David Lynch shows us who we are with dark masterpieces like ‘Eraserhead’

My town felt like it was on fire when I heard the news on Thursday that David Lynch had died at the age of 78. Few filmmakers understood the complexities of Los Angeles better than Lynch did and fewer seemed more at home with its mix of beauty and other charms. tragedy, sun and noir. Los Angeles is where he shot “Eraserhead”, his first documentary about – well, how to describe this sui generis film where a woman sits in a radiator and a baby looks like a fuzzy feather . foreigners. However, David Lynch is gone and another part of this town seems to have disappeared with him, and I’m lost.

Lynch was literally born in Missoula, Mont., but I think he was born in Los Angeles. He went to school here, attended the American Film Institute (“Eraserhead” started as a student project!), and eventually founded a nearby compound where he took to delivering a wonderful weather report with unique twang. In the one he recorded on May 11, 2020, he sits at a table with several glasses on it and a must-have cup of black coffee. “Here in LA,” he said, glancing out the window, “kind of cloudy, foggy this morning.” He turns to the camera, clicks on the temperature and adds, “It should all be burning up soon and we’ll have sunshine and 70 degrees. Have a great day.”

I always took his cues to have a good day literally. Lynch has created some of the most disturbing and haunting works in cinema, but in interviews – many filled with interjections such as “jeepers” – he came across as approachable. In reality, he appeared to be normal, which made him even stranger. In 2001, the year his masterpiece “Mulholland Drive” came out, my friend, the critic John Powers, spoke with Lynch. “He still reminds me of Jimmy Stewart,” Powers wrote, “not the Mr. Smith who went to Washington, but the colorful Vertigo.

I’ve rarely received such an angry response as I did when my song from “Mulholland Drive” came on. People just disagreed; They seemed as upset about my review as they were about the movie. One of the harshest criticisms was that it simply didn’t make sense, leaving some viewers frustrated to the point of anger. The situation confused me as much as it surprised me at first glance. The movie should have been obvious, but Lynch wasn’t. Worse, he made art in an industry that not only denigrates art – if it doesn’t hang on the walls of buildings – but also artists who don’t conform to its orthodoxy. If his relationship with Hollywood is difficult, it’s because he doesn’t seem to be a part of it—artistically, spiritually, or otherwise—even though he’s made movies for the company.