David Lynch, whose death, at 78, was announced on Thursday, was one of the most distinctive voices in modern cinema. His work defied easy categorization other than to say it was his own. Hence, the descriptor “Lynchian.” He created his own iconography both onscreen and off. (The man loved cigarettes and milkshakes.) His movies, as well as his beloved television series “Twin Peaks,” are full of mysteries that he resisted explaining. To love Lynch is to try to decipher the “Eraserhead” lady in the radiator and the log lady from “Twin Peaks.” Here’s how to dive into his world on streaming. (Note that “Wild at Heart” and “The Elephant Man” are not currently available.)

1977

Stream it on Max and the Criterion Channel

Where were you when you first heard of the “Eraserhead” baby? For anyone who loves cinema the word of the baby arrives before you’ve even seen Lynch’s first film, his black-and-white opus about a man named Henry with sky-high hair existing in a terrifying industrial landscape where everything creaks with eerie sounds. The baby becomes an emblem of what Lynch can do: create images that live in your mind and burrow under your skin. Shot over several years in the early 1970s — the number varies from account to account — “Eraserhead” stars Lynch’s longtime collaborator Jack Nance as the nervous Henry, who is told a baby at the hospital is his. Just what that baby looks like must be seen to be believed.

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