"Schneider's glasses"

A very great man

The master: David Lynch died on January 15.(Bild: AFP/Chis Delmas)

The American cult director David Lynch passed away on January 15. "Krone" columnist Robert Schneider on a man whose full genius will probably only be recognized in the future.

He was nominated for an Oscar four times, but never won it, even though each of his films deserved one. When the Academy realized in 2019 that he had never received an award, they quickly handed him an honorary Oscar. Ticked off.

David Lynch, the grand master of the surrealist film genre who passed away a few days ago, had a major influence on my way of experiencing cinema. His pictures always had a double frame, his stories triple, quadruple bottoms. As a student, I saw his "Elephant Man", the true story of Joseph Merrick, whose body was severely deformed from birth, his face disfigured. Lynch succeeded in portraying the most sublime, loving soul I have ever seen on screen behind a terrible grimace. This movie moved me to tears. The black-and-white film was nominated for eight Oscars. It deserved twelve. It didn't get any.

But Lynch had become famous overnight. The studios risked money. A lot of money. 25 million dollars for Frank Herbert's desert epic "Dune", which was a gigantic flop. Film critics gushed with malice and viciousness. Lynch was devastated and desperately raised money for his next film - "Blue Velvet". This film also flopped, similar to "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott. But over the years, both films became cult films that changed the genre of science fiction forever.

With the television series "Twin Peaks", he once again achieved commercial success, which he then ruined with a prequel for the cinema. From then on, Lynch was considered a "risk factor" in Hollywood. To keep his head above water, he shot commercials for Karl Lagerfeld, Adidas and Barilla pasta.

He was a big shot. And he will become bigger because he was so far ahead of his time.