The world lost a great artist when David Lynch passed away. Like most fans I never met Lynch, but still felt a deep connection to his work. I am sad he did not have more time to create a few more thought-provoking and daring films. He is best known for directing Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, Wild at Heart, The Elephant Man, Inland Empire, and the TV series Twin Peaks that he co-created with Mark Frost.1
Lynch created a unique surrealistic style that gives the viewer a significant amount of freedom in interpreting his work. For years Lynch held out on offering any explanations. In the documentary The Art Life, he made clear he wanted his creations to be open to interpretation.2 This has created a cult following of fans, scholars, and podcasters all seeking to decipher a meaning. They have offered radically different theories and interpretations. Some of the most heated debates have been over the TV series Twin Peaks. Last summer I joined the Twin Peaks cult – delving into the books, re-watching the series, and writing about Lynch and the show.
For me the heart of the show was a critique of the darkness underneath the façade of the American Dream and the ideal of the nuclear family. Twin Peaks is a picturesque small town, but it is plagued by drugs and domestic violence. There is a powerful evil supernatural force from another dimension referred to as The Black Lodge. But whether that dimension is a real place or a representation of the depth of the human psyche is up for debate. I have often thought of Twin Peaks: The Return after Trump’s re-election. The atmosphere of unease and decay that pervades the aging town is similar to what I feel now. And yet people causally go about their business as the world falls apart.
Part of my admiration for Lynch came from his insistence on following his own artistic vision without regard for profits or popular opinion. When the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was first released in 1992, it was almost universally hated by critics and angered many fans of the TV series. But years later, opinions have drastically changed. It is now seen as a groundbreaking and powerful psychological portrait. Early fans of the film have spoken of how deeply it impacted them, because at the time there were almost no major films that captured the unique terror of domestic and sexual abuse.3
Many of Lynch’s characters suffered extreme psychological distress, but in real life Lynch was dedicated to helping people heal from past trauma. He co-founded the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. The foundation funds Transcendental Meditation programs for schools, veterans, and at risk-communities. Transcendental Meditation had a huge impact on Lynch’s creative life and public outreach efforts. The documentary Shadows of Paradise follows Lynch across the globe as he tries to promote the power of meditation, which he believed could change lives for the better.
It is accurate to describe Lynch films and shows as dark and surreal, but there are also images of great beauty, loveable eccentrics, and challenging puzzles that add to the richness of his work. I remember watching Jack Nance in Eraserhead and trying to understand the scenes by watching his strange or panicked expressions. The world seems to shift between his character’s dreary life with a monster baby and a fantasy night club hidden in the furnace of his apartment. As soon as the film finished, I felt I needed to watch it again. But that is the joy of a great film: it is never the same on repeated viewings, and there always new discoveries to be made.
Thank you David Lynch and rest in peace.
David Lynch’s complete filmography can be found on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000186/
The Art Life is available to stream on Criterion and Kanopy. It is a portrait of Lynch as a painter, but also focuses on his biography and his earliest films.
Read The Black Lodge Within for an in-depth look at Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and the impact it had on female fans.