The city that influenced David Lynch “more than any other filmmaker”
The true auteur of the cinematic medium, David Lynch, has persistently probed the furthest depths of darkness throughout his impressive oeuvre. In the likes of Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and even Twin Peaks, Lynch has dove headfirst into the eerie and unsettling side of film.
A fascination with darkness leads to strange and surreal narratives that defy convention and explanation. Lines between reality and nightmare are often blurred, leaving characters and audiences alike to scramble in the shadows for a sense of meaning and comfort.
While Lynch is certainly a director who has his personal influences, previously stating his admiration for the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock, it appears that few people, or rather, places, have inspired Lynch as much as the dark and dirty city of Philadelphia.
“I had my first thrilling thought in Philadelphia,” Lynch once told Loud & Quiet. “Philadelphia, more than any filmmaker, influenced me. It’s the sickest, most corrupt, decaying, fear-ridden city imaginable. I was very poor and living in bad areas. I felt like I was constantly in danger. But it was so fantastic at the same time.”
Lynch had moved to Philadelphia once he had returned from a trip to Europe with his friend Jack Fisk when the pair enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. At the Academy, Lynch met and married a fellow student, and the pair had a daughter together. It was also where Lynch made his first short film.
Lynch, Peggy Reavy and their daughter Jennifer moved to the Fairmount neighbourhood, where crime and poverty were high, but the houses were cheap. Their lives were filled with danger, but it was a period of remarkable inspiration for the young filmmaker.
“We lived cheap, but the city was full of fear,” Lynch said in the book Lynch on Lynch. “A kid was shot to death down the street… We were robbed twice, had windows shot out, and had a car stolen. The house was first broken into only three days after we moved in… The feeling was so close to extreme danger, and the fear was so intense. There was violence, hate, and filth. But the biggest influence in my whole life was that city.”
Lynch lived his first years as a filmmaker in Philadelphia before setting out for Los Angeles so he could study the profession at the AFI Conservatory, where he set about working on his first film, Eraserhead. But Philadelphia would always be a part of his creative process.
