Also appreciation for the work with David Lynch continues to grow, his films was often treated as an acquired taste, so those who could see the value in his often gruesome, confusing material were especially important to him. Such was the relationship with Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fermaux, who programmed Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” at the 2001 festival in his first year as artistic director. Lynch would go on to receive Best Director from the Cannes Jury that year for the film.
“It played at 10:30 p.m. and it got an incredible ovation, even though people didn’t understand everything about it,” Fremaux said in a recent tribute (according to Amount). “They felt it was a unique film, and with the two actresses … it was just an instant classic.”
Fremaux went on to tell how he came to appreciate Lynch as a person the following year when the visionary auteur served as jury president. During a meeting in Los Angeles to prepare for this responsibility, Lynch asked Fremaux how the rest of the jury would be selected.
“I told him, ‘It’s us, it’s the Cannes Film Festival, but of course, if you ever have an enemy or people you don’t want on the jury, you have to tell us,'” Fremaux told Variety. “And he said, ‘I don’t have enemies, but even if I did, I wouldn’t ban them from being on the jury.'”
Fremaux added, “I knew right away that he was a generous guy. We prepared everything, we saw each other during the lull. And then, if I’m telling the truth, we never left each other’s side.”
Lynch’s jury awarded “The Pianist” the Palme d’Or, an award Lynch received in 1990 for “Wild at Heart,” but Fremaux’s relationship with Lynch would continue. They would meet in Los Angeles and Paris, where Lynch had a lithography studio, for dinners and deep conversations about “film and cinephilia.” Fremaux finally got him back to Cannes to debut “Twin Peaks: The Return” 2017, which reinforced Lynch’s belief that the French were true masters of cinema.
“One day, when we were having dinner at the Café de Flore, he said to me, ‘When the cinema dies, France will be the last country where it will breathe.’ He admired how France defended and continues to defend artists and independence,” Fremaux said. “In fact, his great comrade was Alain Sarde, who produced his films.”
Fremaux and Lynch would continue to correspond with each other via e-mail and even thousands of miles apart, Fremaux could tell how “ready for friendship” he was despite his work suggesting some kind of “tormented” soul.
Lynch passed away on Wednesday, January 15 after years of suffering from emphysema.
