The Odd Couple: The tale of David Lynch and Mel Brooks’ strange friendship
Odd couples are common in Hollywood: Laurel and Hardy, Harold and Maude… but who is David Lynch’s surprising counterpart? Lynch’s work exists in its own world, incomparable to other filmmakers. So much so that there’s even a term for his unique brand of dreamy and often macabre surrealism: Lynchian. Its definition can refer to the ominous and dark tones of his films, the abstract juxtapositions, or the familiar nostalgic twinkle of Angelo Badalamenti’s score.
Emerging on the block in 1967, Lynch is the modern Renaissance man, a filmmaker, musician, visual artist, writer and actor. Following studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he made his first film, a 60-second animation, Six Men Getting Sick, which led to him studying the craft further at the American Film Institute’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, a period which resulted in the Lynch we know and love today.
This frenetic period of study led to him graduating and staking his claim as the most original man in Hollywood when he made Eraserhead in 1977. Although there are moments of dark humour and unexpected cheekiness in his films, Lynch is not known for being a comedian, nor his films as light comic relief. And he’s certainly not known for being breezily outgoing.
Despite this, there was someone unlikely—and significant—who had his eye on Lynch’s odd debut film and work: Mel Brooks. The multi-hyphenate comedian, actor, writer, director, playwright, and songwriter found himself entranced by Lynch’s unique vision. Known for groundbreaking comedies like The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974), and Young Frankenstein (1974), Brooks’ career spanned seven decades. However, he saw something more avant-garde in Lynch’s work and wanted to get onboard with this new wave of weirdness.
In an interview with Bomb magazine, Lynch opened up the process of being hired to direct 1980’s seminal work, The Elephant Man, thanks to Brooks, “You wouldn’t think that anybody would select the director of Eraserhead to direct The Elephant Man. But Mel Brooks is a rare bird. He is known for his comedy, which is truly funny, but perhaps not so intellectually stimulating.“
He continued: “But he really has a poet’s soul. Mel is very intelligent and creative, and he is an artist. He is very sensitive, and he really understands human nature. Otherwise he couldn’t do those great comedies. I guess Eraserhead spoke to him, and off we went”.
Unbeknownst to most audiences, Brooks had produced The Elephant Man—a tactic to ensure audiences didn’t view the film in the same comedic tone of Brooks’ usual work. But the connection between the two films is deeper than it appears. Eraserhead, the story about a man struggling to care for his deformed child in a desolate industrial landscape, is both bleak and yet tragically human. The Elephant Ma, meanwhile, tells the tale of the real-life Joseph Merrick, a man born with facial disfigurement (and refined soul) forced into the demeaning work of sideshows.
When asked whether it was luck or fate to be asked to direct, Lynch thinks so. It’s “luck of the draw”. He continues, “But you gotta do what you love. I always say that I really believe that George Lucas or Steven Spielberg do what they truly love. They make the films they truly love. And it just happens that there are billions of people who like the same things they like. And there are others who make the films they truly love, but the audience is very small.”
His luck certainly paid off, with The Elephant Man earning $26million at the box office and winning ‘Best Film’ at the 1981 Baftas, solidifying it as an instant classic.
