Famous American director David Lynch dies at 78

David Lynch, giant of American cinema with immense influence, director of Twin Peaks et Mulholland Drivedied at the age of 78, his family announced Thursday in a press release published on their Facebook page. “It is with great regret that we, his family, announce the death of the man and artist, David Lynch”notes the press release.

The director, author of ten feature films released between 1977 and 2006, had captivated a cohort of admirers fascinated by the disturbing strangeness of his films. “There is a big void in the world now that he is no longer with us”adds his family, who did not give details on the causes of his death and asked for respect for his privacy.

Multiple rewards

Born in 1946 in Montana (northwest), David Lynch is considered a master of cinema who revolutionized the image and marked this art with the disturbing and haunting atmosphere of these films. From the black and white zombie story Erasehead (1977), his first feature film financed by odd jobs, one of his consecrations with Sailor et Lula (1990), Palme d’Or at Cannes, most of his works have become cult.

Another masterpiece for critics, Elephant Man (1980), a moving film, and one of his most accessible to the general public, about a man with a misshapen face in Victorian England. With John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins as headliners, it received eight Oscar nominations and won the César for best foreign film (1982).

In 1990, he created Twin Peaksa legendary series that revolutionizes the genre and transforms millions of viewers into detectives haunted by the mysteries it unravels over two seasons. A quarter of a century later, he did it again with Twin Peaks: The Return (2017).

Nominated several times for the Oscars, this inveterate smoker, recognizable by his slim appearance and his blonde puff, received an honorary statuette in 2019 for his entire filmography.

In France, where he is revered, he won another César for best foreign film for Mullholland Drive a distressing, enigmatic thriller full of hallucinations, which plays with the pretenses of Hollywood and its ill-intentioned producers. Naomi Watts plays the role of an actress meeting a mysterious woman suffering from amnesia, before everything is reversed in a twist that fans are still debating today.

He ended his career with Inland Empire (2006), less striking, and then devoted himself to transcendental meditation and other forms of artistic expression.