Rest in Eccentric Peace, David Lynch

It’s Thursday, January 16, 62 degrees Fahrenheit, and it comes with a deep sadness in my heart to report that we’ve lost one of our greatest renegade filmmakers, David Lynch, at 78 years old.

A painter turned filmmaker, Lynch was an exceptionally artistic oddball whose work helped bridge the commercial and experimental filmmaking gap in many ways. Many know him best from his groundbreaking show, Twin Peaks, pushing the limits of network television to be more experimental and surreal. He did so in his films as well, first taking the filmmaking world by storm with the ethereal Eraserhead in 1977, before sidestepping to bigger studio projects Elephant Man and Dune. From then on out, he blazed the trail with big, audacious, dreamy projects like Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, and Inland Empire, among many other great works that cinephiles cherish. His style is so distinct, in fact, it’s almost become cliché to label something resembling his style “Lynchian“.

An ardent practitioner of transcendental meditation (as documented poetically in his novel Catching the Big Fish), Lynch’s library of work is lined with an ambiguous mystery, encouraging its audience to look deeply within themselves to find a self-reflective answer, rather than having an answer for everything within his stories. He was never afraid to make weird humanist art for art’s sake, and we love him for it. As he told audience members at his premiere screening of Eraserhead, “Don’t ask about the baby.”

Another astounding quality of Lynch was his creative drive to keep on creating no matter what the project. Lynch’s library of short films, music videos, and even commercials is vast and is a worthwhile watch for any filmmaker who feels weighed down and burdened by the constraints of commercial filmmaking. His inspiration is a gift, always encouraging us to stick to our artistic instincts and be true to ourselves—hell, Twin Peaks aired on ABC, after all. Think about that.

While it’s immensely sad to think we’ll never see another project written or directed by our beloved eccentric auteur, his last masterpiece, Twin Peaks: The Return, is just about as perfect of a final project to end on as we could ask for. His family put it best when they announced his death on Facebook, saying:

“There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.”

In honor of keeping our eyes on the donut, let’s celebrate Lynch by revisiting his works below. Everything is worth a watch. And, after, during, or even before or between, keep making weird art. He’d appreciate it, kid.

---

David Lynch Weather Reports

For two years or so during the COVID lockdown, Lynch graced us with his presence for a daily weather report. Despite the circumstances, the David Lynch weather reports are a near-perfect encapsulation of everything we love about Lynch: charming, silly, subtly wise, and hopeful in the face of immense dread.

As sad as it is to say, these are probably the closest fans of his could get to Lynch as Lynch outside of his friends and family up until he passed. Cherish them in all their glory, and keep your eye on the donut.

David Lynch Coffee Commercial 

One of my favorite things (of many) David Lynch ever did was talk to a Barbie for four minutes to promote his coffee brand. In Lynchian (I said it) fashion, a “commercial” to David Lynch is, of course, going to be subversive. Folgers take note: all you need to sell coffee is a warm and silly arthouse director having an existential conversation with a doll.

David Lynch Short Films Playlist

David Lynch is known best for his film and TV work, but dang if he doesn’t make an argument for the art of the short film. From his early animated works inspired by his talents as a painter in “Six Men Getting Sick” and “The Alphabet” to his final short, the Netflix-produced “What Did Jack Do?”, each short carries its own charm and fleshes out his body of works with his classic surrealist charm. Do yourself a favor and watch them all above.

David Lynch’s Short Films

• “Six Men Getting Sick” (Six Times) (1967)
• “The Alphabet” (1968)
• “The Grandmother” (1970)
• “The Amputee” (1974)
• “The Cowboy and the Frenchman” (1988)
• “Premonition Following an Evil Deed” (1995)
• “Darkened Room” (2002)
• “Rabbits” (2002)
• “DumbLand” (2002)
• “Bug Crawls” (2007)
• “Boat” (2007)
• “Absurda” (2007)
• “Lady Blue Shanghai” (2010)
• “Idem Paris” (2013)
• “What Did Jack Do?” (2017)

David Lynch’s Feature Films 

As we come to an end, we couldn’t go without mentioning his nine wonderful films. Every single one of them—even his much-maligned Dune adaptation—is bursting with creative energy and stands as a testament to creative, expressive art. Go watch your favorite, or maybe one you haven’t seen. If it doesn’t make sense at first, you might just find something in yourself thinking about it.

David Lynch’s Feature Films

• Eraserhead (1977)
• The Elephant Man (1981)
• Blue Velvet (1986)
• Wild at Heart (1990)
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
• Lost Highway (1997)
• The Straight Story (1999)
• Mulholland Drive (2001)
• Inland Empire (2006)

I could write all day about David Lynch—I almost don’t want to finish this article and say goodbye. But, if David Lynch taught me anything, it’s that when the dark and evil things out of our control start to take hold, the best way to move forward is to hold on to the beautiful things we can control. Go make a movie, a song, a painting—and if you can’t make it, watch, appreciate, and listen. Art is everything, and Lynch was one of the best there is at putting it out into the world.

May he rest with blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way.

We love you, David Lynch.