|
David Lynch
Biography:
 David K. Lynch was born on January 20th, 1946 in Missoula, Montana. When he was a young teenager his family would begin a series of work related moves that would take them to various cities across the country. They finally ended up in Alexandria, Virginia where Lynch would attend high school.
It was around this time that he would become interested in the world of art. He signed up for weekend courses at The Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC and after graduation he joined The Boston Museum School of Art full time. But his stay in Boston would be less stimulating than he was hoping for and a year later he dropped out. His next attempt at finding his muse was with a three year trip to study in Europe, but this would end up being equally uninspiring and was quickly cut short. Based on the recommendation of a friend, Lynch decided to take one more try at a formal education by enrolling in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. It was here that he would finally begin to discover his style.
Lynch got his first taste of filmmaking with his entry into an experimental painting and sculpture competition during his sophomore year at the Academy. The project was “Six Men Getting Sick”; a combination of sculpture and stop motion animation that Lynch called a “moving painting”. One of the panel members at the competition was H. Barton Wasserman, a millionaire with an eye for talent. He offered Lynch two thousand dollars to produce a similar work for his personal collection.
Lynch’s inexperience with the medium would eventually cause him to abort the project, but with the remaining money from his modest budget he produced his first short film titled “The Alphabet”. Using “The Alphabet” as a resume, Lynch applied for a grant from the American Film Institute. Against all odds he would eventually win the grant and produce “The Grandmother”, which would go on to win awards at various short film competitions. This success would lead to Lynch’s acceptance to the Center for Advanced Film Studies in Hollywood where he would begin preparations for his first feature length film, Eraserhead.
After a long and difficult production, Eraserhead slowly became a cult favorite and soon caught the attention of Mel Brooks who hired him to direct The Elephant Man. The emotional film was a critical and financial hit and Lynch suddenly found himself to be a hot filmmaking prospect. This would lead to the epic scale production of Dune; a film that would almost break him. But his recovery was quick and he was soon back in the spotlight with Blue Velvet.
His television series “Twin Peaks” in the early 1990’s was a cultural phenomenon and around that same time he would win the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival with his entry Wild at Heart. Lynch continues to push the boundaries of filmmaking with projects like Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr. He has also recently taken an interest in the internet where he produces films and filmmaking experiments for the members of his pay site, DavidLynch.com.
Films:
Eraserhead (1977)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Dune (1984)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Wild at Heart (1990)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Crumb (1994)
Lumière and Company (Lumière et compagnie) (1995)
Lost Highway (1997)
The Straight Story (1999)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Rabbits (2002)
Inland Empire (2006)
To Each His Cinema (2007)
More Things That Happened (2007)
Upcoming Projects:
Change Begins With (2009) (executive producer)
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2010) (executive producer)
King Shot (2010) (executive producer)
Other Feature Film Credits:
The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez (1991) (executive producer)
Nadja (1994) (executive producer)
Cabin Fever (2002) (uncredited executive producer)
Surveillance (2008) (executive producer)
Short Films:
Six Men Getting Sick (1966) (director and producer)
The Alphabet (1968) (writer, director, and editor)
The Grandmother (1970) (writer, director, and producer)
The Amputee (1944) (writer, director, and producer)
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) (writer and director)
Lumiere (1996) (director)
Darkend Room (2002) (writer and director)
Dumbland (2002) (writer, director, and producer)
Boat (2007) (writer, director, and editor)
Music Video Projects:
“Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak (1990)
“Unfinished Symphony” by Massive Attack (1991)
“Longing” by Yoshiki (1995)
“Rammstein” by Rammstein (1997)
Television Projects:
The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters (1982) (special effects assistant)
Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted (1990) (director and producer)
Twin Peaks (series 1990-1991) (series co-creator, writer of the pilot and episodes “Traces to Nowhere”, “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer”, and “May the Giant be with you”, director of the pilot and episodes “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer”, “May the Giant be with you”, “Coma”, “Lonely Souls”, and “Beyond Life and Death”, and executive producer)
American Chronicles (series 1990) (co-creator, producer, and co-director of episode “Champions”)
On the Air (series 1992) (co-creator, writer of episodes one and five, director of episode one, producer)
Hotel Room (series 1993) (co-creator, director of episodes “Blackout” and “Tricks”, executive producer)
Non Film Projects:
Member of the band Blue Bob.
Member of the band Thought Gang.
Writer of a weekly comic strip titled “The Angriest Dog in the World”.
Lynch is an accomplished painter and photographer. Samples of his work were featured in the book Images, published in December of 1994.
Produced the album Lux Vivens: The Music of Hildegard Von Bingen with Jocelyn Montgomery.
Co-wrote and produced the album Floating into the Night by Julee Cruise.
Production and Other Companies:
Asymmetrical Productions
DavidLynch.com
Lynch Entertainment
Lynch/Frost Productions
Twin Peaks Productions, Inc.
Film Award Ratios (wins/nominations):
Academy Awards – 0/13 (0.0%)
Golden Globes – 0/14 (0.0%)
Sundance Film Festival – 2/2 (100.0%)
Cannes Film Festival – 2/5 (40.0%)
Writers Guild of America – 0/3 (0.0%)
Directors Guild of America – 1/2 (50.0%)
AFI Top One Hundred Films of All Time – 0
Quote:
|
