When surrealist filmmaker David Lynch died, it sent waves of grief among his fans, including members of the Pepperdine community. Among others, Lynch directed the films “Blue Velvet,” “Mulholland Drive” and “Eraserhead” and co-created the ABC drama series “Twin Peaks.”
According to his death certificate, Lynch died of cardiac arrest with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cited as the underlying cause. Last August, he announced on X that he had emphysema, a chronic lung disease. He died five days before his 79th birthday.
Film Professor Mike Stock, who has a “Twin Peaks” poster in his office, said Lynch’s work offered him a “gateway” to surrealist cinema. He said his favorite Lynch film is “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.”
“The popularization of his films speaks a lot to the fact that it’s okay for you to think about dark things,” Stock said. “They open up a world that you, you know, maybe think about but you don’t talk about.”
Stock said Lynch’s smart uses of sound design and black comedy gave his films a uniquely disturbing quality. He also underscored the influence of Lynch’s movies on other filmmakers, including Christopher Nolan, David Fincher and Gus Van Sant.
Senior Screen Arts major Nick Yi said Lynch’s work, especially “Mulholland Drive” and “Twin Peaks,” hit him on an emotional level.
“I almost don’t want to try and explain and try to figure out exactly what’s happening,” Yi said. “It really just kind of shines through at a personal level.”
As a filmmaker himself, Yi said he admired Lynch’s frequent emphasis of intuition in his creative choices.
“He is one of the most unique voices in that world,” Yi said. “And it is a shame that he’s gone now.”
Beyond fandom, Pepperdine also has some direct connections with the world of David Lynch. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, “Twin Peaks” actors Sheryl Lee and Gary Hershberger hosted their Actor’s Director Workshop on campus. Courtenay Stallings, an adjunct professor and assistant director of Pepperdine Graphic Media who wrote the 2020 book “Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak about Twin Peaks,” helped organize the workshops.
“Twin Peaks” actors Sheryl Lee (far left) and Gary Hershberger (second from left) pose with Pepperdine students and other community members in the CCB studio during an Actor’s Director Workshop in March 2017. Alum Anthony Bonetti (back row, fourth from right) said he had seen “Twin Peaks” prior to the workshop and couldn’t pass up on the chance to work with two of the show’s actors. Photo courtesy of Anthony Bonetti
Anthony Bonetti and Gabz Norte, both of whom majored in Film and graduated from Seaver College in 2020, each participated in the workshop several times. Norte said students who participated in the workshop had the opportunity to both act and direct in a scene, which allowed her to better understand the headspace of both roles.
“I feel like that was one of the most valuable experiences I had at Pepperdine,” Norte said.
Norte currently works at the UCLA Library as an audiovisual conservator. She said that her favorite Lynch movie, “Inland Empire,” resonated with her passion for media preservation.
“Memory informs everything we do — past, present and future,” Norte said.
Norte, who identifies as Indigenous and is a member of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians, also said she loved Lynch’s collaboration with Native American actor Michael Horse in “Twin Peaks.”
“He really was a full character who just challenged what Native representation had been like for decades,” Norte said.
Outside of filmmaking, though deeply connected to his creative process, Lynch was a fierce proponent of transcendental meditation, often abbreviated to “TM,” according to the David Lynch Foundation’s website. Religion and Great Books Professor John Kern, who advises the Waves of Silence club and begins all of his classes with breathwork, said meditation helps him destress and increase productivity.
“Doing a meditation that’s similar to TM always resets, and then I’m pretty much wide awake and ready to get to work, and the thoughts come pouring in,” Kern said. “So I think one thing that Lynch kind of shows through that, you know, his discussions and this and his support for TM, is that humans have a great potential for creativity.”
Because much of Kern’s research deals with mystical experiences and the theology of dreams, he said he was naturally drawn toward Lynch’s movies.
“I’m fascinated by the dream world as a whole, and what dreams say about us,” Kern said. “So to have films that sort of offer that experience in a way, you know, it’s like you have the mundane day-to-day experience, and then you have the experience of something, like, wholly other. And it’s that element that I’m very, like, drawn towards.”
For those with no prior experience with Lynch’s works, Stock said he recommends starting with the pilot episode of “Twin Peaks.”
“There have been very few Pepperdine students who I’ve shown that to who have disliked it,” Stock said.
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Contact Henry Adams via email: henry.adams@pepperdine.edu
