Fire Starters
Four Empire writers discuss Lynch's indelible female powerhouses
Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet.
Laura Dern in Wild At Heart.
Laura Harring and Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive.
Joan Chen in Twin Peaks.
Alamy, Showtime
Christina Newland (Contributing Editor): David Lynch was interested in both exploring and subverting cinematic archetypes around womanhood, and was firmly rooted, in my view, in old Hollywood and the film-noir femmefatale archetype. He was really interested in the symbolism of blonde women resembling a kind of purity, and then dark-haired women as more dangerous sexual beings.
Leila Latif (Contributor): He certainly leaned into female victimhood to a degree, but I don’t say that in a derogatory way. A lot of women in his films suffer greatly, but he had an incredible sensitivity for their plight and gave really interesting depictions of sexual violence, and the misogyny which is like an air that their entire ecosystem is breathing in.