David Lynch passed away in January 2025. We – as part of The Password‘s editorial staff – decided to gather opinions on his work. It is an attempt to understand the reason why the question – “Wanna see a Lynch Movie?” – is always followed by – “Yes!”. Actually, when writing about a work of art, it is important to write down your perception of it on paper. Stop analyzing and just contemplate it. That is exactly what we’ve done.
Smolkin Viktor – Summer evenings
30 episodes in precisely two weeks during the hottest summer in history (at that moment). I scrolled through all of them, evening after evening. It was originally aired on ABC at 9 p.m. and, for the maximum authenticity, every day I waited the sun had set before starting watching it.
But why, after 30 years, do we still remember the popular TV series which wasn’t even fully directed by Lynch, rather written with Frost? Maybe because of his own unforgettable appearance as an FBI agent in some iconic episodes which will remain with us forever. But for me, there is something more – this opera is finished, closed, finalized, completed. It is something about the essence of art itself – to be able to represent something, it needs to be based upon something complete, something new. Criticizing the US is rather another matter than creating one’s own America in the mountains of Washington State. David Lynch gave us the world of Cooper, Laura and Shelly – one complete world we will take care of. Thank you.
Ilaria Vicentini
In my opinion, in order to measure the greatness of an artist, beyond the achievements and the awards he won during his career, it is necessary to refer to the love and the affection the public expressed towards him. For this reason, David Lynch was an immense artist.
In fact, through his art he was able to reach even my generation (Gen Z), maybe because he perfectly managed to represent on the screen what Freud called “unconscious”, an irrational part of all of us which cannot be explained in words, .
I appreciate his idea of cinema also because it is not sectorial: Lynch was a painter, a musician and a photographer, too. Therefore, he let different forms of art mingle with each other, proving that creativity has no limits.
Additionally, I am a TV series enthusiast, so I cannot but mention Twin Peaks, the TV series that made television and pop culture history. The National Museum of Cinema, in Turin, is hosting an exhibition called “#SERIALMANIA. Narrative Imaginaries From Twin Peaks to Squid Game” (it can be visited until the February 24th), because he was the first one having the insight to provide depth to the television medium, proving once again to be a real visionary.
Cecilia Blunda
“Music, painting, cinema – this is the art of life.”
David Lynch
David Lynch was absolutely unique. He was a polyhedral artist with an out of the ordinary personality. The film critic Peter Bradshaw defines him as “the great American surrealist who made experimentalism mainstream”, in The Guardian. His visions and ideas made him one of the most interesting directors of all time.
One of his traits was the bad/good smoking habit. Cigarettes had been his companions until 2022, when he quit smoking. This addiction helped him in the creational stadium, but brought him to the illness.
I like recalling him in a short video from August 21st 2020, posted on his YouTube channel, wearing his sunglasses, having his iconic hairstyle and saying “I’m wearing dark glasses today because I’m seeing the future and it’s looking very bright”.
I am completely fascinated by his art projects and figure, because he left with his simple eccentricity a legacy.
Alessandra Tiesi – Dune
In the sci-fi world, the Star Wars saga is a milestone and anyone who wants to work in that genre has to deal with it, or so it was in the ‘80s. In spite of it, David Lynch, who directed The Elephant Man, decided to launch a sci-fi movie just seven years after the first Star Wars film (Episode IV – A new hope) was released.
It was a bet: the first Star Wars movie was a success and by the first half of the ’80s the first trilogy was out, but David Lynch went a step further and directed Dune, a sci-fi movie based on the Frank Herbert’s novels. Unfortunately, the movie was a complete failure, and it nearly broke Lynch. Probably the world wasn’t ready for his way of making the movie, or maybe it was the book adaptation; in addition, he wasn’t in control of the scene cut. The production of the movie was, indeed, quite crowded and he couldn’t manage the whole process, and so the result was disappointed for both the director and the audience. Years later, Lynch himself stated: “Dune is a gigantic sadness in my life”, proving he regretted the way the movie turned out.
Even though the movie was a disaster, still it is a work of art, at least in the way Lynch saw it but couldn’t bring to the screen. Lynch and others as well saw the potential of Dune, but when things get messed up there’s nothing you can do about it.
Fonts: https://www.kinopoisk.ru/media/article/4010581/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098936/
by Smolkin Viktor
with the contribution of Ilaria Vicentini, Cecilia Blunda and Alessandra Tiesi
The Password 