DALLAS — Calling all fans of the surreal, the artistic or the just plain weird: This week, the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff kicked off a complete retrospective of the controversial director David Lynch's filmography -- and they've gone all out for it.
Lynch is a fan favorite for many cinephiles, having amassed a wide collection of movies with their own unique, creepy, sometimes warm, sometimes horrifying vibes -- to the point of a new word having been created to describe the feeling of a Lynch movie, or anything with the feeling of a Lynch movie: "Lynchian."
As David Foster Wallace once wrote: Quentin Tarantino focuses on a man cutting off another man's ear; Lynch focuses on the ear.
The retrospective includes a screening of every single film Lynch has directed, as well as short films of his, documentaries and other films that either inspired Lynch or were inspired by Lynch.
"David Lynch -- A Complete Retrospective" began Wednesday evening with screenings of "Wild at Heart" and "Eraserhead," plus a Q&A following the "Wild at Heart" screening with the film's editor, Duwayne Dunham, and the author who wrote the novel the film was based upon, Barry Gifford
Q&As will be offered with several of the screened movies, featuring either film experts or cast and crew that worked on the films. Actors Balthasar Getty and Natasha Gregson, who both starred in "Lost Highway" will be in attendance at a 7:15 p.m. showing Saturday night.
Jason Reimer, the creative director and co-owner of the Texas Theatre, said he had the idea for the Lynch retrospective after seeing another theater in Chicago host a similar series last year.
"He's definitely my favorite director, for sure, so it's definitely a labor of love for this particular artist," Reimer said.
As film directors go, Reimer said every era has one that sticks out in their own unique way like Lynch.
"There's something more than just storytelling -- it feels like an emotional experience and a psychological experience and it feels much more multi-dimensional than just a film," he said. "[Lynch] really does create worlds that, even though they're surrealistic, they feel touchable and more real than most things that are surreal."
Along with the films, the theater itself has been decked out to look like it's right out of a Lynch film, with a photo booth set up to look like a front lawn in "Blue Velvet," or a blue rose lit up to look like Club Silencio from "Mulholland Drive."
Each theater has also been adorned with black-and-white striped carpet to make it look like the audience is walking right into the black lodge from "Twin Peaks." And there's even Lynch-branded coffee and pies -- two items prevalent in that hit Lynch TV series -- for sale at the concession stand.
The Lynch retrospective will continue through June 4 with daily movie screenings. See the whole lineup of offerings here.