David Lynch

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under David Lynch (disambiguation) .

David Lynch (2009)

David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946 in Missoula , Montana ) is an American artist who works as a film director , film producer , screenwriter , actor , painter , photographer , lithographer , sculptor , furniture designer and composer .

Lynch achieved notoriety primarily through his films, which can be assigned to the genres of surrealist film , thriller , horror film and film noir . Lynch's nightmarish, surrealistic images and the menacing, meticulous sound design are the defining stylistic elements. Nightmares , strange worlds, metamorphoses, voyeurism and the unconscious are recurring themes in cinematic works such as Eraserhead (1977), Blue Velvet (1986), Twin Peaks (1990–1991, 2017), Lost Highway (1997) or Mulholland Drive (2001 ).

In 1990 Lynch received the Cannes Golden Palm for Wild at Heart - The Story of Sailor and Lula , and in 2006 a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival . He was also nominated four times for an Oscar . He is a knight and officer of the French Legion of Honor . On October 27, 2019, he was awarded the Oscar of Honor .

Life

The parents Donald Walton Lynch and Edwina Lynch (née Sundholm) met while studying at Duke University in North Carolina . The father worked as an agronomist for the United States Department of Agriculture . He grew up on a farm in the northwestern United States. The mother was from Brooklyn and gave language lessons. Later she was a housewife and took care of the children.

David Keith Lynch was born on January 20, 1946 in Missoula, Montana. Two months later the family moved to Sandpoint , Idaho . Lynch's father was forced to move frequently due to his work, which is why the family led a wandering life. David's brother John was born in the new home. He moved to Spokane , Washington , where his sister Martha was born, and then moved to Durham , North Carolina. In Boise , Idaho, the family finally settled in for a long time. David, who was raised Presbyterian , attended school there from 3rd to 8th grade. It was around this time that he saw the first film he can remember: Wait till the sun shines, Nellie (1952) by Henry King .

Looking back, Lynch thinks he had a happy childhood and was well looked after and grew up in a peaceful environment: “My childhood consisted of elegant single-family houses, avenues, the milkman, building castles in the garden, humming airplanes, blue skies, garden fences, green grass and cherry trees. "

Through his father he came into contact with nature at a very early age. “My father often did experiments on tree diseases and insects. Huge forests were available to him as a test area. This brought me into contact with insects, diseases and growth in an organic world, such as a forest or a garden, ”says Lynch, who also dissected some animals such as mice and frogs at the same time. The contact with this organic world left a deep impression on the young David, which is reflected in his later work.

In 1960, the parents finally settled in Alexandria , Virginia . The 14-year-old Lynch became a scout ( Eagle Scout ) as a student at Francis C. Hammond High School and developed a lasting enthusiasm for painting. Despite his Bavarian uncle, who worked as a painter in Munich, he did not see a promising future in it. The father of his school friend Toby Bushnell Keeler finally gave him other thoughts: The professional painter offered Lynch and his friend Jack Fisk a room in his studio in Georgetown to sublet. The two accepted and were able to let their creativity run free. During this time, Lynch commuted to Washington DC over the weekend , where he attended classes at the Corcoran School of Art . After all, it was supposed to be a book that made Lynch live his dream of being an artist: The Art Spirit by Robert Henri . Bushnell Keeler had pointed this out to him. Lynch: "[...] it became my bible, so to speak, it contained the rules for the life of an artist".

David Lynch (1990)

After graduating from high school in 1964, he decided to study at the private art school School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Due to a lack of inspiration and “dubious” fellow students, he dropped out after a year. Lynch then traveled to Europe with his friend Jack Fisk to study at Oskar Kokoschka's summer academy in Salzburg . Since the city was too "clean" for both of them, they soon set off for Paris . From there it went to Athens by Orient Express . But they didn't like this city either. “I thought about being 7,000 miles from the nearest McDonald’s - and I missed it, I missed America. I realized that I was American and that I wanted to live in America, ”recalls Lynch. Back in the USA there was no more financial support from the parents, which is why Lynch was forced to keep himself afloat with various part-time jobs. He first worked in the architecture office of his friend Toby's uncle, and later in a frame shop, above which he could also live. Eventually he was appointed caretaker of the business. After several months, he made the decision to continue studying: He applied to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia , where his friend Jack Fisk was also enrolled.

After passing the entrance exam, Lynch and Fisk moved to Philadelphia in late 1965 to an apartment in an industrial area there . Lynch studied at the academy for two years, but stayed in the city until 1970. In 1967 he married Margeret Reavey, called Peggy. She gave birth to their daughter, Jennifer Lynch , on April 7, 1968 . Due to a lack of space, the family moved into a house that Lynch had bought for $ 3,500 but which was extremely shabby and in a very poor residential area. It has been broken into several times and the family even witnessed a murder on the street just outside the door. “There was violence and hatred and filth around us,” Lynch said.

As time went on, Lynch realized that painting lacked two important elements that he secretly longed for: movement and sound. This is how the first attempts at film were made in 1967 and 1968. With the film sculpture Six Men Getting Sick , Lynch won first prize in a competition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1967 . The four-minute short film The Alphabet (1968) was made with financial support from his wealthy fellow student H. Barton Wasserman, who had enjoyed Lynch's first film . Bushnell Keeler, the father of his high school friend, then made him aware of a scholarship from the American Film Institute (AFI). Lynch sent AFI his short film and a finished script. He received the US $ 5,000 grant to realize his project called The Grandmother . This half-hour film was shown at various film festivals, was a great success and was de facto Lynch's ticket to the new Center for Advanced Film Studies at the AFI in Los Angeles . Together with his family and friends Alan Splet and Jack Fisk, he moved to Los Angeles in 1970, where his artistic career took off. Since then, Lynch has lived and worked there:

“What I really like about this city: when you drive around every now and then - especially in the evening. The wind of the great age of the Silver Screen is blowing [...] It is really important to be where you feel at home. I didn't grow up here, but I've been living here longer than any other place. And I enjoy feeling the past. A wonderful cinema past. "

In July 2005, Lynch established the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness Based Education and World Peace (DLF), which is responsible for setting up meditation programs in schools, awards grants for learning Transcendental Meditation , and promotes awareness-raising education. In 1992 he had founded the production company Asymmetrical Productions . It is based in Los Angeles, and the logo comes from Lynch himself.

Lynch separated from his first wife, Peggy, in 1974. Three years later he married Mary Fisk, the sister of his friend Jack. They have a son named Austin together. In 1987 the marriage was divorced. From 1986 to 1990 Lynch was in a relationship with the actress Isabella Rossellini . In 2006 he married his longtime film editor and producer Mary Sweeney , but filed for divorce just a month later. From this relationship, which began in 1991, comes his second son, Riley. In 2009 he married actress Emily Stofle . Lynch's second daughter Lula Boginia was born on August 28, 2012.

Artistic career

Fine arts and first short films (1964–1970)

As a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts , Lynch created his first dark drawings and paintings. Before that, he had produced bright, colorful pictures. Now he was painting large, wide, dark works of art. One of the first was The Bride . It showed an abstract figure of a bride having a self-abortion . Various action paintings followed . To do this, Lynch slapped black paint on a canvas and added "angular shapes".

When he looked at one of his pictures - a black one with a figure in the middle - he lacked sound and movement: “And as I look at the figure in the picture, I suddenly hear a breath and see a small movement. So I wished that the picture could really move, just a tiny bit. ”That was the reason for Lynch to start some film experiments. Since he didn't know much about film, he bought a 16mm camera and followed various instructions. Lynch had his friend Jack Fisk make plaster casts, which he put together to create a projection screen. Then he projected a short animated film, "which was taped together in a loop and could run endlessly through the projector, being led first to the ceiling and then back into the projection apparatus ". Police sirens could also be heard. Lynch named his animated painting Six Men Getting Sick (1967) and won the academy's first prize.

Wealthy fellow student H. Barton Wasserman liked this work of art so much that he commissioned Lynch with US $ 1,000 to make a film sculpture for him as well. Lynch bought a Bolex camera for $ 450 and went to work for two months. “I took the finished film to the laboratory and picked it up the next day. [...] I saw the whole film, it was in the bucket from front to back. The camera had a defective transport mechanism and the film was pulled through the image window without a guide, instead of frame by frame, ”recalls Lynch. Wasserman then allowed the budding artist to use the remaining money for another film, as long as he got a copy of it. Lynch came up with the idea of ​​combining animation and real film. The result was the four-minute short film The Alphabet (1968), which was partly co-financed by the parents. The main role was played by his then wife Peggy. Lynch underscored the nightmare of a girl with the alphabet and, more generally, with study, with the recorded screams of his newborn daughter Jennifer. On Bushnell Keeler's recommendation, he then applied for a grant from the American Film Institute (AFI). He sent in a copy of The Alphabet and a finished script. Lynch, who worked at a printing company, finally received an answer: He would get the scholarship if he could write the script with $ 5,000 instead of the estimated $ 7,118. Lynch agreed.

The script for which he was awarded the scholarship was The Grandmother (1970). He immediately got to work and painted the third floor in his house completely black. During the shoot, however, Lynch realized that the money would not be enough. After a test screening of the scenes that had already been shot for Tony Vellani from AFI, he was promised a further $ 2,000. He designed the sound for the first time together with Alan Splet, who will remain his permanent sound designer until Blue Velvet (1986). After the completion of the thirty-four minute long The Grandmother , the response was extremely positive. The film was shown at festivals in Atlanta and San Francisco and was shown at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival . Lynch also received the Critics' Choice Movie Award for best film made with an AFI grant.

Film studies and first feature film (1970–1979)

Tony Vellani was excited about The Grandmother and motivated Lynch to apply to the AFI's new Center for Advanced Film Studies in Los Angeles. In 1970 the young David Lynch applied for a place at university. He had to submit a completed work and an idea for a script. The Grandmother was the finished film and Gardenback the script project that Lynch worked out into a 45-page script after his adoption. Alan Splet was offered to head the sound department. This accepted and followed together with Jack Fisk Lynch to Los Angeles.

Lynch liked the course, especially the practical side. One of the few theoretical subjects he liked was film analysis by Frantisek Daniel, the teacher of Miloš Forman . His fellow students included Terrence Malick , Tim Hunter and Jeremy Kagan . Lynch was made aware of a 20th Century Fox producer by his fellow student Caleb Deschanel , who was interested in the Gardenback film project . He was willing to support Lynch's project with US $ 50,000 on the condition that the 110-page script be worked out so that a real feature film could be made. Lynch, who couldn't get used to this idea at all, turned it down in frustration after a few editing attempts. Gradually he lost enthusiasm for his horror adultery story and told the AFI that he wanted to implement a project called Eraserhead instead . “ Sometimes, under pressure from Gardenback, I would sneak away and make notes for Eraserhead . Because ideas came to me that I knew wouldn't work for Gardenback , but that I found pretty exciting anyway. […] And suddenly I found Eraserhead a lot more interesting, ”says Lynch. Those responsible at the AFI approved the new project.

The Eraserhead script was 21 pages long. Since AFI calculated one minute of film per page of the script from experience, it was assumed that the film would last about 21 minutes. They were not prepared to finance a feature film because such a large project had failed shortly before. Now Lynch had an extremely condensed writing style and wanted to develop many scenes while shooting. He therefore mentioned that the film would take longer. They agreed on 42 minutes, black and white and 35 mm. He also received a budget of $ 10,000.

Lettering of the movie poster for Eraserhead (1977).

At the beginning of 1972, the preparations for shooting finally began. The film team included sound designer Alan Splet, production manager Doreen G. Small and cameraman Herbert Cardwell. Lynch wanted to take care of the music, decor, production design and editing himself. He estimated the filming would take around six weeks, but even after a year it was not over. After nine months of shooting, cameraman Cardwell had to leave the production for financial reasons. He was replaced by Frederick Elmes . The production conditions turned out to be extremely difficult. When the AFI ran out of money, no further grants were given to Lynch's project. The technical means will continue to be made available if the director himself takes care of the financing of the shooting, it said. Lynch fell into deep despair and toyed with the idea of ​​realizing the remaining scenes with small puppets as animation. The idea was quickly rejected. After a year-long hiatus, production was resumed in May 1974 when Lynch managed to borrow money from friends and family. He also worked as a newspaper delivery boy for two hours every day at midnight and carried out the Wall Street Journal for $ 48 a week . After all the scenes were in the box, the sound had to be created. The AFI set Lynch and Splet a deadline that could not be met and then both literally left the door. They then set up a recording studio in a garage, where from summer 1975 to spring 1976 they worked on the soundtrack for Eraserhead . After four years of work, the film was finally completed in the summer of 1976.

Motivated by his new wife Mary Fisk, Lynch submitted his film to the Los Angeles Film Festival Filmex. There Eraserhead was premiered on March 19, 1977 in a 108-minute version, which Lynch subsequently shortened to 89 minutes. The reason for this was the reaction in the screening room, which had made it clear to him that the last third of the film was too long and too slow. Ben Bahrenholz, independent film distributor from New York, who became known for so-called midnight screenings in off-cinemas, became aware of Lynch's film and immediately included it in his program. That same fall, the film was shown in the Cinema Village in New York City. After a difficult start, Eraserhead became a midnight underground insider tip and ran in 17 US cities with 32 copies until 1982. The reviews were mostly positive and saw Eraserhead as an "artistically ambitious film" that is in the tradition of European auteur cinema and comes close to Surrealism and Expressionism . The film marked Lynch's artistic breakthrough and is now considered a cult film.

Breakthrough and Success (1980–1991)

After Eraserhead , Lynch was working on a script called Ronnie Rocket , which was about a dwarf, electricity, and industry. But the film studios showed no interest. Jack Fisk, who was now married to Sissy Spacek , arranged for him to get a supporting role in the film Heart Beat (1980) directed by John Byrum . In the editing room, however, Lynch's role was completely removed from the final film. During the filming he made the acquaintance of Patricia Norris , who later became his costume designer.

Joseph "John" Merrick , the "Elephant Man" (photo from 1889).

At the same time, Stuart Cornfeld was looking for suitable projects for Brooksfilms , Mel Brook's newly founded production company. Cornfeld had seen Eraserhead and he was thrilled. He therefore contacted Lynch. When Cornfeld came across the screenplay The Elephant Man by Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren , he suggested that Lynch make a film. He was impressed and accepted: "This material seemed to me to be ideal not only as the second film after Eraserhead , but also as an opportunity to gain a foothold in the mainstream without immediately having to make major compromises". Mel Brooks, who was not familiar with the name David Lynch, looked at his first work and was pleasantly surprised. He gave the project the green light. The film was co-produced by NBC , EMI and Paramount Pictures . From 1979 to 1980 filming took place at Lee International Studios in Wembley, London with a budget of 5 million US dollars. It was filmed in black and white and CinemaScope .

The Elephant Man (1980) is based on the real-life story of Joseph Merrick , who suffered from severe deformations of his body from birth that completely disfigured his form and face. The film celebrated its world premiere on October 3, 1980 in New York City. From October 10, 1980, it was open to the public in the United States. In Europe, the film didn't start until the following year. In the US, at $ 26 million, it was able to bring in more than five times the cost of production, in the UK it was £ 3.75 million. In 1981, The Elephant Man was nominated for eight Academy Awards. Lynch was consequently regarded as one of the "most promising new talents in the Hollywood establishment".

As a result, Francis Ford Coppola offered to produce Lynch's script Ronnie Rocket . But Coppola's Zoetrope Studios went bankrupt and the project never came off. Two other offers followed: George Lucas wanted to win Lynch for The Return of the Jedi and Dino De Laurentiis contacted him about an adaptation of the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert . Alejandro Jodorowsky and Ridley Scott had already tried the literary film adaptation, but failed because of the funding. Scott gave up Dune for Blade Runner . After the renewed failure of Ronnie Rocket, Lynch had toyed with the idea of filming the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon with Richard Roth. However, after De Laurentii's suggestion to direct a Dune adaptation, he decided to do it. Lynch co-wrote the Dune script with Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren . In the third version, the latter got out under pressure from De Laurentiis. Lynch continued to write alone, script version number 7 was finally accepted. At the same time, De Laurentiis and Lynch signed a deal for four other films: Blue Velvet , Ronnie Rocket , Dune II and Dune III .

Filming began on March 30, 1983 and ended in early January 1984. Dune became Lynch's first full-color feature film. The cost of the science fiction film was $ 52 million - the most expensive Lynch film to date. Lynch's version lasted over three and a half hours, the producers asked him to cut the film down to about two hours: “I had no control over 'Dune'. I made the film for the producers, not for myself. That's why the Final Cut right is so important. Only one person can be the filter for the whole. ”The reception of the literary film adaptation consisted mainly of panned images:“ The critics reacted scornfully to maliciously [...] that Lynch had put Frank Herbert's desert epic in the sand ”. Lynch had all but lost his reputation as an exceptional director.

After Dune's failure , the pre-production of Blue Velvet, planned for January 1985, was pending. Raffaela De Laurentiis, the daughter of Dino De Laurentiis, wanted an adaptation of the novel Tai Pan by James Clavell at the same time . Lynch showed interest, but the direction was assigned to Daryl Duke.

Dino De Laurentiis finally made the realization of Blue Velvet possible for him , not least because he sensed the opportunity in the screenplay that Lynch had already written three years earlier, in the audience success of equally existentially profound films such as The Outsider (1983) or Rumble Fish (1983) by Francis Ford Coppola . He suggested Lynch cut his salary and budget. In return, he would give him artistic control. Lynch accepted and was given the artistic freedom that was important to him, the right to the final cut and the promise that the producers would no longer interfere.

Filming finally began on February 10, 1986 and continued through April 22, 1986. The film was shot in the studio complex of Dino de Laurentii's production company in Wilmington , North Carolina. The production cost was $ 5 million. Lynch worked here for the first time with the composer Angelo Badalamenti , who has since written the music for all Lynch films. Blue Velvet received a positive response after its release, but it also sparked controversy and discussion about the portrayal of women in the film. Despite favorable reviews, the audience stayed away, but this did not prevent Lynch's work from becoming a cult film.

With Blue Velvet , Lynch was able to restore his reputation as a directing artist. Dino De Laurentiis showed himself ready to produce Ronnie Rocket . A budget of seven million US dollars was to be available and shooting was scheduled to start in the fall of 1987. But at the end of 1987 bankruptcy threatened the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group and all lynch projects contractually bound to the production company were shut down. This severe setback drove Lynch to other waters. In addition to his work on film, he had painted and drawn a lot. While filming Blue Velvet , he met Isabella Rossellini, with whom he stayed until 1990. She liked his pictures and initiated several exhibitions of Lynch's work: Between 1987 and 1989, his paintings were on display in the Roger La Pelle Galleries in Philadelphia, the James Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles and the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York posed. Lynch also designed the statuette for the Rossellini Award in 1987 and has published the weekly comic strip The Angriest Dog in the World in Los Angeles Reader and other newspapers since 1983 . In addition, Lynch took on a supporting role in Zelly and Me (1988) from Tina Rathborne. Rossellini played the main role and he embodied her lover in the film. In the same year Lynch was asked by a film producer from France whether he would like to make a short film on the subject of "France from the point of view of ..." for the 10th anniversary of Le Figaro Magazine . This is how the 23-minute long The Cowboy and the Frenchman was created in 1988 .

Logo of the television series Twin Peaks
(1990–1991, 2017) created by Lynch and Frost

David Lynch met screenwriter Mark Frost in 1986 on the initiative of Tony Krantz, who represented both authors with his Creative Artists Agency (CAA). They got along well and their first joint projects emerged: however, scripts such as The Goddess (1987) or One Saliva Bubble (1987) found no buyers. Krantz then suggested they both try a television series together. He saw this as an opportunity to combine Frost's experience at Hill Street Police Station with Lynch's visionary lateral thinking. After initial skepticism, the two of them sat down and developed a script called The Lemurians for the pilot of a series about a couple of detectives who have to fight against aliens who have sneaked into the earth's population. The broadcaster NBC , Frost's employer, rejected the script.

The two of them then went to work on a new script: Northwest Passage . The idea behind the project was to let a murder happen in a soap opera , on which the entire content is then based. The setting should be a small town in the north of the USA. To find your way around, Frost designed a map of the city and its surroundings. The city was between two mountains and the authors renamed their project Twin Peaks . After three months of fruitful discussion, Lynch and Frost wrote the script for the pilot within 10 days. The television broadcaster ABC showed itself ready to finance the pilot film, leaving the creators with the necessary freedom. The pilot film was made for three and a half million US dollars and had great success at a screening for international program buyers in May 1989: Twin Peaks was later sold in 55 countries. ABC commissioned a makeshift series of seven episodes.

In September 1989, the pilot was officially premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The reviews ranged from positive to praise, but the broadcaster feared it had produced a series for mere film lovers. When the film finally aired on US television on April 8, 1990, it became clear that it had landed a hit: 35 million viewers watched the pilot film, which corresponded to a share of 33 percent. After this initial high, Mark Frost and David Lynch were hired by ABC broadcaster in May 1990 to produce another season consisting of a second pilot and twelve episodes. However, after the killer was revealed in episode 16, viewership dropped dramatically and the series was discontinued after the end of the second season in 1991.

On October 6, 2014, the broadcaster Showtime , Mark Frost and David Lynch announced via YouTube video that there would be a sequel to the series in early 2016. The third season should initially consist of nine episodes, all of which Lynch takes over the direction. In April 2015, however, Lynch announced that he would not participate in the reboot of the series. After doubling the number of episodes to 18 episodes, the season finally began broadcasting on May 22, 2017 with a double episode.

After the temporary end of Twin Peaks , however, Lynch stayed in television and developed two more series: On the Air - Voll auf Sendung (1992) together with Mark Frost and Hotel Room (1993) together with the writer Barry Gifford . The former was a 7-episode slapstick comedy. Lynch and Frost wrote the script for the first episode in late 1990. Both wrote the remaining scripts alternately with Robert Engels. On June 20, 1992, the first episode could be broadcast on US television on ABC. Directed by David Lynch himself. Bad ratings and reviews forced ABC to cancel the series after the third episode. Frost blamed the poor airtime and “American audiences' lack of sense of bizarre humor”. Hotel Room consists of three episodes: Tricks , Getting Rid of Robert and Blackout . They each play in the same hotel room, but at different times. Lynch produced the mini-series with his own production company Asymmetrical Pictures and directed episodes 1 and 3. The scripts for each came from Barry Gifford. The cable broadcaster HBO aired the three stories on January 8, 1993.

Parallel to Twin Peaks , Lynch had already worked with Barry Gifford in 1989: he had filmed his novel Wild at Heart with Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern in the leading roles. The road movie Wild at Heart - The Story of Sailor and Lula was awarded the Palme d'Or in May 1990 at the international film festival under the direction of Bernardo Bertolucci . The critics were deeply divided. In 1989 Cage and Dern also took part in the musical live performance Industrial Symphony No. 1: Dream of the Broken Heart by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti with. It was performed on November 10th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on the occasion of the New Music America Festival.

Setback and crisis (1992–1995)

In the American trade press at the end of May 1991, shortly before the last episode of Twin Peaks was broadcast, one could read that the co-producer Aaron Spelling was planning a movie with David Lynch. The idea came to them when ABC announced that it would cancel the series after episode 30. Lynch had meanwhile signed a contract for three films with a total budget of 58 million US dollars with the film production company Ciby2000 of the Frenchman Francis Bouygues. The first joint work should be Ronnie Rocket . The project had to be postponed so that the Twin Peaks movie was preferred.

Lynch and his co-author Robert Engels, who had written several episodes of Twin Peaks , decided to write a prequel for the series. The movie was supposed to deal with the last days in the life of seventeen year old Laura Palmer. In the meantime there was a dispute between Ciby2000 and Aaron Spelling over the distribution rights for the future film, which blocked its realization. Also, during the second season of Twin Peaks , Lynch fell out with co-producer and writer Mark Frost , who now preferred to make his own movie Storyville .

Lynch shot commercials from 1990, including for designer Karl Lagerfeld .

When the conflict between Ciby2000 and Spelling was finally settled, nothing stood in the way of starting shooting. Filming began on September 5, 1991 near Seattle , Washington, with a budget of around 10 million US dollars . On November 1, 1991, the last stone fell. After the premiere at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival on May 16, Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me was booed by the audience and met with a wall of rejection from the critics present: For those who know the television series, the film stood out too much from its content and form, for those who had no prejudice it was overwhelming. The film was also a financial failure. Lynch at the press conference in Cannes: “I had to realize that I had given Twin Peaks the final blow with this film. The atmosphere was extremely hostile. When you enter a room where an angry crowd is waiting, you can feel it without anyone having to open their mouths. "

The negative, sometimes hostile reception and the financial flop of Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me meant that Lynch was now considered a “risk factor” in the film industry: he was no longer trusted to major projects. Lynch then drove it into a creative crisis, especially when it came to film projects. In addition to his work as a painter, he shot numerous commercials for financial reasons. In 1992 he shot one for Giò von Armani , in 1993 four spots for Georgia Coffee, two for Alka-Seltzer Plus and one each for Barilla Nudeln, Adidas and Jil Sander . In 1994 there was another commercial for Karl Lagerfeld . In 1990 advertising films for the perfumes Obsession by Calvin Klein and Opium by Yves Saint Laurent had already been produced. In addition, in 1993 Lynch made a film for the American Cancer Society for the prevention of breast cancer.

In 1993, Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti produced the album The Voice of Love by Julee Cruise . The album Floating Into the Night by Julee Cruise with lyrics by Lynch had already been released four years earlier . The latter acted together with his wife Mary Sweeney as a producer on the vampire film Nadja (1994) by Michael Almereyda . In 1995 Lynch took part in the international film project Lumière et compagnie . On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the invention of the cinématograph by the Lumière brothers, 41 directors made short films that they made with the original camera from the 19th century. The idea for this homage came from Philippe Poulet, a researcher at the Lyon Cinema Museum. The films could not be longer than 52 seconds. In addition, they had to be realized without cuts, without artificial light and without re-synchronized sound. Lynch's post is titled Premonitions Following An Evil Dead . Between 1994 and 1995, Lynch unsuccessfully sought funding for his Dream of the Bovine project , a comedy he had written with Robert Engels.

Return to the cinema (1996-2001)

Lynch's film contract with the French production company Ciby2000 , mentioned above, was still valid. However, after the death of chairman Francis Bouygues, it became more difficult for him to get projects funded. Dream of the Bovine didn't stand a chance with Ciby2000 either. While reading the novel Night People by Barry Gifford, the word combination “lost highway” used by the author piqued Lynch's interest: “I mentioned to Barry that 'Lost Highway' would be a great title and we should write something. That was about a year before we actually started writing the script. This expression was the spark. "

The script was ready in March 1995 and Ciby2000 accepted it, so that filming could begin in autumn 1995. The production budget was 15 million US dollars. The film premiered in Paris in January 1997 and received mostly positive reviews. Olga Neuwirth and Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek later prepared Lost Highway as an opera. The world premiere took place on October 31, 2003 in Graz.

Two years later, in A True Story - The Straight Story (1999), portrayed linearly and cinematically rather simply , Lynch told the story of an old man who crossed the United States on his ride-on lawnmower to find his sick brother. For the first time, the script did not come from him, but from his then partner Mary Sweeney. The filming was produced by The Picture Factory . Lynch founded this production company in 1997 with Sweeney and Neal Edelstein. The film was shown at the 1999 Cannes International Film Festival and received mostly positive reviews. She was irritated by the director's change of course, because it was the first film that did not contain any scenes of violence or scenes that confronted the audience with insoluble puzzles. This is also the reason why some reviews referred to the work as Lynch's first “ adult ” work.

In early 1999, Lynch began work on a new television series for ABC called Mulholland Drive . The project was initially shelved, but with the help of friends and the French broadcaster Canal + , eight new scenes were added and turned into a movie: Mulholland Drive - Street of Darkness . For the achievement of "having built a movie out of the ruins of the TV series" (quote from the jury), he was awarded the director's prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1998, the album Lux Vivens (Living Light) was released, on which he had worked with the singer Jocelyn Montgomery and which is based on songs by Saint Hildegard von Bingen . He also released the album Blue Bob in 2001 with John Neff . This is experimental rock. It was recorded from April 1998 to March 2000 in the Asymmetrical Studio in California.

Internet work, experimental film and music (2002-2013)

In late 2001, Lynch launched its own website, davidlynch.com . From then on he published several works on the Internet. In 2002 the animated online short series DumbLand and eight short films in the style of a surrealist sitcom with the title Rabbits were created . Parts of this series can be found in the film Inland Empire (2006). In the same year, Lynch was appointed President of the 55th Cannes International Film Festival .

In 2005, Lynch founded the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness Based Education and World Peace , which advocates the use of Transcendental Meditation . Lynch has been practicing this meditation technique, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , since 1973 and took part in a one-month enlightenment course with Maharishi in Vlodrop , the Netherlands, in the summer of 2002 . In 2007 Lynch went on a world tour and campaigned, partly together with the Scottish folk singer Donovan , for the construction of "invincible universities". These Maharishi-inspired institutions are supposed to offer the study of consciousness with the help of transcendental meditation as a basic discipline in addition to conventional courses. On March 25, 2009, David Lynch Foundation Television went live with a beta version, an Internet-based television channel that aims to celebrate "Awareness, Creativity and Happiness." In addition to video contributions from the David Lynch Foundation , the broadcaster wants to put online documentaries and exclusive contributions from Lynch. The official start was April 4, 2009.

Lynch's last feature film, Inland Empire , premiered in Venice in early September 2006. At this film festival , Lynch was also awarded the Golden Lion for life's work. Inland Empire was filmed entirely with a digital handheld camera and partly improvised without a script. Some scenes were made in Poland. On this occasion, Lynch took a series of photos of old industrial areas.

The Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain showed from March to May 2007 in Paris the largest exhibition of Lynch's works to date. A total of 800 works were on view, mostly paintings, drawings, photographs, graphics, collages, installations and short films. In the year of the exhibition, Lynch realized a series of photos of French actresses for Elle magazine and was appointed officer of the Legion of Honor by then President Nicolas Sarkozy .

David Lynch at the opening of the photo exhibition in Düsseldorf, 2008

From September 27 to November 23, 2008, an exhibition of photographs by David Lynch took place at the Epson Kunstbetrieb under the title New Photographs in Düsseldorf, and thus for the first time in Germany. Another factory exhibition could be visited from November 2009 to March 2010 in the Max Ernst Museum Brühl. It comprised 150 exhibits and was entitled Dark Splendor . After all, the Goslar Mönchehaus Museum for Modern Art showed 90 different paintings, lithographs and photographs from October 2010 to January 2011. At the same time, Lynch was awarded the Kaiserring of the city of Goslar .

In April 2009, the American musician Moby released his single Shot in the Back of the Head ; the accompanying music video was made by David Lynch. In June of the same year the album Dark Night of the Soul by DJ Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse was released . The album includes a booklet with visual content by David Lynch. In addition, Lynch wrote the lyrics for two of the songs on the album and sang them. That same year, the documentary series Interview Project , which he had produced with his son Austin, was shown on Lynch's website . The latter had traveled across the United States and interviewed all kinds of people. There are a total of 121 interviews, of which Lynch published one every three days. This concept was then taken up again in the Project Germany interview . In 2009 he also produced Werner Herzog's film A Caring Son and in 2010 a 16-minute online commercial was made for Dior : Lady Blue Shanghai with Marion Cotillard .

In 2011, Lynch also designed the private Silencio nightclub in Paris's second arrondissement. He is also its owner. From October 2011 to March 2012 Lynch presented the ideas of the mathematician Misha Gromov artistically as part of the exhibition Mathématiques, un dépaysement soudain at the Cartier Foundation . After Lynch had already worked musically for his own film soundtracks and the album Dark Night of the Soul , released his first solo single in January 2011, entitled Good Day Today / I Know . The accompanying album is entitled Crazy Clown Time and was released in Germany on November 4, 2011. The album was created in collaboration with sound engineer Dean Hurley . It also includes a guest appearance by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs . In February 2013 Lynch put the documentary he made, Idem Paris, about the process of lithography on the Internet. On July 15, 2013, Lynch's second solo album The Big Dream was released on the Sunday Best music label.

plant

overview

Lynch's oeuvre is unusually broad and, like film, encompasses painting, music, photography, lithography and the design of rooms, furniture or even champagne bottles. In doing so, Lynch is able to implement his personal vision in every artistic area, an enigmatic, suggestive atmosphere: “As a director, he keeps the interpreters in suspense to this day. As a musician, he skilfully translates his imagery into the acoustic medium. As a designer, he finally invites [...] to become actors in an original Lynch setting. "The art historian Thomas W. Gaehtgens also sees a continuity and commonality in Lynch's cinematic, painterly and musical work:" All of these activities are equally important to Lynch and in some ways congruent. They are all based on the theme he is pursuing of tracing human behavior as a reflection of mental processes. "

In the following, Lynch's work will be examined in terms of its form and content, the focus being on his cinematic work. The film scholar Georg Seeßlen defines Lynch's self-created film world as "Lynchville", in popular culture Lynch's film language is also described as "lynchean" or "lynchesk".

Influences

David Lynch's work has been influenced primarily by painters. He himself names Edward Hopper , Francis Bacon and Henri Rousseau as the most important role models. Hopper shaped him through his theme of loneliness, Bacon through his pictures showing deformations of the flesh, and Henri Rousseau through his motif of mystery. Lynch also names Ed Kienholz , Lucian Freud and David Hockney as revered and inspiring artists.

From film history, Jacques Tati and Federico Fellini in particular influenced him. Lynch also mentions Ingmar Bergman , Werner Herzog , Stanley Kubrick , Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder as role models. His favorite films include The Wizard of Oz (1939), Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Lolita (1962).

Furthermore, reading by Franz Kafka left a deep mark on Lynch. For a long time he also wanted to film his novella Die Metamorphosis (1915). “The one artist with whom I really have the feeling that he could be my brother [...] is Franz Kafka. I'm really into that. Some things are among the most exciting things I've ever read, ”said Lynch.

Lynch's cinematic art

The surrealist films are tied together by thematic and motivic stylistic devices to a large whole, whereby he is very much based on film noir . Thematically, Lynch draws on the circumstances of his childhood in the fifties and the great experiences in the middle of American society. Recurring themes are the middle class, the security of small towns, music, the family, love and romance - and their dark downside: suppressed violence and libido , the unconscious , the irrational, the secretive. The work transforms the banal into horror, it turns violence into comedy, turns the mystical into the everyday, it supplements pathos with overly long explanations, it mixes the improvised with the accidental. The paradox and the absolute metaphor are characteristic of Lynch's work.

Critic Andreas Kilb spoke 1997 in time also by the "eternal [n] of the drama, not born to end man '( Georg Seeßlen )" and a belief in the animation of objects as opposed to "mask-more" human faces. As an (American) auteur filmmaker, he has always remained relatively marketable. In his later work, on the one hand, women and, on the other hand, references to Hollywood gain in importance.

On the motif level, tangible appear (exemplary in Lost Highway ): the fire, hut, home or hallways, the street as the path of fate, the color red or black, the hidden chamber, strange mediators from another world, distorted figures and organic decay, the starry sky, doppelgangers, electricity and much more.

Therefore, one of several possible approaches to interpretation is to examine motifs from a single film in conjunction with the other films, as part of a higher-level structure. Searching for logical explanations and rational solutions to a narrative has proven less fruitful for many recipients. In the meantime, Lynch's reception has come to the point that one examines the films primarily for their intense atmosphere and accepts that Lynch has little or no interest in rational, higher-level structures or common forms of cinematic narration. At least that's how Lynch puts it. If you deal with less known and seldom used dramaturgies resp. Employing narrative structures, it becomes clear that Lynch's films are films of the "open form" and that he uses both the model of the "strange loop" - also known as the Möbius strip - and the means of postmodernism and, above all, deconstruction . Lynch himself always points out that he falls back on intuition and the dream, he compares the process of filmmaking with that of painting, with which he directs the gaze from the construction to the impression of intuition.

The soundtrack is a consciously chosen recourse to pop culture, in which the sound of the post-war years alternates with the songs of the present.

“Few contemporary directors work with the basic elements of cinema to this extent. His feeling for the intertwining of sound and image, for the rhythm of language and movement, for space, color and musical effects make him an exception. He works in the epicenter of the medium. But his originality and creativity come mainly from his unusual willingness and ability to penetrate into the deeper layers of his own psyche. "

- Chris Rodley : Foreword on page 7 in Lynch on Lynch

reception

Public response and criticism

The reception of Lynch's art is mostly limited to the films that have cemented his reputation as a cult figure through international performances and reviews. The "universal artist" David Lynch, who also produces paintings, drawings, music and furniture, is often forgotten. It is only since the turn of the millennium that Lynch's other works have been increasingly received, which is partly due to the many exhibitions. In general, there are two attitudes towards Lynch's work: Either it is rejected as "strange, absurd, incomprehensible [and] provocative" or it is celebrated as innovative and artistic. His films in particular have been criticized for their excessive portrayal of violence and sex. Lynch: “Life is full of contrasts and full of violence and you have to be able to tell the stories that are there. The important thing is how violence is anchored. If it is in the context of the story and not used as an end in itself, then I think it's okay, but you should always be aware of your responsibility. ”Seeßlen, too, is of the opinion that Lynch manages to show why the depiction of Violence is important and necessary. For him it is "the transition from the outside to the inside, the penetration into the body of the world, the fundamental life experience".

revenue

Aside from Dune , no production of a David Lynch movie has cost more than $ 15 million. The elephant man , Blue Velvet , Wild at Heart and Mulholland Drive can be seen as financial successes . The following table illustrates the box office results and - as far as possible - the number of visitors to the various films by David Lynch in the Federal Republic of Germany . DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales are not included.

Movie	country	Box office	budget
Eraserhead (1977)	worldwide	$ 7 million	$ 20,000
	United States	$ 7 million
The Elephant Man (1980)	worldwide	k. A.	$ 5 million
	United States	$ 26 million
Dune (1984)	worldwide	k. A.	$ 52 million
	United States	$ 30.9 million
Blue Velvet (1986)	worldwide	k. A.	$ 6 million
	United States	$ 8.5 million
	Germany	646,966 visitors
Wild at Heart (1990)	worldwide	k. A.	$ 9.5-10 million
	United States	$ 14.6 million
	Germany	586,364 visitors
Twin Peaks: The Movie (1992)	worldwide	k. A.	$ 10 million
	United States	$ 4.1 million
	Germany	147,492 visitors
Lost Highway (1997)	worldwide	k. A.	$ 15 million
	United States	$ 3.6 million
The Straight Story (1999)	worldwide	k. A.	$ 10 million
	United States	$ 6.2 million
Mulholland Drive (2001)	worldwide	$ 20.1 million	$ 15 million
	United States	$ 7.2 million
	Germany	325,601 visitors ($ 1.5 million)
Inland Empire (2006)	worldwide	$ 4 million	k. A.
	United States	$ 861,355
	Germany	$ 421,068

Awards (selection)

David Lynch has received a total of 42 film awards and has been nominated for 38 others, including four Academy Awards . In 1989 he received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival, at which he was awarded the Director's Prize in 2001. In addition, he was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 . In 2002 he was made a knight by Culture Minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon and in 2007 by Nicolas Sarkozy as an officer of the French Legion of Honor . In 2010 he received the Kaiserring of the city of Goslar . At the Cologne Conference in the same year he was awarded the Cologne Film Prize. David Lynch ranks first in the list of the 40 best contemporary directors of the British newspaper The Guardian .

The following list gives an overview of the most important awards and nominations.

Oscar 2019: Honorary Oscar for his life's work Nominated : 1981: Best director for Der Elefantenmensch 1981: Best Adapted Screenplay for Der Elefantenmensch with Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren 1987: Best Director for Blue Velvet 2002: Best Director for Mulholland Drive Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 1986: Best Director for Blue Velvet 2001: Best Director for Mulholland Drive National Society of Film Critics Awards 1987: Best Director for Blue Velvet New York Film Critics Circle Awards 1986: Best Director for Blue Velvet (3rd place) 1999: Best Director for A True Story - The Straight Story (2nd place) 2001: Best Director for Mulholland Drive (2nd place) Boston Society of Film Critics Award 1987: Best Director for Blue Velvet 2001: Best Director for Mulholland Drive Cannes International Film Festival 1990: Golden Palm for Wild at Heart 2001: Best Director for Mulholland Drive Nominated : 1992: Golden Palm for Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me 1999: The Golden Palm for A True Story - The Straight Story Golden Globe Nominated : 1981: Best director for Der Elefantenmensch 1987: Best Screenplay for Blue Velvet 2002: Best Director for Mulholland Drive 2002: Best Screenplay for Mulholland Drive César / honorary award 1982: Best foreign film The Elephant Man 2002: Best Foreign Film Mulholland Drive

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films 1993: Life Career Award Nominated : 2002: Best Director for Mulholland Drive 1993: Best script for Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me with Robert Engels BAFTA Award Nominated : 1981: Best director for The Elephant Man 1981: Best screenplay for The Elephant Man with Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren Writers Guild of America Nominated : 1981: Best screenplay for The Elephant Man with Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren 1987: Best Screenplay for Blue Velvet Venice Film Festival 2006: Future Film Festival Digital Award for Inland Empire Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2001: Best Director for Mulholland Drive Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival 1986: Caixa de Catalunya for Blue Velvet Nominated : 2001: Best Film for Mulholland Drive European film award 1999: Screen International Award for A True Story - The Straight Story Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2002: Best Director for Mulholland Drive Nominated : 2002: Best Original Soundtrack for Mulholland Drive with Angelo Badalamenti and John Neff 2000: Best Director for A True Story - The Straight Story

Commitment to Transcendental Meditation

Lynch publicly advocates the controversial Transcendental Meditation movement . With his foundation David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness Based Education and World Peace he wants to spread the techniques of “Transcendental Meditation” and “Yogic Flying” among schoolchildren and students. He was also on the road in Germany, where he invited 200 young people from Berlin to make Berlin “invincible” in this way. According to Lynch, it has been scientifically proven that "with such a coherent group of 200 Yogic Aviators, the negative tendencies in a city decrease and the positive tendencies increase". Lynch is often criticized for his involvement in the organization of the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi .

In 2007 Lynch was in Berlin to announce the purchase of the plateau on Berlin 's Teufelsberg and the establishment of the TM University "Invincible Germany" there at an event in Berlin's Urania together with Roja Emanuel Schiffgens and Gottfried Vollmer . The event turned into a disaster. In the Berliner Tagesspiegel it was said: “From February 2008 Hollywood director David Lynch will be the owner of the Teufelsberg. He wants to build the 'University of Invincible Germany' there. Before the foundation stone was laid, there was a scandal in Urania. "

The scenes from Urania can also be seen in David Sieveking's documentary David wants to fly (2010), in which Lynch plays a central role. Sieveking has been a long-time fan of his films. After an interview with the director about the topic of Transcendental Meditation favored by Lynch, Sieveking got an increasingly dubious impression of the organization and deviated more and more from an initially positive attitude towards the artist. This departure was compounded by the fact that Lynch forbade any critical question during another interview. When learning TM, the main criticisms are the major financial hurdles: As in many other sects, the costs increase with the "level", i.e. the level of enlightenment. If you start at around 2,000 euros for the introductory course, many more training courses follow, which become more expensive each time. For one of the highest ranks you would have to z. B. Pay more than $ 100,000 to receive training. Accordingly - comparable to the situation with Scientology - there are many prominent figures among the followers of Transcendental Meditation; so next to David Lynch z. B. Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr enthusiastic about her.

Filmography

Feature films

As a director

year	title	function
1977	Eraserhead	Director, screenwriter and producer
1980	The elephant man	Director and screenwriter
1984	Dune - The desert planet	Director, screenwriter and actor
1986	Blue Velvet	Director and screenwriter
1990	Wild at Heart - The story of Sailor and Lula	Director and screenwriter
1992	Twin Peaks - The Movie	Director, screenwriter, producer and actor
1997	Lost Highway	Director and screenwriter
1999	A true story - The Straight Story	Director
2001	Mulholland Drive	Director and screenwriter
2006	Inland Empire	Director, screenwriter and producer

As a performer

year	title	function
1988	Zelly & Me	actor
2017	Lucky	actor

As a producer

year	title	function
1991	The cabinet of Dr. Ramirez	producer
1994	Nadja	Producer and performer
2008	Under control	producer
2009	A caring son	producer

Short films (selection)

year	title	function
1966	Six Figures Getting Sick	Director, screenwriter and producer
1970	The grandmother	Director, screenwriter and producer
1974	The amputee	Director, screenwriter and producer
1988	The Cowboy and the Frenchman	Director and screenwriter
2002	Rabbits	Director, screenwriter and producer
2002	DumbLand	Director, screenwriter and producer
2002	Darkened Room	Director, screenwriter and producer
2007	Absurd	Director and screenwriter
2007	Boat	Director, screenwriter, producer and actor
2007	Bug crawls	Director
2007	More Things That Happened	Director and screenwriter
2010	Dream # 7	Director
2010	Lady Blue Shanghai	Director and screenwriter
2011	The 3 Rs (Trailer for the Viennale 2011)	Director and screenwriter
2015	Pozar (Fire)	Director, screenwriter and producer
2017	What Did Jack Do?	Director, screenwriter and actor
2018	Ant Head	Director, producer and screenwriter
2020	The Story of a Small Bug	Director, screenwriter, producer and actor

Documentaries

year	title	function
1992	Hugh Hefner: Once Upon a Time	producer
1994	Crumb	only mentioned in the opening credits with "David Lynch presents"
1995	Lumière and Compagnie	Director
2012	Meditation, Creativity, Peace	Director, producer and screenwriter

TV Shows

year	title	function
1990–1991, 2017	Twin peaks	Director, screenwriter, producer and actor
1990	American Chronicles	Director, screenwriter and producer
1992	On the air - fully on the air	Director, screenwriter and producer
1993	Hotel Room	Director, screenwriter and producer
2010	The Cleveland Show (animated series)	Voice of Gus , 21 episodes
2012	Louie	actor

Music videos

year	title	Artists
1982	I Predict	Sparks
1990	Wicked game	Chris Isaak
1992	Longing	X Japan
2009	Shot in the back of the head	Moby
2010	I Touch A Red Button	Interpol
2012	Crazy Clown Time	David Lynch
2013	Came back haunted	Nine inch nails

Discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Crazy Clown Time   CH 96 11/20/2011 (1 week)   UK 91 11/19/2011 (1 week) The big dream   DE 61 07/26/2013 (1 week)   CH 87 07/28/2013 (1 week)

Albums

• 1998: Lux Vivens (together with Jocelyn Montgomery)
• 2001: BlueBob (together with John Neff)
• 2007: The Air is on Fire: Soundscape
• 2008: Polish Night Music (together with Mark Zebrowski)
• 2011: This Train (together with Chrysta Bell )
• 2011: Crazy Clown Time
• 2013: The Big Dream

Solo exhibitions

• 1967: Vanderlip Gallery, Philadelphia
• 1983: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
• 1987: James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1989: Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
• 1990: Tavelli Gallery, Aspen
• 1991: Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
• 1992: Sala Parpallo, Valencia
• 1993: James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1995: Painting Pavillion, Open Air Museum, Hakone
• 1996: Park Tower Hall, Tokyo
• 1997: Galerie Piltzer, Paris
• 2007: Fondation Cartier , Paris
• 2008: Epson Kunstbetrieb, Düsseldorf
• 2009: Max Ernst Museum, Brühl
• 2010: Mönchehaus Museum Goslar
• 2012: Galerie Chelsea, Sylt
• 2012: Galerie Karl Pfefferle , Munich
• 2013: Galerie Barbara von Stechow, Frankfurt
• 2014: Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
• 2014: The Photographers´ Gallery, London
• 2014/15: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
• 2018: Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich
• 2019: David Lynch at HOME , Manchester International Festival (MIF) and HOME, Manchester (GB)
• 2019: Squeaky Flies in the Mud , Sperone Westwater , New York

Films about David Lynch

year	title	description
1988	No Frank in Lumberton	by Peter Braatz and Frank Behnke / on the shooting of Blue Velvet
1989	Cinéma, de notre temps: David Lynch - Don't look at me	by Guy Girard / via David Lynch and his films
1990	For one week only: David Lynch	by Andy Harries / conversation with David Lynch about his work with many film clips
2003	Does that hurt you?	by Agnieszka Jurek / about the flash series Dumbland
2006	Lynch (One)	from “blackandwhite” / about Lynch's work on INLAND EMPIRE
2007	Transcendental in Berlin	von Unknown / 3sat interview with Lynch about Transcendental Meditation
2010	David wants to fly	by David Sieveking / on Lynch's commitment to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation
2016	David Lynch: The Art Life	by Rick Barnes, Jon Nguyen, and Olivia Neergaard-Holm / on Lynch's formative early years in Montana and Philadelphia - a private memoir

literature

Books

Primary literature

• David Lynch: Images . Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88814-746-8 .
• David Lynch: Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity . Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, New York 2006, ISBN 1-58542-540-0 .
• David Lynch: The Air is on Fire . Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain / Thames & Hudson, Paris / London 2007, ISBN 978-2-7427-6496-9 .
• David Lynch: Works on Paper - Limited Edition . Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain / Steidl, Paris / Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-2-86925-087-1 .
• David Lynch: Catching the Big Fish. Meditation - Creativity - Film . Alexander Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-89581-380-1 .
• David Lynch: Nudes . Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris 2017, ISBN 978-2-86925-134-2 .
• David Lynch, Kristine McKenna: Dream Worlds. One life. Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-453-27084-8 . (With sources, notes and registers)
• David Lynch, Kristine McKenna: Room to Dream. Random House, New York 2018, ISBN 978-0-399-58919-5 . (American original edition)

Secondary literature

• Michel Chion : David Lynch . 2nd Edition. British Film Institute , London 2005, ISBN 978-1-84457-030-0 .
• Helen Donlon (Ed.): David Lynch. Talking . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf , Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89602-801-3 .
• Robert Fischer : David Lynch - The dark side of the soul . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-05240-4 .
• Ralfdieter Füller: Fiction and Antifiction. David Lynch's Films and the Cultural Process in America in the 1980s and 1990s . WVT, Trier 2001, ISBN 3-88476-455-1 .
• Achim Geisenhanslüke / Rasmus Overthun: Cinema of the blind: figurations of ignorance in David Lynch . Transcript, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-2086-3 .
• Petra Giloy-Hirtz: David Lynch - The Factory Photographs . Prestel, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7913-5333-3 .
• Anne Jerslev: David Lynch: Mental Landscapes . 2nd Edition. Passagen, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-85165-752-7 .
• Thierry Jousse: Maîtres du cinéma: David Lynch . Cahiers du cinéma, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-86642-912-6 .
• Susanne Kaul and Jean-Pierre Palmier: David Lynch. Introduction to his films and film aesthetics . Fink, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7705-5098-2 .
• Eckhard Pabst (Ed.): "A Strange World". The universe of David Lynch . Ludwig, Kiel 1998, ISBN 3-9805480-6-6 .
• Chris Rodley (Ed.): Lynch on Lynch . Publishing house of the authors , Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-88661-291-0 .
• Oliver Schmidt (Ed.): Life in disturbed worlds . Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-89821-806-1 .
• Georg Seeßlen : David Lynch and his films . Schüren Verlag , Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89472-437-5 .
• Werner Spies (Ed.): David Lynch - Dark Splendor . Hatje Cantz , Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2524-8 .
• Werner Spies: Werner Spies Presents Dark Splendor. David Lynch the painter . Berlin University Press, Berlin 2013.
• Antony Todd: Authorship and the Films of David Lynch: Aesthetic Receptions in Contemporary Hollywood . IB Tauris & Co. Ltd, New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-84885-580-9 .
• Paul A. Woods: Weirdsville USA - The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch . Plexus, London 1997, ISBN 0-85965-255-6 .
• JC Gabel, Jessica Hundley: Beyond the Beyond: Music From the Films of David Lynch . Hat & Beard Press / David Lynch Foundation, Los Angeles 2016, ISBN 978-0-9967447-0-6 .
• Brett Littman: David Lynch: Naming . Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles 2014, ISBN 978-0-9897894-0-0 .
• Brigade Commerz, Robert Eikmeyer, Thomas Knoefel: David Lynch: The Marriage of Picture and Sound . Modern Art Nuremberg, Los Angeles 2012, ISBN 978-3-86984-055-0 .
• Dominik Orth: Lost in Lynchworld . ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-89821-478-0 .

Magazine and newspaper articles

• Lars-Olav Beier and Andreas Borcholte : Hollywood is losing power . In: Der Spiegel , issue 16/2007, p. 192.
• Stephan Eicke: Silencio! Journey into the abyss. The music in David Lynch's films . In: cinema musica , issue 3/2012, pp. 12-19.
• Graham Fuller: A town like malice: Maverick director David Lynch has made a bizarre soap opera for American television . In: The Independent of November 24, 1989
• Daniel Grinsted: Robots and Oral Hygiene . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of December 17, 2011, No. 294
• Thomas Gross, Tobias Timm: Too cool to be true . In: Die Zeit of October 13, 2011 No. 42, p. 49.
• Daniele Heyman: Le cinéma de Bouygues Le roi du béton explique pourquoi il se lance dans la production de films . In: Le Monde of February 4, 1992
• Hans Hoff: Not for the faint of heart . In: Welt am Sonntag . of November 29, 2009, p. 48.
• Sascha Lehnartz: Algebra, beautiful elsewhere. The shape of zero: how the Paris Foundation Cartier translates the magic of mathematics into art . In: The world . of October 27, 2011, p. 24.
• Ulrich Loessel: Death while buying cigarettes . In: Focus . dated November 29, 1999 No. 48, pp. 182-185.
• Martina Meister: It was the wind. At the Paris Fondation Cartier, David Lynch shows himself as a visual artist and allows one or the other intimate glimpse . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . April 19, 2007, p. 18.
• Harald Peters: I hate my voice, so I sing . In: Welt am Sonntag of November 20, 2011, p. 58.
• S. Ilona Rieke: Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me. Welcome to the abyss of everyday life . In: cinema musica. Edition 3/2012, pp. 26-27.
• Larry Rother: David Lynch pushes America to the Edge . In: The New York Times . of August 12, 1990 (Section 2, p. 1)
• Martin Schwickert: Ideas catch like a fish. The director about dreams, meditation and his beginning as a painter . In: evening newspaper . of April 24, 2007, p. 15.
• Nikolas Späth: The good is more powerful than the bad . In: Welt am Sonntag. dated March 28, 2004.

Web links

Commons : David Lynch  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: David Lynch  - Quotes

• David Lynch at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Literature by and about David Lynch in the catalog of the German National Library
• David Lynch at laut.de
• David Lynch in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• David Lynch on kunstaspekte.de
• Official website of David Lynch
• Scientific literature (Open Access) on David Lynch on mediarep.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 9 and 12
2. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 13.
3. ^ Lynch: Catching The Big Fish , p. 101.
4. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 27.
5. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 26.
6. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 16.
7. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 20.
8. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 21.
9. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 25.
10. ^ Peter-Klaus Schuster: The Uncertain Hollywood . In: Werner Spies (Ed.): David Lynch - Dark Splendor , p. 115.
11. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 22.
12. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 53.
13. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 27f.
14. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , pp. 74f.
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e} David Lynch , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 44/2010 of November 2, 2010, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)
16. ^ Homepage of the David Lynch Foundation. In: David Lynch Foundation. Retrieved March 21, 2013 . 
17. ↑ David Lynch has become a father again. In: BZ Berlin. Retrieved March 20, 2013 . 
18. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 49.
19. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 26.
20. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 54.
21. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 29.
22. ↑ ^{a b} Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 57.
23. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 33.
24. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch , p. 66.
25. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 39.
26. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 42.
27. ↑ ^{a b c} Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 44.
28. ↑ Rodley (ed.): Lynch over Lynch , p. 82ff.
29. ↑ ^{a b} Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 46.
30. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 48f.
31. ^ Schmidt: Life in disturbed worlds , p. 38f.
32. ↑ Rodley (ed.): Lynch on Lynch , p. 85.
33. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 53f.
34. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 60.
35. ↑ ^{a b c} Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 63.
36. ↑ Schmidt: Life in Disturbed Worlds , p. 39.
37. ↑ Seeßlen: David Lynch and his films , p. 27.
38. ^ Schmidt: Life in Disturbed Worlds , p. 40.
39. ^ Todd: Authorship and the Films of David Lynch: Aesthetic Receptions in Contemporary Hollywood , p. 24.
40. ↑ Helmut W. Banz: FilmtipPrograms - Bizarre. In: The time . Retrieved March 4, 2013 . 
41. ↑ Bernd Schultz: Eraserhead. (No longer available online.) In: Cinema , reproduced on the website davidlynch.de . Archived from the original on October 4, 2013 ; Retrieved March 4, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
42. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 74.
43. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 86.
44. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 87.
45. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 89f.
46. ↑ Rodley (ed.): Lynch on Lynch , p. 143.
47. ↑ Rodley (Ed.): Lynch on Lynch , p. 146.
48. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 92.
49. ↑ ^{a b} Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 105.
50. ↑ ^{a b} Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 109.
51. ^ Hans-Joachim Neumann: Blue Velvet . In: Encyclopedia of Fantastic Films. Volume 1 (Films AB) . Corian Verlag, 1986-2010, p. 6.
52. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch, p. 183.
53. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch, p. 182.
54. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 136.
55. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul, p. 137f.
56. ↑ Seeßlen: David Lynch and his films , p. 247.
57. ↑ ^{a b c} Seeßlen: David Lynch and his films , p. 246.
58. ↑ Seeßlen: David Lynch and his films , p. 145.
59. ↑ ^{a b} Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 152.
60. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 154.
61. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 158.
62. ↑ ^{a b} Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 160.
63. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 162.
64. ↑ David Lynch's cult series: "Twin Peaks" returns in 2016 , Spiegel Online, October 6, 2014. Accessed October 6, 2014.
65. ↑ Tota, Felix-Emeric: See you in 25 years , FAZ, October 7, 2014. Accessed on February 16, 2015.
66. ↑ David Lynch Leaves Twin Peaks Revival ... Is it Still Happening at Showtime? E! Online, April 5, 2015, accessed April 7, 2015 . 
67. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 253.
68. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 258.
69. ↑ Rodley: Lynch on Lynch, p. 257.
70. ↑ ^{a b c} Jousse: Maîtres du cinéma: David Lynch , p. 99.
71. ↑ ^{a b} Fischer: David Lynch - The dark side of the soul. P. 232.
72. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 234.
73. ^ Trivia for Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved March 24, 2013 . 
74. ^ Filming locations for Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved March 24, 2013 . 
75. ↑ Box Office / Business for Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved March 24, 2013 . 
76. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 246.
77. ↑ Rodley (Ed.): Lynch on Lynch. P. 253ff.
78. ↑ ^{a b} Rodley (ed.): Lynch over Lynch , p. 289.
79. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 264.
80. ↑ see: Barry Gifford: Night People . Grove Press, New York, 1992, p. 5: "that's what it means bein 'on the lost highway"
81. ↑ Rodley (Ed.): Lynch on Lynch , p. 297.
82. ↑ Picture Factory. The City of Absurdity. Retrieved June 14, 2013 . 
83. ↑ Seeßlen: David Lynch and his films , p. 181.
84. ↑ Lux Vivens. lynrechner.com, accessed May 20, 2013 . 
85. ↑ Filmmaker DAvid Lynch & John Neff: Painting Music With Boss. BOSS Users Group magazine Vol. 5, No. 1, 2001, accessed May 26, 2013 . 
86. ^ Lynch: Catching The Big Fish , p. 4.
87. ↑ nytimes.com
88. ^ Donovan, Lynch to open meditation university. Associated Press , October 27, 2007, accessed October 20, 2010 . 
89. ^ Scott Thill: David Lynch Launches Transcendental TV Site. Wired , March 28, 2009, accessed October 20, 2010 . 
90. ^ Lynch: Catching The Big Fish , p. 145.
91. ↑ Master: It was the wind. At the Fondation Cartier in Paris, David Lynch shows himself as a visual artist and allows one or the other intimate glimpse , p. 18.
92. ↑ Sarkozy honors US director David Lynch as a "genius". Agence France-Presse , October 1, 2007, archived from the original on July 1, 2012 ; Retrieved October 20, 2010 . 
93. ↑ Lynch Officer of the Legion of Honor. Tages-Anzeiger , October 1, 2007, archived from the original on January 16, 2009 ; Retrieved October 20, 2010 . 
94. ^ David Lynch: New Photographs. Epson Art Operations, archived from the original on July 11, 2010 ; Retrieved October 20, 2010 . 
95. ↑ Hoff: Nothing for tender minds , p. 48.
96. ↑ David Lynch Debuts Lady Blue Shanghai. Open Culture, accessed March 27, 2013 . 
97. ↑ ^{a b c} Gross / Timm: Too cool to be true , p. 49.
98. ^ Lehnartz: Algebra, beautiful elsewhere. The shape of zero: How the Paris Foundation Cartier translates the magic of mathematics into art , p. 24.
99. ↑ Grinsted: Robots and Oral Hygiene . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of December 17, 2011, No. 294
100. ↑ ^{a b} David Lynch: new album in July, new song from now on. In: Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 4, 2013 . 
101. ↑ David Lynch reveals new design for Dom Pérignon. In: The world. Retrieved March 24, 2013 . 
102. ^ Dom Pérignon by David Lynch. In: Nobelio - Luxury & Enjoyment. Retrieved May 22, 2013 . 
103. ↑ Thomas W. Gaehtgens : Beauty and Shudder in the Art of David Lynch . In: Werner Spies (Ed.): David Lynch - Dark Splendor . Ostfildern 2009, p. 76f.
104. ↑ Seeßlen: David Lynch and his films , p. 10.
105. ↑ Karin Schulze: David Lynch exhibition: View into a dark world. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved March 27, 2013 . 
106. ↑ Andreas Platthaus : The Lord of the Inner Empire . In: Werner Spies (Ed.): David Lynch - Dark Splendor . Ostfildern 2009, p. 279.
107. ^ Peter-Klaus Schuster: The Uncertain Hollywood . In: Werner Spies (Ed.): David Lynch - Dark Splendor . Ostfildern 2009, p. 114.
108. ↑ Jousse: Maîtres du cinéma: David Lynch , p. 66.
109. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 301.
110. ↑ Andreas Kilb : David Lynch returns to the world of his early films with "Lost Highway" - and stops halfway. The time , accessed October 20, 2010 . 
111. ↑ Rodley (ed.): Lynch on Lynch , p. 7.
112. ↑ Thomas W. Gaehtgens : Beauty and Shudder in the Art of David Lynch . In: Werner Spies (Ed.): David Lynch - Dark Splendor . Ostfildern 2009, p. 79f.
113. ↑ Interview 2nd part: David Lynch on violence in the cinema, OJ Simpson and lawn mowers. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved March 27, 2013 . 
114. ↑ Seeßlen: David Lynch and his films , p. 15.
115. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 102.
116. ^ Box office / business for Blue Velvet. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 14, 2013 . 
117. ^ Box office / business for Wild at Heart. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 14, 2013 . 
118. ↑ Box office / business for Twin Peaks - The film. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 14, 2013 . 
119. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 349.
120. ^ Mulholland Drive. In: Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 12, 2013 . 
121. ^ Box office / business for Mulholland Drive. In: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 23, 2013 . 
122. ↑ Inland Empire. In: Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 12, 2013 . 
123. ^ Awards for David Lynch. Internet Movie Database , accessed October 13, 2012 . 
124. ↑ David Lynch receives Kaiserring. In: The time. Retrieved March 26, 2013 . 
125. ↑ Cologne Film Prize goes to US film director David Lynch. Rheinische Post , September 14, 2010, accessed on October 20, 2010 . 
126. ↑ 40 best directors. The Guardian , 2011, accessed March 26, 2013 . 
127. ↑ Film director David Lynch presents his foundation . Berliner Morgenpost , Berlin January 28, 2006.
128. ↑ press release . Businessportal24, January 28, 2006.
129. ^ David Lynch lecture in Berlin turns into chaos .
130. ↑ David Lynch: Urania lecture with enlightenment Call from the actor Gottfried Vollmer, who has great news to announce. Berliner Morgenpost November 11, 2007
131. ↑ Grunewald David Lynch builds university on Teufelsberg , Der Tagesspiegel November 15, 2007
132. ↑ David wants to fly. (No longer available online.) Arte , June 18, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 26, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
133. ↑ viennalefilmfestival: Viennale-Trailer 2011: The 3 Rs by David Lynch on YouTube , September 22, 2011, accessed on March 3, 2013.
134. ^ Meditation, Creativity, Peace. Internet Movie Database , accessed March 3, 2013 . 
135. ↑ DAVID LYNCH: NIGHTMARE VIDEO FOR NINE INCH NAILS. In: Spex . Archived from the original on July 8, 2013 ; Retrieved July 7, 2013 . 
136. ↑ Chart sources: DE CH UK
137. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 367f.
138. ↑ Fischer: The dark side of the soul. P. 369.
139. ↑ Does That Hurt You?
140. ^ Lynch (One) on lynchdocumentary.com
141. ↑ Transcendental in Berlin in the 3sat media library
142. ↑ Watch a trailer for David Lynch's new 'private memoir' movie on dazeddigital.com
143. ↑ Review: Georg Seeßlen, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Sufferer, Konkret , 9, 2017, pp. 54f.