
It’s the first Sundance Film Festival after the passing of David Lynch. His death was announced on January 16, days before his birthday and around a week before half of Hollywood decamped for Park City, so it’s no wonder he is on people’s minds at the festival. “He was a god,” Chloë Sevigny told Vulture. “What I love most about Lynch, even more than his imagery and what he did, was how he focused female characters. That’s what I always respected most about him as a filmmaker, how interested he was in women.” Sevigny noted how unusual that was in a man of Lynch’s generation, who maybe gave less of a shit about women and their interior lives.
Sevigny is at Sundance for Magic Farm, a new sci-fi film directed by Amalia Ulman. Ulman met David Lynch and was also struck by his “not like other boys” friendliness and care. “I really liked how he carried himself, and how easy he was to deal with,” she said. “It was very inspiring, because usually I’ve met older artists his age that were not that nice.” Lynch was the model for conducting oneself kindly on a film set. In his memoir/self-help book Catching the Big Fish, Lynch called out directors who trick actors into a Method performance. “In work and in life, we’re all supposed to get along,” he wrote. “We’re supposed to have so much fun, like puppy dogs with our tails wagging. It’s supposed to be great living; it’s supposed to be fantastic.”
We’re back at Sundance in the Vulture Spot, where we’re interviewing the casts and creators of the year’s buzziest films. Check out the rest of our coverage from the film fest here.