David Lynch - Television Tropes & Idioms

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David Lynch

David Lynch is a widely acclaimed and influential director of film and television. Like Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa, he was originally trained as a painter. He made a short film called Six Men Getting Sick, which won a cash prize. From this point forward, he would be a professional filmmaker.

Some of the obvious influences on his films are Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder, The Wizard Of Oz, 1950s pop music, Tod Browning and Luis Buñuel.

Kunihiko Ikuhara wants to collaborate with him some day. Their powers combined will pierce the heavens.

Mr. Lynch's filmography includes:

Many short films and music videos
Eraserhead
The Elephant Man
Dune
Blue Velvet
Wild at Heart
Twin Peaks
Lost Highway
The Straight Story - Wait for it...a G-rated Disney movie. Has a coherent plot and everything!
Mulholland Drive
Inland Empire

Tropes in Mr. Lynch's movies and life include:

Alan Smithee - For the long version of Dune. The director's cut is considerably shorter.
Amnesiac Dissonance
Arc Words - There is not a single David Lynch film that doesn't depend on the use of repeated cryptic phrases to set a spooky or dreamlike mood.
Big Ol Eyebrows - The Mentats in Dune
Body Motifs - head injuries
Circus Of Fear - The Elephant Man tries to escape one
Cryptic Conversation - All the time
Cloudcuckoolander - Lynch is certainly one of these. An article once described him as "Jimmy Stewart from Mars."
Dada Comics - His comic The Angriest Dog in the World inspired Dinosaur Comics
Dying Dream - Mulholland Drive Or Is It?
Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory - some of the more probable guesses as to what his films mean
The Fifties - None of his works are actually set in the fifties, but most of them are visually and thematically very clearly influenced by the era.
Fisher King - in Dune
Grotesque Gallery
Meghan Box - Mulholland Drive
Mind Screw - Mr. Lynch is a mental Lothario.
Myth Arc - averted trope
Nightmare Fuel Unleaded - If something happens in a David Lynch movie, it qualifies for this trope.
Nightmare Valley - Some of his commercials, and Michael J. Anderson's role in Mulholland Drive.
Non Actor Vehicle - Sting in Dune
Production Posse and Spiritual Successor - Many of his films share themes, crew, actors and occasionally even characters.
- Word Of God also states that Mulholland Drive takes place in the same universe as Twin Peaks, which explains a few things.
Psychic Nosebleed - When Paul takes the Water of Life. Quite possibly Henry's nosebleed in Eraserhead
Scare Chord
Seemingly Wholesome Fifties Girl - a favorite character type
Shrug Of God - Lynch flat refuses to explain his movies, and that goes times ten for how he made Eraserhead's baby.
Sliding Scale Of Realistic Vs Fantastic - Fucked with. Brutally.
Surreal Horror
The Chris Carter Effect - Lynch never planned to reveal anything on Twin Peaks.
The Resolution Will Not Be Televised - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Tomato In The Mirror - part of the plot of Mulholland Drive, maybe.
True Art Is Incomprehensible