When director David Lynch died on January 15, there was a deep mourning and appreciation for his work present all across the movie-loving world and internet. From his first feature-length film, 1977’s Eraserhead, through his swan song, 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return, a third and final season of the beloved show he co-created with Mark Frost, David Lynch spent his career baffling and inspiring audiences. Known for his surrealism, appreciation of Americana, and embrace of the uncanny, David Lynch truly was a one of one American artist.
Among his most celebrated works are Blue Velvet, a 1986 noir film starring Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, and Dennis Hopper, as well as Mulholland Drive, a 2001 neo-noir mystery starring Naomi Watts and Justin Theroux. In all of his work, Lynch prioritized the audience’s emotional understanding above their actual plot-point to plot-point comprehension of every little detail. Famously, his movies and TV shows are described as “dream-like,” and his style is so particular and so frequently imitated that the term “Lynchian” was coined to describe his specific combination of surrealism and dream logic.
Lynch was unafraid to let his sounds and visuals speak for themselves, and he’s famous for refusing to explain what certain elements mean. One of my favorite moments of Lynch the man came when he explained why that is. “As soon as you finish a film, people want you to talk about it,” he said. “The film is the talking.”
Lucky for the rest of us, Lynch’s films and TV shows have done plenty of talking on his behalf, and they will continue to, even after his death.
David Lynch was 78.
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