"Many of the things that you subconsciously use in painting you use in film." - David Lynch interview from documentary 'Pretty As a Picture'

The canvas was slathered in rich black with oversized deep green blades of grass eminating upward from the bottom edge. David Lynch could imagine the sound of the wind as it caused the greenery to rustle and sway. He wanted to make the scene come to life for real. It was in that moment that he became a film director. And thirty years after reaching this epiphany during an art class in Philadelphia, he is still creating moving imagery from that same black canvas.

"I really love abstractions and things that can be interpreted in different ways. I don't like to talk about meaning much." - Lynch interviewed on National Public Radio

When you watch a David Lynch film, you're often compelled to try and make sense of it all. That would be a mistake. Lynch's films are not designed to be thought out; they should be experienced and felt. His films are like elaborate paintings in motion and they should be taken in as such. Some passive fans enjoy his work for the same reason why non-fans despise it: his films are crazy and weird. They're not exactly wrong about this. As a lead character observes during one of his films, "this whole world is wild at heart and weird on top." But to merely characterize his work as "weird" seems to be an attempt to dismiss its potential power. It's lazy. When you watch a Lynch film, you're challenged to not merely observe, but to actively participate.

He is the cinematic master of dreams and nightmares. Dreams, like Lynch films, can take us to another plane of consciousness -- they transport us on a purely emotional level to enhanced versions of "fantasy" and "reality". Lynch's best films operate as a kind of emotional Rorshach ink blot test; where you're asked "how do these images and aurual sensations make you feel?"

"To me, every film is dictated by an idea. I follow it and it illuminates the road that it's on - but it doesn't tell you everything." - Lynch interview from the International Herald Tribune

It all starts with the germ of an idea. The idea gestates through the writing, production and editing process. Where it will all wind up is a mystery and that's how Lynch likes it. He refuses to constrict the places his imagination will take him. Every demented fantasy, every deviant notion, every beautiful, sad or haunting thought is right there on the screen for all to share. He possesed this gift right from the start. His early short films are surprisingly assured in their willingness to experiment. His first short, "Six Figures Getting Sick (Six Times)", is a repetitive animated sequence featuring floating heads, dislocated stomachs filled with blood and projectile vomiting. "The Alphabet" is a children's song twisted into nightmare. "The Grandmother" concerns a young abused boy who urinates in his bed, plants seeds in the soiled mattress and grows an elderly caretaker. Lynch begins his fascination with the macabre and the unknown here; specifically, with the latter two shorts, the idea of being a child and not knowing anything about anything and trying to create your own defense system against adults who are out to harm you.

You can find this and many more in-depth film reviews at blog.myspace.com/raycejamey.