John Nguyen, Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm (2016)
This is the second documentary about David Lynch in which John Nguyen has been involved, after producing Lynch (2007). That film followed its subject during the making of what is still Lynch’s most recent cinema feature, Inland Empire (2006). The Art Life is a biography of him during his formative years – up to the age of around thirty and the making of his first feature, Eraserhead (1977). Although Nguyen and two others share the directing credit, David Lynch is in charge here. He’s on screen virtually continuously: painting (he trained first as a painter and has always kept up this side of his artistic output); chain-smoking; playing with his youngest daughter (to whom The Art Life is dedicated); looking at old photographs. Lynch must have supplied nearly all the visual material, including home movies, used to illustrate his words. He dominates the soundtrack, mostly in voiceover. The Art Life isn’t probing but it makes for entertaining and interesting viewing – at least if, like me, you’re on the lookout for connections to the Lynch films you admire. He recalls a childhood memory – and the shock – of seeing a naked woman in the street one night and this isn’t the only evocation of Blue Velvet. One bit of home-movie footage shows Lynch – maybe eight or nine years old – at the centre of a group of other kids. On the soundtrack, his voice explains the wonder of feeling, as he did at the time, a combination of security and freedom to explore. Grinning euphorically, he’s standing against a blue sky, wearing a sweater as bright red as the roses in Blue Velvet’s opening scene.
19 July 2017
