Vetch 3 months ago

I'm also ashamed to say I've also never seen any of his movies and TV series but this still hits hard because of his influence on some my most cherished fictional properties. These are Alan Wake/Control, Silent Hill 1&2, Returnal and Disco Elysium.

Actually, his influence on how surrealist fiction is presented throughout all media cannot be understated. I was surprised to read even the original Zelda has him as an influence. Majora's Mask does feel particularly Lynchian.

It would not surprise me if the Souls games and at least the later Berserks (late 90s/early 2000s forward) were either directly or 1-step indirectly influenced by Lynch.

  • wdbbdw 3 months ago

    I think it was less the original Zelda than it was Link's Awakening that had the Lynch influence, specifically influence by Twin Peaks

    https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/12/feature_how_david_...

    • staticman2 3 months ago

      There's no possibility Lynch inspired the original Zelda.

      The original Zelda was released way before Lynch's Twin Peaks, which was a hit in Japan, was even in production. The look of the protagonist of Zelda was inspired by Disney's Peter Pan. The pig villain was inspired by a pig man in Journey to the West.

      • chalupaman 2 months ago

        It was the fourth Zelda, Link’s Awakening (1993), that was inspired by Lynch and Twin Peaks. If you’ve played it, the influence in that one is apparent — it’s about Link discovering an isolated community of eccentrics hiding a secret, and dreams play a major role. The game’s director, Takashi Tezuka, specifically wanted to emulate the mood of Dale Cooper discovering the town of Twin Peaks, meeting its oddball inhabitants, and trying to figure out what they’re hiding.

Triphibian 3 months ago

I'm gonna say start with Blue Velvet. It still has the backbone of a classical noir, but it is completely run through with the character of his work. Mulholland Drive reflects the apex of his vision and talents, but there's a learning curve to appreciating it.

  • crispyambulance 3 months ago

    Elephant Man is perhaps the most approachable. Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt are at the apex of their acting careers in this film.

    After that Mullholland Drive is absolutely brilliant and has that unforgettable masterpiece diner scene: https://youtu.be/UozhOo0Dt4o?si=GedzAdMh0KIXoHz4

    • itsmemattchung 3 months ago

      Okay. not knowing anything about this film, not ever hearing or seeing it, I just clicked on that diner scene and holy f*ck, that was terrifying. and thank you :)

      • ascagnel_ 3 months ago

        It's a jump scare that works incredibly well, yet it's shot in slow-motion and lit to full daylight, two things anathema to jump scares.

    • jrace 2 months ago

      I would say that A Straight Story is even more approachable.

      If you didn't know it was by Lynch you would never suspect it.

  • mortenjorck 3 months ago

    On the other end, save Inland Empire for after you've seen a lot of his filmography and are in the mood for a challenge.

    I wouldn't call it his best work, but it is Lynch at his most singular and uncompromising.

    • ljm 3 months ago

      I would put Twin Peaks: The Return up there too. Beneath the trademark surrealism and whimsy there’s an intense, bittersweet profoundness.

      It was the last thing he made for TV/cinema and for me feels like the culmination of everything he did before it.

    • JKCalhoun 3 months ago

      > Lynch at his most singular and uncompromising

      More so than "Eraserhead"?

    • imbnwa 3 months ago

      The Sekiro of Lynch movies. I was defeated by the first dance routine.

  • butterisgood 3 months ago

    Other than the 1980's Dune movie he directed, I think it was either Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive that made me want to know more about David Lynch.

    I had to watch Mulholland Drive at least 5 times to get a sense of what it's even about, and I think I must have been the audience for which he made that film, if it wasn't indeed just art to make himself happy (which is the BEST kind).

    Anyway, it kind of endears another person to you when you connect with their work. So this one hit kind of hard.

    I lost a fellow weirdo, and he'll be missed!

  • signalToNose 3 months ago

    Wild at heart. Very approachable, but gory and brutal. The angst seep trough

  • werdnapk 3 months ago

    Mulholland Drive was my first Lynch movie and led me to watch pretty much everything else he released. I'd still start with Mulholland Drive if I started over again I think.

  • xivusr 3 months ago

    The lipstick scene. There should be an emoji for that.

  • adamc 3 months ago

    Nooooo, not Blue Velvet. That's on my "never watch again" list, because the people in it are so creepy I wanted to just go buy a million guns afterwards.

    • noisem4ker 3 months ago

      I feel the same. If Blue Velvet was the first Lynch movie I saw, I surely wouldn't have bothered with the rest, and I would have missed out on what I now consider one of my absolute favorites (Mulholland Drive). Same goes for Eraserhead and Wild at Heart.

      • dalmo3 3 months ago

        It was my first, and I didn't bother with the rest.

        There's just something in it that made me viscerally hate it, and I'm usually fond of surreal movies.

        • adamc 3 months ago

          It's worth giving Mulholland Drive a look. And the Elephant Man and The Straight Story are nothing like Blue Velvet.

      • JKCalhoun 3 months ago

        Agree about "Blue Velvet" — too much Dennis Hopper, ha ha. Also agree the "Mulholland Drive" is a masterpiece.

    • zug_zug 3 months ago

      Literally just watched it today and it's definitely in my 10 least favorite movies I've ever watched. Wish I had seen your comment.

    • emmelaich 3 months ago

      But it's also so beautiful; Laura Dern's character is so touching and Kyle McLachlan playing the naif in a world of evil is so moving.

      And when they dance together at the end with "Mysteries of Love" playing - wow.

mtalantikite 3 months ago

I'd personally say try Mulholland Drive first.

  • Keyframe 3 months ago

    oh boy. I'd understand if you said to try Mullholland Drive first, second, and third and then go from there.

    • ddellacosta 3 months ago

      Yes this may be my favorite of his films, and I love pretty much everything he's done

  • Sateeshm 3 months ago

    I'd say twin peaks season 1 and first half of season 2 are Lynch's most accessible work

gordon_freeman 3 months ago

Start with "Eraserhead" and then go from there. Surreal is the word I associate with his movies and tv show (Twin Peaks) and I absolutely love watching such movies!

  • jimbob45 3 months ago

    Dune or Twin Peaks are probably going to be more accessible than anything else.

    For Eraserhead, I understand the metaphor of how parenting can be larger-than-life and terrifying and I see how Eraserhead was trying to embody that but I very much didn't appreciate the highly pessimistic ending. It's an early movie that would have benefited immensely from an alternate ending on its DVD.

    • Trasmatta 3 months ago

      I think there's a lot more to Eraserhead than that! I also don't really see the ending as pessimistic personally.

      Lynch: "Believe it or not, Eraserhead is my most spiritual film."

      Lean: "Elaborate on that?"

      Lynch: "No, I wont. No one sees it."

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoMEw2RYlA

    • msabalau 3 months ago

      The Straight Story is almost certainly his most accessible film, while also very focused on themes that he cares about.

      It isn't the elusive puzzle that many cinephiles value in his work, but it is clearly a Lynch film, even if it's not a stereotypical one.

    • saijanai 3 months ago

      His most mainstream work is The Elephant Man, commissioned by Mel Brooks.

      • colmmacc 3 months ago

        The Elephant Man is great, but does have a surreal sequence, and is entirely in black and white. I'd vote for the The Straight Story, which is literally a Disney movie, being more mainstream.

    • gordon_freeman 3 months ago

      The beauty of Lynch films is that everyone can interpret it in their own way!

      • DrillShopper 3 months ago

        I know what you're trying to say, but that's also true of every other movie.

  • scoofy 3 months ago

    Eraserhead is borderline unwatchable. I love David Lynch, sort of, but without telling people that they're about to sit down and watch an hour-and-a-half of what is effectively an unwatchable piece of avant-garde cinema, then they're not going to be able to appreciate it.

    There is nothing worse than getting excited to see a famous director's debut film, thinking you're going to have a good time, and then getting Eraserhead.

    • monophonica 3 months ago

      If someone is not into art films, to not start with Twin Peaks is absolutely insane to me.

      First two seasons of Twin Peaks are his masterpiece IMO and his most watchable.

      Those are some of the best characters of any film/tv show ever.

      From there I would go to Lost Highway next for a stronger dose of the more out there stuff.

      • ascagnel_ 3 months ago

        Just start with the pilot first -- as it is, the US pilot is basically a feature-length film (it runs 1h25m), and features enough of Lynch's trademark juxtaposition of horrible and mundane, and piles on the warmth and love for his characters that set his works apart. The European cut of the pilot adds a few minutes to the end and originally aired as a TV movie, and may be worth it if you're not otherwise hooked by the show, since it features a definitive ending as well as the first appearance of the show's trademark "red room" (footage from the sequence was included in a later episode in the US).

        For me, the second step would either be The Elephant Man or Mulholland Dr. -- many of his works tackle very dark subject matter and include sexualized violence that can be downright disturbing to watch, but those two omit those elements. The Straight Story is much lighter, but largely lacks the surrealism Lynch is known for.

      • tpm 3 months ago

        But he didn't direct all of Twin Peaks episodes and it shows.

      • 4ggr0 3 months ago

        i tried watching Twin Peaks but my GenZ attention-hungy brain got really bored during the first episode. maybe i should give it another shot...

        it's not like i'm not used to watching long movies and i would call myself some form of cinephile, but for some reason Twin Peaks felt unbelievably slow.

    • tjakab 3 months ago

      Eraserhead is highly watchable, but the first time you see it, it's best to just experience it without trying to process it too much. The nuance comes through on repeat viewings.

      • scoofy 3 months ago

        >Eraserhead is highly watchable

        It is a film explicitly designed to be unpleasant. This may be artistically interesting, but it's certainly no going to appeal to most people.

    • labster 3 months ago

      I rented Eraserhead and watched with some friends in college. I loved it, and so did the other Lynch fan. The other two, well, the first words spoken over the credits were “What the actual fuck was that?” Let’s just say it’s a divisive film.

  • Trasmatta 3 months ago

    > Surreal is the word I associate with his movies and tv show

    And his style of surrealism has been so influential that it has its own term: Lynchian!

  • kingstoned 3 months ago

        When people say "surreal" they mean "real", it's just most of your life is not very real, just repetition and routine. - Norm Macdonald
  • epolanski 3 months ago

    Season 3 Twin Peaks is peak "I don't know what am I looking at".

    • ruthmarx 3 months ago

      It's at least a third watching one of Kyle MacLachlan's characters walking around with brain damage.

      I liked the season after a rewatch but the Dougie stuff is still tedious.

      • MisterTea 3 months ago

        The Dougie stuff was silly fun. Cherry pie

        • ruthmarx 3 months ago

          It wasn't particularly entertaining and was well overdone.

    • Lio 3 months ago

      When it first came out I was so desperate to see it I watched the first episode twice without realising.

      I spent the whole time trying to work out what was different between the "two".

      I mean, it’s exactly the sort of thing he would do and I still loved it.

      Magic!

JKCalhoun 3 months ago

Can recommend the documentary "David Lynch, The Art Life". For now appears to be here:

https://youtu.be/a6slh83RhfA

(Sorry — it appears to be 360p, not very hi-res. Other higher res versions can be found but with subtitles or dubbed in... maybe Farsi?)

ErigmolCt 3 months ago

Definitely worth checking out his movies at some point, but his interviews alone leave a lasting impression indeed. He could captivate audiences just by being himself (in a way)

kamranjon 3 months ago

Surprised nobody has mentioned Lost Highway - to me it is the perfect film.

  • spopejoy 2 months ago

    Lost Highway doesn't get the love for some reason. It's got all the DL hits and some of the best cinematography in his oeuvre. The coffee table is peak DL head wound

geophile 3 months ago

Gentle intro: Rabbits, on youtube.

  • WorldMaker 3 months ago

    Also on YouTube: "David Lynch Cooks Quinoa". It's a short film that is both nothing like his films/TV and everything like his films/TV. It's that "cooking podcast" or "recipe blog" that's a meandering journey through life and maybe has some bon mots about living, but also includes a recipe because it does. Like watching a beloved elderly relative do something normal in the kitchen, but also moody and in black and white.

    • aidenn0 3 months ago

      I loved that short film. I showed it to my wife and she said "That's 20 minutes of my life I'm never getting back."

    • geophile 3 months ago

      How does it compare to the salad preparation scene in Eraserhead?

intellectronica 3 months ago

If you only watch one, I think Fire Walk With Me is the most representative. If you like it, there's a lot more to explore. If not, then maybe Lynch isn't your thing.

  • turbojet1321 3 months ago

    Look, I love FWWM, but that's a brutal way to start. Firstly, it works a lot better if you know TP. Secondly... it's a brutal film. I've seen it a bunch of times and still find some of it hard to watch.

  • astrange 3 months ago

    I think that "fire walk with me" poem is so clunky I've refused to watch anything he's ever made.

  • pesus 3 months ago

    Great movie, but I'm not sure I would've enjoyed it as much if I hadn't already watched Twin Peaks.

  • spopejoy 2 months ago

    It was panned when it came out (and still inspires downvoting?? not exactly an objective convo here folks) but since then FWWM has gained tons more appreciation.

    Family sexual abuse survivors in particular have lauded the movie. It's really DL's most serious treatment of an issue (but makes it harder to watch too).