3 reasons US cinema needs David Lynch back
It's been eleven long years since David Lynch's last movie – the blistering Inland Empire. But 2017 sees him back with a vengeance with the resurrection of Twin Peaks. There's also a new documentary, The Art Life, to look forward to. We're delighted
David Lynch is a manipulator par excellence, but perhaps the most nail-biting cliffhanger he ever pulled off is his protracted hiatus from cinema, and the directing game in general. His last moving image project was Inland Empire, his dark and delirious portrait of Hollywood from 2006. Since then, sightings have been scarce. David, we miss you. We miss you very much. There are hipsters out there crying through their wire frame spectacles straight into their double shot Americanos, for heaven's sake.
But there’s good news for you neo-Lynchians out there (and even better news for longstanding fans): the big man is back in business in a huge way this year and coming to a screen near you very, very soon.
As the twisted mind behind seminal films such as Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Wild at Heart, we knew Lynch could hold his audience in suspense, but he’s turned it into a surreal artform as he’s been slowly drip-feeding us clues for months ahead of the imminent revival of Twin Peaks, the wildly original TV show the maestro crafted in collaboration with Hill Street Blues scribe Mark Frost.
The original series followed the investigation into the murder of smalltown Homecoming Queen Laura Palmer, told in an inimitable style that danced between gloriously kitsch and utterly macabre. It’s celebrated as much today as it was way back when it aired in the early-90s, when coffee was damn fine and people chewed gum in style, a time when talking to logs was a perfectly acceptable form of problem solving (RIP Catherine Coulson aka Log Lady, you will be sorely missed this season.)
Starring Kyle MacLachlan as the idiosyncratic Agent Cooper, Ray Wise as the illusive Leland Palmer and Sheryl Lee as his fallen and beloved daughter, Laura, the all new Twin Peaks premieres 22 May on Sky Atlantic and we – along with the rest of the world – are more than a little bit excited. The show's return, as well as upcoming Lynch documentary The Art Life (released 14 Jul), got us thinking about how American cinema has missed Lynch’s twisted genius. Here are three reasons why we desperately need him back.
American cinema looks pretty square without Lynch
Since his debut feature Eraserhead, aptly described by the director himself as "a dream of dark and troubling things," Lynch has been one of the most original voices in American cinema. The term Lynchian is often thrown around in modern film criticism, but the truth is few filmmaking weirdos have followed in Lynch’s wake. There have been pale imitators like Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko, The Box) and Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Black Swan), but their visions look almost quaint next to Lynch’s nightmarish movies.
The vividly original worlds created by Charlie Kaufman come closest, perhaps, but a sighting of a project from the Synecdoche, New York writer-director has now become as sporadic as one by Lynch. In today’s political climate, we need a filmmaker scratching away at our collective subconscious and putting America’s dark heart on screen, and no one does that better than David Lynch.
Lynch creates fascinating roles for women
Scan the logline of most films made in Hollywood and you’d think the only legitimate stories to tell on the big screen involved white men. It’s no wonder that during the past decade or so, our great movie actresses have increasingly looked towards television for interesting roles.
Unlike the majority of his fellow male auteurs in the bro canon – think Scorsese, Spielberg, Linklater, Fincher, Anderson (Wes and PT) – Lynch has been as interested in female stories as he has been in male ones. If you need reminding of this fact, just look at the recent cinema resurrection of another Lynch classic, Mulholland Drive.
Released back in 2001, it’s still one of the most pivotal offerings in feminist cinema this century, and its star Naomi Watts, despite being elevated to A-list status off her breakthrough performance in the film, is still waiting for a role to match it. Lynch’s favourite collaborator, Laura Dern (the star of Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Inland Empire) has been similarly poorly served in Hollywood, but is currently finding acclaim on TV series Little Big Lies. Both will crop up in undisclosed roles in Twin Peaks alongside other kickarse women like Ashley Judd, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amanda Seyfried, Monica Bellucci and many more.
Lynch’s films look and sound like no others
Sit down in front of a Lynch production and you'll find yourself sucked into it like quicksand and spat back out at the end with a refreshingly skewed perspective of this humdrum dimension we've dubbed reality. He tampers with your thoughts through his use of sound and image like few other filmmakers, creating worlds that are simultaneously sweet and sinister.
You'll notice that the typical Lynchian colour palette is always unsuspectingly saturated and quite often suggests a world that’s entirely 'normal', but it's his off-kilter character and dream-logic narratives that reveal hidden depths to the films’ apple pie surfaces. And let's never forget how strange Lynch’s films sound thanks to those magnificent, haunting soundtracks created in alliance with his long-established composer Angelo Badalamenti. We want those eerie opening credits and bespoke film scores back and we want them now.
The new series of Twin Peaks premieres 22 May on Sky Atlantic
David Lynch: The Art Life is released 14 Jul by Thunderbird Releasing
The Skinny present a special screening of Inland Empire at HOME, Manchester, 13 Jun
Read more of Stephanie Whalley's writing at hungryharriet.com