My dissertation topic follows the works of David Lynch and the term that has been coined towards the nature of his films, 'Lynchian.' Through all the reading I've been doing in preparation for the project, I've learnt quite a lot, not just about Lynch and his films, but what inspired him and what he does that places him in the light of one of the most famous surrealist filmmakers to have lived. I then considered to myself, is there a particular reason I am such a fan of Lynch's work? I could say that it's due to my love for Twin Peaks and the fact I went on to watch his films following that out of interest, but truth be told I love all of his films for all of their uniqueness and bizarre aspects. This brings me to the surreal. 

Lynch is without a doubt a surreal filmmaker, with his cult film Eraserhead being one to note in particular. It is a film that is very unfathomable, and even once you have fathomed its powerful and alarming imagery to form the ideas that Lynch may have wanted to get across, you're still left baffled.  And that's why I like it. Part of my dissertation is about exploring these films and decoding my own meanings and interpretations. That's the fun of film, but it comes most commonly in the surreal. If the surreal has to be bizarre, wether that be through imagery, writing or just direction - what else counts for it?

David Cronenberg is famous for the use of body horror in his films. The Fly being his most popular, is a film that becomes an easy to grasp and follow movie that it just doesn't matter how the plot should go or how it is told, because as soon as you see Jeff Goldblum's horrific transformations you're transfixed by something so over-worldly. It's interesting to see how these kinds of films take from one another and how they manage to stand out in their own ways. When surrealism comes to mind I think mainly about the aspects of horror associated with it, a connotation that I think everyone would apply, the sense of fear. And of course, we fear what we don't understand.

Is that why we keep coming back for more? Maybe. For me, I fear to extents, but am transfixed with what these kinds of movies attempt to say and/or be. Rabbits is another David Lynch work that, one, scares me senseless, but two, I'm head over heels for. A small web series that eventually made it in to his 2006 film Inland Empire, Rabbits follows the life of three anthropomorphic rabbits living in a house, we could say, who talk in a puzzling fashion. Lines of dialogue are cut together so oddly that the laugh track that sometimes plays now and again after one of these lines actually makes it funny. But its so strange, I've attempted to jumble the lines spoke in this series to form an actual conversation that makes sense and so have many online - but it's so hard to discover what Lynch means in this oddity. I don't understand it, but I'm still so drawn to it.

I suppose it's a matter of taste, a matter of opinion and who we are that attaches a person to surrealism. It's a technique that can be spread across so many different art forms including art itself that make. That's one of the things that inspired Lynch, painting was always a big thing for him and if you google his paintings you'll see how surreal they are. Dreams are also something he goes off of a lot, and for us, that's probably when we, as people, are the most surreal. When we literally see some of the most strange and peculiar things happen inside our head, where we believe they are so real and when you wake up - you're back to a normal world. And it's hard to process. Surrealism is a strange one alright, and strange is the best word to sum it up.