhere.
May suffering belong to no-one.
Peace.
Jai guru dev
________
I'm not going to touch on his films, which are all special and definitely worth watching, but if anyone who didn't know him wants a primer on his complex, sometimes surreal, but I think ultimately endearing personality, then this is a nice introduction:
https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/1fg3npu/david_l...
His last words were: ______
* May everyone be happy.
May everyone be free of disease.
May auspiciousness be seen everywhere.
May suffering belong to no-one.
Peace.
Jai guru dev
________
Perhaps we do and we just need to nurture it more.
Also the Mr Plow-ish of all playstation advertisements.
The news makes me sad, I feel like I've lost a friend, even though I never met Lynch.
Dune is more fun to watch and seems to have emerged as my all-time favorite film. In spite of it's flaws and Lynch's own disdain for it, the orphaned film is no less visionary, and is as strikingly original as anything Lynch has made.
I don't get all the disdain for his Dune. For its time, I found it quite entertaining. The scene of the menacing black tank containing the guild navigator emerging out of fumes at the emperor's court will stay with me. Obviously it can't compare in terms of effects or the subtleties of the latest version but it was impressive nevertheless. Without his version, I wouldn't even have known about Dune.
Like a zen koan, the unexplainably of it could consistently shock the viewer back into experiencing the entire breadth of human emotion and experience that is outside of rational understanding.
David Lynch's work was mind blowingly creative and original work in a sea of boring media made by committees trying to extract a little more profit from the same few banal formulas over and over.
I'm shocked and grateful he was able to fund and produce things that were so weird and fascinating. The owls are not what they seem.
Host: "Elaborate on that..."
David Lynch: "No, I won't." [Host and audience laughs]
====
Gee - that creates even more questions.
[edit]
Here's the start of the Eraserhead portion of the interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpomrL0qA-E&t=372s
Now I know why.
Villeneuve version is the superior adaptation.
That said I appreciate the new films too, in different ways. It looked amazing watching it in the IMAX theater, and I liked how the visions were presented. Not perfect films though, especially I think casting fewer big stars could have helped. I almost got distracted by the familiar faces.
I'm happy I never met him, not in the sense of meeting your heros, but in the sense of, 'some things are better left unsaid'. I took that with me after blue velvet, I didn't get that movie when i first saw it, I didn't pretend to, but I took that experience with me..
I argue sometimes how some topics are unrelated to Tech (hn) that get a good ratio, but this one really is one that makes me appreciate the method of madness.
Rest in peace big man. I'm who I am thanks to your work.
Edit with appreciation " (I still don't 'get' his movies) They impact my thinking.
All his weirder movies were great experiences but my favorite ever Lynch movie is the Straight Story. such a perfect beautiful movie. I loved badalamenti music as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCzAetSFRC8&ab_channel=amast...
I always thought writing and directing a movie of pure kindness and making it interesting as a piece of great art was the real mark of genius.
“You’ve been seen associating with chickens Jack!”
Without David Lynch the world is just a little bit duller today. :(
No matter what he did, no matter what you think of his works, he never compromised on being himself.
Here's Lynch making quinoa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSP-ewdJYJc&ab_channel=scayn...
https://x.com/JFrankensteiner/status/1480286294634909697
He wasn't just a great creator with all the stuff that made him famous but genuinely funny and creative as a person, sad day.
I was holding out hope he was actually immortal.
I know that sounds really weird, but that’s the sort of thing he inspired.
If anybody was going to live for ever it would be him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4mTxm9sQg0
RIP
Thanks you David to have shared with us your art life.
https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/1fg3npu/david_l...
_____
May everyone be happy. May everyone be free of disease. May auspiciousness be seen everywhere. May suffering belong to no-one. Peace. Jai guru dev __________
.
RIP David Lynch, 20 January 1946 - 16 January 2025
The world is so much better for having been visited by DL.
His bit with the Cow on median in Hollywood is hilarious.
After the showing, the projectionist came into the room and apologized for the confusing movie: "I must have mixed up the reels..."
She didn't.
And, I grew up watching Lynch's Dune over and over until it made sense :P
They are not 'normal', which is something I always admired about David Lynch. He had a very personal style and vision, and stuck with it.
His PS2 commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laf9vpJMDjA
Rabbits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drjQfQtv2BQ
Aside from his films, I'd also suggest his still art (here's a video of him walking through an exhibition of his work at his alma mater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmkJ3ff22gI). He's also got his music (I should note, the video was not directed by Lynch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IugOfDBWcGc
God speed you shinny diamond.
At 1:26 https://youtu.be/UwPprWxt9oo
His thoughts on it: https://youtu.be/fG18Na5PDTg?si=eC-DtnuEWwouhr07
I don't consider too many people to be personal heroes but I did think of David Lynch in this way.
Rest in peace. Thank you for your creative output and your mad-passion for film and meditation.
- David Lynch
This little video is such a great tribute to him. RIP David.
https://www.reddit.com/r/davidlynch/comments/1fg3npu/david_l...
___________
May everyone be happy. May everyone be free of disease. May auspiciousness be seen everywhere. May suffering belong to no-one. Peace. Jai guru dev
_______
RIP David Lynch, 20 January 1946 - 16 January 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbtUAlFN8po
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QJpY2VNP0E
rip
No words, just a feeling somewhere between waking and dreaming.
Among everything else, he made me discover one of my favourite bands, Au Revoir Simone
.
* [Here's the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation receiving the thanks of the Herndon, Virginia police department for teaching them TM for free:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikMi0xqS8fU)
* Here's David Lynch chatting with President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, about teaching Ukrainian 100,000 veterans TM to help them with their PTSD.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf7-mErKWlc)
* [Here's David Lynch meditating with 5,000 kids that his Foundation taught TM for free to in Brazil.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJD-M2FpKNU)
* [Here's Smithsonian Magazine's take on the David LynchFoundation (they gave him an award as Innovator of the Year for the work of his Foundation)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iBaJ2K7JOo)
* [David Lynch discussing the work of his Foundation.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxhkd_fZUTE)
* [Excerpts from the first David Lynch Foundation benefit concert (billed as "the Beatles Reunion concert by the press as it was headlined by Sir Paul and Sir Ringo)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJg5mKuCh7A)
* [Saving the disposable ones](https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/pl...) — a David Lynch Foundation. documentary about the work of Father Gabriel Mejia, a Roman Catholic priest whose Foundation has rescued 40,000 child prostitutes over the past 2 decades and taught them TM as therapy for PTSD.
* [Impacting Children’s Health Through Meditation Globally](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVCQJl1XVmg&t=230s) - the David Lynch Foundation's invited presentation at the Vatican about their work.
For more info, see: [The David Lynch Foundation](http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org) and [Fundación David Lynch de América Latina](https://fundaciondavidlynch.org)
RIP
The work of his Foundation continues (as though anyone here takes it seriously).
Never tripped out harder than watching Blue Velvet one lonely night.
Also Twin Peaks, so trippy.
A true legend RIP
