Winner of the Palme d'Or in 1990 for Wild at Heart, and Best Director last year for Mulholland Drive, David Lynch is a regular on the Croisette. He returns this year to preside the jury. Portrait of a cult filmmaker.

A painter, photographer and director who has revolutionized the use of sound in film, David Lynch belongs to the generation of American cult filmmakers who burst on the scene at the end of the 80s, the era when independent American film triumphed once again at interational film festivals. With the Coen brothers or Abel Ferrara, and Quentin Tarantino later on, David Lynch's success was generated during that period, 15 years after the dawn of the wonder kids Lucas, Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola and De Palma.

Born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana, David had a nomadic but happy childhood. His father, researcher at the Ministry of Agriculture, was often transferred and the family, which included two other children, constantly moved from one area to another. From the time that he discovered the Midwest, Lynch has kept a vivacious memory in action, even reconstructing his homeland in several of his works: Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, The Straight Story. Pursuing filmmaking came late to David Lynch; he started out as a painter. After enrolling at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1965 where he met his future wife Peggy Reavey, he delved into the film world with two experimental short films entitled The Alphabet - in which he used the cries of his newborn daughter - and Grandmother.

From there, the pursuit of his first feature film brought the "alien" Eraserhead, already revealing the young filmmaker's veritable art. The Ameraican Film Institute, in the middle of a massive reorganization at the time, showed interest in the director's first films and took him under their wing during five years. Lynch showed unwavering determination - even to the point of sacrificing family life - in order to complete the film. Despite numerous production and financial problems, Eraserhead finally premiered in 1976 and won its first admirers attending the midnight screening at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles. Among the first spectators were Stuart Cornfield, a producer working for Mel Brooks. Struck by Lynch's talent, Cornfield called Lynch about directing a movie called Elephant Man, the next movie Mel Brooks was to produce.

Distributed by Paramount, Elephant Man was David Lynch's first studio movie. Backed by Mel Brooks, the director enjoyed a great liberty which undoubtedly played a major role in the film's success and six Oscar nominations (however, winning none). On the other hand his next film Dune, produced with the financial support of Dino de Laurentiis, was a deception and a painful adventure for the director. He decided never to compromise again, and particularily to never give up his right to the final cut.

That is what led to David Lynch exploring more personal subjects and adapting an independent mode of production. The year is 1985, the film is Blue Velvet. In many ways this film marked a turning point in the career of Lynch. The director began to weave themes and patterns that he would further develop in Twin Peaks, but it was more importantly his first collaboration with Angelo Badalamenti, this musician whose melancoly compositions would accompany all of Lynch's works to come.

Hooking up with Mark Frost, they wrote the unfinished scenario for a comedy entitled One Saliva Bubble, and from which sparked Lynch's next creation, Twin Peaks, produced by ABC. Airing in 1990, the series was a triumph; the Laura Palmer phenomenon conquered America and the world. Lynch completed the first season before starting Wild at Heart, a wild road movie that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes 1990. A year that marked a grand success for the director, but which progressively declined as the series was loosing spectators and the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - a sort of prequel of the series itself - flopped. The film was snubbed by the critics but held up over time to be among the Cahier du Cinéma's ten best movies from the 90s.

In the years to follow, David Lynch continued to work for television but with no major breakthroughs. He made the acquaintance of writer Barry Gifford and together they wrote his next film Lost Highway, his most daring work since Eraserhead. He created a unique poetic sensorial mode of narration that he continued to explore four years later (the more conventional The Straight Story was sandwhiched between) in Mulholland Drive, winning the Best Director Award at Cannes last year and his highest ratings from the critic circles to date. At 56, Lynch has become an artist that cannot be ignored, but whose creative equilibrium remains fragile. Without the support of Studio Canal, Mulholland Drive - initially a TV project - would not have seen the light of day. Also the Award played a decisive role in the movie being shown in American theaters - Lynch arrived in Cannes without an American distributor. The timing is right for David Lynch to preside the Cannes Official jury this May. It remains to be seen if he will surprise and incite controversy as Canadian director David Cronenberg so did three years ago bestowing the Palme d'Or to Rosetta.

Yannis Polinacci