The Cinema of David Lynch: American Dreams, Nightmare Visions

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.