David Lynch’s Favorite Films: 10 Movies the Director Wants You to See

“The Wizard of Oz” (dir. Victor Fleming, 1939)

The family-friendly fantasy classic is a longtime obsession of Lynch’s: the director made numerous homages to it over his career in films like “Wild at Heart,” and in a 2001 New York Film Festival Q&A, he said, “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about ‘The Wizard of Oz.'”

Lynch’s love for the Judy Garland musical is canonical enough that an entire documentary framing all of his movies through the lens of Fleming’s film, “Lynch/Oz,” premiered at the BFI London Film Festival last year.

“8 ½” (dir. Federico Fellini, 1963)

In his 2006 book “Catching the Big Fish,” Lynch writes that if he had to choose “films that represent, for me, examples of perfect film making” he could “narrow it down to four.”

“The first would be ‘8 ½,’ for the way Fellini manages to accomplish with film what mostly abstract painters do — namely, to communicate an emotion without ever saying or showing anything in a direct manner, without ever explaining anything, just by a sort of sheer magic,” he said. 

“Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday” (dir. Jacques Tati, 1953)

Another choice from Lynch’s book for his all-time best films is “Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday”: Jacques Tati’s comedy about a clumsy man (played by the director himself) wreaking havoc at a beachside hotel.  

“After that, I would show ‘Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday’ for the amazing point of view that Jacques Tati casts at society through it,” Lynch continued. “When you watch his films, you realise how much he know about — and loved — human nature, and it can only be an inspiration to do the same.” 

“Rear Window” (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

The final film Lynch singled out as perfect in his book is “Rear Window”: Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film thriller starring James Stewart as a photographer who witnesses a murder from his window. 

“I would show ‘Rear Window,’ for the brilliant way in which Alfred Hitchcock manages to create — or rather, re-create — a whole world within confined parameters,” Lynch wrote. “James Stewart never leaves his wheelchair during the film, and yet, through his point of view, we follow a very complex murder scheme. In the film, Hitchcock manages to take something huge and condense it into something really small. And he achieves that through a complete control of filmmaking technique.” 

“Sunset Boulevard” (dir. Billy Wilder, 1950)

One of Lynch’s favorite filmmakers is Billy Wilder, and one of his all time favorite movies is “Sunset Boulevard”: Wilder’s 1950 noir about an aging silent film actress attempting to stage her long dreamed of comeback. In an interview with Dazed & Confused Magazine, Lynch said he screened the film for the cast of “Eraserhead” before the project began production.

“‘Sunset Boulevard’ just has the greatest mood; you’re immersed in it like a dream. It catches a Hollywood story that connects the golden age of Hollywood with the present day,” Lynch told Dazed & Confused. “But it’s a truthful movie, and so it carries through to today. It has a lot of sadness in it, and beauty. And mystery. And dreams. Beauty, beauty, beauty and more dreams.”

“Stroszek” (dir. Werner Herzog, 1977)

In 2009, Lynch produced “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?,” a crime drama from celebrated German director Werner Herzog. Lynch later named “Stroszek” — a 1977 tragicomedy about a street performer and a sex worker attempting to get out of Germany to start a new life — as his favorite of Herzog’s in a 2014 Q&A.

“Lolita” (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1962)

Another of Lynch’s favorite directors is Stanley Kubrick: the cinematic titan behind “The Shining” and “A Clockwork Orange.” In 2014, for a programming series with the International House Philadelphia, Lynch selected “Lolita” — Kubrick’s adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s infamous novel about a delusional pedophile — to screen. 

“It’s a Gift” (dir. Norman McLeod, 1934)

In an interview about his favorite films and filmmakers, Lynch spoke about his appreciation for W.C. Fields: a prolific comedic actor during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Lynch’s favorite performance by the actor in Norman McLeod’s “It’s a Gift” from 1934, which stars the comedian as a hapless grocer. 

“The Apartment” (dir. Billy Wilder, 1960)

In 2011, during the opening of Lynch’s Club Silencio in Paris, the director celebrated with a week screening his favorite films. The screenings began with “Sunset Boulevard” and ended with another Wilder movie: the classic romantic dramedy “The Apartment.”

“Mon Oncle” (dir. Jacques Tati, 1968)

Another Jacques Tati comedy — again starring the director as Hulot, this time struggling to fit in with consumer-driven world of his sister’s family — “Mon Oncle” is also one of Lynch’s favorites. The director choose it as one of the movies that screened during the opening week of Club Silencio.