David Lynch is at HOME as part of the Manchester International Festival

Legendary filmmaker David Lynch will present a special season of screenings, live concerts and talks, alongside his first major UK exhibition of visual art, My Head is Disconnected, as part of Manchester International Festival and the summer-long takeover: David Lynch at HOME.

An extensive film programme – It’s a Great Big Wonderful World – spans the many high points of Lynch’s unique oeuvre (6 July – 25 August), from his earliest forays into short filmmaking to the seminal TV series Twin Peaks. In September, a programme of films chosen by Lynch, David Lynch’s True Favourites (13 – 29 September) will include screenings of cult films such as Fellini’s 8½, Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz, and Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard.

David Lynch said: “I was talking to Auntie Em, and she said there’s no place like HOME.”

Chrysta Bell by Elias Tahan

Musician, actress, and Lynch collaborator Chrysta Bell will host a three-night series of one-off and specially prepared live shows from Lynch-inspired musicians. Anna Calvi will perform tracks from across her career in a rare, intimate solo show, joined by Dorset singer-songwriter Douglas Dare (Friday 12 July). These New Puritans will present a specially devised set of reimagined pieces from David Lynch films, including music by Angelo Badalamenti and David Bowie, along with their own works. They are joined by psych-rock band Whyte Horses who will perform a set inspired by the Roadhouse in Lynch’s Twin Peaks (Saturday 13 July). On the final evening, cellist Oliver Coates will perform music inspired by pioneering cult electronic musician Enno Velthuys, following a set by vocalist Hatis Noit, showcasing her blend of Japanese classical music and avant-garde pop (Sunday 14 July). All sets will feature a specially devised performance and introductions by Chrysta Bell.

As part of the programme of talks and events accompanying the season, David Lynch will join Manchester audiences via video link for a panel discussion in partnership with Guardian Live, The Power of Transcendental Meditation (Saturday 13 July), with musician Tim Burgess and the executive director of the David Lynch Foundation UK, Deirdre Parsons.

The film and music season runs alongside David Lynch’s first major UK visual art exhibition, My Head is Disconnected, opening 6 July. Featuring large-scale paintings, drawings and sculptures, this major exhibition will be a rare and fascinating insight into the mind and work of David Lynch.

Curated by Sarah Perks and Omar Kholeif with Mary Anne Hobbs and Jason Wood, events are also in association with the David Lynch Foundation UK.

John McGrath, MIF Artistic Director and Chief Executive said: “I am delighted to be bringing David Lynch’s unique sensibility to Manchester for MIF this year. Although he is primarily known for his film and TV work, Lynch is an artist with an incredible range. Straddling film, music and his visual art, this is an opportunity to discover more about the work of one of today’s most fascinating and creative talents and to see and experience how he continues to influence other artists and musicians.”

Dave Moutrey, Director and CEO of HOME and Director of Culture, Manchester said: “We’re excited for David Lynch’s takeover of HOME this Summer. Alongside presenting his first major UK visual art exhibition in collaboration with MIF, we’re thrilled with the eclectic music line-up hosted by Chrysta Bell and the diverse film and events programme that includes cult Lynch classics alongside films personally selected by Lynch himself. Welcome HOME, David.”

Professor Sarah Perks, curator of My Head is Disconnected said: “David is an artist in the widest sense, whilst curating his prolific and fascinating body of visual art work, I became more and more conscious of his tight relationship between forms, and the importance of sound and music in his oeuvre. You have to embrace the creative energy and immerse yourself sensually across this Lynchian feast of still image, moving image, sound, music, theatricality and never to be omitted, meditation.”

Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival and HOME, Manchester, in association with David Lynch Foundation UK. With thanks to David Lynch Studio and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles. MIF19 runs from 4–21 July 2019 with artists from across the globe premiering a variety of new work in spaces throughout the city. For more details about this year’s programme, please visit mif.co.uk

My Head is Disconnected is the first major UK exhibition of the visual art of David Lynch, featuring large-scale paintings, sculptures and drawings, bringing together over 60 of Lynch’s works from the late 1960s to the present day, with the majority of works never seen before in the UK. The exhibition will be presented in four chapters: ‘City on Fire,’ displaying a selection of Lynch’s dystopian landscapes, some over three metres wide; ‘Nothing Here,’ exploring the fragility of the human mind; ‘Industrial Empire,’ featuring works examining industry and labour, inspired by Manchester’s rich industrial heritage; and ‘Bedtime Stories,’ featuring new works evocative of Lynch’s dark narratives and characters.

HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, First Street, M15 4FN

Saturday 6 – Sunday 21 July,

Mon – Sat 12pm – 8pm, Sun 12pm – 6pm

Admission Free

My Head is Disconnected continues until 29 September 2019.

FILM LISTINGS

DIRECTED BY DAVID LYNCH

David Lynch Shorts Programme (CTBA)

Sat 6 Jul, 16:00

Dir David Lynch/US 1966-2008/68 mins

Incorporating Lynch’s earliest forays into filmmaking, this selection of shorter works illustrates the director’s restless creativity, the breadth of his imagination and his ability to unsettle.

Shorts screening in this programme:

Industrial Soundscape (Dir David Lynch, US 2008, 11 mins)

Music is produced by different objects in an industrial and desolate landscape.

Bug Crawls (Dir David Lynch, US 2008, 5 mins)

Shot on digital video, Bug Crawls features a bug crawling over a house and falling on his back, accompanied by trademark dark ambient music.

Lumière (Dir David Lynch, US 1995, 1 min)

Lynch’s contribution to a project in which international directors were asked to make a short using the original Cinématographe invented by the Lumière brothers.

Six Men Getting Sick (Dir David Lynch, US 1966, 4 mins)

Lynch’s first film project consists of a loop of six people vomiting projected on to a special sculptured screen featuring twisted three-dimensional faces.

The Alphabet (Dir David Lynch, US 1968, 4 mins)

A woman’s dark and absurdist nightmare vision of a continuous recitation of the alphabet and bizarre living representations of each letter.

The Grandmother (Dir David Lynch, US 1970, 34 mins)

A young boy plants some strange seeds and they grow into a grandmother.

The Amputee (Dir David Lynch, US 1974, 9 mins)

A double leg female amputee sits and writes a long, meandering letter while her ineffective nurse attempts to attend to her stumps.

Twin Peaks S3 ep 1 & 2

Sun 7 Jul, 13:00

Free (booking required)

More than a quarter of a century after its debut, series three of David Lynch’s show is just as baffling, mystical and occasionally deranged … only now there’s a new crime to solve. Forget Laura Palmer – who killed Ruth Davenport?

Talk: I’ll See You in My Dreams

Sun 7 Jul, 15:30

Tickets: £9.50 full, £7.50 concs

The return of Twin Peaks after more than a 25-year absence from television screens was a major event, and one capable of provoking reflection on the medium itself.

In this talk, Dr Kirsty Fairclough from the University of Salford, will examine the phenomenon that is the world of Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks S3 ep 8

Sun 7 Jul, 16:45

Free (booking required)

In a brave and ground-breaking hour of television, Lynch takes the viewer on an incredible journey. Guaranteed to blow your mind.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (CTBA) + Introduction
Sun 7 Jul, 20:20

Dir David Lynch/US FR 1992/134 mins

Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Mädchen Amick

Reviled on release, this film set in Deer Meadow, an alternate and hellish Twin Peaks has undergone a huge critical reappraisal and is now seen as one of Lynch’s most satisfying if complex works. Refusing to offer comfort or easy answers to life’s horrors, it features a memorable contribution from David Bowie.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Bren O’Callaghan, Curator at HOME.

David Lynch: The Power of Transcendental Meditation

Sat 13 Jul, 16:30

Ticket prices: £12 full / £10 concs

“When I had my first meditation, this inner bliss revealed itself so powerfully – thick happiness came rushing in. And I said, ‘This is it.’ There it was. And everything just got better and better.” David Lynch

Join a panel, including David Lynch (via video link), musician Tim Burgess, and Deirdre Parsons, executive director of the David Lynch Foundation UK, on an exploration of Transcendental Meditation.

For the last 40 years, researchers have worked hard to test the effectiveness of ancient wisdom practices, including Transcendental Meditation. A number of studies have shown benefits in lowering stress, blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, drinking and anxiety. The fact that practising meditation is good for combating depression is becoming well-established. The modern-day resurgence of Transcendental Meditation is often attributed to the work of David Lynch, whose foundation teaches Transcendental Meditation techniques to a number of at-risk groups.

What are the practical manifestations of Transcendental Meditation? Is it a method for the masses? Can it really help with society’s growing mental health issues?

Presented in association with Guardian Live and the David Lynch Foundation UK.

David Lynch: The Art Life (15)

Sat 13 Jul, 18:10

Dirs Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Jon Nguyen/US DK 2016/86 mins

Illuminating Lynch’s own art, music and films while shining a light on his unique world and journey from small-town America to art school in Philadelphia, this documentary offers audiences a greater understanding of both the man and the artist.

Meditation, Creativity, Peace (CTBA) + Introduction

Sun 14 Jul, 13:30

Free (booking required)

Dir David Lynch/US 2012/71 mins

This documentary is an exhilarating, inspiring round-up of questions and answers from David Lynch’s European and Middle East tours of 2007-2009, when he visited 16 countries to meet film students, receive national awards, launch university projects and describe the extraordinary benefits for creativity and peace to be gained through Transcendental Meditation.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by David Hughes, who has been teaching Transcendental Meditation for 40 years and has written many articles on the subject. David teaches in Manchester and works with the David Lynch Foundation UK, which funds Transcendental Meditation courses for at-risk groups.

The Elephant Man (PG)

Sun 14 Jul, 15:20

Dir David Lynch/US GB 1980/118 mins

Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft

Lynch’s monochrome homage to 19th-century urban gothic tells the tale of Joseph Merrick, exhibited as a ‘freak’ in Victorian London. With breathtaking cinematography and an outstanding performance by John Hurt, The Elephant Man raises interesting questions about society’s casting off of those perceived as different, the human body and the ethics of societies.

Eraserhead (15)

Fri 16 Aug, 20:40

Dir David Lynch/US 1977/85 mins

Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph

David Lynch’s astonishing feature debut, Eraserhead became a cult item that enjoyed a long life on the Midnight Movie circuit. The tale of an eccentric loner (Nance) in a nightmare post-industrial landscape, it’s guaranteed to haunt your dreams.

Dune (12) + Introduction

Sat 17 Aug, 17:30

Dirs David Lynch, Alan Smithee/US MX 1984/153 mins

Francesca Annis, Jose Ferrer, Sian Phillips

After Lynch was hired by Dino De Laurentiis to bring Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic to the screen, Dune proved a chastening experience for Lynch as his artistic spirit was compromised. However, the film has grown in stature and remains an underappreciated entry in the director’s canon. It also initiated Lynch’s long working collaboration with Kyle MacLachlan.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Dr Amy C Chambers, Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Blue Velvet (18) + Post-Screening Discussion

Sun 18 Aug, 13:00

Tue 20 Aug, 20:15

Wed 21 Aug, 13:00

Dir David Lynch/US 1986/115 mins

Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper

When a clean-cut young man discovers a severed human ear in the grass, his quest to solve the grisly mystery leads him into the terrifying underworld of his own town. From its opening, colour-saturated shot to the last, Lynch exposes the dark underbelly of wholesome, small-town America in one of his quintessential works.

Event/ There will be a post screening discussion with filmmakers and visual artists AL and AL following the screening on Sun 18 Aug.

Wild at Heart (18) + Introduction

Mon 19 Aug, 20:15

Dir David Lynch/US 1990/119 mins

Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe

A road movie that fuses Bonnie and Clyde with The Wizard of Oz, the hyper-violent Wild at Heart won Lynch the Palme d’Or. Adapted from the novella by Barry Gifford, this heartfelt tale of Sailor (Cage, rarely better) and Lula (Dern), the film has attitude and romance to burn.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Maggie Hoffgen, freelance film educator.

Lost Highway (18)

Thu 22 Aug, 17:45

Dir David Lynch/US FR 1997/128 mins

Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty

Lynch travels the weird back roads of America in a tense thriller, clearly influenced by the works of Hitchcock and involving a mythical LA, a blonde and a brunette (both played by the same actress) and strange musings on identity and dreams. The film features music by Barry Adamson.

The Straight Story (U) + Introduction

Fri 23 Aug, 18:00

Dir David Lynch/US GB FR 1999/107 mins

Sissy Spacek, Jane Heitz, Richard Farnsworth

Based on the true story of Alvin Straight’s journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on an old lawnmower to visit his ailing brother, The Straight Story is frequently cited as the director’s most straightforward and atypical work. Dig a little deeper, however, and the film chimes perfectly with a sense that for all the evil in the universe, good will out. Farnsworth is sensational in a rare leading role.

Screening from a 35mm print.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Jason Wood, Creative Director: Film and Culture at HOME.

Mulholland Drive (15) + Introduction

Sat 24 Aug, 20:00

Dir David Lynch/US FR 2001/143 mins

Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux

Watts gives a career-making performance as an aspiring actress who, after arriving in Hollywood, befriends an amnesiac woman and tries to help her recover her memory. A film that thrives on subversion, it conjures a swirling atmosphere of increasing surrealism.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Sarah Perks, curator David Lynch: My Head Is Disconnected.

Inland Empire (15)

Sun 25 Aug, 14:00

Dir David Lynch/FR PL GB 2006/176 mins

Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux

This sprawling Hollywood nightmare takes the perspective of an out-of-favour actress (Dern) as a launching pad for a surreal trip through the streets of Tinseltown, the Polish underworld, a rabbit sitcom and back again. Filmed on digital video, it’s a hallucinatory experience that shows the director at his darkest, scariest and most inspired.

Screening from a 35mm print.

DAVID LYNCH’S TRUE FAVOURITES

The Wizard of Oz (U) + Introduction

Fri 13 Sep, 20:40

Dir Victor Fleming/US 1939/103 mins

Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley

Fleming’s classic begins in the monochrome world of Kansas but bursts into colour when Dorothy’s (Garland) house, uprooted in a tornado, lands in the surreal fairyland of Oz. Dorothy’s mythic journey seems to reveal that to find one’s heart’s desire, ‘there’s no place like home’. A clear influence on Wild at Heart, there is also something of the dark underbelly about this influential fantasy.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Dr Kirsty Fairclough, Associate Dean, School of Arts and Media, University of Salford.

Sunset Boulevard (PG) + Post-Screening Discussion

Sun 15 Sep, 13:00

Tue 17 Sep, 20:30

Wed 18 Sep, 13:00

Dir Billy Wilder/US 1950/106 mins

William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich Von Stroheim

This acid-etched portrait of Tinseltown remains one of the darkest movies on moviemaking. Broke screenwriter Joe Gillis (Holden) hides out in a seemingly deserted mansion. There he meets the property’s owner, faded screen star Norma Desmond (Swanson), who’s planning her comeback and wants Joe to help her with the self-penned script. Joe moves in, becoming a kept man and the object of Norma’s obsessive affection.

Event/ The screening on Sun 15 Sep will be followed by a post-screening discussion led by Dr Kirsty Fairclough, Associate Dean, School of Arts and Media, University of Salford.

A Place in the Sun (U)

Thu 19 Sep, 17:50

Dir George Stevens/US 1951/117 mins

Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters

Stevens’ second major film after his return to Hollywood, A Place in the Sun is the story of how a hostile environment can pervert an already warped character. Adapted from Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, it features a central performance of great depth from Clift that radiates inner conflict.

Mon Oncle (U)

Fri 20 Sep, 20:20

Dir Jacques Tati/FR IT 1958/110 mins/French wEngST

Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie

Slapstick prevails again when Tati’s eccentric Monsieur Hulot is set loose in the ultramodern home of his brother-in-law, and in the antiseptic plastic hose factory where he gets a job. The second Hulot movie and Tati’s first colour film, Mon Oncleis a supremely amusing satire of mechanised living and consumer society.

8½ (15)

Mon 23 Sep, 20:00

Dir Federico Fellini/IT FR 1963/138 mins/Italian wEngST

Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimee, Sandra Milo

Fellini’s 8½ is another of the great films about cinema and the strain of creativity. Mastroianni excels as Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life. A truly epic and influential work, it has all the qualities of a shimmering dream.

In Cold Blood (15)

Wed 25 Sep, 20:10

Dir Richard Brooks/US 1968/138 mins

Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe

Adapting Truman Capote’s true-crime novel about the senseless murder of a family in rural Kansas, In Cold Blood is a grimly authentic American horror story. Shot in the same house, courtroom and penitentiary that were splashed across front pages less than a decade earlier, Brooks’ fever dream noir is a haunting journey inside an atrocity that struck a chill in America’s heartland. Robert Blake would go on to work memorably with Lynch.

Stroszek (15) + Introduction

Fri 27 Sep, 18:10

Dir Werner Herzog/DE 1977/103 mins/German wEngST

Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz

Stroszek follows the fortunes of a street performer as he leaves Berlin for America. But once there, he finds it barely the land of opportunity and has to eke out a meagre existence on the barren trailer parks of Wisconsin. Herzog’s first film in America portrays the territory with the same alien, barren inhabitability as his films in the Amazon and Sahara. It’s a film about dreams and dreaming, and what happens when reality intercedes.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Andy Willis, Senior Visiting Curator for Film.

The Man Without a Past (12) + Introduction

(Mies vailla menneisyyttä)

Sun 29 Sep, 16:00

Dir Aki Kaurismäki/FI DE FR 2002/97 mins/Finnish wEngST

Kati Outinen, Markku Peltola

M arrives in Helsinki, where he is attacked by thugs and pronounced dead by medics. When he miraculously recovers, covered in bandages and with no recollection of his past, he sets out to build himself a new life. With a very Lynchian central motif – the interchange between fantasy and reality – Kaurismäki’s film is a charming meditation on kindness.

Event/ This screening will be introduced by Sarah Perks, curator David Lynch: My Head Is Disconnected.

MUSIC LISTINGS

David Lynch Presents

Anna Calvi (solo) + Douglas Dare + Chrysta Bell 

Friday 12 July 

7.30pm 

£22 

The extraordinary Anna Calvi performs a rare solo show to open our three-night stand of musical innovators and pioneers inspired by the work of David Lynch. Calvi is one of the most powerful and captivating live performers around today, and this intimate theatre show is a perfect setting in which to hear tracks from across her career. She’ll be joined by Dorset singer-songwriter Douglas Dare, who’ll be playing tracks from his forthcoming album for the first time in Manchester – and by the mercurial Chrysta Bell, a regular David Lynch collaborator who’ll be performing the first of three consecutive sets at all three nights of David Lynch Presents.

Tonight’s show will be followed by a disorientating DJ set in the ground-floor bar by Manchester musician/writer/producer LoneLady.

David Lynch Presents 

These New Puritans + Whyte Horses + Chrysta Bell 

Saturday 13 July 

7.30pm 

£18 

Fire, trees, oblivion, dreams… Fresh from acclaimed new album Inside the Rose, the magnificent These New Puritans perform a specially devised set of reimagined pieces from David Lynch films, including music by Angelo Badalamenti and David Bowie, in dialogue with tracks from their own back catalogue. They’ll be joined for this triple-header by Manchester’s psych-rockers Whyte Horses, performing a set inspired by the mythical Roadhouse in Lynch’s Twin Peaks, following a set from musician, actress and longtime Lynch collaborator Chrysta Bell. It’s all part of David Lynch Presents…, three nights of Lynch-inspired music from some of today’s most innovative acts.

David Lynch Presents 

Oliver Coates + Hatis Noit + Chrysta Bell 

Sunday 14 July 

7.30pm 

£16 

For the final show in our three-night David Lynch-inspired series, musician and longtime Lynch associate Chrysta Bell is joined by two of today’s most inventive musicians for two sets specially conceived for MIF19. Cellist Oliver Coates has worked with everyone from Radiohead to Steve Reich, Mica Levi to Karl Lagerfeld – and tonight, he’s presenting an exclusive solo performance inspired by pioneering cult electronic musician Enno Velthuys. He’ll be preceded by the astonishing Japanese vocalist Hatis Noit, who blends everything from Japanese classical music to avant-garde pop into a sound that’s singular and unique.