# Films/TV shows similar to David Lynch



## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Any fans of David Lynch's movies here? I am sure there are many, he has produced several masterpieces of cinema like Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway. Also, I like the TV series Twin Peaks a lot. Recently, he has turned to music and painting and has stopped directing (although there is a third season of Twin Peaks announced already, to be aired in 2016).

Are there any movies or Tv shows that come to mind which are similar to his work, in mood, in technique, in style. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Maya Deren - Meshes of the afternoon
Bokanowski - L'ange
Fellini - Toby Dammit
Jodorowsky - Holy mountain and El topo
Ingmar Bergman - Hour of the wolf
Adrian Lyne - Jacob's ladder
Cronenberg - Dead ringers
Kubrick - Eyes wide shut

I'm a huge fan of him (well, maybe excludind INLAND EMPIRE). I would not say that those above are exactly in the same vein of Lynch, but for a reason or another there are aspects that I find the movies of Lynch.


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

Detective series like Twin Peaks:

The Killing
True Detective
Happy Valley (Netflix)
Wallander (two versions)
The Millennium Trilogy
Gracepoint 

Both The Killing and this seasons new Fox mini-series Gracepoint have a Northwestern local. hmmm?


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

about the tv series, I think that The kingdom of Lars Von Trier could be mentioned.


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

^ The Killing was also based on Danish series.


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

So you mean a bit mind bending and kooky? 
Crash (1996) with James Spader - I think it has a similar feel to Blue Velvet sort of, but different scenario totally.
The Trial based on Kafka's book is weird and nightmarish. You could try other Kafka inspired movies, like films based on Metamorphosis.
Angels in America perhaps.
I've mentioned this before, but The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is definitely different...
I haven't seen The Double yet, so don't know if it's good.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I'm a huge fan, but there is not really much I can recommend, as thus far there is really nothing else I've come across that is like Lynch, (but I don't think I watch as many movies or TV shows as many others here). There are some Kubrick films I like, but none of them have the feel of Lynch. I want to see more of Fellini's films because all though he is different his film _Satyricon_ impressed me in a similar way, it had elements of symbolism, drama and humor that are all aspects I admire about Lynch's work. From interviews I've read with Lynch I know he greatly admires Fellini and Kubrick.


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

Brain dead, directed by Peter Jackson early in his career


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

what about animated movies? 
Eraserhead was often coupled with Suzan Pitt's Asparagus, surreal and uncanny in a similar way. Years ago it was on youtube, but it seems it's not there anymore. 
But there's another animated short called Harpya made by Raoul Servais in 1979 (it won the gran prix at Cannes). Pretty disturbing, it reminds me of the first shorts of Lynch, like The grandmother.





oh, and this is a great video (well, at least for me) made by the rock band Renaldo and the Loaf (if you know the Residents, they were very similar)


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

shangoyal said:


> Lost Highway.


I was just watching this in my surrealist film class today. I had to leave class early so I didn't finish it, but I'll finish it soon. Quite a thriller!


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## Guest (Nov 20, 2014)

The Returned has been compared to Lynch. I can only say it was a great drama. (French and very weird!)


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Maybe Bela Tarr?


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I don't think there is anything quite like Lynch out there. At best, certain films of Stanley Kubrick (who was a big fan of _Eraserhead_) such as _Eyes Wide Shut_ and _The Shining_ contain some things we might expect to see in a Lynch film, but of course are there for totally different reasons and to different effect than they would be if they were in Lynch films. Love him or hate him, Lynch is a director unto himself, even a skilled director working with an in-depth analysis of his style as a blueprint would fail to make more than a shallow imitation.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Crudblud said:


> I don't think there is anything quite like Lynch out there. At best, certain films of Stanley Kubrick (who was a big fan of _Eraserhead_) such as _Eyes Wide Shut_ and _The Shining_ contain some things we might expect to see in a Lynch film, but of course are there for totally different reasons and to different effect than they would be if they were in Lynch films. Love him or hate him, Lynch is a director unto himself, even a skilled director working with an in-depth analysis of his style as a blueprint would fail to make more than a shallow imitation.


I agree, and part of the reason I think it would be so difficult is because from what I've read Lynch doesn't use much of a blueprint, or at least he commonly deviates from it. He gets certain ideas, then waits for more ideas until they form something coherent and then tries different things out until he gets the right "feel". He is very open to spontaneous ideas, input from actors, improvisation etc. He believes that his films/art "want to be something" and he tries to let go of too much control so that what he is working on can develop into what it wants to be. Therefore his films can't really be "planned". At the same time if he gets a certain idea in his head he is sure is right for the film he will generally use it. Even if it means ripping down a big part of a set and then painstakingly rebuilding it simply to change the location of a doorway a person is entering from in a scene.


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

Little Otik, based on a Czech fairy tale, reminds me of both Kafka and Eraserhead.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Yes, I agree that Lynch is very unique. His cinema for me is an expression of subconscious imagery in raw form. His films are like psychedelic music in a way - it's like he is not showing events as they might happen in the real world, but events that essay his subconscious, however they may come out - unrealistic, strange, disturbing, childish.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Carnival of souls too is a horror movie that is considered an ispiration for his work.


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

Weird! I like it though - The Little Otik film.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

shangoyal said:


> Yes, I agree that Lynch is very unique. His cinema for me is an expression of subconscious imagery in raw form. His films are like psychedelic music in a way - it's like he is not showing events as they might happen in the real world, but events that essay his subconscious, however they may come out - unrealistic, strange, disturbing, childish.


I think this is fairly close to the mark for a lot of his work, but not all. For example _The Elephant Man_ and _The Straight Story_ are not essays of his subconscious. He also claims a lot of his work is not necessarily about _him_. He doesn't know where a lot of his ideas come from, but for the most part he is not necessarily trying to be autobiographical. An example of this is many people confronted him after viewing _Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me_, and claimed he had depicted the scenario of molestation in a family so close to how these victims had experienced it, that it was overwhelming for them to watch - yet he had never experienced any of those things in his own life. It is almost like he is an "antenna" at times for things, emotions in the air like a "group subconscious" perhaps. He claims he just gets certain ideas he "falls in love with" and has a desire to express them in different ways, what he finds the most difficult is explaining his work.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Mulholland Drive is my favorite film. Reminds me of Michael Haneke films.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

tdc said:


> I think this is fairly close to the mark for a lot of his work, but not all. For example _The Elephant Man_ and _The Straight Story_ are not essays of his subconscious. He also claims a lot of his work is not necessarily about _him_. He doesn't know where a lot of his ideas come from, but for the most part he is not necessarily trying to be autobiographical. An example of this is many people confronted him after viewing _Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me_, and claimed he had depicted the scenario of molestation in a family so close to how these victims had experienced it, that it was overwhelming for them to watch - yet he had never experienced any of those things in his own life. It is almost like he is an "antenna" at times for things, emotions in the air like a "group subconscious" perhaps. He claims he just gets certain ideas he "falls in love with" and has a desire to express them in different ways, what he finds the most difficult is explaining his work.


Yes, you are right about The Elephant Man and The Straight Story.

And yes, it's not necessarily autobiographical - I also meant to say that the images are ones received from others. Maybe his work is like "true cinema" - cinema that depicts things that are themselves received by the auteur in a detached and distant fashion, similar to watching a film. In a way, it could be understood as an attempt to get at the essence of cinematic images - that they are almost always distorted and fashioned reality, and if anything, more distortion and more freedom are more cinematic than realism is.


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