David Lynch Swerves: Uncertainty from Lost Highway to Inland Empire

by Martha P. Nochimson

Beginning with Lost Highway , director David Lynch “swerved” in a new direction, one in which very disorienting images of the physical world take center stage in his films. Seeking to understand this unusual emphasis in his work, noted Lynch scholar Martha Nochimson engaged Lynch in a long conversation of unprecedented openness, during which he shared his vision of the physical world as an uncertain place that masks important universal realities. He described how he derives this vision from the Holy Vedas of the Hindu religion, as well as from his layman’s fascination with modern physics. With this deep insight, Nochimson forges a startlingly original template for analyzing Lynch’s later films—the seemingly unlikely combination of the spiritual landscape envisioned in the Holy Vedas and the material landscape evoked by quantum mechanics and relativity. In David Lynch Swerves , Nochimson navigates the complexities of Lost Highway , The Straight Story , Mulholland Drive , and Inland Empire with uncanny skill, shedding light on the beauty of their organic compositions; their thematic critiques of the immense dangers of modern materialism; and their hopeful conceptions of human potential. She concludes with excerpts from the wide-ranging interview in which Lynch discussed his vision with her, as well as an interview with Columbia University physicist David Albert, who was one of Nochimson’s principal tutors in the discipline of quantum physics.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

295 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2013

Reviews

[Owlseyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We live under an assumed identity in a neurotic fairy tale world...
Hypnotized by building, we have raised houses of our lives on sand"
Sogyal Rinpoche
in The Tibetan Book of the Living and the Dying





The author had already a book on Lynch: "The Passion of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood"; Jung's philosophy was handy, I would say. And yet, in a conversation with the film-director back in March 18th of 2010, she noticed a major "change" ; a new model was needed for understanding Lynch's output; Vedic Philosophy fitted well. Uncertainty and the conception of the physical reality demanded so.



Lynch is "fascinated" by Physics, though he hardly completed high school.

"I do not feel the necessity to believe in the Holy Vedas as anything but metaphor!
...
"After I saw “What the Bleep Do We Know?”, I spoke to a colleague of my husband’s, who is a physics professor. I asked him what he thought of “What the Bleep,” and he practically foamed at the mouth. At that point, I realized physicists hate that movie. "
Martha P. Nochimson
interview in: https://indie-outlook.com/2013/05/20/...

The book includes Fragments of the above mentioned conversation with Lynch and an interview with David Z. Albert, Frederick E. Woolbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University.

UPDATE


Die Zeit, 17th January 2025

[Michael Audet · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's far from the worst take (the worst take being "they're dreams! they're nightmares! they're not supposed to make sense!" which refuses to engage with david's films on any scale and ignores the fact that eraserhead and INLAND EMPIRE are really his only movies that lack a formal structure and semi-coherent narrative) but this book reminded me how much i hate hearing people talk about daddy lynch's movies and i really just don't buy the central premise

[Fraser Eric Jamieson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very convincing thesis and arguements. Doubtful tho about its thoroughness considering the simple grammar and vocab errors you can see on a number of pages. Makes you doubt the validity of the central piece itself.

[Andrew Bishop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay in that half of it was decent and the other half was trying not so well to make the thesis cohere. The chapter on Inland Empire was quite good however.

[Johnny Profane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the Most daring book ever written about David Lynch and his movies, especially LOST HIGHWAY, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, STRAIGHT STORY, INLAND EMPIRE. Mindmelting.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though not without some significant flaws, this is as interesting and insightful a read of Lynch and his films that I've come across. As a number of other reviewers have noted, to make sense of his most recent (and most resistant to interpretation) films, Nochimson leans a bit too heavily on a fairly contrived framework of 'modern physics' (mostly quantum mechanics, which, she seems not to realize, is merely a portion of 'modern physics'). This is the aspect of her theory that I think works least and is least necessary, as the work it does could have been done much more effortlessly without the invocation to a complicated, highly mathematical physical theory, interpretations of which remain almost as controversial as when they were conceived. However, her reading of Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and particularly Inland Empire shed a significant amount of light on films notoriously difficult to interpret.

Where I think the book, and Nochimson's theory, is lacking is that she focuses almost exclusively on the intellectual aspects of the films at the expense of the deeply visceral, stirring, unsettling and emotional experience they provide - both visually and, at least as importantly, aurally - that Lynch has created. Occasionally she does refer to the visual and (even less) audio design of specific scenes, but almost always she couches it into a discussion the primary focus of which is intellectual, idea-based, rather than exploring it on its own merit. As she does recognize these aspects, it wouldn't be correct to call this an oversight, but it is a recasting, a misdirection, and an oversimplification - and it is glaring.

Lynch excels, almost more than any other filmmaker, at creating worlds, an atmosphere, at shaping the mood, at evoking specific feelings, and at enveloping the audience in an intensely arresting and destabilizing experience. To me, it's the experience rather than the ideas that he provides that sets him apart, wholly and distinctly. Now, the ideas he has and that inform his works are interesting and unique as well, and Nochimson does a good job piecing them out and making sense of them in a more logical fashion than they play out on screen. This is no small feat. But, her telling relates only one side of the coin, an emphasis of both sides of which are of the utmost importance if a full appreciation of Lynch is to be achieved.

A well argued and worthwhile, yet incomplete, work. Recommended.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's no doubt this book presents a useful new critical framework for trying to construct coherent readings of Lynch's at times challenging late works. In particular, her chapter on Inland Empire does a better job at making sense of that twisted narrative than probably anything else I've read about the film. I also agree with her basic thesis that the most common interpretation of the narrative peculiarities in these films, that they represent dreams or fantasies of the characters, is wrong. However, I got annoyed with her pretty flimsy grasp of the ideas of quantum mechanics themselves and her sloppy usage of physics terminology in attempting to apply those ideas to the films. There's a bit of a grasping-at-straws quality to her attempts at making every single event in the films fit her reading, the chapter on The Straight Story being the most flagrant example of this. Nonetheless I enjoyed the book and think it breaks new ground in Lynch studies.

[Arthur Vincie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book on Lynch out there, surpassing even Prof. Nochimson's previous book, "The Passion Of David Lynch." Here she's doing a cogent and rigorous analysis of Lynch's later films, drawing on research into physics, psychology, transcendental meditation, literature, and of course film... it's a great synthesis that clears up a lot of misconceptions about his work.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting academic bullshit; but it's STILL Bullshit...

[Patryk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated interpretations of Lynch films but the rest is a bit boring. However, I truly recommend this book for people who are curious and open-minded.