I’ve loved Movies for as long as I can remember, and learnt at a young age that the backbone of these movies are the directors. Throughout the years I’ve constantly been entertained and inspired by filmmakers and the passion they put into their craft. As a child I was in awe of works from greats like Steven Speilberg, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron. In my teens I gravitated towards the stereotypical film students favourite directors like Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick. And now in my twenties, I watch A24 movies exclusively and nothing else. All jokes aside, when asked to choose a Media Niche, I wanted to choose a director whose body of work is wholly unique and loved by their fans, but is also somewhat divisive. The first director that comes to mind for me would be David Lynch.
At first, Lynch’s work wasn’t really something I was fond of and couldn’t see why his fans made such a fuss about him. His movies never gave clear explanation for things that took place within them and at the time of watching them, it frustrated me. But over the years his movies started to really grow on me. Every time I re-watched one, I found something new in them, and enjoyed the fact that he left the interpretation completely up to the viewer. Slowly I started to realise why the man literally has a genre named after him. This genre usually follows Lynch’s style of mundane life juxtaposed against the grotesque, surrealism and defying clear explanations. I think that this is why people are so drawn to his work. His movies aren’t easy watches and require full attention, and not to be watched with expectations on where the story is going or how it will turn out. A lot of his movie have scenes that are totally bizarre and don’t make sense, but leave it up to the viewer to make their own sense.
Lets take Twin Peaks for example. A satire of soap operas about a murdered homecoming queen and the following investigation. The show drew in 35 Million viewers for its pilot episode. But as the series went on the episodes got more surreal and the ratings dropped as a result. Although the ratings dropped, the show is now seen as a cult classic. Twin peaks is what really bought David Lynch into the spotlight. Nothing like twin peaks had ever been shown on TV before, It was dark, quirky, realised, surreal and was the first truly cinematic series.
David Lynch is almost like a character pulled straight out of a David Lynch movie. Speaking in the most sincere terms, hes a complete madman. Not only is he a filmmaker, but a painter, musician, Actor, and furniture maker. He’s such an interesting and original character. And I think by giving a more in depth analysis of Lynch as a person and artist, his movies, viewers reactions and opinions on them, we can begin to understand why Lynch’s work is so captivating for many people.
Mitch's blog 