The only “perfect” movies, according to David Lynch
David Lynch was the kind of director who appeared to be working on an entirely different level to anyone else, pulling the most magical stories from thin air and entrancing audiences as though in a spell. It’s a quality that seems unique to his work, with many other directors taking inspiration from his surrealist palette but nowhere near coming close to what he created.
Whether it be the legacy of Twin Peaks or the nightmarish Hollywood world of Mulholland Drive, the director could conjure deep meaning through mysterious imagery, making a genuinely timeless body of work that continues to be puzzled over. But while he might have been running on a different speed limit than anyone else, he still took snippets of inspiration from other greats in the game, describing a couple of masterpieces as “examples of perfect filmmaking”.
When discussing cinematic legends and those who have shaped the future of cinema, the work of Federico Fellini comes to mind for many, with countless directors citing his influence and masterful command over the medium. Whether it be Ari Aster or Paul Mazursky, many have pondered over the timelessness of his work and the way it manages to creep into films currently being made, something that Lynch also reflected on while sharing his love for the seminal classic, 8½.
While explaining the first movie he would show as a perfect example of filmmaking, Lynch said, “The first would be 8½, for the way Federico Fellini manages to accomplish with film what mostly abstract painters do – namely, to communicate emotion without ever saying or showing anything in a direct manner, without ever explaining anything, just by a sort of sheer magic.”
Lynch was very much motivated by abstract imagery and communicating complex feelings through music and little dialogue. This can be seen in the ‘In Dreams’ sequence in Blue Velvet or the opening segment of Twin Peaks, communicating tone through the perfect combination of sound and vision.
Fellini might be the most prestigious Italian director, but Lynch described another who is the pinnacle of cinema, saying, “I would show Rear Window, for the brilliant way in which Alfred Hitchcock manages to create, or rather, re-create a whole world within confined parameters. James Stewart never leaves his wheelchair during the film, and yet, through his point of view, we follow a very complex murder scheme. In the film, Hitchcock manages to take something huge and condense it into something really small. And he achieves that through a complete control of filmmaking technique.”
Rear Window is a beloved favourite within Hitchcock’s filmography, with the detective work from James Stewart and Grace Kelly mesmerising audiences as they solve a crime from their bedroom window. The suspense is only heightened through the fact that everything is kept at a distance, with only them being able to see what is happening despite it occurring in broad daylight, right in front of everyone’s noses. It’s a classic for a reason, and it remains easy to see why Lynch would herald it as a perfect example of filmmaking.
