David Lynch: The Polish Connection

The Polish ConnectionOn the passing of David Lynch, it is fair that EESS reflect on his cult status in Poland and the special attention Poland enjoyed in his oeuvre.The introduction of Lynch's oeuvre to Polish audiences was a delayed process.Until the end of the state-socialist dictatorship in 1989, only Blue Velvet had been distributed in Poland.However, there is good evidence that both The Elephant Man as well as Dune were frequently shown from bootleg VHS tapes during SF fandom meetings.Twin Peaks premiered in Poland in March 1991 on the state-owned public television station, TVP 1.The series was broadcast on Fridays in prime time at 8 pm after the evening news.During the political transformation, when established structures of political, economic, and social norms eroded from one day to another, and everyday life became a surreal mixture of the Old and the New, audience attraction to Twin Peaks was unprecedented-in particular, given the fact that there was no private Polish TV channel at that time.Consequently, it would be difficult to find anyone in Poland today born between, say, 1960 and 1980 who didn't watch at least one episode of the series at the time.In April 1991, a month after the Polish premiere of the first episode of Twin Peaks, Wild At Heart was released in cinemas by the now-defunct Opal company, then a VHS distributor of B-grade films.Soon Gutek Film, the trademark of art house cinema in Poland, became responsible for the theatrical distribution of Lost Highway (1997), The Straight Story (2000) and Mulholland Drive (2002).Although box office figures for the late 1990s and early 2000s were not released, there are several other traces of Lynch's popularity.A translation of Lynch's book, Catching the Big Fish, was published in Polish in 2007, as well as two book-length volumes of interviews-a lengthy interview by Chris Rodley (in 1999), and a collection of interviews selected and edited by Richard A. Barney (in 2017).In the poll of Best Films in the History of Cinema, organised on the occasion of 120 years of cinema by the Polish Museum of Cinematography, Lost Highway landed in 10 th place in the film critics' poll, and enjoyed the same rank in the film directors' poll (Klejsa and Jajko 2017).The reception of The Straight Story came via a different path, as the film was warmly received by the Catholic press.In 2016, the Catholic association Bethlehem of Jaworzno organised an unusual pilgrimage inspired by the true story of Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old American who, unable to drive, wanted to reconcile with his sick brother, so he set off on a journey from Iowa to Wisconsin on an electric lawnmower.After seeing the film, a group of Poles followed his example and set off on small tractors on a five-week pilgrimage from Jaworzno to Lisieux in France.David Lynch was delighted with the idea and took patronage of their escapade.In a special message to the pilgrims, Lynch expressed his support and wished them a safe journey.