Product Description
In this "unexpected delight,"* filmmaker David Lynch describes his personal methods of capturing and working with ideas, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.

Now in a beautiful paperback edition, David Lynch'sCatching the Big Fish provides a rare window into the internationally acclaimed filmmaker's methods as an artist, his personal working style, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.

Catching the Big Fish comes as a revelation to the legion of fans who have longed to better understand Lynch's personal vision. And it is equally compelling to those who wonder how they can nurture their own creativity.

Catching Ideas

Ideas are like fish.

If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.

Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful.

I look for a certain kind of fish that is important to me, one that can translate to cinema. But there are all kinds of fish swimming down there. There are fish for business, fish for sports. There are fish for everything.

Everything, anything that is a thing, comes up from the deepest level. Modern physics calls that level the Unified Field. The more your consciousness-your awareness-is expanded, the deeper you go toward this source, and the bigger the fish you can catch.

-from Catching the Big Fish ... Read more

Customer Reviews (81)

Pearl After Pearl After Pearl of Wisdom
You will quickly find that the author is a big believer in transcendental meditation.To him it is the fix all for the world's problems.I really enjoyed engaging a conversation with the Mr. Lynch throughout the book.As he quotes,the world is as you are.If you read this book with a limited view you will get very little out of it. That is okay.Read it once and put it away. Then pick it up again and see ifyou can't find another pearl of wisdom in it.Better yet, go to the library and get the audiobook version.Having Mr. Lynch converse with you is wonderful.

If you are looking for a book about how to use TM - this isn't it.
If you are looking for a book about how TM can help you in your creative process this is it.

Si tienes curiosidad en Meditacion...
Como digo en el título, si tienes algúna curiosidad en Meditación te va a parecer interesante.Y si además estas metido en el mundo del arte (cine, video, música etc), te va a parecer aún más interesante.Pero ten presente que este no es un manual ni un libro didáctico.Es simplemente un libro que explica cómo, a traves de la meditación, las cosas pueden fluir con mayor facilidad.Y tambien habla un poco sobre algunas anecdotas de algunas sus películas.Pero recuerda, no es un libro sobre cine, ni te dice QUÉ HACER para tener buenas ideas, ni como ser creativo al escribir o lo que sea.Simplemente (y muy resumidamente)te dice que cuando meditas, puedes tener control sobre tus problemas, llegar a un nivel de tranquilidad, y ahi (en comleta paz) uno puede pensar mejor, cierto?

You won't even catch a small fish with this book
This book should really have been an article in a film magazine, its that short.I was hoping that there would be a lot of information regarding TM, but there wasn't any.As others have noted the book is really just ramblings about how great LA is, and how he gets ideas for his films, seemingly by just shooting from the hip and trial and error.Actually I'm shocked at how uncreative the thought process in this book is.If TM is really the key then why can't he share it with everyone.The whole [...] and David Lynch seem to be keeping it a secret so you can go to their website and pay $1,500 to learn how to do it.

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
This book is not about Meditation, it's about David Lynch. If Lynch Meditated for 30 years, why is he still a chain smoker???

Fun and Interesting
Lynch is a cutting edge artist whose films have become increasingly interesting overtime. This little text is a collection of fragments and reflections regarding his life as a creative artist and his relationship to transcendental meditation. Lynch finds an ocean of abstract ideas in the 'unified consciousness' provided through the technique of TM. There are plenty of useful anecdotes here-both on meditating and the creative life in general. Lynch is clearly a somewhat solipsistic man, but his work continues to expand in beauty and creative depth so he must be doing something right. As he points out, 'he's not very good with words,' so this little book is not exactly a robustly analytic exegesis of his process, but it still provides some fascinating insights all the same. ... Read more

Product Description

One of the most distinguished filmmakers working today, David Lynch is a director whose vision of cinema is firmly rooted in fine art. He was motivated to make his first film as a student because he wanted a painting that “would really be able to move.” Most existing studies of Lynch, however, fail to engage fully with the complexities of his films’ relationship to other art forms. The Film Paintings of David Lynch fills this void, arguing that Lynch’s cinematic output needs to be considered within a broad range of cultural references.

Aiming at both Lynch fans and film studies specialists, Allister Mactaggart addresses Lynch’s films from the perspective of the relationship between commercial film, avant-garde art, and cultural theory. Individual Lynch films—The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire—are discussed in relation to other films and directors, illustrating that the solitary, or seemingly isolated, experience of film is itself socially, culturally, and politically important. The Film Paintings of David Lynch offers a unique perspective on an influential director, weaving together a range of theoretical approaches to Lynch's films to make exciting new connections among film theory, art history, psychoanalysis, and cinema.

Product Description
David Lynch erupted onto the cinema landscape in 1977 with Eraserhead, establishing himself as one of the most original and imaginative directors at work in contemporary cinema. Over the course of his career, he has remained true to a vision of the innocent lost in darkness and confusion, balancing hallucination and surrealism with a sense of Americana that is as pure and simple as his compelling storylines. In this volume, Lynch speaks openly about his films as well as about his lifelong commitment to painting, his work in photography, his television projects, and his musical collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti.
Amazon.com Review
You know David Lynch as the director of terminally weirdmovies such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Wild at Heart, aswell as the bizarre and highly influential television seriesTwin Peaks. But did you know that it was Mel Brooks who gavehim his first big break? That the idea for Blue Velvet grew outof a fantasy Lynch had about sneaking into a private room andlearning the secret to a murder mystery? That Twin Peaks cameabout because co-creator Mark Frost was obsessed with MarilynMonroe?

In Lynch on Lynch, a 250-page interview book, editor ChrisRodley does a superb job of getting Lynch to talk at length aboutthe high and low points of his life and career. Theirconversation covers his early work as a painter through themaking of his major films of the 1980s, the fiasco of Dune ("Itis what it is."), and the recent and very obscure Lost Highway("I just *loved* this title.").

Lynch is particularly interesting when he talks about thecreative process: "I don't want to give the impression that I sitaround thinking up horrible things. I get all kinds of differentideas and feelings. If I'm lucky, they start organizingthemselves into a story--then maybe some ideas come along thatare too eerie, too violent, or too funny, and they don't fit thatstory. So you write them down and save them for two or threeprojects down the road. There's nowhere you can't go in a film--if you think of it, you can go there." Lynch on Lynch is a treat for Lynch fans of all shapes, sizes, andfetishes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Lynch on Lynch
This is a must read for anyone curious about Lynch and his creative process.Some of the segues in his life are as incomprehensible as in his movies, but inhabited by characters not as twisted.His journey from a fairly normal, privileged background, even if peripatetic, into the visionary director of disturbing, thought provoking, beautiful (one of his favorite words) films is described by both him and Chris Rodley, his interviewer.Rodley apparently has also interviewed people influential in Lynch's life, former wives, actors who worked with him, family members.This is well researched and not just a rehash.The questions are careful and well answered.

This is the first book of this extensive series that I have read, but I intend to track down as many as I can.

INSIDE THE MIND OF A GREAT AUTEUR
David Lynch's talent transcends movie making. He is an accomplished video artist, photographer, painter and poet. And this book, based on a number of interviews with the Renaissance Man of Arts himself, offers more than an amble glimpse into his psyche.

Starting from his birth in Missoula, Montana and his upbringing in Sandpoint,Idaho - and a string of different cities where his family moved due to his father transfers, Lynch's growing up is a series of mesmerizing snapshots. And then, from the success of THE ELEPHANT MAN and the financial fiasco of DUNE to the penultimate TV series, TWIN PEAKS and the hypnotic MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

Lynch is holding nothing back. From his inspirations, obsessions and creative process to the inner workings of Hollywood studios and the synergic balance of picture, story and music, this book is a sine qua non for either his fans or, more importantly, for aspiring movie makers.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Masterful Interviews with a Giant
This book is a great resource for any creative person or anyone
interested in film. The Interviews are in-depth and Lynch's answers are illuminating, humourous, sharp, surprising at times, and mysterious at many other junctures. His probing and restless mind has led me to reconsider many things, many notions, and given me new avenues of outlook on life and on artistry. It's a very zen book in many ways. Dive in, I say!

Straight From the Source
This is one of the best Lynch books available, although I'm sure that honor will soon pass to the hefty, exhaustive, and ridiculously expensive "Beautiful Dark." What makes this book great is that, unlike so much writing about Lynch, it doesn't dip into meaningless pyscho-babble from third-party critics. As the title says, this is Lynch talking about himself and his work.

My only complaint is that Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me are compressed into one chapter of equal length to the rest of the chapters. Also, it would be nice to see a second revised addition at some point, one that covers Inland Empire.

Incredible stuff
Perfectly pitched interview style book on the Great David Lynch.Much of his work is, if you will, impressionistic.And so you wonder what he intended in several places.In the book he doesn't offer any direct revelations, but the indirect revelations never stop coming, and the man comes across in print as intellectual, artistic, and mystical.Much like his work.

If you love his work I can almost guarantee you will love this book.The best read I've had in some time.

Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
In David Lynch: Beautiful Dark, author Greg Olson explores the surreal intricacies of the director's unique visual and visceral style not only in his full-length films but also his early forays into painting and short films, as well as his television landmark, Twin Peaks. This in-depth exploration is the first full-length work to analyze the intimate symbiosis between Lynch's life experience and artistic expressions: from the small-town child to the teenage painter to the 60-year-old Internet and digital media experimenter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Too Much Too Little
This book provides in depth analysis of Lynch's work and not a great deal about
the person.
There are all ready a number of books that deconstruct is work if that is what you are looking for.

I find my self skipping tons of pages trying to find more biographical material.
The book spends too much time rehashing plot lines, scenes, etc...that we've seen a million times before.

Occassionally, you will find a good tidbit, but I wish the book would have more along those lines.

Exhaustive, Enlightening, Exhausting
It's taken me a couple of months to (almost) get through this book, which goes into great detail summarizing and interpreting each of Lynch's works. It definitely provides some insights into Lynch's worldview and his artistic approach, and of course the meaning of his rather mysterious movies.There is, of necessity in such a long book, some minor repetition, mainly to point out repetition in themes and elements in Lynch's work.It could probably have been broken into about 6 or 7 separate books, each handling one movie.Its only major flaw is that it takes until about page 573 until it offers even the slightest negative observation about the man or his work, so solid is its hagiographic belief in the man as an artistic and human genius.One gets the feeling (which the author admits is shared by Lynch) that some of the author's observations of artistic qualities in Lynch's works are probably accidental, incidental, or coincidental. But much of the insights are enlightening and insightful.I have not yet read the final chapter, on Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE, which I have not yet finished watching, as the analyses of the earlier movies would have definitely spoiled my experience if I hadn't seen the movies already- especially Mulholland Drive, which was fun to figure out on one's own.After watching the first two hours of INLAND EMPIRE, I am not so sure that it is worth the effort of trying to figure that one out on my own- it seems almost like a parody of a David Lynch movie in its utter incomprehensibility and confusion and interchangeability of space, time and characters- so I might just skip back to this book.If you are a fan of Lynch's works and want to understand them better, I highly recommend this book.

Ever Wanted Someone To Explain Something But Not Ruin It?
This book is a gem. If even you're not a fan of Lynch, or movies, it can inspire you to great heights with the spiritual search of an artist...sure, there's plenty left out, and, in some cases, you really don't want to meet your heroes...but, so what? You get a sense that here is a person on a spiritual quest, not just a workaholic, or some kind of weird, driven "monster".
I've always wanted someone to tell me what they think, of what I saw, and this guy does it with elan. He goes through and, though maybe he just says his point of view, but for me, it explains a lot about the films I've seen, which, until now; a lot of them have been opaque. And, if you like a little mystery revealed, it is not so good. It's quite painful in fact. There's pain of course here, in learning of the lives of Lynch and his family and family of friends and co-conspirators, but plenty of pleasure as well. By the end of this heavy and very long (Almost 700 pages! Which read fast.) you sure wish like anything you too could write; or paint, or dream on canvas; and produce so much work that people got into it as much as you do.
Check out the book. Learn about Olson, Lynch, his family, friends, co-workers, and YOU!

Beautiful Dark - A work of art...
Simply put, the book, "Beautiful Dark" by Greg Olson is a work of art. Even though I had seen it coming for years now, I never expected it to affect me the way it did. I have to admit, that for years, being a long time fan of Lynch, I have read practically every Lynch related book, news article, and watched every interview that I could possibly get my hands on. After reading this book, I was overwhelmed to find out how much I didn't know about the man, and how much more I have come to appreciate what a beautiful person David Lynch truly is.

The one thing that hits you about this book is the amount of passion that Olson has put into this work. From the first page, Olson brings the reader into the personal world of David Lynch. Through interviews and conversations with Lynch, his family members, close friends, romantic partners, and professional colleagues, the result is an unprecedented, up close and personal view of Lynch's life that has never been seen before.

Olson crafts this work in a beautiful narrative that places the reader right up there with Lynch as he grows up and discovers art, film, music, life, and love. You are there beside Lynch through his relationships with his romantic partners, through his hardships, his pain, and his victories. At the same time, having written this book over the course of 10 years, Olson weaves seamlessly to narrate back to the perspective of a onlooker, detailing what it was like during various times over the years of how the public and media were reacting to Lynch's work, and what it was like to be alive and experiencing Lynch's work as it was happening.

Olson covers nearly every imaginable work that Lynch has ever done to date and does so with great enthusiasm and passion. He insightfully moves between Lynch's works with a precision that is both refreshing and exhaustive at the same time.

The result is a chance between two worlds... into a place where no one has gone before. Olson brings you to a seat at a table in a New York restaurant owned by Dino Laurentiis where across from you Lynch is laying his eyes on Isabella Rossellini for the first time. You are given rare access to stories from the set of Twin Peaks where we are told where the idea of creamed corn came from and what Mark Frost's reaction to it. Olson takes you on a magical journey to the set of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me as you watch Lynch gently kiss Sheryl Lee on the cheek. You become an onlooker of a tragic car crash that brings Lynch and his ex-wife together to care for their daughter, Jennifer through months of multiple back surgeries. As you listen to Jennifer, you come to realize why it is so important for Jennifer to follow in her father's footsteps.

I won't spoil the any more for you, however, I will say that this book gets my highest possible recommendation. Olson goes above and beyond to bring us a rare glimpse into the life of David Lynch and brings home the goods! So if you were hesitating picking this one up, as Coop would say... Every day, once a day, give yourself a present.... And grab this book today!
... Read more

Product Description

Todd McGowan launches a provocative exploration of weirdness and fantasy in David Lynch's groundbreaking oeuvre. He studies Lynch's talent for blending the bizarre and the normal to emphasize the odd nature of normality itself. Hollywood is often criticized for distorting reality and providing escapist fantasies, but in Lynch's movies, fantasy becomes a means through which the viewer is encouraged to build a revolutionary relationship with the world.

Considering the filmmaker's entire career, McGowan examines Lynch's play with fantasy and traces the political, cultural, and existential impact of his unique style. Each chapter discusses the idea of impossibility in one of Lynch's films, including the critically acclaimedBlue Velvet andThe Elephant Man; the densely plottedLost Highway andMulholland Drive; the cult favoriteEraserhead; and the commercially unsuccessful Dune. McGowan engages with theorists from the "golden age" of film studies (Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey, and Jean-Louis Baudry) and with the thought of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Hegel. By using Lynch's weirdness as a point of departure, McGowan adds a new dimension to the field of auteur studies and reveals Lynch to be the source of a new and radical conception of fantasy.

Customer Reviews (3)

An outstanding example of Lacanian analysis
I'd like to offer a different perspective on McGowan's book from the previous reviews. I can completely understand seeing this book as difficult and obscure without the necessary background in Lacan. In that sense, it's not really something I'd recommend for Lynch fan wanting some analysis. Lacan's thought is notoriously complex and a reader unfamiliar with the discourse cannot be expected to comprehend the intricacies of McGowan's psychoanalytic analyses. Additionally, the terminology used will be a major stumbling block.

However, for those who are familiar with Lacanian film theory, this book is a dramatic step forward in remarkable cogency and clarity. I've read a number of essays and studies on Lynch using Lacanian theory such as Slavoj Zizek's "Art of the Ridiculous Sublime" - a much more difficult and unrewarding book. While Zizek presents some great ideas, his style can be difficult and less direct that one would hope.

Fortunately, McGowan is a very clear writer seeking to communicate difficult concepts in language that is as simple as possible without sacrificing specificity. I've been studying Lacan and psychoanalytic film theory for about a year now (not all that long) and I was able to read through this without too much trouble. A basic orientation in Lacanian discourse and a review of some secondary sources should be sufficient for understanding and enjoying "The Impossible David Lynch".

I'd also like to recommend two other secondary sources on Lacan for those wanting an inroad to his concepts and terminology. First, Bruce Fink's excellent "The Lacanian Subject" is a great place to start. You'll find excellent explanations that develop over the course of the book leaving you with a solid foundation. Second, "An Introductory Dictionary Of Lacanian Psychoanalysis" is a handy, well written resource for both discovering new terms and for reminding oneself of familiar terms.

Overall, I found McGowan extremely knowledgeable about both Lynch and Lacan. His analyses are illuminating and fresh. If you're a casual reader, this will be a difficult book to start with and I would recommend Michel Chion's "David Lynch" instead. However, if you're comfortable in the field of psychoanalytic film theory, I highly recommend this book as an outstanding example of what Lacanian analysis can do.

Excellent
As Farscape1477 points out, the book is not easily accessible and makes liberal use of the terminology of psychoanalysis. It practically presupposes a knowledge of the vocabulary of Lacan and Freud. But I stuck with it because I enjoy reading someone else's descriptions of Lynch's films. Eventually I felt more comfortable with the terminology. My eyes still glaze over from time to time as I read (I'm on the last chapter now), but I've still found it to be a very satisfying book. Plus, now I'm interested in this Lacan guy and learning more about his philosophy.

Another thing I'd point out is that it's hard to decide if Lynch meant his films to be the way they are for the reason the author describes, or if they're just that way because Lynch is subconsciously guided by this psychology, or what. Because sometimes the book makes so much sense I almost feel like Lynch might have been thinking these things when he wrote the film. Other times I swing the other way and think it must be coincidental, or the author is stretching. In the end it gives you a lot to think about, and that's what's so good about Lynch films in the first place.

I recommend this book to any Lynch fan. It's a shame Inland Empire isn't covered in the book. I'd love to see McGowan break that one down. Maybe he'll release an updated edition.

A Different Take on Lynch
I'm only half way through this book, but so far I have mixed feelings.

The author's stance is to look at Lynch's films as a blend of fantasy and desire. However, he never expresses what his definitions of these terms is. The words fantasy and desire take on new meaning in the context of this book.

As a result, I've found this book to be a very difficult read. Much of the psychoanalysis is in terms of Lacanian Theory, which I know absolutely nothing about. And the author's writing style is not particularly accessible.

However, I still recommend this book for true Lynch fans. Once I attain a better grasp of the author's point of view, I imagine that I will enjoy the book even more. ... Read more

Product Description

Few directors in the past three decades have produced movies more compelling, controversial, or confounding than David Lynch (b. 1946). And fewer still have been so reluctant to talk about what they do. In this collection, editor Richard A. Barney has chosen the rare interviews in which Lynch opens up to questions rather than deflecting them. Whether Lynch is talking about his earliest film shorts such as The Grandmother or the break-out surrealist feature Eraserhead, the hit TV series Twin Peaks or his Oscar-nominated The Elephant Man or Blue Velvet or his most recent experimental tours de force, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, he stresses the power of image and sound to communicate his vision.

David Lynch: Interviews is the first survey of conversations with the director covering the broad spectrum of his artistic activities throughout his career, including filmmaking, painting, music production, and furniture design. It documents the evolution of Lynch's role in discussing his movies, from his self-described "pre-verbal stage" in the early years to his increasingly elaborate, though persistently elusive, articulations. It also registers the intense international interest in LynchÂ's work, with interviews from French and Spanish sources translated here for the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"Maybe I'm sick, but I want to see that again." - Critic on Blue Velvet
On the other hand, when it comes to David Lynch's movies, you might agree with one of his own characters in Blue Velvet, Sandy: "I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert." She's talking to Jeffrey, the hero of the story, and he's both.

David Lynch Interviews, edited by Richard A. Barney, is fascinating but might be of more interest to serious fans than casual moviegoers. It's for those who want the complete record of Lynch's published statements about his life and work (the two subjects he likes talking about least, which makes for a difficult job for the interviewer).

The worlds of Lynch's films--the industrial hell of London in The Elephant Man, the suburban utopia that sits next to cheap rooms in Blue Velvet, the dreamland Hollywood in Mulholland Drive--are like the way Lynch described Philadelphia: "decaying but fantastically beautiful, filled with violence, hate, and filth."

The interviews run chronologically from Eraserhead and the beginning of Lynch's career to Mulholland Drive, which I think is his masterpiece and a movie you have to watch after seeing Sunset Boulevard again.

I admire the way Lynch refuses to explain the meaning of hisfilms, but enigmatic responses which seem subtle the first time can get tiresome when repeated. In an interview at the Cannes film festival one of the critics got angry at Lynch's refusal to talk about the meaning of his films.(". . . I feel that we are not allowed to ask you these questions because we won't get answers. And I am wondering if it is because you won't talk about it or you don't want to think about it.")

Stephen Pizzello's interview with Lynch and his crew who made Lost Highway is full of details about camera, lighting, and film editing--how they got the strange "Lynchian" look of the movie. When you remember that movies are pictures most of all, it's surprising more people don't write about these aspects.

Like Jeffrey in Blue Velvet, I think Lynch may contain yang and yin. He has a naïve view of the benign side of America. ("Dark things have always existed but they used to be in proper balance with good and life was slower.")

But he realizes that on an individual level we lie to ourselves. ("An accurate memory of the past would be depressing, probably.")

What Lynch said to John Powers in a 2001 interview about itinerant people trespassing on his property ("You know, John, this country's in pretty bad shape when human scum can walk across your lawn, and they put you in jail if you shoot 'em") seems inconsistent with the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and Peace. I hope Lynch was being ironic, but irony implies an awareness that I've never found in this kind of unthinking hyper-libertarianism.

In any event, David Lynch is brilliant at showing us our dreams and our nightmares, and this book explains a little about how.
... Read more

Product Description
David Lynch is an anomaly. A pioneer of the American ‘indie´ aesthetic, he also works in Hollywood and for network TV. He has created some of the most disturbing images in contemporary cinema, and produced startlingly innovative work in sound. If the consistency of his ‘vision´ suggests he might be approached as an auteur, defining that vision raises many questions. The essays in this collection push toward a fuller account of the cultural and technological contexts within which his works developed during the 1980s and 1990s, and of his intense engagement with the creative and working practices of the industry. They offer an up-to-date range oftheoretically divergent readings that demonstrates not only the difficulty of locating stable interpretative positions for Lynch´s work, but also the pleasure of finding new ways of thinking about it. Films discussed include Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Let me tell you something about David Lynch
I am not always into the intricacies of the cinema, yet David Lynch provides for an explanation as to why. I loved "Blue Velvet" ( a lot), but the nightmares and dreams, well not so much. But don't use me as a gauge for assessing the cinematic value of anything. I'm not qualified and, in some cases unable to do so. The book is good if you need to delve into Lynch's cinematic style and the mind behind the lens.

Very good read on David Lynch
I'm reading this book a 2nd time now. I would say this book is im my top three Lynch books as well and it provides a very good outline, and possibly, a key, for the way Lynch thinks. If anything, it will help you come up with more of your own conclusions. From a devoted Lynch fan, this is a great read!

lynch debunk
I gotta agree with Critic-AL... too much ink is being spilled about Lynch that reads like retread po-mo theories. I'll go with Pervert in the Pulpit too, and I'm not alone. You don't have to be a film student or academic to appreciate Johnson's heady read ... still, I think the review of Pervert by David Lancaster in the latest issue of Film and History totally sums up my thinking: "There is a slightly malicious pleasure in seeing a modish reputation being debunked, especially when the reader was mystified by the fuss in the first place. Pervert in the Pulpit is not a crude hatchet job, however. Rather, it is clear-sighted and informed, and, in true Manichean fashion, on the side of the critical angels."

adulation or criticism?
By calling Nochimson's book "amazing," [...]the problem with a lot of Lynch criticism: the audience for his films is divided between fans and serious students of cinema. As Lynch's reputation as an innovator continues to wear thin - face, it, his uneven oeuvre is not aging well - die-hard loyalists continue to gush about his, in my opnion, limited success as a cutting-edge film director. This book may be timely, but it isn't as interesting as Jeff Johnson's iconoclastic "Pervert in the Pulpit: Morality in the Work of David Lynch," which I'd recommend before any of the other, more pandering texts Joe cites.

One of the Best Books on Lynch
Is it possible for a good book of film criticism to be dominated by lavish photos and the like? Not in my experience. The closest to that is the BFI series, and those are hardly the sort of thing "a reader" is talking about. Of all the books on Lynch out there, this is probably my #3, behind Martha Nomchinson's amazing "Wild at Heart in Hollywood" and the essential "Lynch on Lynch."

The simataneous release of the paperback and hardcover editions should have clued "a reader" into the HC edition being a library edition... Don't let this person's stupidty put you off, this is one of the best books analyzing Lynch one can find. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Easily the best monograph on Lynch
Chion, who is a critic for Cahiers du cinema as well as an experimental composer, is the author of several exemplary works of film theory (including Voice in Cinema and a wonderful monograph on Kubrick's 2001; the one notable exception is his short book on Eyes Wide Shut, which is a bit of a stinker). Academics may not find his work theoretical enough, and lay audiences may find them too theoretical, but, for me, they are a perfect mixture of concrete analysis and speculation: one leads to the other and back again.
It is not surprising, considering Chion's interest in sound and sound/image relations (AudioVision is the title of one of his earliest books), that he would be drawn to the cinema of David Lynch. Lynch, of course, is known not only for collaborating on some of the music (writing lyrics for Angelo Badalamenti) but for designing his own sound mixes.
The first four sections cover, in roughly chronological order, all the films from Eraserhead to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. The final section, "Lynch-Kit: From Alphabet to Word," is arranged around a series of Lynchian subjects/motifs, listed in alphabetical order, and is the highlight of the book. Chion's observations here are inspired (see, for example, his comments on Lynch's idiosyncratic use of reaction shots in "Reaction"). Although his books ends with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, it is not hard to see how the Lynch-Kit could be extended to include everything which follows, and not by way of "explaining" them (and thereby containing the Lynchian universe) but by allowing them to resonate and continue to grow, to proliferate.
An excellent book, which, by the way,is neither a biography nor in Spanish!

This book is an interesting biography of David Lynch himself
as well as a very detailed analysis of his early art and ideas, only draw back, no "lost highway" chapter

A fine piece on a one-of -a-kind director
I've always been fascinated by Lynch, and clearly is the author of this book. Chion understands and realizes the power of film. The problems with this book (which should not prevent you from buying it) are the fact that the book is translated from French (character names are misspelled in the process) and that Chion is sometimes too tough a critic (he is hard on Wild at Heart). Overall, one of the best books on Lynch I've read. ... Read more

Product Description
Filmmaker David Lynch asserts that when he is directing, ninety percent of the time he doesn't know what he is doing. To understand Lynch's films, Martha Nochimson believes, requires a similar method of being open to the subconscious, of resisting the logical reductiveness of language. In this innovative book, she draws on these strategies to offer close readings of Lynch's films, informed by unprecedented, in-depth interviews with Lynch himself.Nochimson begins with a look at Lynch's visual influences--Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon, and Edward Hopper--and his links to Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, then moves into the heart of her study, in-depth analyses of Lynch's films and television productions. These include Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Dune, The Elephant Man, Eraserhead, The Grandmother, The Alphabet, and Lynch's most recent, Lost Highway.Nochimson's interpretations explode previous misconceptions of Lynch as a deviant filmmaker and misogynist. Instead, she shows how he subverts traditional Hollywood gender roles to offer an optimistic view that love and human connection are really possible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Disagreement with these other reviewers
While Chion's book 'David Lynch' is overly concerned with biography as is noted, it does avoid the quasi new-age readings of this work which is flawed for that reason.
As Slavoj Zizek points out (directly referring to Nochimson's book), in 'The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch?s Lost Highway,' Nochimson is "focused on the flow of Life Energy that allegedly connects all events and runs through all scenes and persons, turning Lynch into the poet of a Jungian universal subconscious spiritualized libido," which is too easy a path to take in reference to Lynch's work.
Unfortunately, the best work on David Lynch has yet to be written.

The most insightful book on Lynch's work to date!
David Lynch's brilliance as a film-maker lies in his ability to transmit meaning through images rather than dialogue. Consequently, much of the body of his work is very hard to decode conventionally. Nochimson, however, gets around this brilliantly - by incorporating its linguistic indecipherability in her thesis. What she advocates when watching a Lynch movie, then, is a letting go of any hope of finding conventional meaning. Further, she defines such a conceit as inherently masculine - a phallic will-to-control that Lynch decries. Remarkably, this thesis is as equally applicable to Lynch's more mainstream work (e.g. The Elephant Man) as it is to his radical later output (e.g. Wild At Heart). If you want to view David Lynch's films in a radically innovative new light, buy this book today!

Super Duper!
This is one of my favorites. Again, not nearly as personal and spiritually engaging as "Lynch on Lynch", but near the top of the heap. Martha's adoration for Lynch, and her grounding in the worlds of both academic and personal art make for perfect doorways into the dialogue she shares with David. He's the man, and this a unique way to enter the center... As the drapes peel back, and the Francis Bacon book closes, Angelo's music blows saliva bubbles into the air, and a bunch of really nice people smoking American Spirits come ambling up the crooked walkway. They're talking 'bout coffee... They're talking about trees... They're talkin' 'bout art!

Cuts to the heart of Lynch's works
This book shows how clueless some of Lynch's interpreters have been (and still are!). If you want to "decode" Twin Peaks or Lost Highway, this book will hold your hand as you let go to 'get it'. The book is as much a corrective lens on the critique of Lynch as the author points outLynch being towards Hollywood. Hitchcock:Bach::Lynch:Brahms -- not forcasual "listening".This book may seem a bit wordy, but it doeshave a multitude of "points" (another reviewer must have skimmedthis book!) : e.g. communities based on masculine control, disallowingfeminine influence. The notes themselves offer much needed background.

locates lynch in popular heaven-hell
This is the best Lynch book, more penetrating than Lynch's own interviews.Nochimson boldly charts the universe of Lynch and gives it both mythological plausability and a solid, coherent locale: the world of visualand audio pop-culture chunks, romantically deteriorated and as intense,wispy, and spectral as cotton candy.One of the best, and mostwell-documented, works on an auteur since Bogdanovich's work on Hitchcock. ... Read more

Product Description
As his Spring, 2007 Cartier Foundation retrospective, The Air Is On Fire, made plain to all who saw it, the talents of the great American filmmaker David Lynch reach far beyond his acknowledged achievements in cinema: he is also an excellent painter, draughtsman and photographer. His photography to date has fallen loosely into four distinct genres or series: nudes (Bacon-esque images of digitally distorted Victorian photographs), still lifes (spark-plugs, dental machinery), industrial landscapes--and snowmen. Published to accompany the Cartier show, this compact volume brings together Lynch's black-and-white photographs of snowmen, all taken in the suburbs of his hometown of Boise, Idaho. Exhibiting his characteristic preoccupation with ominous beauty as these ephemeral folk sculptures decompose in front of snow-covered tract houses, Lynch pays scant regard to the cheerier and more genial properties of snowmen, and indeed some of these images will remind viewers of the shadowy black-and-white tones of Lynch's 1977 film Eraserhead. "If you have some shadow or darkness in the frame, then your mind can travel in there and dream," he has stated. Lynch's indisputable gift for teasing out the sinister flipsides of the props and rituals of American suburbia is beautifully evidenced in this small, gift-worthy book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Simple and honest: this book sucks
As a Lynch fan and snowman enthusiast I felt this would be an interesting purchase.I expected some creepy, minimalist display of snowmen of whom David Lynch photographed and compiled into a book. Makes sense right?Well, what I expected is true, but far less than the extent that I expected of which.

First of all, the book is hardcover (which for anyone who buys books often will know that's an automatic and giant price boost); this book didn't need to be a hardcover.

Second, even though the description details a 20 page book, each page is one-sided (that's right, there are only about 13 pages that actually have anything on them--one's a short description, 10 are of actual photos, and a couple last pages of something in French).

And third, the last potentially redeeming quality, are the photos themselves.While I do like most of the photos (some are just dull) the pictures are all about 4 by 3 inches big (that's right, they're tiny).When I went a-googling for some sample excerpts from this book I figured the small page scans were just reduced, but clearly not.Also, and here's a big one, pretty much all these photos (some differ between publications) are available in David Lynch's 'Images'.In fact there is a small section in that book dedicated solely to snowmen (bigger pictures too).

Overall this book has really no purchasing value; Lynch may've just posted this photos on his website instead of ripping people off.Sure, this book was released for some special show Lynch did in 2007, but it is best just left alone as a little keepsake if you'd been there.If photographing snowmen is a hobby of Lynch's, why do we get to see such little of what could've potentially been a worthy item? ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of the controversial film director's private paintings, photographs, and fiction, made public here for the first time, offers a new glimpse into the disturbed, perverse imagination behind such movies as Blue Velvet. 15,000 first printing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Lynch in a Nutshell...

This is a nice book of David Lynch's work in images....
There is colorful images and there is b/w images...snap shots from his movies and from his mind i guess...

There's some odd stuff and there's some with that smooth Lynchy touch also.

The book holds images from a variety of perspectives as life does and as Lynch does.

This book is a must in every Lynch fan's shelf as well as in the photgraphers shelf.

David Lynch as photographer
You know David Lynch as a movie director and possibly as a painter, but this book will open your eyes to Lynch as a photographer. Packed with mostly black and white (I like the black and whites best) and a few color images, this book includes photos by and about David Lynch projects.

It includes production stills from some of his movies, but more importantly, it includes images from his personal creative projects. My favorite collection in this book are his black and white "Industrial" photographs. I also love his "Nudes and Smoke" project. Both evoke a feeling of Film Noir, yet with an underlying beautiful darkness potential that only Lynch can attain. He also includes studies on things like dental hygiene and spark plugs. This is all very Lynchian stuff folks-and that's rockin' good news.

I would have personally preferred to see more personal projects and less of the movie stuff, but I guess the movie stuff is what sells.

If you are a Lynch fan, then you should buy this book. And if you are not one, chances are your interest will be sparked by this book and you may become one.

Oddity Takes a Freeze Frame
Lynches artwork expressed here in Hyperions book entitled Images. Although I expected to see Lynch's artwork, ones that were in exhibits or from college, the majority of it is from his films. I can admit I have seen hisfilms enough to not want to see pictures of them (if I did I would watchthe movie again). But the pictures that show his work are highly unique andfrom a certain point of view, quite disturbing. Whether they are"good" art or not I am still undecided. Reccomended for Lynchfans only, or those that versed in the fine arts.

Images could be better
Images has alot of stuff you won't see anywhere else. There are alot of photographs: nudes and smoke, fish and chicken kits, and some good stills from his movies. However there are not many stills from his lesser knownfilms, like The Grandmother, The Alphabet, and Six Men Getting Sick. (Infact you'll find more pictures from those on the internet, like at CinemaEnema) There are a few paintings also-- however there are a few that arenot included, that were perhaps made after Images was published. Like theone involving the bird and the hairless mouse. There are also alot ofmedeocre skribings like "monkey" written over and over again on apiece of paper, and those take up a large portion of the book.

only die-hard lynch fans need apply
A collection of most of David Lynch's art, Images shows his wide range as an artist. Stills from his various movies accompany his paintings, photographs, and other mediums.Images is enjoyable as a coffee table bookthat can be perused now and again but isn't a necessary addition to a DavidLynch collection. Using mostly personal photgraphs and unviewed art thebook tends to be someone eclectic even for an average Lynch fan. Mildlyinteresting, and fascinatingly personal, the book does give a behind theman view of a usually very private artist.There are some gems in the rough,but only the truly interested will benefit. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
"The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime" is first of all the detailed reading of David Lynch's "Lost Highway", based on the premises of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Lynch's unique universe of the 'ridiculous sublime' is interpreted as a simultaneous playful staging and traversing of the fundamental ideological fantasies that sustain our late capitalist society. A master of reversals, Zizek invites the reader to re-examine with him easy assumptions, received opinion, and current critical trends, as well as pose tough questions about the ways in which we understand our world and culture. He offers provocative readings of "Casablanca", "Schindler's List", and "Life Is Beautiful" in the process of examining topics as diverse - and as closely linked - as ethics, politics, and cyberspace. Slavoj Zizek is senior researcher in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is the author of more than 70 books including 11 in English. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Explicating Lynch using Lacan or explicating Lacan using Lynch
Stand forewarned! Are you familiar with Lacanian psychoanalysis? If not, then what you are going to get out of this tome will be limited. Unfortunately, I think Zizek's exegesis of Lynch's film is one of the best and most interesting- so you may have to study up to get anything out of this...

For instance, Zizek talks frequently about The Real, The Imaginary, The Symbolic, The Fantasy, Transversing the Fantasy, Perversion, The Name of the Father, etc. If you don't know what these terms are, you will not be able to just "figure it out" on the fly, because even "pervert" and "fantasy" are being used in technical ways which are different from their popular uses. For instance, a "pervert" is not someone who is horny all the time (though they may be, but that's beside the point), they are people who went through the stage of "alientation" but did not fully complete "seperation," and therefore have to supplement their lack of a fully completed "symbolic castration" by a bolstered "Imaginary." When this Imaginary loses its cohesion and begins to fail, the subject resorts to other strategies such as fetishism, masochism, or sadism.

The point here is this is really a book for Lacanians, and not for people who are just interested in Lynch. If you are the latter, you will probably just going to get disgusted and frustrated because Zizek is assuming a basic knowledege in this field. That being said, Zizek is still one of the most entertaining and popular writers of Non-Essentialist Hegelian Lacanian Post-Marxism, and I found this book typical of his output.

To use a warfare simile (I am an American, after all), I would suggest that Zizek is less like a surgical strike, and more like a cluster bomb. In this book, which is forty odd pages, he only really writes about Lynch and the movie for a handful, talking about all kinds of other stuff as well, such as cyberspace, mexican soap operas, Spielberg, film Noir, Stalinism, Ideology, Totalitarianism. Zizek has mastered the art of the interesting digression like no other, except for perhaps Trstram Shandy from the Laurence Sterne novel. If you are familiar with Zizek, then you know the routine and probably love it- but for others wanting a clear and focused account of Lost Highway will be frustrated.

For a easier account of the same theory, watch the Zizek film The Pervert's Guide to Cinema where Zizek talks at length about Lynch and Lost Highway and gives an even clearer and more popular explanation of his idea(s). Its a great film and a good place to start with Zizek and even Lacanian psychoanalysis.

I have felt that sometimes Zizek's publishers (I am guessing it is his publishers), give his books misleading titles. For instance, the Zizek book Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Using Popular Culture, I feel to be a terrible introduction to Lacan and Lacanian theory. Its a good book, but not as an intrduction to Lacan. Likewise with this book, I feel like Zizek just wrote a book which had a sizable chunk dedicated to Lynch and therefore they decided to name Lynch in the title. It is a bit misleading, but if you already read Zizek you won't care.

Really, the best thing about the book and Lacan's theory about the movie is how it makes clear a "part" of Lacanian theory, namely how "fantasy" functions. There is some other good stuff here which I have found really useful, such as a discussion of how "systems" usually function on two levels- an ego ideal level and a superego level, which mean that they simultaneously give contradictory "orders" and therefore the best way to bring a system down is to follow it to the letter of the law. I spent some time with a friend coming up with all kinds of examples and the model seems to work very well.

In any case, if you are a Zizek fan and a Lynch fan, check this out. Otherwise perhaps read The Impossible David Lynch by Todd McGowan which is also Lacanian but much clearer and more concise, and also film The Pervert's Guide to Cinema which can be bought online.

Entertaining, illuminating, cogent
This is an excellent examination of David Lynch's "Lost Highway". It is absolutely crucial that one approaches this text with some background on a) Jacques Lacan or b) postmodern philosophy, specifically, Derrida and Baudrillard. If you are familiar with both, that's even better. When I read this book, I had a solid understanding of postmodernism, but a fairly tenuous grasp on Lacanian psychoanalysis, most of which was from Zizek's own "Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out". The book was perfectly understandable and cogent throughout, if you excuse the occasional digression. Without an understanding of Lacan or postmodernism, this book is sure to be difficult and obscure as many of the previous reviewers will attest. It is, however, by no means unclear or impenetrable. Zizek is perfectly lucid, IF you have the proper background. Don't expect him to explain Lacan in a 48 page paperback.

As for Zizek's reading of Lost Highway, you will ultimately decide for yourself. I found it illuminating. Sure, the Jungian reading fits really well, but isn't that a bit too easy? Lynch is operating on so many levels simultaneously, so why would he tell a simple story of soul transmigration? The Jungian reading ignores Lynch's other works, such as "Mulholland Drive" and "Blue Velvet". When one examines Lynch's oeuvre, Zizek's analysis begins to make more and more sense.

There are a couple noteworthy issues. Lost Highway, at times, feels more like a pretext for Zizek to offer yet another example of Lacanian psychoanalytical technique rather than a book devoted to Lynch's film. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. It depends on what you're looking for. One reviewer alleges that Zizek mixes up certain diegetic elements (mostly names and places). I did not find this to be true. I've seen Lost Highway at least ten times and I didn't notice any errors. Finally, the book itself is extremely brief. If you're hoping for a really in-depth examination, you may be disappointed. Overall, I found the book to be a very enjoyable, entertaining, and informative read.

Huh??
I'm a college graduate and I've been told I'm at least somewhat intelligent, but I have to admit I didn't get this book at all.I even did some research on Lacan and Zizek in hopes that would help, but I'm still lost.Better luck to anyone else, because this book did nothing to help me understand Lost Highway, Lynch, or Zizek.A waste of my time and money.

Ridiculous, but hardly sublime
Probably the most hilarious interpretation of David Lynch ever written, and I'm pretty interested in wondering how Lynch himself would feel if he noticed that his art has been hijacked by the post-modern academic elite.Actually, Martha Notchimson's "Passion of David Lynch" probably got Lynch down better than any of his critics, but to reduce her interpretations to New Agism is really just an exemplification of fringe criticism's dread of Jungian thought in the first place - not that Lynch is a Jungian, but he is all about transcendental meditation and reincarnation, and his pictures seem to have a similar spiritual center and energy.Zizek is extremely intelligent, but ultimately he's fishing for minnows while sitting on a whale.If you interpret Lynch in regards to a system (Lacanian for instance) instead of humanity, you end up with what Lynch would probably call "phoney baloney".

Intelligent but cockeyed
This is my first exposure to the work of Slavoj Zizek, but it probably will not be my last.Undeniably studied, Zizek is able to write with an unusual fusion of irreverent pop-cultural wit and stuffy intellectual jargon.That makes this breezy (43 page) study easy to read and profoundly deep at the same time.But don't mistake "profoundly deep" for "profoundly revealing" or "profoundly correct", as it is none of the above.

A self-proclaimed Lacanian, Zizek makes a case for an anti-Fruedian, anti-Jungianpsychoanalytic interpretation of what is perhaps David Lynch's most obscure feature film since Eraserhead.As published on Amazon.com and elsewhere, I prefer a Jungian interpretation of Lost Highway, and for good reason:it fits extremely well.To deny this is to deny the evidence of one's own eyes.

All the same, Zizek's intellect is beyond dispute, and his reading of Lost Highway should be of great interest to film theorists and serious David Lynch fans alike. ... Read more

Product Description
VHS VIDEO! Blue Velvet! David Lynch peeks behind the picket fences of small-town America to reveal a corrupt shadow world of malevolence, sadism, and madness. From the opening shots Lynch turns the Technicolor picture postcard images of middle class homes and tree-lined lanes into a dreamy vision on the edge of nightmare. After his father collapses in a preternaturally eerie sequence, college boy Kyle MacLachlan returns home and stumbles across a severed human ear in a vacant lot. With the help of sweetly innocent high school girl (Laura Dern), he turns junior detective and uncovers a frightening yet darkly compelling world of voyeurism and sex. Drawn deeper into the brutal world of drug dealer and blackmailer Frank, played with raving mania by an obscenity-shouting Dennis Hopper in a career-reviving performance, he loses his innocence and his moral bearings when confronted with pure, unexplainable evil. Isabella Rossellini is terrifyingly desperate as Hopper's sexual slave who becomes MacLachlan's illicit lover, and Dean Stockwell purrs through his role as Hopper's oh-so-suave buddy. Lynch strips his surreally mundane sets to a ghostly austerity, which composer Angelo Badalamenti encourages with the smooth, spooky strains of a lush score. Blue Velvet is a disturbing film that delves into the darkest reaches of psycho-sexual brutality and simply isn't for everyone. But for a viewer who wants to see the cinematic world rocked off its foundations, David Lynch delivers a nightmarish masterpiece. --Sean AxmakerAmazon.com
David Lynch peeks behind the picket fences of small-town America to reveal a corrupt shadow world of malevolence, sadism, and madness. From the opening shots Lynch turns the Technicolor picture postcard images of middle class homes and tree-lined lanes into a dreamy vision on the edge of nightmare. After his father collapses in a preternaturally eerie sequence, college boy Kyle MacLachlan returns home and stumbles across a severed human ear in a vacant lot. With the help of sweetly innocent high school girl (Laura Dern), he turns junior detective and uncovers a frightening yet darkly compelling world of voyeurism and sex. Drawn deeper into the brutal world of drug dealer and blackmailer Frank, played with raving mania by an obscenity-shouting Dennis Hopper in a career-reviving performance, he loses his innocence and his moral bearings when confronted with pure, unexplainable evil. Isabella Rossellini is terrifyingly desperate as Hopper's sexual slave who becomes MacLachlan's illicit lover, and Dean Stockwell purrs through his role as Hopper's oh-so-suave buddy. Lynch strips his surreally mundane sets to a ghostly austerity, which composer Angelo Badalamenti encourages with the smooth, spooky strains of a lush score. Blue Velvet is a disturbing film that delves into the darkest reaches of psycho-sexual brutality and simply isn't for everyone. But for a viewer who wants to see the cinematic world rocked off its foundations, David Lynch delivers a nightmarish masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Customer Reviews (272)

1986
I thought this dark drama by David Lynch was worth renting...once. It has a dark humor to it. Star studded cast.

Strange but great film
The film opens with artful visuals of a white picket fence, red roses planted beside the fence, and a clear blue sky.Red, white and blue--the symbols of a quiet, small, middle class town in America.A fire truck with a dalmation dog standing on its side slowly passes by.The town's name is Lumberton.Its state is not mentioned.This can be any place in America.But lurking in small town America, hidden in some grass, is someone's severed ear, being brutally attacked by insects.

The ear is discovered by college student Jeffrey Beaumont, well played by Kyle MacLachlin.Jeffrey is home from college because his father has suffered a stroke and been hospitalized.Up to this point, Jeffrey has been the product of small town Lumberton.He is naive and very inexperienced in the evil side of life.So is the young and pretty "teen angel," Sandy, as played by Laura Dern.Sandy is the daughter of the town's chief police detective.They meet, fall in love, and become involved in the investigation of the crime of the severed ear.

Jeffrey learns that the ear belongs to the husband of lounge singer, Dorothy Vallens, who together with their little son, have been abducted by an evil, psychopathic maniac, with the name of Frank Booth.Dennis Hopper gives an extremely frightening, over-the-top performance as Frank Booth.He is the ultimate villain of such hatefulness and repulsiveness, that one cannot stand to look at him.Ironically enough, Frank Booth clearly sends out signals of vile hatred whenever anyone should look at him.Dorothy is played by Isabella Rosselini, a beautiful, mysterious, and seemingly very masochistic femme fatale. Jeffrey has never experienced anyone like Dorothy and is instantly captivated. Dorothy also happens to be Frank Booth's sex-slave. Mesmerized by her, Jeffrey has become Dorothy's protector and lover.

"Blue Velvet" is a film of great magnetism and intensity.After the first few minutes of watching it, I was hooked.Together with its moments of extreme violence and sadism, as well as its brief moments of "comic relief" (particularly a couple of scenes with Dean Stockwell as Frank Booth's "suave" friend) "Blue Velvet," is one of my favorite all time films.At least in my opinion, it is also one of the truly great movies of the last third of the 20th century.

"Blue Velvet" contains scenes of such raw emotional energy that it's easy to understand why some critics have hailed it as a
...masterpiece. A film this painful and wounding has to be given special consideration.

And yet those very scenes of stark sexual despair are the tipoff to what's wrong with the movie. They're so strong that they deserve to be in a movie that is sincere, honest and true. But "Blue Velvet" surrounds them with a story that's marred by sophomoric satire and cheap shots. The director is either denying the strength of his material or trying to defuse it by pretending it's all part of a campy in-joke.

The movie has two levels of reality. On one level, we're in Lumberton, a simple-minded small town where people talk in television cliches and seem to be clones of 1950s sitcom characters. On another level, we're told a story of sexual bondage, of how Isabella Rossellini's husband and son have been kidnapped by Dennis Hopper, who makes her his sexual slave. The twist is that the kidnapping taps into the woman's deepest feelings: She finds that she is a masochist who responds with great sexual passion to this situation.

Everyday town life is depicted with a deadpan irony; characters use lines with corny double meanings and solemnly recite platitudes.

Meanwhile, the darker story of sexual bondage is told absolutely on the level in cold-blooded realism.

The movie begins with a much praised sequence in which picket fences and flower beds establish a small-town idyll. Then a man collapses while watering the lawn, and a dog comes to drink from the hose that is still held in his unconscious grip. The great imagery continues as the camera burrows into the green lawn and finds hungry insects beneath - a metaphor for the surface and buried lives of the town.

The man's son, a college student (Kyle MacLachlan), comes home to visit his dad's bedside and resumes a romance with the daughter (Laura Dern) of the local police detective. MacLachlan finds a severed human ear in a field, and he and Dern get involved in trying to solve the mystery of the ear. The trail leads to a nightclub singer (Rossellini) who lives alone in a starkly furnished flat.

In a sequence that Hitchcock would have been proud of, MacLachlan hides himself in Rossellini's closet and watches, shocked, as she has a sadomashochistic sexual encounter with Hopper, a drug-sniffing pervert.

Hopper leaves. Rossellini discovers MacLachlan in the closet and, to his astonishment, pulls a knife on him and forces him to submit to her seduction. He is appalled but fascinated; she wants him to be a "bad boy" and hit her.

These sequences have great power. They make "9 1/2 Weeks" look rather timid by comparison, because they do seem genuinely born from the darkest and most despairing side of human nature. If "Blue Velvet" had continued to develop its story in a straight line, if it had followed more deeply into the implications of the first shocking encounter between Rossellini and MacLachlan, it might have made some real emotional discoveries.

Instead, director David Lynch chose to interrupt the almost hypnotic pull of that relationship in order to pull back to his jokey, small-town satire. Is he afraid that movie audiences might not be ready for stark S & M unless they're assured it's all really a joke? I was absorbed and convinced by the relationship between Rossellini and MacLachlan, and annoyed because the director kept placing himself between me and the material. After five or 10 minutes in which the screen reality was overwhelming, I didn't need the director prancing on with a top hat and cane, whistling that it was all in fun.

Indeed, the movie is pulled so violently in opposite directions that it pulls itself apart. If the sexual scenes are real, then why do we need the sendup of the "Donna Reed Show"? What are we being told? That beneath the surface of Small Town, U.S.A., passions run dark and dangerous? Don't stop the presses.

The sexual material in "Blue Velvet" is so disturbing, and the performance by Rosellini is so convincing and courageous, that it demands a movie that deserves it. American movies have been using satire for years to take the edge off sex and violence. Occasionally, perhaps sex and violence should be treated with the seriousness they deserve. Given the power of the darker scenes in this movie, we're all the more frustrated that the director is unwilling to follow through to the consequences of his insights.

"Blue Velvet" is like the guy who drives you nuts by hinting at horrifying news and then saying, "Never mind." There's another thing. Rossellini is asked to do things in this film that require real nerve. In one scene, she's publicly embarrassed by being dumped naked on the lawn of the police detective. In others, she is asked to portray emotions that I imagine most actresses would rather not touch. She is degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera. And when you ask an actress to endure those experiences, you should keep your side of the bargain by putting her in an important film.

That's what Bernardo Bertolucci delivered when he put Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider through the ordeal of "Last Tango in Paris." In "Blue Velvet," Rossellini goes the whole distance, but Lynch distances himself from her ordeal with his clever asides and witty little in-jokes. In a way, his behavior is more sadistic than the Hopper character.

What's worse? Slapping somebody around, or standing back and finding the whole thing funny?

Still Powerful Film-making
I had first seen Blue Velvet in the theater when it first came out. I was confused, disturbed and, yet, inexplicably mesmerized by it. There was nothing around like it. Nowadays, film-makers try to challenge us with "innovative" cuts, digital manipulation, gratuitous sex and over-the-top characterizations.

What makes Blue Velvet still worth viewing (for those who can stomach it) is its very "conventional" film technique and character/plot development which still manages to produce a disturbing and inexplicably mesmerizing experience. I'm less confused now but much more appreciative of David Lynch's film-making. It's all pretty tightly done. Once you get through Dennis Hopper's unforgettable portrayal of a Frank Booth -- realistic and demonic -- you'll wonder why he does those bland commercials now.

Lynch's best film
I'm not exactly a David Lynch fan as such; I think some of his films are too self-consciously "difficult" for their own good. But 'Blue Velvet' is definitely a personal favourite. Perhaps it's because this is one of Lynch's more straightforward works; its narrative is linear, and no characters change into a different person or become possessed by a demon halfway through the film. Of course, "straightforward" for David Lynch is still very dark and twisted. 'Blue Velvet' is an unsettling and often surreal film that explores the typical Lynch theme of a dark underworld lurking beneath a seemingly ideal community.

Even if you don't like his films, you must concede that Lynch always gets strong and interesting performances out of his actors. Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern are perfect as the wholesome all-American young couple, with MacLachlan's Beaumont equally believable as the naive innocent at the beginning of the film and the more morally ambiguous character he becomes. Isabella Rossellini is surprisingly effective as the battered victim-yet-femme-fatale Dorothy, while Dean Stockwell's memorable cameo as Ben almost steals the show. The real star, of course, is Dennis Hopper, who gives an intensely disturbing performance as the obscene gas-inhaling psychopath Frank Booth. Frank is terrifying because he's completely amoral; he is capable of literally anything and in Lynch's hands you never know what the next "anything" will be. The surreal tone of the film adds to the unease by giving several scenes (especially involving Frank) a very unreal, other-worldly quality. The term "nightmarish" is over-used, but the combination of the violent and the bizzare really does make 'Blue Velvet' feel like a nightmare, or perhaps a very twisted S&M fantasy.

As with many Lynch films, 'Blue Velvet' is difficult to categorise. It has elements of mystery, drama, film noir, and even black comedy (there's some surprisingly effective dark humour here, despite the intensity). Although not as difficult as some of his later films such as 'Lost Highway', this is still a very confronting and challenging piece of work, and is certainly not for everybody. But if Lynch's twisted all-American vision sounds like your thing, 'Blue Velvet' is probably the best place to start before tackling some of his even more experimental films. ... Read more

Product Description
Parallel to the film career for which he is justly admired, David Lynch (born 1946) has always worked as an artist, having trained in painting at the Corcoran School of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in the mid-1960s. Lynch's photographs, paintings, prints, drawings, and more recently, musical compositions, are an indispensable part of his oeuvre and frequently a source of inspiration for his films. Fans of such classics as Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive will readily conjure the director's keen eye for lush but menacing neo-Surrealist tableaux, for instance, which are directly nourished by his artworks. Other hallmarks of the Lynchian style, such as cryptic messages and inscriptions, foreboding atmospherics and a famously left-field sense of humor likewise appear in the paintings, drawings and photographs collected in David Lynch: Dark Splendor--a landmark publication that reveals the breadth and accomplishment of his work in this realm. It contains such marvels as his matchbook drawings--pen-and-ink images of shrouded dreamscapes and interiors, inscribed on the inside of matchbooks--his wonderfully foreboding lithographs, in which scrawled captions jostle among murky figures, his photographs of industrial wastelands and his sinister paintings that incorporate materials and objects to further advance their gothic appeal. Dark Splendor presents these works in excellent reproductions, and will seduce fans of contemporary film and art alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Odd, Bizarre, Strange, Weird, Trippy, Creepy, Sexy, Violent.
This new book is filled with tons of odd, bizarre, strange, weird, trippy, creepy, sexy & violent images.
Well over 300 pages of high quality artwork from one of the most influential artists ever.
There's a good mix of text, drawings, paintings, & photography. (from past & present)
I absolutely love it... a must have for all art fiends.
I actually just purchased two copies.
One for my collection & the other I will read, study, dissect, and use for inspiration.


((( LONG LIVE DAVID LYNCH )))
... Read more

Product Description
The workshop of Item Editions is sequestered in a back courtyard off the Rue du Montparnasse in Paris, where artists from all around the world have lithographs made on Solnhofener stones. Here, with the help of the historic presses that have printed masterworks by such artists as Picasso, Matisse and Miro, a durable artistic continues today. Filmmaker, photographer, painter and printmaker David Lynch (born 1946) was captivated by this place and its history, when he first chanced across it in 2007: "I fell in love," he declared. Since his earliest experiments with zinc plates and prints in black and red, Lynch has continued to labor away at Item Editions, recently producing large black-and-white lithographs by drawing directly onto the stone (rather than using the medium to create multiples of pre-existing drawings), experimenting with textures to draw figurative imagery out of abstract patterns, and adding captions to further elucidate their themes. The content of these lithographs clusters around themes familiar to Lynch fans: love, eroticism, dreams and death. David Lynch: Lithos collects all of Lynch's work in this genre. A conversation between Dominique Paini, former director of the French Cinematheque and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the artist, provides further insight into Lynch's process. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic!
This is just another attempt into understanding the art and mind of David Lynch. The works are somewhat reminiscent but still fresh and new. It's a must for all David Lynch fans! And fans of this medium too. ... Read more

Product Description
What does it all mean? Surely all of those red curtains, strobe lights and dancing dwarfs we keep seeing in David Lynch's films must mean something, right? Well actually, they do. In fact, not only do they mean something, they're all interconnected. Reading these symbols is the key to understanding not just David Lynch's films individually, but his body of work as a whole. Journey with author Mark Allyn Stewart as he travels film by film to let you in on the larger tapestry that Lynch is weaving and shows you how works such as Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr. are all pieces of a larger picture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Awful
Lynch films are not made to be decoded by some book. The very notion of accepting some random persons interpretations as fact is incredibly wrong.Do yourself a favour and watch the films yourself, use your own imagination and find your own hidden meanings in Lynch's abstractions. Art is there to be experienced not to be quantified and translated for you in a book. Especially by a nobody who has no affiliation with Lynch.

Nonsense
This book is complete and utter nonsense, rather cynically aimed at a younger generation of "I don't get Lynch" filmgoers while ignoring the one aspect that Lynch is quite open about: THERE IS NO "REAL" INTERPRETATION. It is up to the individual filmgoer to make sense of the film in relation to her/his subconscious (i.e. dreamstate). Lynch makes these films as if they are nothing more tangible than dreams - in dreams there are no easy answers, no clues, no logic. People who see the "dreamy" aspect of his films as nothing but a vast intellectual puzzle (decipher them to prove you're a genius!) miss the whole point. They are about atmosphere, and subconscious stirrings - not intellectualizing the films down to mundane minutiae. There are NO answers - only theories. That's how it should be. Books like this one - positing ONE TRUE READING of Lynch's oeuvre - are wrongheaded and harmful.

Cracking the David Lynch Code
According to this fascinating book, spotlights in David Lynch films represent peepholes into mysterious worlds that are usually outside of ordinary perception.In a similar way, this books casts a revealing spotlight on the mysterious and seemingly impenetrable worlds of David Lynch's stories.

Stewart's analysis is laudably consistent, perceptive, and compelling. For instance, the theory about dogs-as-harbingers-of-danger is solidly supported by evidence yielded from ERASERHEAD, ELEPHANT MAN, DUNE, BLUE VELVET, WILD AT HEART, FIRE WALK WITH ME, and LOST HIGHWAY. In short, every single Lynch film, with dogs in them, fits like a dream into Stewart's interpretation.

And this is true of nearly all of his many astute and surprising interpretations - they hold true consistently.

This isn't to say I agree with everything he says - for instance, I disagree with some of his general interpretations of LOST HIGHWAY's basic story (dogs barking aside) - but these are trifles, especially when you consider that Allyn himself acknowledges that on some level we all see a little something different in Lynch's absurdist visions.

And yet his great little book is the single best effort this confirmed Lynchophile has ever read when it comes to presenting a clear-headed, even-handed, and (most importantly?) unpretentious unified analysis of the symbolism and themes of Lynch's work. Allyn makes his cases, and he backs them up with loads of direct and fascinating evidence.

Many filmgoers are inexplicably invested in the idea that Lynch's films are essentially weirdness-for-weirdness's-sake, and that any attempts to understand them are exercises in futility and subjectivity.The truth, however, is just the opposite: Lynch is one of the most meticulous and obssessive storytellers in cinema history, and his films are elaborate and bizarre mysteries that can be solved.

The trick to understanding Lynch's films is learning to decode his many visual/non-verbal clues, and this is the very point that Allyn elaborates upon in DAVID LYNCH DECODED.

Read the book, watch the films again, and you will almost certainly come to understand Lynch's movies, or at least aspects of Lynch's movies, with a clarity you probably never thought possible. And if nothing else, you're sure to get a fresh new perspective on this great American film-maker's mysterious body of work.

5 stars.

Questions in a world of blue....
First off, I want to say I am a HUGE fan of David Lynch's films, and one of the many reasons I picked up this book..What Mr. Stewart does here is take the full canon of Lynch films (from ERASERHEAD all the way through INLAND EMPIRE) and look for similarities and consistent thematic elements that tie into an entire director's work.I would imagine Mr. Lynch wouldn't disapprove of these interpretations (he probably wouldn't say anything!!), and even Mr. Stewart himself says at one point that we can all find our own interprations..I appreciated the attention he gives to the TWIN PEAKS series, as well as the film TWIN PEAKS:FIRE WALK WITH ME, because I believe Lynch cared a great deal about the world he was creating there, and the imagery, and otherworldly characters started becoming commonplace in his films and almost expected after that (and no, I'm not forgetting ERASERHEAD!).This book is an interesting read for the Lynch fan looking for some answers to all those questions...

Oversimplified and Poorly Written
This is one of the most poorly written analytic books I've ever read. The author oversimplifies like crazy and collapses complicated devices (such ascolor in Lynch's films, for instance) into absurdly simple conclusions, i.e. Blue=Secrets.

If you want an illuminating and more complex study of Lynch's works, try Todd McGowan's excellent "The Impossible David Lynch," which uses Lacanian psychoanalysis to open up whole new layers of meaning in the films without ever feeling like empty theorization. ... Read more

Product Description
The first major collection of artwork by the acclaimed movie director David Lynch.

Spanning a period of forty years, David Lynch's widely respected films and television series include Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive. However, his prolific visual art production, which began even before his films, has rarely been seen.

This catalogue of his artistic output, published on the occasion of a large-scale exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, covers a wide variety of disciplines: painting, photography, drawings, sculpture, furniture, music, and "moving pictures." His art echoes his films in theme and aesthetic, yet offers viewers a fresh and more intimate glimpse into his singular universe. The book also contains several essays that analyze his artworks, as well as a conversation with Lynch, interviewed within the context of the show. 469 illustrations in color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Beautiful
This book is an amazing collection of the art of David Lynch.
It is a MUST for any Lynch fan. Each page contains truly moving images.
With the discs Lynch walks you through the majority of the works.
Fantastic.

Easily a 5 star book except...
Easily a 5 star book....if 29 pages weren't missing.Yup, my copy jumps from page 196 to 225...with nothing inbetween.According to the transcript in the front of the book there should be stills from Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and a bunch of other stuff here.Honestly, the collection is so great it's STILL worth the price.I just didn't get what I paid for.

The most comprehensive publication of Lynch's art available
This is the book which got me into Lynch's art, and subsequently aided in opening the door to my own attempts at painting. It is also the most comprehensive collection of his prolific output, ranging from bizarre, colorful ink abstractions on loose paper to production design sketches for the baby in "Eraserhead." Along the way, you also get film stills from the avant-garde director's movies; an amazing interview (text as well as spread out over two accompanying audio CD's)with Lynch; a collection of his photography (ranging from industrial landscapes to nudes) and Photoshop distortion of nudes taken by Uwe Shield; and finally, numerous oil-on-canvas paintings. The paintings are the real highlight of the book, their dark backgrounds highlighting the nightmarish experiences of Lynch's bizarre stick-man characters. Very enjoyable though thoroughly creepy and unsettling, Lynch's art is like no other. By far the best available retrospective of his art, this book is highly recommended, as is the now out-of-print "Images."

David Lynch:TheAir is On Fire
excellent book, this book is very unique and very exciting. David Lynch is a bit of a unique soul and has a unique way of looking at everything. He sees in abstract. The book is well written

Couldn't have asked for more
Item came quickly, well wrapped and in perfect condition. What more could I want? Thanks! ... Read more

Product Description

This book provides an authoritative resource on the art of CT in the diagnosis and monitoring of pulmonary disease.  Exploiting recent technological advances in MDCT and 3-D rendering, CT of the Airways contains over 350 high impact figures illustrating relevant findings of necessity to the radiologist.  The full spectrum of pulmonary diseases of the large and small airways is covered, including stenoses, neoplasms, bronchiectasis, asthma, infectious diseases, and smoking-related illnesses.  Additional chapters address the clinical applications of CT in children.  Throughout, the various modalities of CT scanning are discussed in the context of specific disease states, providing key insights to optimize imaging technique and proficiency.

A vital reference for the radiologist, this book will also be of great utility to pulmonologists, thoracic surgeons, pulmonary pathologists, and others involved in the care of patients with airway disease.  The collaborative effort of expert authors from around the globe, CT of the Airways distinguishes itself with its practical approach to state-of-the-art imaging modalities and forward thinking evaluation of emerging techniques.

Product Description
This exceptional book brings together a collection of more than 500 drawings dating from the 1960s by the renowned American film director, David Lynch. His artwork was first unveiled to the general public in March 2007 by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris.
Sketches, watercolours, or simple doodles, this vast collection - carefully conserved by David Lynch since his adolescence and regularly used by him as a source of inspiration - offers a unique glimpse into the artist's creative process. Using all types of media, from Post-it notes to napkins, the diverse and complementary nature of these drawings allows us to dive into David Lynch's universe and establish links between his artwork and his films.
This exceptional book, both in terms of its format and the quality of reproduction of the works, is a co-publication between the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain and Steidl. ... Read more