David Lynch - Master of Uncanny Noir

 

An artist that I will likely return to fairly often on this blog. looking more specifically at different examples and elements of his work is David Lynch. Both probably my favourite living artist and at this point of time one of the (at the time of writing) few results found when typing 'Uncanny Noir' into an internet search engine, the art of David Lynch is frequntly a prime example of what the term represents.

Working in various mediums such as music, photography and painting Lynch is best known for his film and television work. Here in films such as the LA Trilogy - Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire, Blue Velvet and the TV shows Twin Peaks (and its film prequel Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me) and the sadly too limited show Hotel Room, we see both Lynch's trademark delivery of the Uncanny (including Doppelgangers, Liminal Spaces, Dream States and Time anomalies) but also his appreciation of Noir style and themes (for example police/detective procedurals, Femmes Fatale, mysterious murder victims, menacing antagonists, criminal underworlds and imperfect protagonists).

 

 

Born in Montana in 1946, Lynch is too young to have been influenced as a burgeoning artist by the first wave of Film Noir upon its initial release, but it is an era that he grew up in and the news, style, cinema, music, art and Americana of the post-war years appears to have been absorbed by Lynch as an artist and released through a dark filter in his own work.

Amongst his favourite films (which apparently includes titles as diverse as The Wizard of Oz, Lolita and Stroszek) are said to be the great thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo and Rear Window, and Billy Wilder's portrait of fading Hollywood Sunset Blvd. Other movies said to have been of influence to Lynch are Otto Preminger's Laura and Blake Edward's Experiment in Terror. I would not be surprised to learn that Herk Hervey's strange masterpiece Carnival of Souls inspired Lynch as it seems a precursor to the dreamlike, unsettling atmosphere utilised so well by Lynch as to inspire the description 'Lynchian'.

Whilst famed as a filmmaker, Lynch is also very accomplished as both a visual and sound artist. Disciplines which also are integral to his film-work. Working with both the composer Angelo Badalamenti and sound artist Dean Hurley, Lynch's groundbreaking television drama Twin Peaks is as noteworthy for its soundtrack and sound work as it is for its distinctive visuals and strange, dark narrative. The third season also featuring live music appearances by various music acts including Julee Cruise, Nine Inch Nails, The Veils, Sharron Van Etten, Chromatics, Rebekah Del Rio and Trouble (featuring Dean Hurley, Sam Smith, Lynch's son Riley and Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai). Lynch's own music is a strange blend of Trip Hop and 1950s echo-laden pop. His musical tastes ranging from Janis Joplin to Krzystof Penderecki, from Roy Orbison to Mercury Rev.
His work has also influenced numerous artists to compose music in a 'Lynchian' mode such as the Dale Cooper Quartet, Lana del Rey, Messer Chups and Tuxedomoon.

Painters that have had an influence upon Lynch's work include Edward Hopper, Francis Bacon, Rene Magritte, Hieronymous Bosch and Oskar Kokoschka. His favourite writers include Franz Kafka and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

 by andy paciorek