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David Lynch: A Retrospective

Perhaps no artist better epitomizes the narrative freedom of the American arthouse than David Lynch. At once reverent to the classic cinema that came before him and fearlessly experimental and modern, Lynch’s cinema was one entirely of its own. His films exist in a netherworld of imagined nostalgia, magical realism and unbridled, joyous creativity, and they’ve pushed the bounds of the art
form and inspired countless pretenders for nearly five decades. But there’s no substitute for the special weirdness this auteur of the outré brought to his singular, nightmarish, but ultimately humane visions. Each film is also an exploration of genre that uses his unique perspective and odd obsessions to plumb the complex and darkened depths of human emotion. In deference to the artist’s recent passing, we dive into his oeuvre and salute the master with a stiff black coffee and some damn good pie.

ERASERHEAD
Encores: Fri, Mar 21 at 2:50pm, 9:45pm

ERASERHEAD

In David Lynch's nightmarish first feature, Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) copes with the daily grind of his strange industrial life as his girlfriend and her mutant newborn move into his apartment. Preceded by short film The Grandmother.
BLUE VELVET
Encores: Sat, Mar 22 at 5:00pm, 9:30pm

BLUE VELVET

While staying with his family after his father is suddenly hospitalized, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) happens across a severed human ear on a walk — a discovery that leads him on a dark investigation into the seedy underworld of his idyllic hometown. Preceded by short film Premonitions Following An Evil Deed.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME
Encore: Sun, Mar 23 at 5:20pm

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME

In the last seven days of her life, Laura Palmer, besieged by a transuniversal conflict reaching back into infinity, must face her own immovable destiny amongst the myriad of secrets in the town of Twin Peaks. Preceded by short film The Amputee (V. 2).
MULHOLLAND DRIVE
Encores: Thu, Mar 27 at 3:20pm, 8:15pm

MULHOLLAND DRIVE

The movie is a sensual mystery — with Betty and Rita at the center of secrets. The movie within the movie is a biography — with Diane and Camilla telling each other’s story. The dream is of betrayal, of facing the undeniable moral truth of oneself. The rest is silence. Preceded by short film The Alphabet.
THE ELEPHANT MAN
Fri-Thu, Apr 18-24

THE ELEPHANT MAN

Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a Victorian-era Englishman who suffered from a disfiguring congenital disease and the surgeon who saved him from a tormented life in a freak show, David Lynch's 1980 film returns via a new 4K DCP restoration overseen by the director himself, and is only available to screen theatrically for a few brief months this spring.