the incredible career of the American filmmaker summarized in five works

David Lynch, an immensely influential American director, has died at the age of 78, his family announced Thursday. A look back at his career in five works.

Elephant Man (1980)

With Elephant Manhis second feature film in black and white, David Lynch knows public recognition. Fascinated by deformity, the young director depicts the story of Joseph Merrick, a British man from the end of the 19th century suffering from a deforming illness. The man with the monstrous body shape becomes a beast across the country.

John Hurt, in the title role, completely disfigured by makeup made from Joseph Merrick's death mask, won one of the film's eight Oscar nominations. Anthony Hopkins, also named, plays the doctor Frederick Treves who sympathized with his patient and whose diary serves as the plot of the film.

Blue Velvet (1986)

A severed ear decomposing on a lawn, the red lips of a cabaret singer played by Isabella Rossellini, a sinister dwarf and the heady chorus of Angelo Badalamenti's languid soundtrack: with Blue VelvetDavid Lynch established his surrealist universe and won the 1987 Oscar for best director.

A Dennis Hopper as a psychopathic erotomaniac brings an additional touch to this “disturbing strangeness” that David Lynch excels at creating behind the seemingly quiet facades of a small American town. Always his fascination with appearances.

Twin Peaks (1990)

Twin Peaks, a small imaginary town bordered by giant pine trees, a café where fruit pie is served, a dwarf dressed in red, a woman at the log, phones ringing in the void, and Laura Palmer, a high school student recovered one morning from a lake, her body wrapped in a bag.

In this Lynchian environment, Agent Cooper hangs on his dictaphone (Kyle MacLachlan), emblematic character of this flagship work of the director which revolutionizes the author's series.

With its two seasons and 30 episodes, David Lynch and Mark Frost have won the loyalty of a horde of viewers hungry for answers to an insoluble mystery. He extends the experience with a feature film Twin Peaks Fire Walk with me (1992), where David Bowie appears, then, 26 years later, wrote the third season of this cultural phenomenon, a long film of almost twenty hours, where we find nods to his entire filmography.Eraserhead has Lost Highways (1997).

Sailor et Lula (1990)

Nicolas Cage (Sailor) and Laura Dern (Lula) are madly in love with each other but they are pursued by Lula's mother's henchman. This alcoholic witch wants to get rid of Sailor out of romantic spite and to neutralize an embarrassing witness to the suspicious death of her husband. The chase towards Texas leads the two rogue lovers to have strange encounters in no less unusual places.

David Lynch is freely inspired by the noir thriller written by Barry Gifford, flirts with comedy, summons the Wizard of Oz, Elvis Presley and Chris Isaak, to better delve into the unbearable and wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1990 .

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Originally conceived as a series, this distressing thriller plays with the false pretenses of Hollywood, its crooked producers and other ogres of this formidable image factory. Best Director Award at Cannes, César for Best Foreign Film, Mulholland Drive – named after the famous road bordered by the houses of stars – follows a twisted plot which takes an amnesiac brunette beauty (Laura Elena Harring) and a blonde, naive apprentice actress (Naomi Watts), in a game of splitting personalities.

With Inland Empire (2006), these two films mark the end of David Lynch's career as a director – apart from a short film in 2020 released on Netflix with a monkey accused of murder in the title role. From then on, he devoted himself to transcendental meditation and other forms of artistic expression.