Even a week after the death of director-musician-artist David Lynch, there is great consternation among the large community of his VIP admirers.
So far, actress Laura Dern, director Steven Spielberg, UK director Edgar Wright, author and actor James Gunn, actor Hugh Jackman, musician Billy Corgan and The Roots drummer Questlove have responded with lengthy, very personal farewell notes.
Hardcore Lynch fans, called by his four children Jennifer, Austin, Riley and Lula Lynch, are said to have held a worldwide 10-minute “group meditation”. Lynch himself has often used this mental exercise to relax and focus.
“His death is a monumental loss for me”
Now Danny Elfman also joins the mourning choir. He shared an emotional post via social media: “I’m still in shock” and “His death is a monumental loss for me.”
As a film composer, he is known for his long-standing collaboration with director Tim Burton (“Batman”). The former band leader of the Los Angeles avant-garde troupe Oingo Boingo shared a Lynch photo on Instagram yesterday (January 21st) in the wake of Lynch’s 79th birthday (which he never made) with the caption “genius.”
Elfman said goodbye to him with the words: “It leaves a great void in the world that he is no longer with us. But, as he used to say, ‘keep your eye on the donut and not the hole’. It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and bright blue skies.”
Danny Elfman on Instagram:
As with many of Elfman’s colleagues, the Lynch Memorial is immortally linked to his art. “My mind suddenly goes back to 1977, when my friend Matthew Bright and I, at a long-defunct film festival in LA called Filmex, heard about a midnight premiere of a must-see underground film called Eraserhead . Of course we went. The house was, if I remember correctly, decently filled but not overcrowded, and by the time the film was over it was almost empty as a lot of people had left in shock.”
For the friends, however, the black and white film was a revelation: “It was captivating… amazing… how many adjectives can I use here… to describe my reaction to this unique, visually stunning, scary, funny and completely original film. From that moment on, I couldn’t wait to see what this crazy young director would come up with next. He didn’t disappoint me.”
Elfman said he loves all of Lynch’s films, highlighting the “insane emotional and visual contrast between ‘Elephant Man’ and the iconic and almost perfect ‘Blue Velvet,’ “which I’ve probably seen dozens of times.” When Lynch’s TV drama series “Twin Peaks” first aired, he had each new episode sent to Oingo Boingo’s tour locations.