a certain obsession with America, and its cars

Of course, he was not just a storyteller, the kind that fills rooms. Rather, he delivered atmospheres, impressions of stories. But David Lynch was a fundamentally American filmmaker, even more so than others, perhaps.

Lynch's America is that of the crumbling myth, of course, but also that of the roads and cars that built it. Cars and ribbons of asphalt inseparable from his films.
We think of Mulholand Drive, his most enigmatic film, of course, but also and above all, of this legendary 34-kilometer road that climbs from the beaches of LA to the peaks above Hollywood. It is on this road that we find the famous belvederes where, at nightfall, cars park above the illuminated city, where lovers kiss in front of a spectacle that could not be more cinematic.

The Ford Thunderbird, from Lynch to Ridley Scott

But Lynch is also, of course, Sailor & Lula, and her other lovers on the run who cross the country aboard their 1966 Ford Thunderbird. A favorite model of American cinema, and not the worst, since we find it in Thelma & Louise by Ridley Scott and In Outsiders by Coppola.

But more than anything, Lynch loved twisting the myths of his country. So, in A True Story, in 1999, his character actually leaves for road trip. But not in a car, his poor eyesight prevents him from driving. So, itHe is on board a self-propelled lawn mower that he will cover the 400 km that will take him to his brother. His old lawn mower is broken, he is going to replace it with a John Deere. Much more chic.

The car, for the author of the Twin Peaks series, was not only a powerful dream machine, it was also, between two films, the means of earning a living. This is how he, among other advertising spots, created that of the American-style CRV, the Honda Passport of 1997.

A time when ads could be weird

He also did a spot for the little Nissan Micra in 2002, much more bizarre and Lynchian. Surprising? Not really. Jean-Luc Godard, even more hermetic, has produced a medium-length film commissioned by Darty.

The twenty or so ads produced throughout his career have mainly enabled David Lynch to finance himself, while waiting to find budgets difficult for major works which have not all found their audience. But the 78-year-old filmmaker, who lived very close to Pacific Palisades from which he was evacuated last week, will no longer climb towards the bends of Mulholand Drive. He left us on January 15th.