(Credits: Far Out / Manchester International Festival)
“I have learned so much”: One of the few TV shows that David Lynch actually watches
David Lynch’s cinema is so singular and unique that each of his films seems to exist in a universe of its own, swirling in a dreamlike monochrome mass. From his remarkable 1977 debut, Eraserhead through to his most recent feature film, 2006’s Inland Empire, each of his films border the place between reality and fantasy where the subconscious is allowed to roam free and pick apart the very fabric of life.
Yet, every piece of art is somehow inspired by that which came before it, and Lynch’s wild worlds were not conjured solely by himself. Taking influence from some of cinema’s greatest filmmakers, Lynch has previously expressed his fondness for the Italian director Federico Fellini while also praising the iconic Billy Wilder movie Sunset Boulevard from 1950, which remains one of the finest Hollywood films of the 20th century.
Elsewhere, Lynch has made no secret about his love for the technological marvel that is 1939’s Wizard of Oz, a film which he claims to think about every day of his life. “The Wizard of Oz is a film with very great power,” the director added, “like a dream…it has immense emotional power. There’s a certain amount of fear in that picture, as well as things to dream about. So it seems truthful in some way”.
Many parallels can, indeed, be drawn from the technicolour cinematic favourite to Lynch’s filmography. The movie tells the story of a young girl who visits another fantasy world and goes on an adventure to find herself. But despite this film and many others like it having a significant influence on the director’s early career, in the contemporary world, he cares little for what’s on the big screen.
In fact, in an interview with The Telegraph, Lynch expressed: “I have not seen anything for years and I am not really a movie buff. I love to make them, but I don’t really see a lot of films”.
That said, the director admits to loving some shows on the small screen, adding: “I don’t watch much TV except I have been watching this Velocity Channel, where they have car shows and customise and restore cars. I have learned so much—the metal work, the upholstery, and the engine work that these guys and gals do is thrilling to me. A lot of these people are real artists”.
Presumably talking about the Discovery Velocity TV network, which is now known as Motor Trend, there’s really no surprise that Lynch loves the classic automobile, with many of his movies involving road trips or car crashes. From the road trip Alvin takes on his humble lawnmower in The Straight Story to the car driving in the blackness of the night in Lost Highway, for Lynch, vehicles are a gateway into another world entirely.
Yet, as he also clearly outlines, cars are marvellous machines of engineering that borderline on being sexually exciting, as his own bizarre advert for the Nissan Micra suggests below.
