The Pure Cinema podcast did two three-hour episodes on the films of David Lynch in April this year. I listened along, thinking I’d seen many of his films, but I quickly realised I hadn’t. In fact, I had only seen the first series of Twin Peaks on TV in 1989, and The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive in the cinema when they were first released... twenty years ago. I actually had this massive blind spot in my film knowledge. Someone once suggested that my writing reminded them of Lynch, which I took as an amazing compliment, and I thought I could see what they meant, but the term Lynchian can be used as a clichè for a kind of quirky, surreal darkness, and listening to Elric Kane and Brian Sauer talk about his films, his work is that in places, but also much more.

1. Eraserhead (1977), dir. .
2. The Elephant Man (1980), dir. .
3. Dune (1984), dir. .
4. Blue Velvet (1986), dir. .
5. Wild at Heart (1990), dir. .
6. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992), dir. .
7. Lost Highway (1997), dir. .
8. The Straight Story (1999), dir. .
9. Mulholland Drive (2001), dir. .
10. Inland Empire (2007), dir. .