Product Description

The only comprehensive study of the work of this cult director, which ranges from 1967's Six Figures Getting Sick, to The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #636831 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-05
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 292 pages

Empire
'Crisply written and featuring an exclusive interview with the man himself, Hughes' book is a treasure trove of Lynch lore ... A damn fine book'

24:7
'The book ... more than achieves its intention of being an exhaustive and revealing guide to one of the masters of modern film-making'

Hotdog
'With a subject like Lynch this book couldn't fail to be interesting, but Hughes guides us through the director's world with an expert hand ... Indispensable'

Customer Reviews

A really informative but readable book
This book seems, to me, the bible by which all Lynch fans should live by. It contains loads of info from Lynch's first experimental shorts like The Alphabet and Six Figures Getting Sick. Twin Peaks fans will love this too, but even if you're just after a complete overview of Lynch's work, this is the book to buy. It's recent too, going right up to his new picture, Mulholland Drive. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

A good book but BE CAREFUL.
Writing as a newcomer to David Lynch and as someone who hasn't yet seen all his films there are a couple of things people in the same situation as me should bear in mind when reading/buying this book.

My main problem with it is that I don't like the interpretations of the films. Whilst Hughes does state that these are his own interpretations and not to be taken as authoritative there is an element of magic which is lost from films like 'Eraserhead' when they're pinned down to a definition, especially if, like me, you enjoy the very ambiguous nature of the films. Some may relish an 'explanation' of these films and others may have their own interpretation which differs strongly from Hughes' own and so not feel the film has been compromised for them.

Don't get me wrong, this book isn't about to spoil the movies for anyone i just don't think that Lynch's work neccessarily lends itself to being pinned down to anything.

Secondly, the book states clearly at the beginning that some of the chapters contain spoilers and advises against reading them if you haven't seen them. This is fair warning and so I steered clear of these chapters, however when reading the chapter on 'Lost Highway' i stumbled across a reference to 'Twin Peaks' which gives away Laura Palmer's killer, kind of a crucial plot point, and not one that i'd gotten up to yet. I haven't spotted any other such pitfalls although there may well be some.

In other ways of course this is a highly informative, readable and well researched book which contains many insights into the film-making process, historical details, geeky levels of trivia, some revealing details of unseen material and for die-hard Lynch fans is an absolute must.

I do however feel that it may not be an ideal read for anyone new to Lynch such as myself.