David Lynch’s Organic Coffee (Barbie Head Not Included)

In one of his very best ear­ly essays, David Lynch Keeps His Head (1996), the late nov­el­ist and essay­ist David Fos­ter Wal­lace did his best to pin­point exact­ly what it is that makes Lynch such an odd and won­der­ful direc­tor. The arti­cle is pure plea­sure (and a reminder of just how fresh and orig­i­nal Wal­lace was, and how rarely his imi­ta­tors ever do him jus­tice). One line in par­tic­u­lar stands out — the writer’s now-famous com­par­i­son between Lynch and Taran­ti­no: “Quentin Taran­ti­no,” wrote Wal­lace, “is inter­est­ed in watch­ing some­one’s ear get cut off. David Lynch is inter­est­ed in the ear.”

We’re not quite sure what that line has to do with the direc­tor’s lat­est pro­duc­tion (a com­mer­cial adver­tis­ing his new cof­fee line and star­ring a sev­ered Bar­bie head) except that we could­n’t stop think­ing of either the quote or the essay as we watched it — appalled, dis­mayed, per­plexed, and, as always with the films of Mr. Lynch, com­plete­ly inca­pable of look­ing away.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

David Lynch on his Favorite Movies and Film­mak­ers

Ear­ly David Lynch Films

via David Lynch

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly