The cinema of David Lynch : American dreams, nightmare visions / edited by Erica Sheen & Annette Davison.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Sheen, Erica.

Davison, Annette, 1971-

Series:

Directors' cuts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lynch, David, 1946-2025--Criticism and interpretation.

Lynch, David.

Lynch, David, 1946-2025.

Motion pictures--United States.

Motion pictures.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

Physical Description:

viii, 207 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Wallflower Press, 2004.

Summary:

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, the difficulty of defining that vision raises questions about such a description. The essays in this collection push towards a full account of the cultural and technological contexts within which his work has developed across 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 of theoretically divergent readings that demonstrate the difficulty of locating stable interpretative positions for Lynch's work and the pleasure of finding new ways of thinking about it. Films discussed include Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story and his most recent award-winner, Mulholland Drive.

Contents:

Introduction: American Dreams, Nightmare Visions / Erica Sheen, Annette Davison 1

1 The Essential Evil in/of Eraserhead (or, Lynch to the Contrary) / Steven Jay Schneider 5

2 David Lynch and the Mug Shot: Facework in The Elephant Man and The Straight Story / Joe Kember 19

3 Going into strange worlds: David Lynch, Dune and New Hollywood / Erica Sheen 35

4 Mysteries of Love: Lynch's Blue Velvet/Freud's Wolf-Man / Sam Ishii-Gonzales 48

5 Blue Velvet Underground: David Lynch's Post-Punk Poetics / Nicholas Rombes 61

6 Laura and Twin Peaks: Postmodern Parody and the Musical Reconstruction of the Absent Femme Fatale / John Richardson 77

7 Twin Peaks, Weak Language and the Resurrection of Affect / Sheli Ayers 93

8 'In Dreams...': Gender, Sexuality and Violence in the Cinema of David Lynch / Jana Evans Braziel 107

9 'Up in Flames': Love, Control and Collaboration in the Soundtrack to Wild at Heart / Annette Davison 119

10 Weird or Loopy? Specular Spaces, Feedback and Artifice in Lost Highway's Aesthetics of Sensation / Greg Hainge 136

11 Beyond Boundaries: David Lynch's Lost Highway / Anne Jerslev 151

12 'All I Need is the Girl': The Life and Death of Creativity in Mulholland Drive / Martha P. Nochimson 165.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-199), filmography (pages 182-186) and index.

ISBN:

190336485X

1903364868

OCLC:

52947586