, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist
films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound design
. The surreal, and in many cases violent, elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they "disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences.
Born to a middle class family in Missoula
, Montana
, Lynch spent his childhood travelling around the United States, before going on to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films. Deciding to devote himself more fully to this medium, he moved to Los Angeles
, where he produced his first motion picture, the surrealist horror Eraserhead
(1977).
I don't think about technique. The ideas dictate everything. You have to be true to that or you're dead.
In film, life-and-death struggles make you sit up, lean forward a little bit. They amplify things happening, in smaller ways, in all of us. These things show up in relationships. They show up in struggles and bring them to a critical point.
The beginning dictates the direction and you never know where you're going to go ... the mood is what you're looking for, and somehow we always find it.
When I was little in Spokane, Washington I drew all the time... and my father would bring paper home ... and I mostly drew browning automatic water-cooled sub-machine guns... that was my favorite.