In Memoriam: David Lynch
I have been wondering whether or not to write something about the passing of David Lynch (20 Januari 1946 – 15 January 2025). It seems that everybody is a huge fan, now heartbroken, sharing memories. I did write something about other people (actors), so it would be odd to pass who was to me the biggest light in movie history just because he is a so well-known.
All day I have been looking for news, looking at photos and videos of and with Lynch that I did not yet know, even finding out that there are films that I have not yet seen, such as Lynch’s acting debut “Zelly and Me” (1988) (on the right). There is actually a nice story to that film that was also new to me.
At the time, Lynch was dating Isabelle Rossellini (1952-) and she talked Lynch into acting for the first time. He was quite anxious, but he got a small part. It appears that the film was only released on VHS, but it is (sometimes) available on Mubi and/or Amazon Prime if you are in the right region. I will have to find a way to watch it some time.
Anyway, as you may know, Lynch’s health has been going downwards since the Covid pandemic. He had a progressive lung condition and barely came outside. Even though he often seems to have spent winters in Paris, he had been living in his house in LA for the last years. LA, indeed, where all the fires are going on, not too great if you already have a lung condition.
Eight days before he passed, Lynch had to leave his house. It seems that he moved in with his daughter (Jennifer Lynch?). I suppose he did not leave this world alone. Some say that he died in his favourite meditation chair, which must either be wishful thinking, or he took the chair with him when he had to move out.
A question I have no answer for yet is: how about his houses? Lynch owned three buildings in a row, one is the house where “Lost Highway” takes place. I have no idea if his property, and therefor his legacy, is affected by the fires. It would be quite something if his studio gets lost with in all likelihood a lot of his art and archives inside.
The personal touch to this story. I got to know Lynch’s work when my younger brother was watching Twin Peaks. This must have been somewhere halfway the 1990’ies. I do not remember when Twin Peaks was first broadcasted in the Netherlands and if my brother watched the first run or a later one. Myself certainly a later one, as I had already missed the beginning.
It was at least before 1997, because I saw “Lost Highway” more than once on the big screen in that year and a friend got me a poster of it advertising the film which has adorned my wall ever since. I had probably seen some work of Lynch in the meantime.
Most of my Lynch reviews were written before I moved from Monas.nl to Gangleri.nl in 2007. I see that I even appear to have seen “Blue Velvet” in a cinema in 2000 or 2001. I do not even remember that! I am sure about seeing “Mullholland Drive”. For some reason we ended up in a way different city, Nijmegen if my memory does not fail me. If I remember correctly, the problem was that arthouses thought the distributor was too big and regular cinemas thought that Lynch was too weird, so it did not play in many places.
Over the years I bought Twin Peaks on DVD, first in an American version, because the European version came much later. I have watched the series several times. I cannot say the same of everything that Lynch has made though.
When my oldest sister lived in Seattle and we were visiting with some, we took a rental car and drove to Snoqualmie. This was right in the middle between Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return, so interest in things Peaks were at the lowest point. Yet we had our (not very good) cherry pie at what is the Double R in the series, got ourselves one of the hand-drawn maps of the “Twin Peaks trail” and found most of the locations. A wonderful experience.
In 2015 and 2016 rumours started to rise. Would Lynch live up to the promise he laid in the mouth of Sarah Palmer: “I’ll see you in 25 years”? The rumours got stronger, people even saw things that seemed to indicate filming. When it became certain that there indeed would be a third season, everybody seemed to have been a Twin Peaks fan for life and the Lynch buzz grew and grew. I hear mixed opinions about “The Return” (2017) but I love it. It is weird and dark and completely Lynch. Maybe it does not have all that much to do with the original run, questions were not answered and new questions raised, but is that not why we all love Lynch? The fact that his productions make no (or little) sense make that you can watch them again and again. A film with a straightforward story that you know by heart after one or two watches becomes boring. Lynch’s productions are more of an atmosphere that you can keep watching, like you can listen to a good album over and over.
Even when it is mostly his films that draw me to Lynch, he also made some good music and I attended the 2019 huge exhibition of his art in Maastricht (“Someone Is In My House”) where they had classic works such as “Three Men Getting Sick”, but a great number of other material. I am not much for modern art, but it was very interesting to see elements that he also used in his films. I also have a couple of books about and some of him, but it is not like I get everything that came from his hands. The wonderful documentary “The Art Life” (2016) I saw on a big screen and again not in my home town.
I like things dark and weird and Lynch was the man for that. So much so that (especially now) he appears to appeal to a large number of people. It is nice that he gets the recognition that he got. Without Lynch, Hollywood would probably have been a lot more boring. How many directors would have dared to create dark, vague and disturbing movies if Lynch had not done that before them?
Lynch leaves behind a legacy in a fair amount of films, many smaller productions (videoclips, commercials, short films), a plethora of visual art, books, but most of all: people he inspired to look for boundaries and to not go with the flow.
For tonight I decided to not watch a film of Lynch, but a film with Lynch. He did not play in so many productions and I want to watch a movie, not a few episodes of -for example- Twin Peaks. One film in which he features is actually about old age and dying: “Lucky” (John Carroll Lynch (not related) 2017). This is an homage to Harry Dean Stanton (1926-2017) who was one of Lynch’s long time actors who passed away during or just after the filming of “Twin Peaks: The Return”. During the filming of “The Return”, the elderly Stanton managed to play in “Lucky” too and when both the film and the series were done, he went on. Now Lynch has joined him.
I happen to have a Twin Peaks themed beer on the shelf, so my goodbye tonight to David Lynch will be:
