Elephant Man: "Twin Peaks" and "Blue Velvet" creator David Lynch has died
He directed one of the greatest (in every sense) failures in Hollywood history and a series that forever changed the way we think about the genre. He was equally at ease releasing both frozen psychedelic pictures for cinephiles and simple human stories - but always remained the inimitable David Lynch, a one-of-a-kind director. Today, the master of dark illusions is gone. "Izvestia" remember the great director.
Among the forests
David Keith Lynch was born January 20 in the small town of Mizula, among the forests of Montana. That's probably why the theme of the forest subconsciously excited him all his life - enough to remember the gloomy thickets around Twin Peaks - as well as the stars shining in the night above the trees. However, his childhood was spent in constant moves across America - working in the U.S. Department of Agriculture father often sent to different parts of the country.
<p>David Lynch</p>
Learned the future genius of cinema quite mediocre, but was popular with classmates, and in general was not distinguished by a rebellious temperament. "In childhood, the world seemed to me absolutely fantastic. Of course, I had the usual fears, like school ... for me at the time, school was a crime against youth. It was destroying the seeds of freedom," he recalled in his autobiography Lynch on Lynch years later.
Be that as it may, after graduating from high school, young David decided to study art - especially attracted to his expressionism of the early twentieth century, in particular, Oscar Kokoschka. At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts in Philadelphia 20-year-old Lynch "covered" and another passion - animation. Before the movie was literally half a step. Soon after his first animation "Six get sick" he bought a handheld movie camera, which and shot his first short film, based on a nightmare nightmare of his wife's niece Peggy (they met while studying in 1967) - tape "Alphabet".
The Lynch family (the couple in 1968 had a daughter Jennifer, who later also became a film director) settled in Philadelphia, having bought on the cheap a large house in not the best area of the city. "We were robbed twice, shot through windows and had our car stolen. The first time we weren't broken into until three days after we moved into the house. There was violence, hatred and filth all around. But this city had the strongest impact on my life", - recalled the director.
First experiences
He managed to get a grant from the recently organized American Film Institute for the implementation of his project "Grandma", which already saw a unique style of the director. At the same time, he was working on the script of his first feature film, the legendary "Head-Lastic", released in 1977. Lynch was guided by the works of Kafka and Gogol, and the two dark geniuses clearly gave him rich food for imagination. The hour-and-a-half-long black-and-white film, an almost plotless, frightening spectacle set to apocalyptic, dragging music (composed and recorded by Lynch himself with the help of improvised materials like plastic bottles and electronic processing), brought him his first fame. With "Eraser" began and many years of cooperation with Lynch and actor Jack Nance.
<p>David Lynch</p>
However, the next picture of the director, who managed to get a controversial reputation as an eccentric, if not a freak, was filled with old-fashioned humanism "Elephant Man. The movie starred a stellar team: Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud, John Hurt and Anne Bancroft (incidentally, her husband, the legendary comedian Mel Brooks, acted as a producer). Now it's hard to believe, but two-hour black-and-white work about the simplest thing - the need for human kindness even (and especially) to those who seem to be on the person does not look like a person, paid off at the box office and brought Lynch's first Oscar nomination for directing (the film received a total of eight nominations).
Lynch literally woke up a celebrity - so much so that he received an offer to direct the next Star Wars series. However, he preferred another sci-fi saga, Frank Herbert's Dune. Filmed by him movie version turned out to be one of the biggest box office failure in the history of Hollywood - the audience, expecting to see a fairy tale in the spirit of Lucas, just did not understand the dreamlike surreal narrative of the battle for the planet Arrakis. In this movie first appeared on the big screen charming handsome Kyle MacLachlan, whose career then for a good dozen years was associated with the projects of Lynch.
"Twin Peaks" and beyond
The failure of "Dune" did not disappoint neither Lynch, nor his producer Dino de Laurentiis - the next film, the thriller "Blue Velvet", returned to the director, if not box office success, then the favor of critics. Road-movie "Wild at Heart" with Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern in 1990 brought Lynch "Palme d'Or" at Cannes. However, with financial difficulties reviews of critics to cope with not very helpful. Lynch worked a lot in advertising (many of his videos today have become classics), and in the same 1990 took on a TV project. It was already legendary series "Twin Peaks".
David Lynch at the premiere of the third season of the TV series "Twin Peaks" at the 70th Cannes Film Festival
American subconscious, revealed through the characters of the inhabitants of a backwater town in Washington State, burlesque mix of styles - from horror film to comedy, from thriller to melodrama, great music by Angelo Badalamenti and absolute madness reigning at times on the screen - "Twin Peaks" completely turned the idea of the genre of television series. Virtually everything of significance that has appeared on television in the last 35 years, from "The X-Files," "ER" and "Dr. House" to "Staying Alive" and "True Detective," is in one way or another indebted to Lynch's genius - both as a director and producer.
He continued to make oddball (emphasis on any syllable), phantasmagoric dystopian thrillers - for his own audience. The only exception was "A Simple Story", which put the critics, forgotten "Elephant Man", in a dead end: how so, humanistic, really simple story of an old man who went to reconcile with his dying brother? Lynch himself, however, was perhaps in his own way an "elephant man" - an intimidating possessor of a huge heart.
David Lynch wins an Oscar
In 2019, Lynch won the long-deserved Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography. Awards, strange as it may seem, he did not have so many - however, it is unlikely that this incorrigible original, propagandist of transcendental meditation and polymath (in addition to movies, Lynch was actively engaged in avant-garde music, releasing several albums solo and together with Badalamenti) in them especially needed. His credo he, perhaps, the most concise and lucidly stated in the book "To Catch a Big Fish": "Do not try to fight the darkness. Don't even worry about it. Just turn on the light, and the darkness will go away."
Last fall, Lynch revealed that he was suffering from emphysema caused by years of smoking. Even around the house he could no longer move around without an oxygen mask. On January 16, the great artist's life was cut short. "It is with deep regret that we report the passing of the man and artist David Lynch. We would have appreciated privacy at this time. There is a big hole in the world now that he is no longer with us," the director's relatives said on his official Facebook page (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). He only a few days short of his 78th birthday.
