David Lynch

228 Pages·2006·50.211 MB·English

by  Michel Chion

DAVID LYNCH
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/davidlynchOOchio
DAVID LYNCH
Michel Chion
Translated by Robert Julian
FILM lMSr
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BFI PUBLISHING
Published in 1995 by the
British Film Institute
21 Stephen Street
London W1P 2LN
Reprinted 1995, 1996
English edition copyright © British Film Institute 1995
Original French Edition
copyright © Editions de P fitoile/Cahiers du cinema 1992
Translation copyright © Robert Julian 1994
All rights reserved
The British Film Institute exists to promote appreciation,
enjoyment, protection and development of moving image culture
in and throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.
Its activities include the National Film and Television Archive;
the National Film Theatre; the Museum of the Moving Image;
the London Film Festival; the production and distribution
of film and video; funding and support for regional activities;
Library and Information Services; Stills, Posters and Designs;
Research, Publishing and Education; and the monthly
Sight and Sound magazine.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this hook is available
from the British Library
ISBN 0-85170-456-5
0-85170-457-3 pbk
Cover design by Matthew Losasso
Cover still: Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet
Typesetting by D R Bungay Associates, Burghfield, Berks
Printed in Great Britain by Page Bros Ltd, Norwich
For Anne-Marie
Sometimes a wind blows
and the mysteries of Love
come clear.
Lyrics by David Lynch,
copyright © Bel Ritmo BMI/Dc Laurentiis Music ASCAP.

CONTENTS
Foreword and Acknowledgments xi
CHRONO-LYNCH:
From Six Figures to Fire Walk with Me 1
I. A FILM THAT STAYS WITH YOU
(Six Figures, The Alphabet, The Grandmother, Eraserhead) 3
I. The author and the work. 2. Childhood and parents. 3. An ideal world?
First memories of the cinema. 4. First studies in painting. An express trip
to Europe. 5. From painting to film painting. Six Figures. 6. Philadelphia’s
mark. 7. The Alphabet. 8. The Grandmother. Description and analysis:
birth and parents. 9. The Grandmother (contd). Birth and death of the
grandmother. 10. Life as an electrical assembly. The film as a first essay in
cinematography. 11. Lynch and the AFI. 12. Lynch’s favourite films and
their supposed influences. Bergman, Fellini. 13. Favourite films (contd).
Kubrick, Hitchcock, Wilder. 14. From the project for Gardenback to
Eraserhead. Preparations for a feature film. 15. The story of Eraserhead.
16. The film’s crew, actors and collaborators. 17. Shooting Eraserhead.
Montage. Sound recording. Alan Splet. 18. The first screenings. Last-
minute cuts. 19. Eraserhead becomes a cult film. Ben Barenholtz.
20. The cinematographic style of Eraserhead: archaism. 21. The sound
concept of the film. Continuity and discontinuity. 22. From The Grand¬
mother to Eraserhead: an impossible death?
II. IMMOBILE GROWTH
(The Elephant Man, Dune) 47
1. Lynch and Cornfeld. The Elephant Man project. Mel Brooks.
2. The historical John Merrick. The film adaptation. 3. Shooting and the
crew. Photography. Sound design. Music. 4. The script of The Elephant
Man. 5. Social difference in The Elephant Man. 6. The actors.
7. Ritual theatre. Popular film. A film of faces. 8. The contribution of
English actors. A film left to make itself. 9. The director’s image and
legend. 10. Propositions refused or without effect: Lucas, Coppola.
11. Dune the novel and its originality: ecology, psychedelics and
onomastics. 12. Previous adaptation projects. Raffaella de Laurentiis.
13. Lynch’s adaptation: obstacles and bold strokes. The religious theme.
The genetic theme. The role of women. An essay in non-linear narration.
The role of words. The ‘generalised inner voice’. 14. Technical and
creative collaboration in Dune. 15. Casting Dune. 16. Shooting and its
problems. 17. Music and sound design. The film’s reception. Its faults and
distinctive tone. 18. The waking dream of an ‘elected’ being.
19. A film-maker of the immobile.
III. WELCOME TO LYNCHTOWN
(Blue Velvet, The Cowboy and the Frenchman,
Twin Peaks)
1. Lynchtown, a base camp for the imagination. 2. Blue Velvet, an original
script. 3. The film’s actors: Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, Isabella
Rossellini, Dennis Hopper. 4. Photography and visual aims. Fred Elmes.
Angelo Badalamenti. Sound design. 5. The mysteries of the script. Are
Sandy and Dorothy the same woman? Real and fantasised parents.
6. The ‘primal scene’ of Blue Velvet. The depressed mother. ‘Be alive.
Do it for Van Gogh.’ 7. Love letters from father to son. 8. Lynch’s classic.
His expression of love. The forever scene. Daily life transformed.
9. The Cowboy and the Frenchman. 10. Mark Frost. The Twin Peaks
phenomenon. Different authors and directors. 11. Lynch and television.
12. The concept of the series. 13. Twin Peaks: the place. Who killed Laura
Palmer? 14. The characters of the series: are they all mad? Three catego¬
ries. 15. An extraterrestrial being in Twin Peaks: Dale Cooper.
16. A mad world. An epic universe. The theme of comfort. A pool in the
heart of nature. 17. The role of citations. A recreation of romanticism.
18. Tears in Lynch. 19. Music as a unifying element. The vertical axis. The
register of murmuring. 20. The dead woman spoken about and the living
woman who is forgotten.
IV. CINE-SYMPHONIES FOR HER
(Wild at Heart, Industrial Symphony No. i,
Twin Peaks: Fire Wcdk with Me)
1. Lynch's ‘artistic method’. The power of ideas. The author as filter.
2. In search of ‘cine-symphonic’ cinema. The project for Wild at Heart.
3. Barry Gifford’s novel. 4. Lynch’s adaptation. The principle of contrast.
5. Casting the film. Couples. 6. Different versions. An aura of violence.
Visual style and sound design. Power and murmurs. Music. 7. The ‘verbal