Filmmaker and painter David Lynch died January 15 at age 78. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1994 about making his surrealist first movie, Eraserhead, leaving things up for interpretation, and where he finds inspiration. Also, we'll hear from Isabella Rossellini who starred in Lynch's Blue Velvet as a nightclub singer, and Nicolas Cage, who worked with him in Wild At Heart. And our TV critic David Bianculli shares an appreciation. Also, Justin Chang reviews the new film supernatural thriller Presence.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the legacy of David Lynch's filmmaking?
You're in very bad trouble if you won't cooperate.
Well, I... Mary?
Heather!
Answer me.
I'm too nervous.
There's a baby. It's at the hospital. Mom! And you're the father. That's impossible. There's still not sure it is a baby. It's premature, but there's a baby.
I think you were already a father when you made this movie. Was fatherhood disturbing to you?
Yes, it was.
What was disturbing about it?
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Chapter 2: How did David Lynch's career begin with Eraserhead?
He went in just to scout you?
No, Jonathan Sanger, who was the producer, produced The Elephant Man, told me that everybody, the writers were on, he was on, you know, the thing was going, but Mel wanted to see Eraserhead before he would let me direct the picture. And everything, you know, wrote or fell on... So I said, Jonathan, there's no way Mel's going to, you know, like this, go for Eraserhead.
And Jonathan said, well, let's just wait and see. So it's a true story. After the screening, Mel literally ran out of the theater and embraced me and said, you're a madman. I love you. But Mel is an extremely complex, interesting fellow.
David Lynch speaking with Terry Gross in 1994. He died last week at the age of 78. Coming up, more of Terry's interview with him. And we also hear from Isabella Rossellini, who starred in his film Blue Velvet, and from Nicolas Cage, who co-starred opposite Laura Dern in Lynch's Wild at Heart. I'm David Bianculli, and this is Fresh Air.
Bluer than velvet was the night. Softer than satin was the light from the stars.
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Chapter 3: What themes are explored in Lynch's films?
Yes, I do, because I once was beaten. And I remembered when I played that part... And I had to say that line, beat me, beat me. I said, why would this woman want to be beaten? And then I remember that the time that it happened to me that I was beaten, the first blow to my head, and you just see little stars, exactly like Donald Duck.
And there was a sense of bewilderment, and you don't know where you are. But I wasn't panicked. I wasn't anything. I just was bewildered, a strange feeling. And I thought that this woman, who had so many torments in her mind, became the victim of the abuse that she... because she was raped and beaten by the character of Dennis Hopper, so that when she did get the first blow, the first punch...
She would see the star, and her tormented thoughts could stop. And that's why she asked to be beaten.
Oh, what an interesting way of looking at it. Who beat you?
I don't want to give the details of all that. I don't want to start being like, oh, poor me, poor me. It happened, but I'm fine now.
Fine, okay, okay. There's a scene in the movie where you're wandering around the street naked. Tell me about that scene and what you wanted your body to look at. It's not a vanity scene.
No, not at all. I mean, it's not at all. David Lynch told me that when he was a child coming back from school, he saw a naked woman walking in the street. And instead of getting aroused or excited at that sight, he started to cry, terrified him. And he wanted to convey the same terror. He wanted Dorothy to walk in the street of the
where we shot the film naked and convey the same sense of terror instead of the sense of sex appeal. And when he was talking to me, there was a photo of Nick Ott that I remembered. And it was a photo of a young girl in Vietnam. She has been a victim of a Nepal attack and her clothes have been completely torn off the body and she has skin hanging.
And she's completely naked and she walks in the street with the arms outstretched and it's such a helpless gesture. And I couldn't think of anything else that is absolute helpless gesture and walking like that. If I would have walked covering my breast or covering myself, it meant that Dorothy still had some sense of pride, still had something in her to protect her.
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