The news of David Lynch passing away on Jan 15,
2025 came as a shock especially since I had hoped that he was secretly working
on one last feature. A final film that I hoped would have combined the creative
worlds of Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. But not
to be.
David Lynch was a filmmaker unlike any other and his legacy
will continue forever especially since his unique style labeled as Lynchian is often used to describe other films or cinematic scenarios.
He is also the rare filmmaker whose films I saw entirely in
non-streaming formats. I saw his films via Theater, TV, VHS Tapes and DVD. Of
course, I saw Season Three of his Twin Peaks series (The Return,
2017) via cable TV while caught up with the original Twin Peaks
Series via both VHS and DVD. This also speaks to the limited output of his works
over the last two decades. His last feature Inland Empire was
released in 2006, while his feature debut Eraserhead came out in
1977. In total, he directed 10 Feature films, 40+ shorts, 4 TV series and many
music videos, commercials and web series.
I did a spotlight on his works back in 2007 as I wanted to
see all his previous features, shorts and TV series in anticipation of Inland
Empire. Little did I know that after Inland Empire, no
more features would be released although Twin Peaks: The Return
did thankfully arrive and provided 18 incredible episodes, some of those
episodes packing more punch than any feature film.
Here is a ranking of his 10 features roughly in order of
preference. Unlike some others, I do not consider Twin Peaks: The Return
to be a film which is why I am not including any of those 18 episodes or the
entire series in this ranking.
1. Mulholland Drive (2001)
Silencio. Then fade to black. Yet, many questions linger
long after this intriguing puzzle of a film ends. Mulholland Drive
is a perfect encapsulation of David Lynch’s style and contains a refined
version of elements, character types one has seen in his other films.
2. Eraserhead (1977)
A cinematic treasure! A true measure of a film is that it
transcends time and remains fresh no matter which decade it is watched in. It
is hard to believe that Eraserhead was released almost 5
decades ago. Even today, very few films can match the cinematic richness that
David Lynch offered with his debut film. This black and white film is one of
those works that are tailormade for film studies courses -- hours can be spent
discussing the lighting, the dreamy imagery, the haunting background score and
the abundant symbolism. For example, the alien baby that Henry and his
girlfriend have provides enough material for dissection -- the baby represents
an alien creature who imposes on the life of this couple and alienates them
further. That the baby looks like an alien only reinforces the idea. This is a
film that needs to be watched with all the lights off and is a work that one
can easily be lost in.
3. Blue Velvet (1986)
This film and its many images, especially the severed ear, are
forever etched in cinematic history. The movie starts and ends up in a happy
white picket fenced town. But between those scenes, we are introduced to a
strange world where evil people lurk. That strangeness is now associated with
the Lynchian term and helped usher in a new cinematic language.
4. The Straight Story (1999)
This is the most straightforward (no pun intended) film that
David Lynch directed. If one didn't look at the credits, then one would never
know that David Lynch was behind this work as the film is devoid of his auteur
signposts. At least Elephant Man includes a few dream
sequences which hints at the director's familiar style but The
Straight Story is a clean and emotional journey. The film also turned
out to be the last work of Richard Farnsworth and this is clearly his movie
from the first frame. Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight, a man who undertakes a
300+ mile journey on a lawn-mower to see his brother, Lyle. The two brothers
have not talked in almost a decade after a falling out, but after Lyle has a
stroke, Alvin decides he needs to make this journey on his own terms to set
things right.
We get to see the wide-open road, beautiful fields and shining stars as Alvin
makes his brave journey. Along the way, he encounters an interesting collection
of people (a runaway teenager, competition cyclists, a deer-loving woman who is
agonized by deers hitting her car on a weekly basis) and wins everyone over
(except the deer loving woman who is in too much grief) with his straightforward
no-nonsense approach to life.
Based on a true story, The Straight Story is
well acted and leisurely paced so that we can soak up every minute of clean
country air.
5. The Elephant Man (1980)
With the exception of the opening and closing scenes, the
rest of the film is a linear humane story. On top of that, the locale is
Victorian England, not America, which sets this apart from other Lynch films.
However, this Black and White feature is an appropriate follow-up to Eraserhead.
Both The Elephant Man and Eraserhead start
with images of birth -- in Eraserhead, we see an alien life
form taking shape whereas in The Elephant Man, we see how a
woman's child will be disfigured and take on the title of Elephant Man. The
performances of Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt are top-notch and the screenplay
is highly touching. Even though the story is inspired by a real tale, the movie
has shades of the The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
6. Inland Empire (2006)
Worm holes, time travel, multiple characters, dreams,
imagination, Lynch’s subconscious mind and Laura Dern’s magnificent face which
stretches to whatever emotion is required of her. Inland Empire feels
like the essence of Mulholland Drive drugged with the
time travel element from Lost Highway with a tiny dash
of bizarre from Twin Peaks. It is complicated, inaccessible but
never dull or boring. This film makes Mulholland Drive look
like an easily decipherable film. In Mulholland Drive, one
can clearly draw a line between the dream and reality. But in Inland
Empire we are dealing with multiple versions of dreams and reality
which are further complicated by Laura Dern’s characters existing in both dream
and real state in multiple space-time fields (L.A, Poland).
7. Lost Highway (1997)
The start of Lost Highway is echoed by Haneke’s Caché
(2005). In both films, a couple gets videotapes where someone has recorded
their home from the outside. In the Lost Highway the
spy physically enters the couple's home and tapes them sleeping. However,
in Caché, the spy does not physically enter the couple's
home but penetrates the main character's psyche. That is where the differences between
the two films end.
The dreamy version of L.A life that David Lynch has explored in his later films
(Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire) are first found
in Lost Highway. This film also contains building blocks
used in Mulholland Drive as both films contain puzzles
and mysteries which need to be unlocked. Lost Highway plays
with the concept of time and space much more than Mulholland Drive
although its plot isn’t as tightly bound as that of Mulholland Drive.
Lost Highway has plenty of scenarios that don’t fit with the overall
film structure whereas everything in Mulholland Drive is
connected and wrapped up in one mysterious blue box!
8. Dune (1984)
It is fascinating to see how Frank Herbert’s book has led to
two completely cinematic treatments. Denis Villeneuve’s two Dune
films have gotten far more love than David Lynch’s 1984 version did. Yet, it is
incredible to believe what Lynch accomplished back in 1984 as Dune
was just his third feature. Back in the 1980s, the concept of multipart films
didn’t exist so Lynch had to pack the contents of the entire Dune novel
in just one film. That difficult task is something that Villeneuve was able to
learn from and he took his time in telling the Dune story in two parts totaling
over five hours in length, more than double the running time of Lynch’s
version. In addition, Lynch didn’t have full creative control over the film.
That aspect was much more common back in the day when studios exerted much more
control over the final cut of the film.
The experience of working on Dune and its
aftermath ensured that David Lynch followed a completely different path. After Dune,
Lynch set out to create his own cinematic world rooted in Earth but still
transcending space-time boundaries.
9. Twin Peaks:Fire Walk with me (1992)
The 1992 Twin Peaks film serves as a prequel
to the 1990 TV series and gave Lynch a chance to revisit Twin Peaks. Lynch
expanded on the dream realm world in this film and incorporated elements that
came to define his future works. For example, the green ring and the dreams
have the same mystery appeal as the blue box in Mulholland Drive.
10. Wild at Heart (1990)
My least favourite David Lynch film happens to the one that won him the Palme
d’Or at Cannes 1990. The acting performances are indeed prizeworthy
but not the story and treatment. Of course, over the last three decades,
far more awful films have gone on to win the Palme d’Or so at least Lynch got a
Palme d’Or, one that he surely deserved for Mulholland Drive (won
best director instead).
