David Lynch Season: American Dreams and Nightmares at HOME

In commemoration of the passing of the cult filmmaker David Lynch in January this year, HOME have scheduled a season of cinema that invites audiences to experience the director’s distinctive body of work back on the big screen. The Manchester cinema and arts centre hosted a huge retrospective of Lynch’s work as part of 2019’s Manchester International Festival and it is fitting that HOME can pay tribute to an artist and director who means a huge amount to the city’s film community.

Lynch’s work has been described as Norman Rockwell meets Rene Magritte. At their best these films seem to pour directly from the former eagle scout turned Hollywood outsider’s subconscious — disturbed visions of America filtered through the genres of noir, horror and science fiction, each bearing the director’s inimitable fingerprints. Lynch probed the underbelly of America, exposing the darkness that lurked behind its symbols — the white picket fence, the family home, or the diner serving cherry pie — with a personal surrealism that evolved and undulated over the course of his fifty year career.

At their best these films seem to pour directly from the former eagle scout turned Hollywood outsider’s subconscious — disturbed visions of America filtered through the genres of noir, horror and science fiction

His low budget 1977 debut, Eraserhead felt almost handmade, a scarcely classifiable, nightmare parable exploring the anxiety of fatherhood. While the small town horrors of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet forced viewers to reckon with the drug abuse, sexual and domestic violence happening under their noses, with a style that was alternately seductive and confrontational. Wild at Heart and The Straight Story took us on the road, introducing a cast of characters sprung straight from Lynch’s subconscious: Nicholas Cage in a snake skin jacket, Laura Dern as the rebel girl in black, and Richard Farnsworth as a WWII veteran who hits the tarmac on a ride on lawnmower.

Later works moved with Lynch to Los Angeles, deconstructing and ultimately exploding the smoke and mirrors, glitter and grime of Hollywood’s self-image. The puzzle-box plots of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive twist narrative fiction to breaking point, with Lynch’s dream scenarios full of gangsters, pornographers and moviemakers coming apart at the seams completely in his last feature film, the 2006 opus, INLAND EMPIRE.

Many fans have been revisiting David Lynch’s work in the weeks since his death, and some may find it daunting to spend extended periods in his worlds, it is also rewarding to draw out the themes, images and connections that span his career. Visitors to HOME’s film season will quickly identify the core cast of collaborators that pop up again and again in the credits. From on-screen talent including Laura Dern and Lynch stand-in Kyle MacLachlan there are also recurring roles for the likes of Sheryl Lee, Jack Nance, Michael Anderson, Grace Zabriskie and Harry Dean Stanton — not to mention the music of composer Angelo Badalamenti, who scored five projects.

HOME have promised a series of late evening encounters with Lynch’s films this Spring, with screenings of Blue Velvet (Thu 13 Mar & Fri 2 May), Mulholland Drive (Fri 28 Mar & Fri 16 May), Eraserhead (Fri 11 April) and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Sat 19 April) scheduled so far.