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FEATURE
DVD
&
BD
DVD
&
BD
By now you’ll have a
handle on Lynch’s weird
world and its menagerie
of misfits. So before
you proceed into even
more bizarre territory,
watch
The Elephant
Man
(1980) to see
what he can do with a “straight” commercial
film. The poignant tale of the deformed John
Merrick’s journey from circus sideshow to high
society is a great fit for the director and his
most mainstream film, although the black and
white photography and themes of alienation
and physical deformity do echo
Eraserhead
.
FURTHER VIEWING
You have now completed Lynch
101 and are ready to plunge into the
heart of darkness, where he does
his very best work.
The director describes
Lost
Highway
(1997) as a "21st century
noir horror film", and this surreal
journey into the fractured psyche of
a troubled sax player (Bill Pullman)
is a supremely crafted nightmare
that ventures into the same shadow
realm located in Twin Peaks. It
also features an abrasive soundtrack from
Rammstein, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch
Nails, and what may be the screen's only death
by glass coffee table.
Mulholland Drive
(2001) is arguably Lynch's
masterpiece. It's a film that just keeps on
giving – you can watch it numerous times
and when you think you've finally worked out
what the hell is going on, you'll suddenly see
things from a different
angle. The relationship
between a Hollywood
hopeful (Naomi Watts)
and an amnesiac
accident victim (Laura
Harring) sets in motion
a chain of sinister
events in this love letter to the dark side of
Tinseltown. An intoxicating mystery and a
labyrinthine puzzle that obeys its own bizarre
logic,
Mulholland Drive
is an ingeniously
crafted Möbius strip of a movie. Keep an eye
on the ashtray and the Cowboy.
Once you've absorbed these two tenebrous
Lynch classics, you'll have a better
appreciation of
Eraserhead
,
although you'll still wind up thinking,
WTF? An intense, monochrome
fever dream, at its simplest it's a
dysfunctional family tale involving
a nervous guy with big hair, his
seizure-prone girlfriend, and their
monstrous, mewling offspring.
Have a look at Lynch's take on
a sci-fi blockbuster, too.
Dune
(1984) may have been a massive
box office flop, but Frank Herbert's
hard SF epic is a great showcase of Lynchian
weirdness.
By now you're a convert, so binge-watching
Twin Peaks
(1989-91) is a priority, especially
given the show will be back in 2017. Lynch's
game-changing series shook up TV with its
eccentric cast of characters and intriguing
central mystery – who killed homecoming
queen Laura Palmer? Skip the rubbish third
season, though.
THE LYNCH MOB
Jack Nance
Eraserhead
's iconic posterboy appeared in small
but memorably oddball roles in every Lynch project
up until his untimely death in 1996, from a head
injury sustained in a brawl outside a doughnut shop.
Kyle MacLachlan
If Johnny Depp is Tim Burton's onscreen
persona then MacLachlan is Lynch's alter ego,
as the protagonist of
Dune
and
Blue Velvet
, and
Twin Peaks
' eccentric FBI Agent, Dale Cooper.
Angelo Badalamenti
Lynch's preferred composer's haunting and
melancholic scores have set the mood for
Blue
Velvet
,
Lost Highway
and
Twin Peaks
. He also
made a cameo appearance in
Mulholland Drive
as
an espresso-spitting movie exec.
Laura Dern
Dern has been Lynch's muse through
Blue
Velvet
,
Wild at Heart
and
Inland Empire
(2006).
The director's campaign for her to receive an
Oscar nomination for the latter film involved him
sitting on Sunset Blvd with a sign and a cow.
Blue Velvet