David Lynch

by Kenneth C. Kaleta

Prize-winning film director David Lynch is one of those unconventional artists who creates a world so off-beat and eccentric that it takes on its own hyperreality. Surreal and mind-bending, Lynch's film creations hypnotize the viewer with their hallucinatory, morally ambiguous depictions of violence, lust, and human degradation.
In this new study of David Lynch and his filmmaking art, Kenneth C. Kaleta has completed in-depth research to get close to his elusive subject, tracking down traces at such filming locations as Snoqualmie, Washington - where the hit television series "Twin Peaks" (1990) was shot - and London, England, scene of The Elephant Man (1980). Kaleta also conducted revealing interviews, including a conversation with a Philadelphia art school connection and the director of the London Hospital Museum, for insights into the strange mind and perception of the filmmaker.
Probing astutely into the techniques that make Lynch's fantasy good-and-evil world so riveting - and the director a natural heir to Hitchcock, Kaleta examines Lynch's deadpan vision of the grotesque and the unseemly - juxtaposed with the innocent and the lyrical - and looks at his creation of an intensely felt and amoral universe of overwhelming instinctual forces.
This study - the first full look at David Lynch - will provide much food for thought for anyone who takes an interest in contemporary film.

Genres: Film

207 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Jon Y. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a half-assed mid-term that begins with drawn out analysis of his earlier work before rushing through half-assed takes on 'Twin Peaks' and 'Wild At Heart'- sorta like Lynch's "Dune"- drawn out beginning, rushed in the end. Disappointing.

[Chris Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a poorly paced term paper. Overlong summarization and surface level interpretations of David Lynch’s work abound. The bulk of the book focuses on Eraserhead and Blue Velvet, and skims Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart, the last Lynch work produced when this book was published. Lots was left on the table to discuss and too much time talking about what occupies the screen instead of what we could take away from it. Would not recommend.

[Thomas Merzlak]

Standard Eraserhead analysis and very little of substance about Twin Peaks. It’s interesting to read a contemporary perspective on it, but it mostly covers the first season and has little to say. There’s also no chapter for Fire Walk With Me, which is only mentioned in passing elsewhere, which may have been a minor issue then but seems like a major omission now.