At once a pop culture icon, cult figure and film industry outsider, master filmmaker David Lynch and his work defy easy definition. Dredged from his subconscious mind, Lynch's work is primed to act on our own hidden desires and fears, combining heightened, contradictory emotions into something familiar but inscrutable.

For over 45 years, Lynch's works have enthralled, mystified, and provoked viewers. What is arguably most remarkable about his career is that for a filmmaker so resolutely true to his own ideals and the tides of his imagination - the forces that have provided such distinctive work - he has remained so popular.

This is also a portrait of an enchanting presence: eminently reasonable yet driven, boyishly shy yet a towering force on set, an interviewee of rare clarity who never gives the game away. Lynch is quirky, there is no doubt about that, but it takes an ironclad determination to get any film made, let alone films so uniquely his own.

Lynch's genius is in the way he draws so deeply on classic movie traditions: the noir, the love story, the road movie and the murder mystery. Within these conventions, his films delve into the subjective consciousness of his characters to reveal both the depraved darkness and luminous spirituality of human nature.

From his experimental shorts of the 1960s to feature films like Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive - not forgetting the award-winning TV series Twin Peaks - David Lynch has pushed the boundaries of cinematic storytelling. He is a true artist in a realm of pretenders - an American great - who can take his place alongside Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol or Steven Spielberg.