The late director’s work was often described as “mysterious” or “surreal”—but the emotions it provoked were just as fundamental.

T hroughout his career, David Lynch often crossed paths with Barry Gifford. It was from Gifford’s novel of the same name that Lynch adapted Wild At Heart. Later, they collaborat

In this he was a lot like the painter Francis Bacon, who died in 1992, the year that Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” was released.

David Lynch died on Jan. 15, 2025 from complications of emphysema, a chronic lung disease, at the age of 78. He was known primarily for his direction of surreal and dreamlike movies, such as “Eraserhead,” “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” “Lost Highway,” “Mulholland Drive” and his popular TV show: “Twin Peaks.”

I started with 2001’s Mulholland Dr. – a movie I would compare to Shutter Island in some ways – and expected it to be more like Blue Velvet. Instead, the story of an aspiring actor ( Naomi Watts) helping an amnesiac (Laura Harring) uncover her identity almost drove me more insane than Lynch’s 1977 debut, Eraserhead, did.