The man behind the camera’s fascination with the man behind the curtain
‘Lynch/Oz,’ Alexandre O. Philippe’s new documentary, looks at how ‘The Wizard of Oz’ influenced famously enigmatic filmmaker David Lynch
In David Lynch’s characteristically unconventional 2018 autobiography, “Room to Dream,” he mentions “The Wizard of Oz” just once: He doesn’t recall when he first saw the legendary 1939 movie, he writes, “but it stuck with me, whenever it was. But I’m not alone. It stuck with a lot of people.”
Lynch, the filmmaker behind “Eraserhead” (1977), “Blue Velvet” (1986), and the groundbreaking “Twin Peaks” TV series, has a long history with the man behind the curtain. Close watchers have often noted various Lynchian parallels with “Oz” — the doppelgangers, the red shoes, the dreams and nightmares, the little people.
Alexandre O. Philippe makes “films about films.” He broke down the most famous three minutes in slasher history in “78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene” (2017), and his “Doc of the Dead” is a 2014 film about the zombie apocalypse in popular culture.
Now, in “Lynch/Oz,” Philippe takes on one of the film world’s biggest enigmas and his career-long attraction to the great American fairy tale. Philippe divides his inquiry into six “chapters,” each featuring extensive clips and voiceover from noted filmmakers or scholars, including John Waters, Rodney Ascher (“Room 237,” 2012, about Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”), Karyn Kusama (2000’s “Girlfight,” 2009’s “Jennifer’s Body”), and David Lowery (“The Green Knight,” 2021).
“Lynch/Oz” plays in the Boston area July 7-10 at the Brattle Theatre, alongside special screenings of Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” (1990) and “Mulholland Drive” (2001), and, yes, “The Wizard of Oz” (directed by Victor Fleming and starring Judy Garland in a career-defining role). We caught up with the director on the phone while he was seated at an outdoor cafe in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Q. The opening chapter of your film is about the role of wind in “Oz” and Lynch’s films. Did you have these themes in mind when you began interviewing people?
A. The process was unique. The first step, I call it a “jazz interview.” I get them on the phone, going down the rabbit hole with me. For 90 minutes to 3½ hours, I just keep fishing for a thesis. To me, the art is giving them the opportunity to take you where they want to take you, but don’t necessarily know where that is.
Q. So you’re telling them: Here’s your theme as I see it.
A. Yeah, basically. I have to take what they’re giving me, and then give it a structure. There’s this beautiful overarching narrative that starts building, this progression from chapter to chapter that leads to the grand finale of David Lowery’s chapter, which is really the thesis of the film itself — which is the mysteries of influence and inspiration on the creative process.
I really wanted to go beyond Lynch and beyond art to address this idea that films, images, paintings, things that happen in our lives when we’re kids, can leave a massive impression on us. And then you grow up to be a filmmaker, and in a way you’re sort of trapped by them. You keep going back and revisiting those things, whether you’re conscious of it or not.
Q. I’m sure a few viewers might think, “I hope he interviews David Lynch for this film.” But he’s not going to give you a straight answer anyway.
A. The straightest thing David Lynch has ever given us is “The Straight Story.” He was the first person I reached out to — knowing full well that he would say no. I’m very glad he said no. It’s always interesting to hear David Lynch talk, but I don’t think it’s interesting, necessarily, for him to talk about his work, because his work defies explanation.
Q. Kind of the whole point is that his work defies explanation to him, right?
A. To him! Yes. And by the same token, “Lynch/Oz” is not about solving the riddle. There’s no riddle to solve. It’s about opening more doors, more windows, more mysteries. To me, the real juice of it is these personal stories — when David Lowery talks about watching “The Wizard of Oz” in black and white, or
when Karyn talks about being a waitress in New York City when she was young and serving pancakes to David Lynch with lots of maple syrup. That’s where it becomes interesting to me. It’s not just criticism. It’s about the personal, emotional impact of movies on people who become great filmmakers in their own right. Or critics, in the case of Amy Nicholson. That to me is what I love to do. It’s what my work is about.
Q. Did you know right from the beginning that’s where your niche was going to be?
A. No. I fell into it. I do think I had a hunch, because I was doing that as a kid — unpacking movies, obsessively watching and rewatching, trying to figure out, you know, using the frame-byframe function on the VHS player, how the exploding scene in “Scanners” would work. When I was 12, growing up in Geneva, my friends were not really cinephiles. But I had these weekly salons, if you want to call them that, where I’d do a whole series of Hitchcock or Spielberg films, one every Sunday. And then we’d have a discussion afterward. And now I do that for a living. Now there is a body of work, and it makes sense.
Q. I recently set aside the time to watch all 15 hours of “The Story of Film,” by Mark Cousins. Is that a yardstick for you?
A. I’ve only watched fragments, to be honest. To me what’s really cool is that, films about film, it’s an art form. I don’t really like to call them “film essays,” and I certainly don’t like to call them documentaries. Whatever we can do not just to celebrate the art of cinema, but to make it accessible to the general public in a way that will hopefully convey that infectious enthusiasm for movies, is extraordinarily important [to me]. I think you have to create a little bit of a bridge between the quote-unquote “cinema studies,” which most people in the general public are a little intimidated by, and this idea that you can watch film, deconstruct film, think about film, and it’s a fun thing to do. You don’t need a PhD to do that.
Q. What is your own “Wizard of Oz” origin story? Do you recall the first time you saw it?
A. I actually came into it late. Growing up in Europe, “The Wizard of Oz” is not the quintessential fairy tale. I don’t think I’ve actually seen it once on TV anywhere in Europe. So I watched it late — I think I was in my 20s. For me, it was an instant revelation. And I kept delving into it. When I started discovering these connections with Lynch, obviously I became more and more intrigued by it.
Q. By coming late to it, I wonder if that gave you fresher eyes than those of us who saw it as children?
A. Oh, yeah. No question. I certainly wasn’t traumatized by the flying monkeys the way most Americans seem to be [laughs].
‘I really wanted to go beyond Lynch and beyond art to address this idea that . . . things that happen in our lives when we’re kids can leave a massive impression on us.’
ALEXANDRE O. PHILIPPE