David Lynch, the American filmmaker, has died at the age of 78. The news was shared by his family on Facebook: “There is a great void in the world now that he is no longer with us. But, as he used to say, keep your eye on the doughnut, not the hole.”
In 2024, Lynch was diagnosed with pulmonary emphysema, a chronic respiratory disease caused by his lifelong smoking habit. “I can barely cross a room,” he admitted.
Although he could no longer leave his home to work on new projects, he expressed a desire to continue making films remotely. After the Los Angeles wildfires, which began on January 7, 2025, Lynch was forced to leave his home. From that point, his health rapidly declined.
A look into his filmography
Born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana, Lynch directed his first independent film, Eraserhead, in 1977. His career breakthrough came three years later with The Elephant Man. This biographical film about Joseph Merrick, a man with severe physical deformities, earned eight Oscar nominations. In 1986, Lynch collaborated with Italian actress Isabella Rossellini on Blue Velvet, a film that launched Rossellini to international fame.
“I love making films because I love losing myself in another world. Films are a magical medium that lets you dream in the dark,” Lynch revealed in his autobiography, Catching the Big Fish. His films never offered simple explanations; instead, they aimed to challenge viewers, push them out of their comfort zones, and evoke strong emotions. His works were characterized by unease, horror, nocturnal streets, and inexplicable evils.
The surreal dimension of his films extended beyond visuals—sound was equally critical. Lynch often stated that films were “sound and image,” not the other way around. His debut, Eraserhead, lingers in the viewer’s mind largely due to its visceral sound design. The creaking of industrial machinery, the whistling wind sweeping through empty factory lots, the constant electrical hum, and the prolonged silences—these distorted, obsessive background noises immerse the audience in the paranoid psyche of Henry Spencer, the film’s protagonist.
Al Strobel, who played Philip Gerard in Twin Peaks, once described Lynch’s filmography as “a juxtaposition of horror and beauty.” Lynch consistently defied categorization or precise genre labels. Film critics even coined a specific term, now included in the Oxford Dictionary. If a movie blends dreams and reality, mundane elements with underlying surrealism and unease, it can be described as “Lynchian.”