DAVID LYNCH Damon Wise meets the master of the surreal as he returns to Cannes with a new 18-part series of murder-mystery Twin Peaks
IN THE 40 YEARS SINCE HIS TWISTED debut
of Transcendental Meditation pioneer Maharishi
an open ending. And the same thing goes with
Eraserhead, David Lynch has established himself
Mahesh Yogi. “It’s about disruption of the old, and
this—it’s a film. It’s broken into parts.
as the godfather of the cinema of the strange.
making way for the new,” the director says. “Disrup-
Creating directly from the depths of his subcon-
tion is a good thing—being disruptive can mean just
So what was your mood, going in?
scious, Lynch challenged accepted notions of
bringing better knowledge along to people.”
Oh, I love mood, and, y’know, Twin Peaks has a
realism in the thriller genre with his breakout 1986
mood and it’s the ideas that you follow, and the
hit Blue Velvet, a psychosexual neo-noir, then did
Why did you want to return to the world of
ideas dictate everything. But most every idea
the same for serial TV in 1990 with the ABC show
Twin Peaks?
comes along with its mood.
Twin Peaks, in which the murder of a small-town
Well, you know, the story was not over. I love the
beauty queen opened a festering can of worms.
world—and I love the people in the world.
Lynch hasn’t taken a full feature to a film fes-
And what was your personal mood? Happiness.
tival in over ten years, since his three-hour digital
Had you always wanted to go back there?
phantasmagoria Inland Empire (2006) premiered in
For a while I didn’t want to go back in, and then
Happiness to see that world again? Or were
Venice. His last appearance in Cannes was in 2001,
Mark Frost asked me to go to lunch, and I realized
you in a good place in your life?
when he unveiled perhaps his masterpiece, Mulhol-
that I had been thinking about going back in.
No, I just love working, and, like I said, it was seeing
land Drive—one of just two films released in the 21st
And then one thing led to another, and there
a lot of new faces, as well as a lot of great people I’d
Century to appear in Sight & Sound magazine’s
we were—back in.
worked with before.
back with the most anticipated TV event of the
So what was the starting point? I’ve heard
How did it compare to the first and second
year: the first two hours of an 18-episode return to
that you think of it as an 18-hour movie, not a
series? A lot of reports about the the first
the lumber town of Twin Peaks, where Laura Palmer
series as such.
series say that you were very loose, that you
was brutally murdered, although the director has
Well, like I said, I love the world, and ideas started
liked to embrace accidents.
made it a condition of this interview that he will not
coming. So there we were, and I always saw work-
I always say, you follow the script, but you should
discuss the show’s characters—or plot.
ing in television the same as working on a film. It is
be on your toes for new things. A thing isn’t finished
a film. So when I shot the pilot for Twin Peaks, way
’til it’s finished. And nature has a way of surprising
disruptor, last year launching his own Festival of
back when, I just saw it as a short film. The pilot
you with ideas along the way. It’s just a fantastic,
Disruption after being inspired by the philosophy
was not that short, it was a feature film, it just had
beautiful thing. So it’s not over till it’s over.
Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time. But this year he’s
Now 71, Lynch relishes his role as a grand
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I L L U S T RAT I O N BY
Bram Vanhaeren
5/11/17 12:39 PM