David Lynch

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
Because Lynch proves that cinema is a viable means of expression for anyone who aims to build a distinctive, uncompromising body of work. Because his films create an all-encompassing dream-world that's as thrilling as it is disturbing.

WHAT SORT OF FILMS IS HE FAMOUS FOR?
Films summed up by Blue Velvet's opening sequence: there's something festering beneath the surface of white picket fence America. Films with femmes fatales, dwarves in red-curtained rooms, clean-cut American boys, seedy older men - in fact, many of the staple characters of Hollywood's B-movie genres rolled into his own weird world. Lynch also often takes the side of an unlikely hero (Henry in Eraserhead, John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Alvin Straight in The Straight Story) and creates emotional impact without resorting to sentimentality.

WHEN WAS HE WORKING?
Born in 1946, Lynch studied painting for a time during the mid-60s and made his first film - a one-minute loop projected onto sculptures - in 1966. It took him five years to complete his first feature, Eraserhead, which premiered in 1978. The 80s saw a rise (the Oscar-nominated Elephant Man), a fall (the science fiction folly Dune) and a rise again (the remarkable Blue Velvet), before a new decade blossomed with Cannes Palme D'Or winner Wild At Heart and TV series Twin Peaks. The 90s then saw a fall (feature film prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), a further dip ("psychogenic fugue" Lost Highway), and an unexpected rise (The Straight Story). Lynch has entered the new century on typically divided ground: Mulholland Drive, a feature rescued from the ashes of an abandoned ABC TV pilot, bamboozled audiences at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, but won Lynch the Best Director Palme (shared with Joel Coen).