David Lynch, Auteur

Signature Features

The cinematography and editing in David Lynch films is almost always notably stylised. There is obvious building of pace and tension in his films, but he also gives lots of time for long takes with little context or meaning towards the plot of the film. This is seen in the handheld tracking shots of the car on Mulholland Drive, or the extremely long road shot in Lost Highway (and Wild at Heart actually.) These unedited shots aren’t always just of cars on roads, but are of irrelevant things that just give an aesthetic and mysterious feel to the narrative. Camera wise, there are very few completely static shots in a Lynch film; the unsteady, pushing forward, almost PoV shot seen around the house in Lost Highway, and into the ear in Blue Velvet is habitual of most Lynch films. He also uses cinematography to obscure visual information, such as the ‘lens whacking’ in the party at Mulholland Drive where Diane loses her mind.

Music is also a key element that makes his films notably Lynchian. He usually collaborates with composer Angelo Badalamenti (see later paragraph) and his scores are often jazzy, mysterious and slightly ominous. There is rarely a moment in a Lynch film where no non-diegetic sound can be heard; since Eraserhead Lynch has been developing “room tone” which is basically abstract sound of wind to electricity wires to train tracks that juxtaposes or amplifies the emotions conveyed in the diegetic sound. Also, basically all of his films contain a full song performed with few edits away or listened to by the characters- Blue Velvet, Wicked Game, Bowie, Nine Inch Nails etc etc. This is also as a way of building atmosphere, intrigue and discomfort. In Mulholland Drive, for example, the performance of Crying in Club Silencio is purely to show the characters emotional and confused- and to try and evoke that same reaction from the audience.

There are so many themes and motifs in Lynch’s films. Duality, (Mulholland Drive- inspired by Bergman’s Persona, Twin Peaks with the evil version of each character in the Red Room) dreams, morality, (lots of suicide, lots of murder) doppelgängers, (Lost Highway) violence, (Blue Velvet) criminality and darkness of humanity, (also Blue Velvet) deformity, (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man) and just generally weird and unusual people (Nick Cage in Wild at Heart.)

Lynch’s obsession with Americana and the American Dream also plays a massive role in the contextual backdrop and aesthetic of all his film. Blue Velvet, for example, is set in a perfect American town with rose gardens and white picket fences, but as soon as Kyle Mclachlan’s character discovers more that this rose coloured world can obscure the settings turn to dodgy clubs and roadhouses, neglected buildings and industrial settings. He uses set design to evoke the themes of duality, criminality and light and dark that is present in all of his work.

Aesthetics

The use of colour to connote emotional state and overall aesthetic of the scene is a very Lynchian feature. Blue is probably the most prevalent of all the colours in is films, and is often seen in the cold lighting highlighting individual characters or important objects (hinted at slightly in “Blue” Velvet…) Red is associated with insanity such as the red room in Twin Peaks, or the red light cast by the lamp on Diane’s bedside table in Mulholland Drive. Green (in Lost Highway) amplifies the fear and uncanny nature of the main character. But apart from that, black is the prevailing colour palette for a Lynch film- reflective of the darkness his story’s delve into (it’s also apparently his favourite colour.)

Lynch’s development of his female characters (or lack of) is also a notably aesthetic choice. Every woman in his films are troubled and traumatised in some way or another, but always fall into his unachievable male gaze categories of femme fatale (Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway, Blue Velvet) or schoolgirl (Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart.) He also has a thing for aestheticising violence against women based on a seeing a naked woman covered in blood walking down the street. This inspired the extremely glorified and romanticised sexual abuse in Blue Velvet. Is the violence he inflicts on his female characters a punishment for their un-achievability through their sexuality or innocence? Or is it just the ultimate shock factor he can offer an audience?

Fragmentation and multiple timelines for information, stories and characters is also prevalent in most of his films. Instead of giving us the full story, Lynch gives clues and metaphors and so makes the audience the interpreters of his films. This is also seen in the duality of multiple characters- such Laura Palmer, both characters in Mulholland Drive and Alice/Renee in Lost Highway. Lynch uses this double casting or switch between personas to confuse the audience but also give more depth to an otherwise underdeveloped character (or maybe it means he can’t just properly develop a single female character- like how both Rita and Camilla have nothing about them other than one being the Madonna and the other being the Whore…)

Lastly, a Lynch film has certain notable objects, designs and locations. Starting small, he likes to use ashtrays, lamps and other typical household objects whose contrast to the plot creates an uncanny sense “Home is a place where things can go wrong.” The he uses curtains and mirrors to reflect and obscure information. And the bigger picture is often set in a very typical and fundamentally American setting- such as roadhouses, suburbia, sprawling southern highways and industrial buildings. The whole purpose of “mulholland Drive” as a setting is a nod to Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard and other classic neo-noir films that have inspired Lynch’s aesthetic.

Casting

A common Lynchian factor is his use of interesting looking actors with sharp or distinct features- like Camilla and the guy with the thick eyebrows in Mulholland Drive. He also frequently casts people with physical disabilities, which is seen in Twin Peaks. Though not necessarily through a positive representation, the theme of “deformity” is typical of a Lynch film and he achieves this through SFX (Elephant Man, Eraserhead baby) or casting.

He also very obviously has a type for the main male and female characters his casts. For men, he usually goes for quirky, odd, curious, somewhat conventionally attractive men with socialising issues (Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet) whereas his leading women are all very attractive; and probably end up murdered, abused or just pretty traumatised so obviously have a sultry femme fatale (Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet) or deer in headlights (Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks) look about them.

Lynch also loves a good cameo- and has been in The Elephant Man, Dune, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway and Inland Empire.

Collaboration

Angelo Badalamenti was David Lynch’s long term musical score collaborator- starting with Blue Velvet where he was hired as Isabella Rossellini’s vocal coach but was later made the composer. Badalamenti described his relationship with Lynch as his “second best marriage” and they collaborated on Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive which Angelo had a cameo in.

Lynch is also know for his reoccurring collaborations with actors Kyle McLachlan (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Dune) Laura Dern (Wild at Heart, Inland Empire) Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks.)

Controlling Influence

For all of his feature films, Lynch is both writer and director- editing Eraserhead and Inland Empire, and cinematographer for Inland Empire. He is also always credited as just “sound” for all of the films Angelo worked as his composer as the pair would create the non-diegetic score and soundscape together before filming began.

Preferred Techniques

A lot of David Lynch’s work has been shot on film because digital wasn’t available until the early 2000s. That being said, though, he clearly states he much prefers the creative freedom digital filmmaking brings.

The majority of his films are shot on location to give the authentic feel to the Americana he portrays.