David Lynch
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Presentation Transcript
David Lynch The Birth of the Golden Age of Television
Early Films • Attended Fine Arts school in Philadelphia • The Grandmother (1970) • AFI • Supported family with odd jobs • Worked on the script for Eraserhead (1977) • Mel Brooks called him “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”
Surrealism • Surrealism originated in the late 1910s and early '20s as a literary movement that experimented with a new mode of expression called automatic writing, or automatism, which sought to release the unbridled imagination of the subconscious. • All sorts of techniques and phenomena were employed to achieve this subconscious creativity, including dreams, hallucinations, automatic or random image generation - basically anything that circumvented the usual "rational" thought processes involved in creating works of art.
Lynch • Was known to include elements from dreams in his work
Production of Eraserhead • Took 3 years • Delivered newspapers • Lived on the set
Eraserhead • Desolate industrial city • Characters Henry and Mary X give birth to a monstrous baby • Henry dreams of escaping with a woman who serenades him from behind the radiator • “illogic and rhythm of a bad dream” • Theme of “sexual repression”
Cast and Crew • Alan Spelt (sound editor) won an Academy Award for his audio work on The Black Stallion (1979) • Cinematographer Fred Elmes went on to shoot more idiosyncratic films • Jack Nance never broke into Hollywood, but had parts in other Lynch films as well as a favorite character on Twin Peaks
The Elephant Man 1980 • Lynch was given the Writing and Directing Assignment • Mel Brooks (a producer of the film) suggested him • Nominated for 8 Academy Awards • Lynch was nominated for director and screenplay • His films have always remained odd and divisive
Mythology of the show • Flash Forwards • Dream Sequences • Extra-dimensional spirits • Other-worldly villains • Sense of place • Special code Television mythologies allow viewers to feel like they are part of a special code. Shows with idiosyncratic mythologies tend to develop cult followings. Ex. Twin Peaks, Star Trek, X-Files, Lost
Likely influenced the following shows • The X Files • Lost • Mad Men • Breaking Bad • The Killing • True Detective Also generated a rabid cult following
Cinematic Style • Expanded the vocabulary of the small screen • Cinematography • Editing • Set design
Nightmarish images Melodrama Absurdism Kitcsh
Laura Palmer Development of character (of a dead girl) like Otto Primenger’s Laura One of the most intriguing characters ever on television Anti-hero Evil is represented as a an entity (rather than specific characters)
Showrunners and creative control • Mark Frost • David Lynch • The Lynch style brought something to TV never seen before
Mistakes that were kept • Flubbed lines • Faulty Fluorescent • Frank Silva accidentally caught in a mirror (and becoming the main villain)
“Twin Peaks,” despite all its innovations, died an ignoble death, hemorrhaging viewers. Not even Lynch’s sort-of prequel film, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” could salvage the show.