
It is true that Lynch’s movies have never been major commercial successes. And when that happens, it’s thrilling to the soul.” That has happened in history – a film made by a director where there is no compromise, and when the film was released, it worked for huge numbers of people. I hope it would be possible to make a film that has some depth to it but that still has a strong story and great characters, and that people would really appreciate. “I can see how it’s nice to be entertained,” he says. I don’t know, making pictures maybe more within the system.” But in order to say you’re successful, a film has to make quite a lot of money, and I haven’t really done that. “When you love something,” he says, “and feel you’ve done it correctly, then negative criticism doesn’t hurt so bad. Lynch doesn’t seem bitter about the failure of his last two movies. There are crinkles around his gentle eyes, and as he listens and speaks, his delicate fingers sometimes flutter unconsciously.
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The room is full of big, gleaming machines and little items of woodwork. While we talk, we sit in the carpentry studio that is located in Lynch’s middle house. On the afternoon I meet Lynch, he is dressed in a nice black shirt (buttoned to the neck) untucked over khaki slacks. There’s no question that there’s a profound darkness somewhere inside David Lynch, if only in his own power to imagine, but it probably doesn’t come to the surface easily. This is all true, at least as far as I could tell. Much has been made over the years of Lynch’s homey manner – the way he wears button-down shirts, speaks in a Jimmy Stewart-style twang and punctuates his conversations with phrases like “golly,” “righto,” “you betcha” and the like. The scene in Lost Highway where Fred Madison (played by Bill Pullman) walks down the house’s hallway into pitch darkness is a pivotal moment: It’s a portrayal of man walking into the darkness of his own destiny. He remodeled its exterior so the front featured eerie-looking slot windows, and he also added a tunnellike hallway to the place. In Lynch’s mind, the house had to be a certain way.

He owns three houses in a row on the same street, and one of these houses figures prominently in Lost Highway – in fact, the house may be the film’s most unnerving character.

Lynch lives in the lower part of a hill canyon just outside Hollywood. Julee Cruise, Singer and Frequent David Lynch Collaborator, Dead at 65
