by Eric Blume

David Lynch during quarantine this past summer

One of the greatest living American film directors, David Lynch, turns 75 today, so it's only fitting we take a moment to celebrate this unique visionary and his wonderful contributions to our cinema. Lynch is so rightfully esteemed and exulted that it's easy to forget he's only made ten feature films during his 40+ years in the industry! 

But right out of the box, with 1977's Eraserhead, he delivered a film so singular that it was clear a new voice had arrived.  He followed it with 1980's The Elephant Man, for which he received his first Best Director nomination, and while his second film was a bankrolled studio movie on one hand, it still bears Lynch's dark imagination throughout.  Lynch was the perfect director to see the soul of John Merrick, as he's always seen the beauty in the "ugly" and spent most of the rest of his career blurring those two ideas, visually and psychologically...