In heaven everything is fine.
My friends and I went when it came out (hello Granada Theater, Dallas), and knowing little about it. Like you I loved it, part of it being that I’d never imagined you could make a movie like that. Just transfixing.
My favorite director. Mulholland Drive is in my top 5 films, and I’ll also defend Dune.
RIP, David. I’ll drink a cup of coffee to your memory:
Seemed like a rite of passage for film nerds, but I did get to see a midnight showing of Eraserhead, though not until 1993, I think. And I didn’t quite get it. I’ve watched it again recently and, besides being the clearest and sharpest restoration out of any of my Criterion discs, it’s truly staggering in its creativity.
The first time I watched Dune it was a bootleg of the Alan Smithee cut. Can’t say I loved it, but I understood it. Watched the theatrical cut a few years later and though it was hot garbage. The box set that Arrow Video brought out a couple of years ago is terrific. I can appreciate the film now as a genuine attempt at something interesting, even if the execution was commpletely whiffed. The bonus documentaries are great as well. I need to read the making-of book that was published last year.
I was thinking, jeez, he hadn’t directed a feature since Inland Empire but then I remember, oh year, he did the equivalent of a goddamned eighteen-hour movie in 2017. I’m sure Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive will get the lion’s share of the praise in coverage of his passing, but I’ll be that guy and say that IMHO, “Part 8 - Got a Light?” is the absolute apotheosis of Lynch’s narrative art.
I like weird incoherent movies, but Eraserhead was too slow for me. I liked Blue Velvet, though.
Even his worst films usually had some good bits.
Lesser known among his works is his contribution to Lumière and Company (1995). With a hand-cranked camera, no synchronous sound and a 50-second-or-so running time, 40 directors paid tribute to the way movies were made 100 years earlier. Lynch’s short is far and away the best of the bunch (though several others are very good). Seeing him in action as a director - without seeing what he’s directing – is also very amusing.
NOTE: Clip contains a flash of nudity.
Cool clips!
Oh, man, I’d totally forgotten that he did “The Straight Story”. It is one of my all-time favorites.
mmm
It was the last of his “ten and out” that I hadn’t seen. I liked Richard Farnsworth and if the story is about an old guy driving a ride-on tractor it must be “straight” as in no Dennis Hopper evil guys, Sailor wearing his snakeskin jacket and alas, no Jack Nance. Plus, it’s Disney.
A very picturesque, lovely film.
The best part of “The Straight Story” is in the opening credits:
Walt Disney Pictures Presents
A Film By David Lynch
I certainly never expected that! 
And then there’s Rabbits.
That was very cool! Thanks for sharing.
I watched those when he was putting them on his YT channel. I need to revisit.
I thought Tom Snyder was funny.
heh, I remember this one. I mean how could you not? His film sandwiched between a lot of standard shorts and tributes…Lynch decides to blow the doors off of the entire project. Its his punk style. Cannot be ignored.
He never needed to go that hard. lol. (I’m on two minds if that is a shadowy figure in the window… probably not an accident…?)
I have to wonder - M. Lumiere’s camera has seen a lot, but what must it have thought when it got to see what Mr. Lynch set before it? “Quoi?”
If for nothing else besides making PBR cool, I’ll forever think fondly on the guy. I mean, there’s a real influencer.
If Lynch / Dennis Hopper as the villain Frank Booth made PBR “cool” then he probably knocked Heineken down a few pegs. Mr. Booth also carried around a tank of stuff to huff from. Originally, Lynch had written it as Helium, but Hopper told him it’d make him sound like Mickey Mouse, and let’s just go with Nitrous (which tends to make your voice low and like the devil) or maybe Amyl Nitrate.
I’ve read some good words about Lynch from Spielberg (who made some Coin with Reeses Pieces). The “ten and out” I quoted earlier was just a coincidence that David Lynch had made ten features and Quentin Tarantino, whose next film will be his tenth, who sort of coined the phrase. He supposedly hates Lynch films though Lynch liked QT’s " *Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" . Spike Lee doesn’t care for QT movies and no word yet from Alan Smithee.
Wow - I didn’t know about that. I clicked on it and immediately it felt like David Lynch. Will have to watch it tonight!
I worked with his brother John in the early 90s. After John found out I was a Twin Peaks fan, he brought in a tape of The Cowboy & the Frenchman for the office to watch during lunch one day. By far the best day at that job.
RIP, David. You brought a lot of good weird to the world.
For a taste of Lynch as an actor I recommend Lucky from 2017. Centered on the eponymous character played by Harry Dean Stanton, among his friends are the kind, tortoise obsessed Howard, played by Lynch.
“A tortoise is an amazing creature, Lucky. They are as noble as a king and as kindhearted as a grandmother.”
My first knowledge of “The Straight Story” was having the TV on as background noise, and hearing “David Lynch” and “rated G” in the space of a few seconds.
Wonderful movie, too!