David Lynch’s personal brand of surrealism exposes the strange within the familiar and the reality when in the dream. Anything the director touches strikes us immediately as Lynchian to the eye.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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[Music]
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in Stanford master you’ll see nobody
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sees the world like David Lynch sees the
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world it’s a really movies of when you
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see them you know you’re in the hands of
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a extremely unique Sensibility
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one of the most influential film
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directors in recent history David Lynch
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is relentlessly individual anything the
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director touches strikes us immediately
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as Lynch Ian to the eye when we hear the
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word Lynch Ian we think of a white
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picket fence adorned with prickly red
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roses a well manicured lawn hiding the
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beetles that hiss underneath mundane
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images that turn the Kop surrealism
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mixed with a film noir tone in americana
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settings David Lynch’s personal brand of
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surrealism exposes the strange within
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the familiar and the reality when in the
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dream in a long career of successes
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Lynch’s greatest achievement is framing
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a cinematic approach around small-town
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American life and it’s light and dark
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versions of the American dream
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[Music]
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some of Lynch’s key trademarks as a
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director are a universe dictated by
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dream logic it’s reflected in sequences
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of Surrealism and magical realism that
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echo the subconscious state recurring
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motifs like 1950s America and the dark
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underbelly of suburban life the visual
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and somatic juxtaposition of light and
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dark gritty images of industrial
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wasteland cheery ambient noise red
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curtains that obscure the passage of
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time deformed bodies and complex female
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characters that play on our expectations
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of the archetypal femme fatale this is
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often reflected in dual roles for single
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female actresses exploring the split
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identity of a fractured female self
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David Lynch born in Montana in 1946
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studied painting at the Pennsylvania
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Academy of Fine Arts he began
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experimenting with film at school and in
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1967 produced his first short film six
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men getting sick six times which
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combined animation and live-action Lynch
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has said that one of his early goals in
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film was to make a painting move but it
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also gives us some insight into his
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later mature visual style the same year
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that Lynch made his first short film he
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married fellow student Peggy reavie his
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first wife the following year they moved
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with their baby daughter into a cheap
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home in a dangerous neighborhood of
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Philadelphia Lynch has said they were
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surrounded by violence and ridden with
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fears but he found the city fantastic at
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the same time and he has cited
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Philadelphia as the most significant
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influence on his film moved by the harsh
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aesthetics of his Philadelphia and
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perhaps by his premature entrance into
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fatherhood Lynch made his first feature
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film in 1977 Eraserhead
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which he refers to as quote my
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Philadelphia Story the black-and-white
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film follows a young man left to take
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care of his deformed baby in an
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industrial wasteland through ambient
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sound design and surrealist imagery that
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confuses Henry’s hallucination with
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reality Eraserhead offers a disturbing
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portrait of one man’s fear of parenthood
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washing the film found unexpected
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success at the midnight movie winning
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Lynch a cult following it also led to
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the development of his second film The
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Elephant Man based on the real story of
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a man with deformities who was exhibited
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at a freak show in 1880’s England the
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Elephant Man was a critical and
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commercial success that earned eight
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Academy Award nominations and it proved
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Lynch was capable of directing linear
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films for the mainstream whether that’s
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what he wanted to do is a different
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story
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1986 is blue velvet a film viewing
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experience akin to waking up from a nap
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on LSD and wondering if you’re still
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tripping follows Kyle McLaughlin’s
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Jeffrey Beaumont a college student who
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stumbles upon a severed ear in the grass
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from this scene on we watch him struggle
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with an inner duality that tugs him
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between the poles of innocence and
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manhood what kind of beer do you like
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Heineken Pabst Blue Ribbon lynch has
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said that for Jeffrey the ear is quote a
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ticket to another world for the viewer
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the ear signifies the start of the
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surrealist journey into the protagonists
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mind
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blue velvet pulls back that curtain that
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we think is like suburban living
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everything is extremely menacing under
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the surface there which is kind of
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ironic and it’s funny it’s dark starkly
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comic way but the movie becomes quite a
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detective thriller in blue velvet Lost
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Highway and Mulholland Drive
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Lynch gives dreams and waking life equal
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treatment making it difficult for us to
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determine what’s objectively happening
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in Lost Highway Fred’s guilt and denial
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over committing a murder results in him
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literally becoming someone else in
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Mulholland drives that he’s high
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expectations of Hollywood and the dark
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reality of the actual industry are
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intertwined creating a multi-layered
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narrative that not only juxtaposes her
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dreams and her demise but also tells us
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Bulls are equally important in an
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interview prior to Mulholland drives
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release Lynch said quote we know that
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when we’re walking around we see the
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surface of things but sometimes we spent
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something more sometimes what we sense
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approach is a kind of dreamlike state
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those feelings take on a life of their
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own
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they are just as real as anything else
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Lynch together with his co-creator mark
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frost also left an indelible mark on
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television their 1990 series Twin Peaks
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also featured his classic Lin Chi and
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duality small-town Americana and dark
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suburban underbelly and it was one of
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the first r-rated rabbit holes as Mike
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Mariani of the Atlantic called it why we
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from the merging afresh be son
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hi this way you can hear setting the
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stage for many of the bins worthy TV
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series that viewers can’t get enough of
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today while Lynch isn’t technically
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affiliated with the historical
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surrealism movement in fine art his
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films address the various layers of
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reality waking sleeping and dreaming
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there a contemporary take on attaining
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the quote super reality that the
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founders of surrealism spoke of in 1917
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Lynch’s fascination with the
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subconscious is also a vital part of his
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creative process he’s a longtime
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practitioner of transcendental
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meditation which deeply informs his
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development and understanding of story
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ideas and images there’s lots of forms
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of meditation but with Transcendental
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Meditation to me the key is the word
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transcend to dive all the way in it’s a
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huge realm between the surface of life
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and this fundamental pure consciousness
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but it’s there and when you’re in it you
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know you’re in it you dive in there you
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sort of just know how to go it’s like an
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ocean of solutions which is a great
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thing for the filmmaker
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Lynch has said he’s been influenced by
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Stanley Kubrick Federico Fellini’s
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eighth-and-a-half Billy Wilder
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particularly the world he created in
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Sunset Boulevard Jacque Patti’s comedies
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an Alfred Hitchcock’s career window
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meanwhile Lynch’s films have influenced
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countless major filmmakers Kubrick
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expressed his love for Lynch’s
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Eraserhead
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and said he wished he had directed it
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himself Kubrick even apparently screened
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the film for the cast of The Shining to
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put them in the mood for what he wanted
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to achieve on screen the Shining’s room
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237 also might have been a reference to
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Henry’s neighboring apartment room 27 in
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Eraserhead Lynch has also had a strong
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impact on Quentin Tarantino who adopted
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Lynch’s combination of stylized violence
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and highlighting the mundane details
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that surround violent acts Lynch’s noir
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meets small-town America can be seen in
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the Coen brothers works Clive Barker’s
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films and David Cronenberg the history
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of violence Mad Men the fall and Bates
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Motel with their perverted underbellies
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and moral ambiguity underlying sleek
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stylized wholesome exteriors also take
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cues from blue velvet and Twin Peaks
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David Lynch he’s someone that I don’t
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think he explains a lot of you know what
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he’s about he’s someone who keeps it
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really under wraps which i think is
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really smart we can only try to infer
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what he’s trying to say
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Lynch doesn’t like to discuss what his
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films are about and he said that every
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viewers interpretation reflects what the
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film’s pulled out of his or her
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subconscious but if there’s one takeaway
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from watching his work it’s that
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everything is much stranger than it
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seems no personality is static no
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perspective is objective and we should
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expand our minds to explore the ocean of
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understanding that flows beneath every
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event
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[Music]
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[Music]
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