Diane Ladd

Diane Ladd died on Monday. She was 89. Mother of Laura Dern, Ladd was herself a prolific actress who worked with Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski but, of course, I remember her best for her roles for David Lynch, appearing alongside her daughter in Wild at Heart and Inland Empire. It's in Wild at Heart that she had, for me, her most memorable role as the impressively villainous Marietta, mother to Laura Dern's character, Lula. Consciously modelled on the Wicked Witch of the West, Ladd rose to the task of being tremendously creepy, aided in no small part by Lynch's sound design and composition.

Those gulps she takes from her martini have always been one of my favourite moments of unsettling mouth noises from Lynch's films.

Yet her character is not entirely unsympathetic as the audience is compelled to see from her distressed and bewildered perspective when she encounters the mystery of her boyfriend's disappearance.

She was also good in Inland Empire as a nosy talk show host and in her role as the fake Mrs. Mulray in Chinatown she certainly made an impression. Inland Empire is currently available on The Criterion Channel but sadly Wild at Heart remains Lynch's most elusive film, as far as availability on streaming goes.