David Lynch: Interviews

by Richard A. Barney (Editor)

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 Lynch's work, with interviews from French and Spanish sources translated here for the first time.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Media Tie In

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything about Lynch and his films is interesting to me. The way his mind works is just beyond me. The strange, quirkiness, with hidden meanings everywhere...I grew up being a huge fan of Twin Peaks, and kept going down the rabbit hole. People who are not big Lynch fans might not love this, but those of us who are will appreciate getting to know him a bit through these pages.

[Diletta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Togliere il coperchio alla coscienza. Non spiegare niente. Inseguire i misteri.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

È mia convinzione da tempo, e la lettura di ogni testo dedicato a David Lynch me lo conferma, che tutti nasciamo artisti, ma non tutti abbiamo il coraggio di essere artisti.

[DrCrower Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

La colección de entrevistas recopiladas y editadas por Richard Barney a David Lynch, recogidas desde los tiempos del estreno de "Cabeza Borradora" hasta los días de "Inland Empire" y la conversión de Lynch en el mayor misionero mundial de la meditación trascendental podría pertenecer por derecho propio a una "sagrada trinidad" de libros sobre el director narrados en primera persona. El primero sería, obviamente, su autobiografía "Espacio para soñar" y el clásico "Lynch on Lynch" de Chris Rodley el segundo. Este tiene en el lado de los "pros" de la balanza el hecho de moverse a través del tiempo, lo que ayuda a dar una dimensión cronológica a su obra y a la manera de Lynch de referirse a ella -es encomiable como no cambia de de discurso con el paso del años respecto a ciertos temas, ya hable sobre ello en 1977 o en el 2006-, y de que los entrevistadores son diferentes, lo que proporciona diferentes tipos de acercamiento -algo inexistente en el libro de Chris Rodley- lo que lleva a contemplar como reacciona Lynch ante interrogadores bastante hostiles (como en "Time Out" en 1992) o otros más relajados pero que intentan aprovechar que baje la guardia para sacarle alguna que otra confesión delicada (David Breskin en 1990). Los "contras", leer una y otra sobre los mismos temas (lo que con Lynch implica leer las mismas respuestas) y salvo en tres o cuatro entrevistas, la mayoría ser un poco genéricas. En cualquier caso, muy recomendable para todos aquellos que deseen profundizar un poco más en la figura de un director que precisamente no destaca por ser un maestro de la comunicación verbal y hay que dedicarle en cualquier tipo de investigación racional un cierto tiempo.

[Joseph Dougherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a guy who notoriously hated interviews, this is a pretty nice collection of interviews across the years.

[Tyrone_Slothrop (ex-MB) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gli esseri umani fanno molte cose assolutamente affascinanti, ma che allo stesso tempo trovi alquanto strane.

Una collezione di interviste rilasciate da David Lynch lungo tutta la sua carriera, da Eraserhead fino ad Inland Empire davvero interessante e affascinante: il regista di Missoula è unico nei suoi tentativi di evadere le domande e stigmatizzare l'orribile ansia di "interpretare" il film. Da queste pagine emerge in modo chiaro il senso del suo cinema (e di tutte le altre forme d'arte da lui sviluppate): dare corpo, forma, voce alle idee, alle intuizioni prerazionali (non irrazionali) che nascono dalla nostra mente. Non per ricercare un "senso", non per "capire", ma per camminare in quel gran caos che è la vita con forse un po' meno di ansia e un po' più di meraviglia per tutto il mondo che ci circonda, anche quando è oscuro, spaventoso, incomprensibile, sconvolgente...

[Niedzu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Momentami całkiem interesujące, ale sporo tu powtarzania treści. Wiele wywiadów mówi dokładnie o tym samym, przez co niektóre ciekawostki i historię przytaczane są kilkukrotnie na przestrzeni tych raptem 400 stron.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessante raccolta di interviste su Lynch dai suoi primi lavori, sino a Inland Empire: lettura piacevole ma un po’ ridondante. Essendo delle interviste tante cose si ripetono.

[ola k · Rating 5 out of 5]

DEEP DIVE INTO: DAVID LYNCH!!!!!!! i love him, this was so interesting and inspiring <3

[kadziak001 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this man sm

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

E' una serie di interviste a David Lynch che ripercorrono la sua filmografia e la sua concezione del mondo.

"Ogni finale è una cosa terribile. Può avere una grande bellezza, ma solo se lascia spazio al sogno."

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's kind of cool to think now that I'm a sad old bastard that I've been reading the U of Mississippi Press Conversations With Filmmakers series since I was in high school! The David Lynch one is particularly well edited with the inclusion of a Cannes Press Conference, a really intense hatchet job by a very hostile Time Out London journalist, and an article that appeared in a design magazine when Lynch tried his hand at making furniture. The John Powers interview is amazing, and shit really goes off the rails with the last interview where Lynch just starts talking nonstop about transcendental meditation and Maharishi.

[Irmina · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I enjoy "listening to" David Lynch, I realize he is not exactly the easiest person to talk to - which makes interviews with him a rather peculiar thing. Still, it is hard for me to believe the selection here could not have been made better. The interviews (some of them felt more like short articles written by someone who skimmed Wikipedia) are incredibly repetitive and the questions basic, surely easy for Lynch to deflect. Even cutting this book in half would have been an improvement.

I did not learn anything new about David Lynch - you'd be better off just checking out one of those "Q&As" he did on YouTube.

[Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

familiar territory here. DL in all his circumspect glory, dishing about ideas, meditation, and keeping true to the initial things that start the ball rolling for any creative project. a few interviews are from foreign periodicals/press and were reverse translated back to english since DL's english source material is lost. the tone was a little more formal for these but it still conveyed a similar charm. also, a couple interviews previously unpublished from the editor's files. all in all, worth a look if you are a diehard DL fan.

[Alessandro Valenti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Attraverso una serie di interviste si delinea l'approccio di David Lynch al suo cinema e al suo modo di guardare il mondo. Forse nelle ultime pagine comincia a percepirsi una certa ripetitività sia nelle domande che nelle risposte. Non mi sarebbe dispiaciuto leggere qualche commento in più sui processi creativi che hanno portato alla creazione dei suoi ultimi film.
Nota positiva sicuramente le tante pagine dedicate al suo modo di utilizzare il suono.
Consiglio di leggere anche "David Lynch" di Michel Chion per un approfondimento critico sul suo cinema.

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm completely in love with David Lynch. This book is awesome, full of interesting interviews and very deep and different points of view of the artist. I recommend it to all of you that aim to know a magnetic and crazy life.
P.S. Have u ever seen the doc 'the art life'? Amazing!

[Maria Laura Ferron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi sto innamorando di quest'uomo. E' tutto.