David Lynch: What is the connection between The Wizard of Oz and his cinema? This documentary will delight fans of the Twin Peaks director

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Alexander O. Philip invited six American film critics and filmmakers and gave them carte blanche to explore their own theory about the relationship between Lynch and Oz. Featuring Karine Kusama, John Waters, Amy Nicholson. Six new perspectives and six new ways to see how influence and inspiration affect the creative process.

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How to measure the film’s place in the history of cinema? Its qualities that allow it to stand the test of time? How is his influence felt in feature films years and decades later? a bit of both? Based on these criteria, The Wizard of Oz is, and therefore remains, one of the pinnacles of the 7th art, 84 years after its release.

And it’s not a Lynch/Ozzie documentary that would make us think otherwise. The People vs. George Lucas and The Exorcist by William Friedkin, Alexander O. Philip, as the title of his new film suggests, is a cross between The Wizard of Oz and David Lynch’s cinema. Because Victor Fleming’s classic isn’t just about the sailor and the barrel, giving viewers unmistakable visual motifs.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about The Wizard of Oz.”– says David Lynch at the opening of the documentary. Alexander O. Illustrated by Philip and his speakers in less than two hours. shows that Dorothy’s adventure also informs the structure of Lynch’s narratives, “Kinegene Fugue” in which the character finds himself immersed in another dimension.

Divided into six chapters (one on each speaker, including Karine Kusama, John Waters or David Lowry), Lynch/Oz offers as many mini-essays on various aspects of the topic. And everyone has a good idea to make a point, to emphasize the importance of the Wizard of Oz in pop culture in general or the appearance of recurring figures in several directors.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about The Wizard of Oz.

Even drawing a parallel between the director’s criticism of the American dream (in particular in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks) and the disturbing background of the 1939 film, which contrasts with the colors that the swollen screen and caused a few. Urban legends (for example, hanging overhangs can be seen in the background).

The result is both very interesting and extremely rich, as we barely have time to process one segment before the next begins. It would probably be more appropriate to run it as a mini-series to better evaluate the various analyzes and theories that have been developed. But the documentary should be seen, and not only by fans, so as not to see scattered curtains and red shoes in the works of David Lynch without thinking about the Land of Oz.