David Lynch’s favourite Billy Wilder movies
Whether you’re a devoted follower of David Lynch or find his movies confusing and hard to decipher, his place in cinema history has been firmly cemented over the years with an impressive body of work. The director began making experimental short films while studying art, but his decision to make a feature film would change everything.
He worked on Eraserhead for years, and it was eventually released in 1977, becoming a cult classic. The cheaply-made black-and-white film transcended the boundaries of its budget and took on an otherworldly existence, where it seemed as though anything was possible. Its surreal features came to define Lynch’s oeuvre, and he has continued to inject his projects with bizarre and unconventional imagery ever since.
Since then, he has created projects like The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks, becoming one of cinema’s most important figures. His love of cinema has allowed him to think creatively – he has studied many films and learnt from them, taking both the good and the bad and mixing them with his own signature style.
One of his favourite filmmakers, who he has been significantly impacted by, is Billy Wilder. Known for his incredible screenplays, Wilder is considered one of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, creating some stone-cold classics like Double Indemnity, Sabrina, and Some Like It Hot. For Lynch, Wilder’s work has been a huge source of inspiration, and you can even see parallels between some of their movies.
Most importantly, Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, released in 1950, has had a drastic impact on Lynch’s life. The movie follows a screenwriter and a former actor, with the latter desperately hoping to make a Hollywood comeback. It’s a great film about filmmaking, and it shaped the way Lynch approached Mulholland Drive, another fantastic film that features filmmaking as a central theme.
Lynch once told Dazed that Sunset Boulevard has “the greatest mood; you’re immersed in it like a dream. It catches a Hollywood story that connects the golden age of Hollywood with the present day.” He also praised the combination of “beauty,” “sadness,” and “mystery.” There are several parallels between the film and Mulholland Drive, such as the plot twists in each, as well as the fact that Lynch clearly named his movie after a Hollywood street as a homage to Sunset Boulevard.
That’s not the only Wilder film that Lynch loves, of course. He also deeply admires The Apartment, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. The movie is a romantic comedy-drama, with the narrative following a man who allows his colleagues to use his apartment to have affairs. He finds himself attracted to a woman who works in the building, and drama ensues as he discovers information he would rather have not known.
When Lynch opened up his own Parisian club inspired by the one in Mulholland Drive, Club Silencio, he screened both The Apartment and Sunset Boulevard as an homage to one of his favourite filmmakers. Wilder’s ability to write such compelling dramas, using mystery, comedy, romance, and thrills fluidly, made him such a legendary figure, and one that Lynch will always love.
