David Lynch laments death of cinema: “Films are in a bad place”

David Lynch has opened up about the state of cinema in a new interview.

• READ MORE: David Lynch is turning into cinema’s biggest lockdown hero

Speaking to Cahiers du Cinema, Lynch said a number of factors have caused cinema to struggle – including the coronavirus pandemic, changes in the way people access films now (via streaming, for example) and the increase in the number of television series.

Last November, Britain’s second largest cinema operator, Cineworld, forecasted that admissions would remain below pre-pandemic levels for the next two years. While UK and Ireland box office sales hit £690m in ticket sales last year, that was still 30 per cent below for the same period, pre-pandemic in 2019 (via The Guardian).

Lynch said “coronavirus has put a stop” to watching films in cinemas, adding: “Feature films are in a bad place, series have taken their place…You could sit down and actually have the experience of stepping into a whole new world. Now that’s all in the damn history books. It’s distressing” (via The Guardian).

Of streaming films on phones, he continued: “I always say: people think they’ve seen a movie, but if they’ve watched it on a phone, they haven’t seen anything. It’s sad.”

While he said “TV is not bad”, he added: “…saying goodbye to movie theatres is the hardest part. Art and writing are over. Theatre owners…continue for the love of cinema. There are still heroes fighting for it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Lynch praised Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

He said: “Tarantino’s [Once Upon A Time in Hollywood] shows how real life events could have turned out very differently. It’s a hell of a good revenge movie, done in feel good fashion”.

In a five star review of the film, NME said: “It would be wrong to declare OUAT…IH to be quite so perfectly formed as Pulp Fiction, but there is no doubt that this is his most well-rounded and satisfying work since. The adrenaline rush of the final third resembles all that is special about Tarantino – audacious, brazen and impossibly thrilling.

“In fact, it is the sort of conclusion designed to energise even the most fatigued, jaded and weary of watchers and leave them in a giddy heap. If this truly is his penultimate film before his mooted retirement then the signs are that he intends to go out with a thunderous bang.”

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