Movie News

Lynch in hot water after Berlin speech

Tue 20 Nov 11:20 AM

Director David Lynch found himself almost lynched in Germany after a controversial speech about transcendental meditation echoed Nazi Germany.

The Blue Velvet film-maker has been a big fan of the discipline since the 1970s, and recently held a speech at Berlin's Urania Theatre, announcing plans to build a transcendental meditation study centre called the Invincible University.

Which is all good - except the audience expected to hear the director talk about films. And they reacted with fury when Lynch's guest - transcendental mediation guru Emanuel Schiffgens - announced, "We are here to found the university of the Invincible Germany... a new era in the history of Germany.

Audiences were visibly upset when someone said an "invincible Germany" was exactly what Hitler was about, to which Schiffgens – who describes himself as the "raja of Germany" – replied, "Yes, but unfortunately he didn't succeed."

Lynch tried to placate the atmosphere, saying afterwards, "I don't know what he said, but I think I understood he used a word from the Third Reich, and let's just look at it this way - it's a new world now."

Lynch managed to escape from the theatre alive, but, seeing as he's continuing with his promotional tour to raise $7 billion for eight studies world-wide, he should watch who he invites on stage in the future.