With the long awaited third season ofjust around the corner and renewed interest in all things David Lynch, the prestigious Music Box Theater in Chicago dropped probably their biggest film festival lineup since their 70mm Film Festival last year: a complete retrospective of every single short film, feature film, documentary, commercial and music video in the distinguished surrealist’s illustrious film career! Beginning on April 27and running through May 4, the festival represents arguably the most comprehensive assembly of the director’s oeuvre ever attempted with many surprises that are unlikely to be seen anywhere else! Included among the surprises is a rare documentary of Peter Braatz’s 8mm documentary, which is still without a distributor, as well as a myriad of short films and promotional materials never before seen!

Very clearly I had to make the sojourn to Chicago to get a taste of this enormous dedication to one of my all time favorite masters of cinema. While I knew I wasn’t going to get to all of it, getting to see a 35mm print of The Elephant Man and a European print of the original X rated cut of Wild at Heart was an extremely rare opportunity I had to embark on. What I wasn’t counting on was just how far the Music Box Theater and it’s lead projectionist and programmer Daniel Knox went to give moviegoers the ultimate David Lynch cinematic experience!





The moment you set foot into the Music Box, you can hear the soundtrack for

playing in the café lounge area. The café lounge itself was briefly renamed

with many decorations adorned throughout including two television sets playing the now infamous videotapes from

as well as custom edited versions of the retrieved videos of Laura Palmer and Donna Hayward dancing about from the pilot of

. Even further still, a custom made Pabst Blue Ribbon light was added to the lounge along with two posters for

as well as logs recalling the beloved Log Lady and deer busts recalling the infamous Sheriff’s Department from Deer Meadow.