The Passion of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood

by Martha P. Nochimson

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Dražen Nikolić · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book closely examines Lynch's work as a movie director and storyteller. The author goes behind the inspiration Lynch had in painters such as Francis Bacon, and the certain influence and similarities between his movies and Hitchcock's and Welles'. Then, each movie directed by David Lynch (from his directorial debut of Eraserhead to the latest movie released at the time of the book's release, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me) is dissected and scrutinized.
I liked how the author focused on the subconscious and the struggle of Lynchian characters to control the narrative with their own will - only when their lose their own will, they get to find the peace and the harmony that they were previously unable to. There are lot of interesting views on the juxtaposition between the heroes and heroines of his movies, where heroes are usually driven by logic and will (control), and heroines are the bearers of secret, driven by intuition and closer to their own subconscious.
I would recommend this book to anyone who ever watched any movie by David Lynch, was thoroughly baffled and mesmerized by it, and then wanted to get some answers! (just beware - it's not an easy read!)

[Josh Hornbeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIRST THOUGHTS:
A really incredible exploration of David Lynch’s work - especially looking at the move toward feminine receptivity in many of his protagonists in the early period of his filmography, contrasted with the masculine impulse to assert will or to dominate. It’s a thoughtful, deep dive into the films from ERASERHEAD through TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, and I’m eager to read her follow up covering the second half of his career. While no examination of Lynch’s work will ever be authoritative, I do think that Nochimson probably gets closest. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to go deeper.

[matty creen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the sequel

The second book by this author is way more engaging. I think that one is titled Parallel Lynch. This is good, but the other one is so much better.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nochimson was one of the first writers to compile an entire book about David Lynch. Sometimes this book is utterly illuminating and other times it is just dense postmodernist film theory.
It does benefit from the author's many hours of talks with Lynch himself and this helps..
Recently, I watched the Twin Peaks Series on DVD, which I had not seen since it was aired on TV. I own this book so I grabbed it off my shelf for some reference material. It did help me understand why the series went so wrong in the middle of the second season (David Lynch was off filming Wild at Heart) and it also made me understand why Lynch took the time to make the prequel Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me...which I thought was one of the scariest movies I had ever seen ! ( at the time)

[Joshua Nomen-Mutatio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this during the height of a period (one of many to date) of obsessive love and admiration for Mr. Eagle Scout (Lynch). I thought it was great all around. I remember a particularly interesting and edifying feminist defense of Lynch's work overall (as he and his films have been the subject of less-than-kind feminist critique).

And I'll give a shout out to the best writing I've ever read about David Lynch which is David Foster Wallace's "David Lynch Keeps His Head" from A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again . I remember either saying aloud or thinking loudly to myself "Yes! Yes! Yes!" throughout the first time I read it.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say, upon beginning this book, it seemed dense and grossly academic. And certainly is suffers from the 90's-era postmodernist malady. But upon actually getting into the body of the work, I realized that Nochimson may be onto something here, and that despite her at times ham-fisted writing style (that style so endemic of academia), she may have actually nailed it. At least to the degree that one can pin down a creative force so enigmatic as Lynch. Would like to know her take on Lost Highway, as well as Mullholland Drive!

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This can be a bit hard-going and isn't aimed at the general reader - it's based on some film theory stuff and psychoanalysis. I seem to remember Laura Mulvey's work on "the gaze" featuring quite heavily. I disagreed with a lot of the analyses, but found them interesting anyway.