A streamlined and breezily engaging—but impressively rigorous—evaluation of a unique film talent; essential reading for fans...
The director of programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center delivers a short, sharp reckoning with the dangerous visions of celebrated filmmaker David Lynch.
Lim’s admirably concise consideration of Lynch’s career explores the director’s distinctive sensibility in thoughtful but accessible prose that displays both a sophisticated understanding of cinema and a rare talent for analysis and explication that avoids academic dryness or superficial gush. A personality as famously eccentric as Lynch’s demands some degree of biographical context, but Lim resists the urge to locate the signature psychosexual horrors of Lynch’s work in his upbringing and early experiences, instead effectively sketching a portrait of the artist as a relatively normal, if not particularly verbal, fellow who practices his craft not as a mystical naif but as a serious, dedicated artist committed to process and wary of intellectual analysis of the work. Lynch’s narrative preoccupations and morbid, gothic, bizarrely comic aesthetic were present from his first short films, and Lim traces the evolution and expansion of Lynch’s pet themes—duality, heightened contrast, the secrets and mysteries hidden in the mundane—throughout his mercurial career. Projects deemed failures, including the mystifying sci-fi boondoggle Dune and the intensely personal, alienating Twin Peaks sequel Fire Walk with Me, acquire new luster when considered as pieces of a larger whole, and sensations like Blue Velvet and the TV series Twin Peaks emerge not as anomalies but instances in which the cultural moment aligned with what Lynch had been up to all along. The book serves as an excellent primer for those unfamiliar with and curious about Lynch, as well as a pithy and insightful resource for confirmed fans wishing to deepen their appreciation and understanding of his work.
A streamlined and breezily engaging—but impressively rigorous—evaluation of a unique film talent; essential reading for fans of Lynch and the immersive, elusive worlds he creates.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-34375-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Amazon/New Harvest
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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