If you felt a sudden inexplicable chill Thursday — as if an integral piece of the fabric of the universe was suddenly missing — that's because filmmaker/fine artist/musician/meditation guru/coffee pitch man/John Ford lookalike/all-around nice guy David Lynch had passed away.
The mastermind behind such surreal classics as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive left this mortal coil shortly after announcing he was suffering from emphysema in August of last year. He left behind a god-level filmography of 10 feature films, which all act as gateways into one of the most unique minds to ever toil in mainstream cinema. Somewhere along the way he redefined what serial television could be amid the sprawling mythology of TV's Twin Peaks. He'll be forever revered by audiences and filmmakers alike as the rare creator given leeway to do his own thing (and then some), but there is one entry in that filmography which many fans — and Lynch himself — perceived like the foulest four-letter word… Dune.
