David Lynch, the painter turned avant-garde filmmaker whose fame, influence and unique international vision has long gone beyond the movies to include television, information, books, nights, a line of organic coffee and his foundation for Faith-Based Education and World Peace. , has died. He is 78.
His family announce the death on social media on Thursday, but did not elaborate. In 2024, Mr. Lynch announced that he had developed emphysema after years of smoking, and as a result the next film had to be taken away.
Lynch is a visionary. His florid style and unnerving perspective were shown full-blown in his first feature, the cult film “Eraserhead,” released at midnight in 1977. failed blockbuster “Dune” (1984); his small-town erotic thriller “Blue Velvet” (1986) and its spiritual spinoff network television series, “Twin Peaks,” broadcast by ABC in 1991 and 1992; he recognized masterpiece “Mulholland Drive” (2001), a poisonous valentine to Hollywood; and his last major, “Inland Empire” (2006), in which he killed himself photo.
Like Frank Capra and Franz Kafka, two different artists of the 20th century whose work Mr. Lynch has received many awards and may be asked to join, his name has become a word.
The Lynchian “is easy to recognize and difficult to define,” writes Dennis Lim in his book “David Lynch: The Man From Another Place.” Made by a man with a long-term passion for the process of “thinking,” Mr. Lynch’s films are characterized by their dream-like feel and tone, with a Manichaean narrative that evokes an unsettling, even innocent, anti-social bad bad
Lynch’s style has often been called surreal, and in fact, with its conflicts, contradictions, and contradictions of space, Lynchian has evident affinities to classic surrealism. However, Mr. Lynch’s surrealism is more curious than programmatic. If the classic surrealists celebrate contradictions and seek to bring out the best in everyday life, Mr. Lynch uses the same thing as a shield to prevent conflict.
The same performance was shown in Mr. Lynch’s personal presentation. His trademark sartorial style is a shirt worn without ties and buttoned up. For years, he regularly dined at and praised Los Angeles fast-food restaurant Bob’s Big Boy. Distrustful of words, seeing it as a limitation or even a hindrance to his art, he often speaks in platitudes. Like Andy Warhol, Mr. Lynch’s interview, at once laconic and gee-whiz, was cut short.
This complaint made Mel Brooks or his partner, Stuart Cornfeld, both supported Mr. Lynch’s first movie in Hollywood, “The Elephant Man” (1981), to write him “Jimmy Stewart from Mars.” Perhaps in response, Mr. Lynch chose to identify himself as “Eagle Scout, Missoula, Montana.”
A full list will be published soon.
Ash Wu help guide.