► Elephant Man (1980)
David Lynch, trained in painting and visual arts in Boston and Philadelphia, has just made his first film, Eraserhead (1977), an experimental work shot in black and white with nightmarish visions, when director Mel Brooks, who was also a producer, called on him to direct Elephant Man.
The film chronicles the life of John Merrick (John Hurt), a British man from the Victorian era suffering from a disease that deforms his body, used as a fairground beast. Until a doctor, Doctor Treves (Anthony Hopkins), takes an interest in him and reveals his wounded humanity.
With a relatively classic narrative, the film shot in black and white allows the filmmaker to give free rein to his fascination with monsters and the distortion of images. Great public success, particularly in Europe, it brought him notoriety and attracted the attention of producer Dino de Laurentiis who would produce his next two films, Dune et Blue Velvet.
► Blue Velvet (1986)
After the failure of its adaptation of DuneDavid Lynch wants to make a more personal film, a thriller with teenage heroes. Born thus in 1986 Blue Velvetstory of a young man discovering a cut-out human ear one evening in a field.
Deciding to lead the investigation, this character (played by Kyle MacLachlan) will discover a criminal conspiracy, as well as meeting a mysterious young woman. Blue Velvet tells the initiatory journey of an adolescent towards adulthood.
When the film was released in American theaters, it was shunned by the public, who considered the film too confusing in its mixture of eroticism and psychoanalysis. A few years after its release, the film became a reference, particularly for its depiction of American suburbs.
► Sailor et Lula (1990)
It is the film of consecration for the filmmaker, crowned with a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. A sort of trashy and crazy road movie, it depicts the passionate love between two young people, Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern), which is opposed by her mother.
-What follows is a run across the United States, with hitmen on their trail, during which they will encounter a series of disturbing characters including Perdita Durango (Isabella Rossellini) and Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe). Carried by a supercharged energy, disconcerting by its breaks in tone, the film combines the filmmaker’s taste for film noir, strange atmospheres as well as the traumatic past of these characters. Although it met with a rather cold reception in the United States, Sailor et Lula has become a cult film for an entire generation of spectators.
► The series Twin Peaks (1990-2017)
At the same time as Sailor et LulaDavid Lynch signs with Mark Frost the first season of his television series Twin Peaks broadcast on ABC. It is the work which undoubtedly best defines the “Lynchian” style. Based on a classic detective plot – an FBI agent played by Kyle MacLachlan comes to investigate the murder of a high school student, Laura Palmer, found dead in a river near the Canadian border – the filmmaker gradually takes us into a fantasy universe populated by strange characters (a dancing dwarf, a woman carrying a log, etc.) carried by a hypnotic and heady soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti.
We then navigate between reality, fantasies and the psyche of a hero who gradually loses his footing. This series with countless fans is considered the one that renewed the genre in the United States. It gave rise to a second season in 1991 and a film in 1992, considered less successful, then to a third season in 2017.
► Mulholland Drive (2001)
It is undoubtedly David Lynch’s masterpiece, crowned with a directing prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Designed first to be the pilot of a series in the manner of Twin Peaksit became a film following ABC’s refusal to produce the project. This feature film, which looks like a very Hollywood film noir, takes us even further into the dreamlike and almost surreal world of David Lynch.
A beginner actress, Betty (Naomi Watts), recently arrived in Los Angeles, meets an amnesiac woman who has just escaped a car accident after being threatened by killers. The blonde and the brunette set out in search of his identity, while a whole series of scenes follow one another with seemingly no connection between them.
With its exploded narration, its ultra-slick aesthetic, its captivating universe and its final enigma, the film is fascinating and has given rise to multiple interpretations on its resolution. Although more accessible than the previous one Lost Higwaythese two films represent the quintessence of the cinema of a David Lynch fascinated by the games of the mind and the unconscious.
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