FILM

David Lynch

Written by Shari Roman // Portrait by Richard Dumas

Onstage at the Stockholm 14th International Film Festival, the Lifetime Achievement award is being announced. "Ladies and gentlemen," intones legendary Swedish actress Pernilla August, by way of introducing the award-winning director, "Daaavid Lynch!"

As the mournful Angelo Badalamenti theme from Twin Peaks cascades, a tall, clean-shaven figure in a dark suit, sporting an architecturally improbable gray pompadour, shyly emerges from the wings. Stopping at the podium, he hefts the statuette, a bronze horse weighing in at approximately 16 pounds (reportedly one of the heaviest awards in the world).

"Well look at this!" he aw-shucks in disbelief, his small-town Montana boy twang booming through he cheering auditorium. "A liftetime achievement award? Me? But I´m only 27!" He waits for the audience´s approving laughter to wash over him, then says, "That´s good. I guess that means I´ve got my whole life ahead of me." In his nth incarnation as legendary cinema adventurer, at 57, David Lynch is a wildly creative and eccentric photographer, painter, music video and commercial director, more than occasional cinematic noir prankster, and burgeoning Internet auteur.

Since his feature debut in the late-´70s with Eraserhead (reportedly Stanley Kubrick´s favorite film), Lynchian, as a term, has seeped into our consciousness to describe an unsettling, alternate celluloid universe. Although he has made relatively straightforward films, such as The Elephant Man and The Straight Story, his reputation is built on far more impudent ground. Juxtaposing a wiggy mix of innocence and corruption in sexually twisted features such as his Palme d`Or winner, Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr., and the TV series, Twin Peaks, his oeuvre forms one of the most apocalyptic visions of destruction ever to deconstruct the idiomatic peachy-keen 1950s family life that makes up America´s mythological landscape.

Despite what dark conclusions one may draw from Lynch´s work, the filmmaker recalls a cheerful, unencumbered youth. Born in the small town of Missoula, Montana, he was raised in various cities throughout the Twin Peaks-ian Pacific Northwest, surrounded by lakes, mountains, trees and love. He has joked pensively, "The one thing that disturbs me is that many psychopaths say they had a very happy childhood."

In his own quiet way, he is also savoring a new time of creative enlightenment. After the critical success of Mulholland Dr., and his term as president of the 2002 Cannes jury for feature films (his gravely smiling, disembodied head floated on mile-high billboards above the Croisette), it could be said that Lynch may have finally said adieu to the underground and turned elder Hollywood statesman, spending his off hour entertaining the seductive advances of major studios. But as usual, Lynch is off travelling an altogether lost highway; and in this case, it´s the Internet highway via his pay per view site, www.davidlynch.com

"I cut their heads off right there in the wood. Then I rip ´em open, gut ´em, and fry me some genuine old deer meat... There´s nothing like sharing with a friend," growls the animated star of Lynch´s Dumbland, while discussing the joys of hunting and fishing. Then there is his live-action series, Rabbits, set in a bizarre sitcom-style world that features actors, such as his Mulholland Dr. star Naomi Watts, who is unrecognizable inside her massive rabbit costume.

"Okay, they´re hot and heavy to wear," Watts retorts loyally. "You can´t see out of them. We say these obtuse lines of dialogue. But as I am indebted to David for the rest of my life, he can put me in a bunny suit whenever he likes." She beams. "His nickname for me is Buttercup."

The next day, over coffee at a local hotel, Lynch says by way of a vague explanation, "I love actors. I respect them. They have to go out on a limb, be somebody else and make it real. I just try and make it a good environment for them to achieve that." And the Internet, as he sees it, is a place where artistic freedom is still possible. "I`not as comfortable with words as I am with images and sounds. There are many ideas that I have an opportunity to work on, that I enjoy airing on the website. All I do is translate that inner feeling into a different medium. It´s all an experiment. It could lead to feature film, or it could lead to something else..."

He pauses and smile enigmatically, leans back, takes a sip of coffee and watches the snow falling in the streets. Clad in much the same attire as the evening before, he looks a bit like a kindly Midwestern insurance salesman who has gone through a life-changing experience and is now in touch with a deeper, spiritual essence. It´s not an assumption that´s too far off.

Lynch says proudly that he has always been fascinated by the magical and inexplicable side of life, offering proudly, "I´ve practiced transcendental meditation for 30 years. Many of my ideas come out of that. For me, it´s a way of catching ideas on an intuitive, deeper level. It´s kind of like fishing. The little ones are on the surface. The bigger ones are down below." His right hand makes glorious, shimmery gestures in the air. "All you can do is hope people fall in love with the idea the same way you did. If you believe in your work and you´ve done it in a way that feels correct," he muses gently, "well then, sometimes reading negative reviews doesn´t matter so much."