Saoirse Ronan names her favourite David Lynch movie
After making her breakthrough in Joe Wright’s 2007 adaptation of Atonement, Saoirse Ronan has gradually secured a place as something of an indie darling. Endearing herself to Letterboxd users and award seasons alike with appearances in Wes Anderson’s beloved The Grand Budapest Hotel and Greta Gerwig’s endearing coming-of-age Lady Bird, Ronan is now a firm favourite in the eyes of cinephiles and critics.
Likewise, director David Lynch has become a staple in indie cinema scenes. His experimental feature-length debut has become a cult classic, while the surrealist Mulholland Drive has been widely lauded. His iconic weather reports and quirky Oscar campaigns, meanwhile, have endeared him to audiences on a more personal level. Lynch is also the mind behind the esoteric drama Twin Peaks, earning him further favour among indie film fans.
Though the two occupy very different realms in modern cinema, the crossover between their audiences is vast. Both have evolved into quirky, quintessential figures of the indie scene in their own right, so it’s no surprise that Ronan admires Lynch’s experimental, surrealist filmmaking.
The Little Women star once picked out five of her favourite films, and Lynch made the list. Between Martin Scorsese’s iconic Taxi Driver and Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, Ronan picked out Lynch’s debut, Eraserhead, as one of her top movies during an interview with Rotten Tomatoes.
Ronan recalls telling everyone that she had seen the film, “‘cuz I felt really cool that I’d seen this older David Lynch film”, but she goes on to state that she actually, genuinely loved it. Just as perplexed as the rest of us, Ronan immediately took to Google to watch Lynch interviews, seeking an explanation for what she had just seen. To the actor, that exercise seemed like Lynch’s aim: “That was kind of the point for him, I think, was to have people kind of ask questions and make up, in a way, their own story for this bizarre character. And I really loved that,” she said.
Though none of Ronan’s roles so far have come close to the bizarre subjectivity of Eraserhead, this is certainly something she’d like to replicate in her own career. She recalls, “I hoped, God, if I ever got to make a film or anything, it would be such an interesting way to go about it, you know. To kind of make everything so nonsensical that people are forced to make sense out of it themselves.”
Ronan concluded: “Maybe not quite as abstract as Eraserhead; I mean it’s nice to know what it’s about. But, yeah, just to be able to almost leave your own mark on a film or take what you want away from it is a lovely thing.” Though it doesn’t seem like Ronan will be starring as an Eraserhead-style creature anytime soon, it would be a treat to see her take on a more experimental film.
