David Lynch's Favorite Films

Here David Lynch talks about the films that he will show to viewers as an example of perfect film making. Obviously, his main focus remains on magic, mood, atmosphere, dreams and creation of new world. Excerpt taken from this book.

If I have to choose films that represent, for me, examples of perfect
film making, I think I could narrow it down to four.

The first would be 8 1/2, for the way Fedrico Fellini manages to accomplish with
film what mostly abstract painters do - namely, to communicate an emotion
without ever saying or showing anything in a direct manner, without ever
explaining anything, just by a sort of sheer magic. For similar reasons, I would
also show Sunset Boulevard. Even though Billy Wilder's style is very different
from Fellini's, he manages to accomplish pretty much the same abstract
atmosphere, less by magic than through all sorts of stylistic and technical
tricks. The Hollywood he describes in the film probably never existed, but he
makes us believe it did, and he immerses us in it, like a dream. After that, I
would show Monsieur Hulot's Holiday for the amazing point of view that Jacques
Tati casts at society through it. When you watch his films, you realise how much
he know about - and loved - human nature, and it can only be an inspiration to
do the same. And finally, I would show Rear Window, for the brilliant way in
which Alfred Hitchcock manages to create - or rather, re-create - a whole world
with in confined parameters. James Steward never leaves his wheelchair during the
film, and yet, through his point of view, we follow a very complex murder
scheme. In the film , Hitchcock manages to take something huge and condense it
into something really small. And he achieves that through a complete control of
film making technique.

Out of these four, I haven't watched Monsieur Hulot's Holiday. I like Sunset Boulevard and Rear Window a lot. I liked 8 1/2 also when I saw it, but after seeing two ghastly self important and ostentatious films by Theo Angelopoulos, who claims himself in the same league as Fellini and Tarkovsky and arrogates to be influenced by them, I am feeling bit doubtful of Fellini again. Recently I saw Fellini's Casanova, which was really good, I need to see 8 1/2 again. Also, sometime back, I was reading this (an online discussion on David Lynch's recent book), where he claims that it is not required for an artist to suffer, in order to show suffering. I really doubt that.