Out of reluctance for words, out of love for places. The specifics of characters' communication and the essence of space in selected films by David Lynch

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine how the communicative and visual elements in David Lynch's works– in the context of their unusual and unique nature. It is reflected on how the characters of his films communicate with each other (mixing linguistic functions, hyperbolization, dance, discomforting pauses), as well as how space and other means of cinematic expression (acoustic dimension, color, onirism, surrealism) function in this context. The article refers to the scholarly and essayistic literature on David Lynch's work that has arisen both in Polish and foreign scholarly circles (for instance: Kinga Jelińska, Kamil Lipinski, Slavoj Žižek, David Foster Wallace). The artist's work was set in the midst of many theoretical contexts, on the basis of which analyses of selected films of the director or their fragments (for example, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) were carried out. The conclusions of the analysis and theoretical considerations emphasize the importance of the indicated elements in David Lynch's work, and also point to the sensual dimension of the impact of his works - amidst surrealism and dream poetics, they can go directly to the senses and emotions of the audience.