David Lynch: film auteur who condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine - and liked darkness, bacon, cakes and woodwork. RIP.

The American film director who has died at the age of 78, was the first world star to condemn Putin's invasion. Michael Andersen met him once.

(Lynch in 2017 with then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Photo: Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN

Once in London, many many years ago, at a dinner at the house of some friends - university professors and theatre-lovers - I met David Lynch.

This was only a few years after his world famous television series Twin Peaks (1990), so the man was at the height of his popular fame. You couldn't find anybody with a university degree that wasn't in love with Twin Peaks.

I remember the host - who knew Lynch well - had great fun introducing us and then he added "but, Michael didn’t really like Twin Peaks, David. Isn't that right, Michael?"

Lynch looked at me with interest and said "well, you teach international politics, so you're excused. Tell me - do you get to travel a lot? Where did you go last?"

"Siberia," I answered, truthfully.

"And still you don't like Twin Peaks?", he laughed. (For the younger readers, the Twin Peaks series has a lot of snow in it).

He spent the next hour quizzing me on Gorbachev and Yeltsin. And snow.

We also found out that we both loved cakes and bacon (our host that night was Jewish) and doing wood work and making your own furniture. I thought him a thoroughly pleasant man.

Lynch visited Ukraine on several occasions, in 2009 and again in 2017 he came to raise interest for transcendental meditation as a means of psychological assistance for Ukraine’s war veterans.

In 2022, I was happy to see Lynch come out so strongly for Ukraine, literally the day after the Russian invasion. Showing his disgust for Putin, Lynch said: "Mr President Putin … you are sowing death and destruction, it's all on you, the Ukrainians did not attack your country, you went in and attacked their country. And all this death and destruction is going to come back and visit you!"

Lynch would probably have enjoyed making a film about Vladimir Putin. He obviously had an interest in the eerie and unsettling, as could be seen films such Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and his famous Twin Peaks series. Lynch had a deep fascination with what he called “the darkness”, diving into rambling, surreal narratives defying convention. Often one wouldn’t know where reality ended and nightmare began.

He often referred to Philadelphia as where he - as a student - had learned about the dark side, and how to “use” the dark side of things.

“I had my first thrilling thought in Philadelphia,” Lynch said. The city was “violence, hate, filth and fear.”

“Philadelphia, more than any filmmaker, influenced me. It’s the sickest, most corrupt, decaying, fear-ridden city imaginable. I was very poor and living in bad areas. I felt like I was constantly in danger. But it was so fantastic at the same time.”

"I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath", Lynch explained. A shame that it was Oliver Stone and not Lynch who went to Russia to interview and make a ‘documentary’ about Vladimir Putin.

My own favourite Lynch quote was this:

"Intuition is the key to everything, in painting, filmmaking, business - everything. I think you could have an intellectual ability, but if you can sharpen your intuition, which they say is emotion and intellect joining together, then a knowingness occurs."

In the clip below, Lynch talks about “get your butt into gear and do it”. He was referring to the art of “creating”, but it might also have been a suggestion to the West sorting ourselves out and helping Ukraine to kick out the Russian invaders.

Who knows?

RIP David Lynch.