Lynch told The Guardian that Trump could go down as "one of the greatest presidents in history." The president tweeted his approval; the director then clarified that the quote was taken "a bit out of context."
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After statements taken from an interview with The Guardian newspaper made David Lynch appear to endorse President Donald Trump, the renowned filmmaker clarified his position on Tuesday.
"This quote which has traveled around was taken a bit out of context and would need some explaining."
"Unfortunately, if you continue as you have been, you will not have a chance to go down in history as a great president," the Twin Peaks auteur wrote on Facebook.
"This would be very sad it seems for you — and for the country. You are causing suffering and division."
Lynch also wrote that he wished to have a talk with Trump, and urged him to "turn the ship around... toward a bright future for all."
"You can unite the country. Your soul will sing. Under great loving leadership, no one loses — everybody wins," added the filmmaker, who is also famous for being a transcendental meditation practitioner for over 40 years.
"It's something I hope you think about and take to heart. All you need to do is treat all the people as you would like to be treated."
Effective at disrupting the 'thing'
In the interview published in The Guardian on Saturday, the 72-year-old, four-time Oscar winner David Lynch said he couldn't remember who he voted for in the 2016 presidential election but noted that he had voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries.
Yet, the controversy came when the Eraserhead director said of Trump: "He could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way."
In the article, the Guardian author Rory Carroll continues: "While Trump may not be doing a good job himself, Lynch thinks, he is opening up a space where other outsiders might. 'Our so-called leaders can't take the country forward, can't get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this.'"
Taken in totality, the filmmaker seems to suggest Trump has shaken up the establishment. Yet, the president and other media outlets were quick to frame the director's comments as straightforward praise.
On Monday, President Trump tweeted his approval, linking to an article by the far-right news site Breitbart that mentioned Lynch as "one of the few Hollywood figures to openly express sympathy or admiration toward President Trump since his rise to the Oval Office."
Shortly after tweeting, Trump quipped during a rally with supporters in South Carolina: "There goes his career in Hollywood."
Lynch acquired cult status with underground films including Eraserhead in the 1970s and later works including Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001).
In perhaps the most eagerly anticipated television event of the year, Twin Peaks, Lynch's famously surreal noir soap opera about murder in small-town America, returned last year — 26 years after the initial first seasons from the 1990s.
The weird, wacky and wonderful world of Twin Peaks
With a brand new season of the cult series about to launch, we revisit the town where 'the owls are not what they seem."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Onorati
'Dead, wrapped in plastic'
The mystery of "Twin Peaks" starts with the grisly discovery of the body of prom queen Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee). The entire town appears to be traumatized by the loss of the popular high-school girl. But things aren't necessarily what they seem, and underneath Laura Palmer's polished veneer lurks the story of a severely troubled girl, as investigators learn.
Image: INTERTOPICS / Taschen-Verlag
'Fire Walk With Me'
The 16-year-old Laura was numbing her pain and problems with drugs, and financing her habit with prostitution and pornography. The sleepy town of Twin Peaks apparently harbors all these secrets and much more, as the series reveals. The dark underbelly of the fictive small town is later explored in even greater depth in the cinematic prequel movie, "Fire Walk With Me" (pictured here).
Image: picture alliance/United Archives/IFTN
Secrets behind white picket fences
Things weren't always difficult in Laura Palmer's life, viewers learn. What drove the blonde girl from this sleepy little place in the Pacific Northwest of the US into leading a scandalous double life? As the audience tries to piece her story together, the role of her parents moves into greater focus. Laura's father Leland (Ray Wise) is apparently keeping a dark secret.
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A demonic villain
And then there is Bob - one of the creepiest characters to ever be featured on television. With a spine-chilling stare and a sinister lust for blood, we learn that Bob (Frank Silva) is a demon who uses humans as vessels to feed on their fear. As the series progresses, it is revealed that there is a portal to a shadowy world - the Black Lodge - in Twin Peaks, where such evil spirits dwell.
Image: picture-alliance/KPA
Donuts, pie and 'damn good coffee'
As if the occult world of Twin Peaks weren't strange enough, FBI Special Agent Dale B. Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan, right) is another surreal character with lovable idiosyncrasies, including some less-than-orthodox investigation methods and his childlike enthusiasm. Detective Cooper bonds with local Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean) over donuts and "damn good coffee" while solving the case.
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Underage femme fatale
Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), whose father owns the hotel where Agent Cooper stays, also develops feelings for the dapper FBI man in town to solve the crime. However, as a classmate of Laura Palmer's, Audrey is too young to really be considered a serious love interest for Cooper. The tender exchanges between the two characters nevertheless make for some of the best lines of the show.
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Visions of a dark place
The truth about the murder reveals itself to Agent Cooper incrementally, mainly in dreams and visions that offer but glimpses into other worlds like the Black Lodge. By the end of the series, Cooper ventures out into the place where the evil demons of Twin Peaks hide, only to return with a surprise that has kept fans hanging on a cliffhanger for 25 years. Will the new series resolve this?
Image: Imago/United Archives
Ahead of its time
Twin Peaks wasn't only visionary in the way it told its narrative, it was ahead of its time through the important social issues it addressed. The series introduced the first transgender character on television, played by David Duchovny. Fans of the show were quite excited to find out that Duchovny would indeed be returning in the role of Special DEA Agent Denise Bryson in the new season.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/P. Wymore
David Lynch's stroke of genius
The show's award-winning director David Lynch has kept all details surrounding the plot of the new "Twin Peaks" series a well-hidden secret, adding massively to the hype that has been building up on social media in anticipation of the relaunch. While some fear that after a quarter century the revival may flop, fans around the world await the start of the new series with great excitement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Onorati
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David Lynch, has once said he is "not a political person" and that politics were something he knew little about.
He has expressed contradicting political views in the past, showing for example admiration for former US President Ronald Reagan for carrying "a wind of old Hollywood, of a cowboy," while stating that he had always been a Democrat — adding that he didn't really like them that much because of their anti-smoking rules.
The cult director's comments on Trump had people reacting on social media.
Twitter users have compared Trump to a character straight out of Lynch's surreal films. Graphic novelist Michael Kupperman pointed out that the filmmaker probably sees "everything" in terms of narrative, which makes the disruptive US president an interesting character in storytelling terms.
Twitter users have also made fun of the fact that Trump probably wouldn't have the patience to watch one of the filmmaker's unusually paced works.
Revisit David Lynch's career in photos in the gallery below.
David Lynch: a life in surrealism
No other film director has created such mysterious works as David Lynch has done with his world-renowned films like "Blue Velvet" and "Wild at Heart." He also revolutionized television with his hit series, "Twin Peaks."
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David Lynch: the master magician of the screen
The 1980s and 90s belonged to David Lynch, the successful American film director whose widely influential movies peaked during those decades. Despite his unusual style and the strange worlds in his movies, Lynch became a household name in the US and beyond. The inimitable mixture of surrealism and expressionism on the big screen drilled holes deep into the subconscious of the films' viewers.
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'Eraserhead': a shocking debut
Lynch made his cinematic debut in 1977 with his first feature film, "Eraserhead." A horror film with a soft touch, the movie was a low-budget production for which the money came directly out of Lynch's pocket. A surprising success, "Eraserhead" (featuring Jack Nance, pictured here) made the American director world-famous. The movie enjoys a cult following to this day.
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'Elephant Man': sympathy for humanity
Three years later, Lynch took to the big screen to showcase his gift for dealing with abstract subject matters again with "The Elephant Man." The film is regarded as a sympathetic study in humanity that evokes a wide range of feelings in its viewers. The black-and-white movie tells the true story of Joseph Merrick, a man living with a genetic facial deformity in 19th-century London.
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'Dune': a financial disaster
The sci-fi flick "Dune" is regarded as Lynch's singular misstep. Released in 1984, the high-budget film caved in under the combined weight of art and expectations of commercial success. Although many of the film's scenes remain fascinating even today, for the audience at the time of its release, "Dune" proved to be a bit too awkward.
The gripping story of college student Jeffrey Beaumont as told in the movie "Blue Velvet" is perhaps one of Lynch's best-known works. With a minimal budget, the mysterious story featuring previously overlooked actors Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rossellini as its protagonists took David Lynch's directing to the next level. It is a stylistic masterpiece that wowed moviegoers then as it does now.
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'Wild at Heart': Golden Palm in Cannes
In 1990, David Lynch was at the height of his career when he released his fifth feature film, "Wild at Heart." The movie is a potent mix of genre elements as it tells the melodramatic story of a couple on the run. Although Lynch bagged a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for the film not all critics were sold, with some calling certain scenes too brutal and speculative.
The end of the 1980s saw Lynch take his talents to the small screen as well, as he made his television debut with the cult series, "Twin Peaks." Before long, people around the world were wondering "Who killed Laura Palmer?" (played by Sheryl Lee, pictured at center). The series proved a huge success on television and is still seen by many as the forerunner for today's bingeworthy TV shows.
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'Lost Highway': taking the plunge into the unknown
As Lynch began to dabble in transcendental meditation, his films also started to delve deeper into the depths of the human psyche. "Lost Highway" was the first of three movies ("Mulholland Drive" and "Inland Empire" followed) taking viewers on a gloomy, cinematic journey into the subconscious. The 1997 film is a complex undertaking that many film buffs still have difficulty following.
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'The Straight Story': an unexpected surprise
"The Straight Story" surprised both critics and the viewing public alike when it was released in 1999. The most atypical Lynch film to date, the slow story follows a farmer as he makes his way through the United States atop a lawn mower. The movie that was well received for its humane warmth and moments of quiet humor.
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'Twin Peaks: The Return': 25 years later
Fans of "Twin Peaks" waited for a quarter of a century to return to the Pacific Northwest town, when Lynch surprised them by announcing that another season would be released in 2016. With some extraordinary visual sequences dotted around, "Twin Peaks: The Return" is seen as a televised work of art. Like the original series, the 2016 production ends on a nail-biting cliffhanger.
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
Lynch, the visual artist
Many people don't realize that Lynch is first and foremost a visual artist. He studied Fine Arts and has produced a great body of mixed material works, photographs and sketches. Whether people "like" his work or not, they can't deny that - like his films - they are impossible to ignore. Many feature images of strangely contorted humans with twisted limbs, as well as red dogs and scary houses.
Image: Bonnefantenmuseum/David Lynch
David Lynch: jack of all trades
As the well-known face of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) community, Lynch travels around the US for public appearances dealing with meditation. His art has likewise attracted great attention at exhibitions around the world. In his private life, Lynch claims that he lives as a recluse. However, that is a bit hard to imagine for someone who lives in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles.