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The Life and Legacy of David Lynch – Part 3

David Lynch has left the planet. Yet it still seems so surreal much like the body of work he leaves in his wake. After David’s passing, I got in touch with Matthew Kalil who has been a student of Lynch’s since the age of 13. Having taught screenwriting at the David Lynch Film School in Iowa for four years, the filmmaker and author of The Three Wells of Screenwriting gave me some beautiful insights into the legend that is and was David Lynch. Here’s what happened in Part 3 of our conversation.

When I asked that question, I wasn’t specifically thinking of any moments myself. But I do like the film moments that have a real impact. Like you said with Blue Velvet… there’s that which is very daunting and dark. Whenever you watch it and then of course Lost Highway the moment where the voice on the phone is also a mystery man in front of Bill Pullman. Just these sort of like sort of creative Creative but brilliant and scary moments that sort of just come up from nowhere. Absolutely. Yeah, so surprising.

he actually talks about walking into a room and when you walk into a room any room. Anything can happen and there’s people around and you don’t know what’s going on and you don’t know what relationship is to each other. And it’s not like fear of people, but I think there is a little bit of that because he was very reclusive. But he takes everyday moments and you just don’t know what’s gonna happen. Don’t you have to walk into a room anything could happen and you have to negotiate that space as a human and in that scene you’re talking about from Lost Highway where the mystery man just in a party suddenly appears and just before my phone and says “call me, I’m at your house” and it’s it’s very very freaky and interesting.

I’ve been listening to a lot of David Lynch or David’s soundtracks today. I don’t know why I just felt like okay. It’s a day where I’m just listening to his music his music. But the music is curated and I’ve seen there’s a song called ‘Something Wicked’ this way comes by Barry Adamson playing. It’s very it’s a great song and just an example of how they inspire people is it like when I heard that song I was like “Who is this Barry Adamson guy? I’ve never heard of him.”. And then I would go and like find out who he was and then I listened to all of Barry Adamson’s music and the next thing I knew I found this song with another song of his that I loved which inspired lots of other thoughts and ideas within me. So I think that’s the way he worked for me. Anyway, is that there were these like touchstone moments that he exposed me to and then they expanded beyond the phone So it becomes more than just a weird moment within that moment.

There’s there’s more Lynchland and actually now just remember where mine was great and I didn’t actually see anything which is the funny thing about it It was me as a kid listen to the Twin Peaks opening theme as my parents were watching it and I was in bed and it was that and then the Dallas theme, but Twin Peaks it just it had such a strange quality Angelo Badlamenti… he has just brought such a beautiful hauntingly strange texture to that music and I think it just left an impression on me.

With Twin Peaks, I didn’t know that it was as dark or absurd or I just remember hearing that music down the hallway. I’m always amazing and that that to me is like already even though I wasn’t seeing any of his work I was still actually drawn to it.

It’s interesting that you say that about this the music because sound is so important to his work not just the soundtrack but also the ambient sounds etc, which I mean, it’s like he’s famous for this. He does the sounds himself very often and I think it’s because sound affects you emotionally. That you remember being in that room listening to that that music come down the hallway.

Gives a certain feeling and I think his work always has that juxtaposition between image and sound where a lot of the power comes from… I should tell you my first time that I because it’s kind of interesting I and the reason I want to tell you is that I was really grateful I managed to tell David this story in a Zoom meeting, which was just like amazing and I just said to him I knew it was gonna be one of the last times I would see him because I was coming back to South Africa. I wasn’t getting involved in the school and sounds like I should tell you this David… I know you don’t like Dune but I’ve got to tell you that there was this little kid 13-year-old guy in Cape Town South Africa and his friend his buddy had just moved away and he was feeling very depressed. Me, him and my parents. I think well my dad and maybe his dad. I remember watching Dune as a little 13-year-old and just being absolutely blown away with what the heck is this thing?

There are these little laser guns and David did this thing where sound would turn into a weapon. So you would make a sound you just like say “kha-sha” and they would turn the gun when you shoot the laser gun through that sound. I think it has to do with his meditation and a mantra. So that was my first experience into his world.

Yeah, do you think he’s made a bad film?

Good question. I think he’s made so many films and a lot of these films are experimental. So Inland Empire is not a bad film, but it’s not one that’s easily digestible because he just made it with video cameras and his friends. His friends happen to be famous actors… so I think you know something like that is not as accessible to people. I don’t know if it’s necessarily bad.

He also made a TV series called Hotel Room, one of these TV series which no one knows about. I need to say they’re bad but they are definitely not as resonant as some of his other works. You’re experimenting with things and so I think he did make a lot of things. Personally, I really like What Would Jack Do?… the monkey short film for Netflix. Netflix just basically said yeah they would do whatever he wants. He made this thing which I think is hilarious, but it’s difficult to watch. So, I don’t know if “bad” is the word I would even use…

Inaccessible is maybe the word?

Yeah, a lot of his films do have an access point.

I agree with you with both those examples Inland Empire was just a little bit on the next level… just going deeper with David. There’s moments in there that I remember… like the rabbits in the sitcom.

Yeah I mean, it’s a moment.

It’s just so indelible on the mind when you’ve experienced something like that and interesting to see his take on things. I would love to have seen David Lynch making versions of other films because I really think he could have brought so much more to that it would undercut his whole individuality and everything. But I sometimes see something and I think myself what would David Lynch have done with that film script? That’s like a wonderful question because it just opens up this whole box of snakes.

…which is how he described the music he wanted to get from Billy Corgan for Lost Highway from the Smashing Pumpkins when did the ‘Eye’ track. His collaborations are famous I mean he’s got to that point where you could just phone someone up and say I was thinking about you I dreamed about you last night and then a person can’t say no.

The interesting collaboration I wanted to mention with Kyle McLachlan because Agent Cooper is in your favourite scene. Yeah, sort of very straight-faced kind of version of this detective. Yeah, so intelligence, but open to so many different dimensions which is just a brilliant character.

Yeah, so good.

It could have been called ‘Cooper’. I mean with that character being so instrumental, but then also going across to Dune and I think he calls him Kale.

Oh, really? Okay.

Yeah, but they have had such an ongoing special friendship, you know and collaborative kind of thing going and that’s what I was like about Lynch. He gathers his friends.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. There’s also Jack Nance who was in Eraserhead as the titular character. He was in almost every single Lynch film until the day he died and he would always work with him and always got him work. And there’s a story… He would help people out and he would work with the same people again and again because they loved working with him and I think he could trust them, but it’s not just trust. It’s like he had a family I think this is also why his death is going to affect so many people not just me who’s way on the periphery the people who worked with him closely are gonna be really affected. I mean Angelo died fairly recently about a year ago… and that was quite an effect. People felt it.

Laura Dern also comes to mind.

Yeah, they are a long time collaborators and been through everything together.

I love the loyalties. He exudes these these really rich and wonderful qualities and that maybe plays into why no one really speaks badly of him. Unflinching in terms of his vision, yet very simple, spirited and collaborative.

Yeah, absolutely. It’s surprising to have someone who’s so focused on their vision, but it’s collaborative.

So Matthew, I know that David’s been very influential in our lives and someone that we would see as an event filmmaker. I think he’s been hugely influential across the spectrum in the film industry and I wanted to find out how his legacy is going to play out and how he’s going to be remembered?

Mm-hmm. I think he kind of lives on. He came to our school… well, on Zoom and spoke to some student whose Dad had died and he left a message to her, in which he talks about his spirit living on in a weird way, I feel almost like he’s gonna be more inspirational now. And he’s gonna inspire me to try and meditate more for sure. So I think his legacy is to keep inspiring people to be creative and keep creating… almost as his in honour of him.

I think it’s a filmmaker, he cuts across So many levels and I think that’s what part of his magic is that he isn’t just an artist He isn’t just a filmmaker. He isn’t just a spiritual person. He’s so many different things and got so many facets to him. I love the fact that he is not wanting to divulge the secrets because we can just wonder why and I can just not know the answer.

Yeah, because there he is just saying this is what I dreamed and I don’t know what it means exactly But I’m sharing it with you. Yeah, and how much more intimate can you get than sharing the deepest parts of our subconscious?

I do think he’s a very intimate filmmaker… it’s a good word to use because I think he’s affected people deeply and intimately. Which is interesting for someone who’s not working on a rational level. It’s not like he’s talking to you and communicating clearly like a David Fincher or someone but he is communicating.

I must say that when I read the news unfortunately… discovered it on Twitter or X. Yeah, I don’t know how you’re meant to receive bad news these days but just seeing the news headline from all the different movie websites and at first I was just in disbelief. There was no feeling that he was going to disappear as I said earlier and it prompted me to write this and it was interesting to hear what you said about the stars in the universe because I used AI. Maybe this is a bit sacrilegious in a way to be doing that but I used AI to create an image to go along with this personal note. It’s of David looking very David. But also against the backdrop of a night sky with lights in the distance beautiful and looking to the stars.

Nice.

And so I think it’s sort of sums him up in a weird way… because he was kind of dark, but then you had the light side to him.

It reminds me of that Oscar Wilde quote: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”.

I’m gonna really miss the fact that now we aren’t gonna get new fresh work from this one. Yeah, but it does also feels that there’s just so much out there that’s worth exploring again that you could literally just go through it again and again and again and keep getting new things out of it, I said: “Shocked to learn David Lynch’s no more What a sad day it is The world has lost a creative visionary a true artist who added a surreal element to the stratosphere we will not be the same without his artistic life force, but the Lynchland legacy endures forever.” It’s difficult to think about it’s still like I think sinking in because he exists through the celluloid.

Absolutely, and it just doesn’t feel as though he actually has died.

Yeah, like you said, he’s just transitioned to another room. Thank you for joining me Matt, I really appreciate it.

Thanks for the opportunity to kind of share my thoughts on this day. I’m also processing and reeling a little bit. There’s going to be a moment of disbelief and confusion, but it helps to be able to talk about it so thank you.

It’s been very illuminating and I think that’s a fitting way to end our conversation. Thanks so much.