It was a very sad moment when I read a news headline back in January about the death of one of my favourite directors of all time, David Lynch. Following the moment in 2020 when he was diagnosed with emphysema in 2020 after a lifetime of smoking, he was homebound and reliant on oxygen, but was still working remotely on certain projects and was not planning to retire. Unfortunately, after being evacuated from his home due to the Los Angeles fires in January, his health declined and he passed away at the age of 78.
Apparently, he had been working on two projects: a screenplay titled Antelope Don’t Run No More, and a Netflix series project called Unrecorded Night. Hopefully, these can be picked up and brought to life in a way or another. But for now, let’s celebrate David Lynch’s life and art.
David Lynch was one of the most distinctive and influential filmmakers of all time. His name is synonymous with surreal, unsettling, and dreamlike storytelling, often blending the beautiful with the grotesque in ways that linger in the minds of his audiences. However, his legacy extends beyond film—he was also a painter, musician, writer, and a strong advocate for transcendental meditation. From Eraserhead to Twin Peaks and beyond, Lynch’s work has reshaped the landscape of modern cinema and influenced countless artists across different mediums.
The Filmmaking Legacy: A World of Dreams and Nightmares
Lynch’s films are often described as Lynchian, a term that has come to represent something dreamlike, uncanny, and offbeat, where reality feels slightly (or completely) skewed. His narratives frequently explore duality—light and dark, innocence and corruption, dreams and nightmares—through a unique visual and sonic approach.
Early Beginnings: The Birth of a Filmmaker
David Lynch began his career in visual arts, studying painting before transitioning into filmmaking. His debut feature, Eraserhead (1977), was the result of years of work and became an underground cult sensation. A surreal, industrial horror film about a man navigating fatherhood in a nightmarish world, Eraserhead set the tone for Lynch’s career. With its haunting sound design, cryptic symbolism, and disturbing imagery, the film marked the emergence of a filmmaker unconcerned with traditional storytelling.
Breaking into Hollywood: The Elephant Man and Dune
Unlike many avant-garde filmmakers, Lynch successfully crossed into mainstream Hollywood—though not without complications. His second feature, The Elephant Man (1980), was a critical and commercial success. The biographical drama, which tells the true story of Joseph Merrick, showcases Lynch’s ability to blend the surreal with deeply human storytelling. The film’s striking black-and-white cinematography and emotional depth earned it eight Academy Award nominations, cementing Lynch’s reputation as a serious filmmaker.
Then came Dune (1984), an attempt at adapting Frank Herbert’s dense sci-fi novel. The experience was infamously troubled—Lynch clashed with producers, lost creative control, and later disowned the film. Despite its flaws, Dune remains an interesting part of his filmography, with moments of visual brilliance and an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere. While it was a misstep, the experience pushed Lynch back toward the kind of personal, auteur-driven projects that define his legacy.
Peak Lynch: Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks
In 1986, Lynch released Blue Velvet, a film that remains one of his most defining works. A dark neo-noir that peels back the layers of small-town America to reveal a world of corruption, sadism, and twisted desires, Blue Velvet is the ultimate Lynchian experience. With unforgettable performances—particularly Dennis Hopper’s terrifying turn as Frank Booth—the film was both shocking and mesmerising. It established Lynch as a filmmaker who could fuse the nostalgic imagery of 1950s America with a nightmarish underbelly, a theme that would continue in much of his work.
This blend of wholesome Americana and creeping dread reached its widest audience with Twin Peaks (1990–1991). Co-created with Mark Frost, the TV series revolutionised television, blending soap opera melodrama, supernatural horror, and quirky humour in ways never seen before. The murder of high school girl Laura Palmer became the series’ central mystery, but Twin Peaks was never just about solving a crime—it was about the strange, eerie, and sometimes beautiful nature of existence itself.
Though Twin Peaks was not continued after two seasons, its impact on television storytelling was profound. Its influence can be seen in shows like The X-Files, Lost, and Stranger Things, and it remains a cult favourite to this day.
Exploring the Depths: Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire
Following Twin Peaks, Lynch continued to push the boundaries of cinematic storytelling. Lost Highway (1997) was a fragmented, nightmarish puzzle of a film that played with shifting identities and reality itself. But it was Mulholland Drive (2001) that truly solidified Lynch’s place as a master of modern cinema. Originally conceived as a TV pilot, Mulholland Drive became a full-length film after Lynch reworked it into a hypnotic, unsettling meditation on Hollywood, dreams, and identity. Regularly ranked as one of the greatest films of the 21st century, it is both a mystery and a feeling—one that refuses to be neatly solved.
Then came Inland Empire (2006), an even more fragmented and experimental film that explored the blurred lines between actor and character, fiction and reality. Shot on digital video, Inland Empire is perhaps Lynch’s most challenging work, but it remains a fascinating dive into his unique approach to storytelling.
Return to Twin Peaks
After a decade-long break from filmmaking, Lynch returned in 2017 with Twin Peaks: The Return, a bold and often confounding sequel to the original series. Over 18 episodes, Lynch created something closer to an 18-hour film than a traditional TV season. Uncompromising, surreal, and often deeply unsettling, The Return defied expectations and provided one of the most fascinating explorations of time, memory, and existential horror ever put on screen.
Beyond Film: Art, Music, and Transcendental Meditation
Though best known for his films and television work, Lynch has always been an artist in a broader sense. He started as a painter, and his artwork has remained an integral part of his creative output. His paintings, often dark and textured, feel deeply connected to his cinematic worlds.
Lynch was also a musician, frequently composing or contributing to the soundtracks of his films. His collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti produced some of the most haunting scores in film history. He has also released his own music, blending blues, electronic, and experimental sounds in albums like Crazy Clown Time (2011) and The Big Dream (2013).
A lesser-known but equally important aspect of Lynch’s legacy is his deep commitment to transcendental meditation (TM). Practising TM since the 1970s, Lynch credited it with enhancing his creativity and well-being. In 2005, he founded the David Lynch Foundation, which promotes meditation in schools, among veterans, and in underprivileged communities. His advocacy for TM had become a major part of his public persona, showing a softer, more peaceful side to the man known for creating cinematic nightmares.
The Enduring Influence of David Lynch
Lynch’s influence on film and television is immeasurable. His ability to fuse the surreal with the mundane has inspired countless filmmakers, from Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve to Nicolas Winding Refn and Ari Aster. His exploration of the subconscious and dream logic has shaped modern storytelling in ways both direct and indirect.
Beyond the world of cinema, Lynch’s multidisciplinary approach to creativity—whether through painting, music, or meditation—offers a broader lesson about the artistic process. He encouraged intuition, experimentation, and an openness to the unknown, making his legacy about more than just film.
David Lynch was, in many ways, a contradiction: a man who meditated daily and spoke softly, yet whose work often delves into darkness and horror. He was a Hollywood outsider who has worked within the studio system. He was an experimental artist who has made mainstream successes. But above all, he was an artist who followed his vision, no matter how strange, unsettling, or beautiful it may be. And that, perhaps, is the true essence of his legacy.
Main photo credit: The Fulkrum
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