UKC

Arguably the most uncompromising film maker to have worked somewhat in the “mainstream” 

Good or bad, never made an uninteresting film in his life.

Cronenberg? Not that i want to argue in an RIP post.

I love Cronenberg films, possibly more so than Lynch's output overall, but I'd say Lynch was way more off and out.

Blimey, I hadn't heard. Yes, a real original. I feel a revisit to Twin Peaks coming on...

Ah, damn it. I don't really have heroes any more but I loved Lynch's work. Genuinely sad he's gone, a wonderful and unique talent in a world full of choss. 

No. Cronenberg is a good call but just compare Dune to The Dead Zone. Alongside fare like The Naked Lunch, Cronenberg has been comfortable with more conventional story structure and standard three-act narratives. Can’t see Lynch doing stuff like A History of Violence and Spider when he’s got Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire in his head. Sure he made The Straight Story and The Elephant Man. But he made them HIS. 

Sad to see him go, he was an I teesting and engaging fella. But looking at his filmography just now, I realised I’ve never seen anything he made. I must address this as a matter of urgency.

No! A great loss..I knew he was very ill but hoped he would have a film or two left in him. Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks (first and third seasons) all wonderful.

"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present" is my personal mantra...

your post reminded me that there is one major feature I’ve not seen. Inland Empire. Starting now. Will finish the other side of midnight (hey I was going to watch The Fabelmans for his “cameo” but I’ve seen it and it’s only 30 mins shorter anyway) 

Even as a massive fan I found Inland Empire hard work, but it is VERY Lynch.

I like to watch this clip which seems to sum up the impact he had on people and how he worked https://youtu.be/e-eqgr_gn4k?si=rNAettLIhTnX8Vbu

How did it go? I went to the cinema when it came out and found it a real slog...May have to revisit though.

What did Jack Do? deserves an honourable mention as does Fire Walk with Me which is terrifying in places.

I felt it quite a slog, in all honesty. Took until 1h23m to catch the “vibe” of it, and that’s me who is familiar with Lynch. Eventually you just have to allow the aesthetics to take over, and there is certainly some wonderful use of music, but it felt pretty empty. It is 170 minutes long and theoretically could have been around 20 minutes long but of course that’s not the point! I must revisit Mulholland Drive which I’ve seen but kind of forgotten. 

I remember reading a few very positive reviews and then being bored stupid about 2 hours in...

I think MD is probably his best film IMHO - not sure I ever really figured out what exactly was going on, but not as wilfully difficult as Inland Empire... 

Plus one of the most influential film makers in quality TV, despite a very much more patchy record:  the first series of Twin Peaks was a public phenomenon and major critical success but even some fans won't have heard of some of his least successful TV work.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jan/17/the-high-point-of-tv-a...

Throughout my viewing, I could not shake a (possibly Mandela Effect) recollection of Mark Kermode at the time of release of Inland Empire, at his peak of smug patronising slappability, saying to camera something like "Look - you either GET David Lynch, or you DON'T - and if you don't, that's FINE, although a shame as you'll be missing out"

By far the closest I've ever come to putting a boot through my television and sending the bill to the BBC  
 

I'm surprised more people don't make the connection with Ingmar Bergman's Persona. Love both films. 

On that tangent, have you seen Clouds Of Sils Maria? 

Did anyone ever watch his weather reports? Essential Lynch viewing...

Never heard of it, but I bet it's not as good as eraserhead lol. Would you recommend?

Yes. Great cast and a fantastic use of Primal Scream's Kowalski. 

That sounds spot on to me. I don't really get Lynch, not at his most Lynchian anyway. I saw Eraserhead in my pretentious early 20s and loved it, I think Blue Velvet and The Elephant Man are masterpieces but I didn't really get Twin Peaks or Mulholland Drive. I couldn't even watch Firewalk with me. I thought Twin Peaks was like a sinister and increasingly surreal Northern Exposure. Mulholland Drive had incredible atmosphere, but I just didn't get it.

One my personal favourite Lynch films is Some Low Yo Yo Stuff, a short film where he interviews an elderly and ailing Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart

Brilliant film maker and loved his contempt for graffiti https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/mar/13/graf...

I've never thought before, but now you've said it I totally get that. 

I was thinking about the weirdness quotient in Lynch's films. The Elephant Man was fantastic, and pretty much a 'straight story' albeit about an unusual subject.

And no-one's mentioned his musical career.

Then in a manner of speaking, you did get it.

I like to think Lynch wrote Mullholland Drive just to mess with people who like everything, no matter how mysterious, to have some kind of explanation.

I think any attempt to analyse what's going on as if it's an episode of Lost are missing the point entirely.

Also a great film. I often wondered if the title was a bit tongue in cheek.

Yes, I'd agree with that.

This has occurred to me, not so much your suspicion of his intent, but that some of his work simply doesn't make any sense and was never meant to. My take on Eraserhead, seen in the mid 1980s, was that he'd had a weird dream and padded it with stuff in from his life to make a vague storyline.

I've never seen Lost but I get your point.

I saw on TV an interview in which David Lynch seemed impressed by Mark Kermode’s (MK’s) analysis of his films but can’t find it online. You may enjoy another one,* which MK mentions at the end of his Guardian piece**

It looks as though The Straight Story is now back on All4 & is scheduled to be screened by Film4 on Friday night (I’d like to see again Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Wild at Heart & Twin Peaks. I haven't seen Inland Empire)

* youtube.com/watch?v=FEqhiC4zcGA&

** https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/01/mark-kermode-on-david-lynch-a-...

Thanks – perhaps that’s a way into Mulholland Drive for me. I didn’t give it long enough to make a connection with Persona, which is one of my favourite films ...

Just finished watching Twin Peaks S3 (The return) for the second time, having watched it first when it was released.

Had completely forgotten just how utterly bonkers it was in the best possible way. Lynchianness turned up to 11. Part 8 ("Got A Light") is just pure art.

A long time since I've watched it but if memory serves there are two keys to "understanding" Mulholland - one is that some (a lot?) of what happens isn't actually happening, it's just being imagined by the Naomi Watts character; the other is that the beginning of the film actually comes about half way through, when Watts looks through the keyhole. That's if I've remembered correctly...

Probably the least Lynchian thing he ever did but the Straight Story is a beautiful piece. Nothing much going on, gentle pacing, deeply sympathetic to an age we don’t see much of on film. Oh and a very slow car chase.

The incompetent hitman bit of Mulholland Drive is brilliant.

This is the water. This is the well. 

Blue Velvet & The Elephant Man are on iPlayer & are being shown tonight on BBC Four, after this at 9pm, which is from 1999, I think:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027xkd Scene by Scene: Mark Cousins meets US director David Lynch, creator of such idiosyncratic and groundbreaking screen landmarks as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. (50 minutes)