- Born
- Birth nameDavid Keith Lynch
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar
from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one
state to another as his research scientist father kept getting
relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and
then fathered future director
Jennifer Lynch shortly
after he turned 21. That experience, plus attending art school in a
particularly violent and run-down area of Philadelphia, inspired
Eraserhead (1977), a film that he
began in the early 1970s (after a couple of shorts) and which he would
work on obsessively for five years. The final film was initially judged
to be almost unreleasable weird, but thanks to the efforts of
distributor Ben Barenholtz, it secured a
cult following and enabled Lynch to make his first mainstream film (in
an unlikely alliance with
Mel Brooks), though
The Elephant Man (1980) was shot
through with his unique sensibility. Its enormous critical and
commercial success led to Dune (1984), a
hugely expensive commercial disaster, but Lynch redeemed himself with
the now classic Blue Velvet (1986),
his most personal and original work since his debut. He subsequently
won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the dark, violent
road movie Wild at Heart (1990),
and achieved a huge cult following with his surreal TV series
Twin Peaks (1990), which he
adapted for the big screen, though his comedy series
On the Air (1992) was less
successful. He also draws comic strips and has devised multimedia stage
events with regular composer
Angelo Badalamenti. He had a
much-publicized affair with
Isabella Rossellini in the late
1980s.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk> - Born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana, David Lynch was raised in small-town
America. After high school, he went to Boston to attend the School of
the Museum of Fine Arts. Shortly after that, he planned a three-year
trip to Europe to work on his art, but didn't take to it and left after
15 days. In 1977, he released his first film
Eraserhead (1977), which, although not
critically acclaimed, was noticed by many people, including
Francis Ford Coppola, who was
rumored to have screenings of it for his cast and crew on the
Apocalypse Now (1979) set. After a
stream of visually striking films such as
Blue Velvet (1986),
Lost Highway (1997) and
Mulholland Drive (2001). These films
and others, beginning with
Blue Velvet (1986), and including his
Twin Peaks (1990) T.V. series,
feature what has now been added to signature Lynch features, such as
vibrant colors, the use of dreams and montage to connect character
thought and multiple emotions into one sequence. In addition to that,
since Blue Velvet (1986), Lynch has
gained the reputation of one of the foremost auteurs in the film
industry, and one of the few living auteurs who continually defies
cinematic convention. His films continually represent his ideal that
films, representing life, should be complex, and in some cases,
inexplicable. Due to his decisive innovation and the beautiful
confusion of his films, he will always be recognized as if not one of
the greatest film-makers, one of the most original. Lynch is an
innovative director, and even if his films aren't necessarily
realistic, they are real in their representation of what life is: a
confusing, irrational series of events that have little purpose, and
one makes one's own interpretation of each event, giving life one's own
purpose. Lynch wants his films to resonate emotionally and
instinctively, and for every person to relate and find its own
understanding. As he said, "Life is very, very confusing, and so films
should be allowed to be, too". David Lynch is original. He has done
things in film-making that
D.W. Griffith did in his day.
David Lynch will never stop making beauty on the screen.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpousesEmily Stofle(February 26, 2009 - present) (1 child)Mary Sweeney(May 10, 2006 - February 12, 2007) (divorced, 1 child)Mary Fisk(June 21, 1977 - August 29, 1987) (divorced, 1 child)Peggy Reavey(1967 - 1974) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- Parents
- RelativesJohn Lynch(Sibling)Martha Lynch(Sibling)Sydney Lynch(Grandchild)
- Has frequently cast Jack Nance, Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee,Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Sherilyn Fenn, Harry Dean Stanton, Michael J. Anderson, Everett McGill, Frances Bay, Dean Stockwell, David Patrick Kelly, Brad Dourif, Catherine E. Coulson, Grace Zabriskie, Ian Buchanan, Alicia Witt, and Bellina Logan.
- Finds small-town USA fascinating
- Has a taste for low/middle frequency noise, dark and rotting
environments, distorted characters, a polarized world (angels
vs demons, Madonnas vs whores), and debilitating damage to the
skull or brain. - Use of slow-motion during key scenes of violence
- Red curtains, strobe lights, and extreme surrealism
- In addition to excluding chapter breaks in his approved DVD releases of
his movies, he hasn't recorded an audio commentary in any of his films.
This is because he believes that films speak for themselves. - He was introduced to Isabella Rossellini at a restaurant by a mutual friend when he
was in the process of casting Blue Velvet (1986). Struck by her serene European
beauty, he told her, "You could be Ingrid Bergman's daughter." 'You idiot,' my
friend said to me," Lynch recalled, "'she is Ingrid Bergman's
daughter!'" - After George Lucas saw Eraserhead (1977), he offered Lynch the chance to direct Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) but Lynch turned him down. Lynch felt the film would be more Lucas's vision than his own.
- Served as an usher at the Presidential Inauguration of John F. Kennedy (20 January 1961).
- Wrote the Gordon Cole character (from Twin Peaks (1990)) with himself in mind.
- It's better not to know so much about what things mean or how they
might be interpreted or you'll be too afraid to let things keep
happening. Psychology destroys the mystery, this kind of magic quality.
It can be reduced to certain neuroses or certain things, and since it
is now named and defined, it's lost its mystery and the potential for a
vast, infinite experience. - I sort of go by a duck when I work on a film because if you study a
duck, you'll see certain things. You'll see a bill, and the bill is a
certain texture and a certain length. Then you'll see a head, and the
features on the head are a certain texture and it's a certain shape and
it goes into the neck. The texture of the bill for instance is very
smooth and it has quite precise detail in it and it reminds you
somewhat of the legs. The legs are a little bit bigger and a little
more rubbery but it's enough so that your eye goes back and forth. Now,
the body being so big, it can be softer and the texture is not so
detailed, it's just kind of a cloud. And the key to the whole duck is
the eye and where the eye is placed. And it has to be placed in the
head and it's the most detailed, and it's like a little jewel. And if
it was fixed, sitting on the bill, it would be two things that were too
busy, battling, they would not do so well. And if it was sitting in the
middle of the body, it would get lost. But it's so perfectly placed to
show off a jewel right in the middle of the head like that, next to
this S-curve with the bill sitting out in front, but with enough
distance so that the eye is very very very well secluded and set out.
So when you're working on a film, a lot of times you can get the bill
and the legs and the body and everything, but this eye of the duck is a
certain scene, this jewel, that if it's there, it's absolutely
beautiful. It's just fantastic." "Film exists because we can go and
have experiences that would be pretty dangerous or strange for us in
real life. We can go into a room and walk into a dream. If we didn't
want to upset anyone, we would make films about sewing, but even that
could be dangerous. But I think finally, in a film, it is how the
balance is and the feelings are. But I think there has to be those
contrasts and strong things withing a film for the total experience. - I'm not a real film buff. Unfortunately, I don't have time. I just
don't go. And I become very nervous when I go to a film because I worry
so much about the director and it is hard for me to digest my popcorn. - It makes me uncomfortable to talk about meanings and things. It's
better not to know so much about what things mean. Because the meaning,
it's a very personal thing, and the meaning for me is different than
the meaning for somebody else. - To give a sense of place, to me, is a thrilling thing. And a sense of
place is made up of details. And so the details are incredibly
important. If they're wrong, then it throws you out of the mood. And so
the sound and music and color and shape and texture, if all those
things are correct and a woman looks a certain way with a certain kind
of light and says the right word, you're gone, you're in heaven. But
it's all the little details.
- The Alphabet (1969) - $1,000
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