There are certain mainstream American film directors with a back catalogue of work who have reached an age where it can now be legitmately claimed that they were, and are, part of a golden generation. We've seen it with names such as Woody Allen, Terrence Malick and David Cronenberg, who have recently released award-winning films like Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life and A Dangerous Method respectively, and are now cemented in Hollywood folklore. The kinds of filmmakers who will be read, studied and enjoyed as some of the great filmmakers of the twentieth century. We can add to that list David Lynch, who celebrates a career retrospective opening this Friday at BFI Southbank.
An outsider to conventional American cinema, Lynch has amassed an independent following that became so strong he was welcomed into the mainstream. Early successes such as Eraserhead, Dune, The Elephant Man and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me developed an audience who enjoyed twisted, surreal, narrative cinema. But more than just a purveyor of nightmarish scenario, Lynch showed his movie-making capabilities by creating a body of work that was able to cross-over between indie and multiplex fare.
This overview of the director's work brings together all of the above films, along with contemporary classics including Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and the film that began the reconsideration of his ouevre, The Straight Story, a simple tale of a man crossing America to visit his terminally-ill brother. Lynch is not only a filmmaker who defies the expectations of critics and audiences, but he does so of himself. A true visionary, this is one season not to miss.
David Lynch: A Reputation Precedes... is at BFI Southbank
between 17 - 29 February.
