David Lynch: the great American surrealist who made experimentalism mainstream
From disturbing debut Eraserhead to his masterpiece Mulholland Drive, Lynch’s dark tales combined radical experiment with everyday Americana
No director ever interpreted the American Dream with more artless innocence than David Lynch. It could be the title of any of his films. Lynch saw that if the US dreamed of safety and prosperity and the suburban drive and the picket fence, it also dreamed of the opposite: of escape, danger, adventure, sex and death. And the two collided and opened up chasms and sinkholes in the lost highway to happiness.
Lynch was a film-maker who found portals to alternative existences and truffled in them like they were erogenous zones, moist orifices of existential possibility. He was the great American surrealist, but his vision was so distinctive that he became something other than that: a great fabulist, a great anti-narrative dissenter, his storylines splitting and swirling in non sequiturs and Escher loops. Lynch was unique, in that he took a tradition of experimentalism in movies such as Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid’s Meshes of the Afternoon and brought it into the commercial mainstream, mixing it with pulp noir, soap opera, camp comedy, erotic thriller and supernatural horror.
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David Lynch, Director Of 'Blue Velvet' and 'Twin Peaks,' Dies at 78
The American filmmaker drawn to the dark and surreal created movies and TV shows that became cult classics.The Wall Street Journal - 11m -
Twin Peaks film director David Lynch dies at 78
The Oscar-nominated writer and filmmaker is also famous for the surrealist cult classic, Mulholland Drive.BBC News - 12m -
David Lynch Dead: ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’ Director Was 78
A visionary, his films included “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive.” He also brought his skewed view to the small screen with “Twin Peaks.”The New York Times - 29m -
David Lynch, director of "Twin Peaks" and "Blue Velvet," dies at 78
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David Lynch, surrealist filmmaker known for 'Twin Peaks' and 'Blue Velvet,' dead at 78
David Lynch, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker who brought surrealist storytelling to the mainstream via 'Twin Peaks' and 'Mulholland Drive,' has died. He was 78.Los Angeles Times - 3h -
David Lynch, visionary filmmaker who specialized in the surreal, dies at 78
David Lynch, the surrealist artist who plumbed the darkness lurking underneath American normalcy in the landmark television series "Twin Peaks" and the dreamlike films "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland ...NBC News - 3h -
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David Lynch, director of 'Blue Velvet' and 'Twin Peaks,' dies at 78
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