At once a pop culture icon, cult figure, and film industry outsider, master filmmaker David Lynch and his work defy easy definition. Dredged from his subconscious mind, Lynch’s work is primed to act on our own subconscious, combining heightened, contradictory emotions into something familiar but inscrutable. No less than his art, Lynch’s life also evades simple categorization, encompassing pursuits as a musician, painter, photographer, carpenter, entrepreneur, and vocal proponent of Transcendental Meditation.
David Lynch: The Man from Another Place, Dennis Lim’s remarkably smart and concise book, proposes several lenses through which to view Lynch and his work: through the age-old mysteries of the uncanny and the sublime, through the creative energies of surrealism and postmodernism, through ideas of America and theories of good and evil. Lynch himself often warns against overinterpretation. And accordingly, this is not a book that seeks to decode his art or annotate his life—to dispel the strangeness of the Lynchian—so much as one that offers complementary ways of seeing and understanding one of the most distinctive bodies of work in modern cinema. Its spirit is true to its subject, in remaining suggestive rather than definitive, in allowing what Lynch likes to call “room to dream,” and in honoring the allure of the unknown and the unknowable.
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“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.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“The Man from Another Place is a very well written ‘cinema-therapy’ session on the career of David Lynch, one of the few real auteurs left. His movies, obsessions, studio hassles, and personal life are all revealed in a smart, readable analysis by author Dennis Lim, who makes for the perfect film shrink.”
— John Waters“David Lynch’s brilliance as an artist is further illuminated by the laser intelligence of Dennis Lim’s commentary. Packed with new ideas regarding this most enigmatic of American filmmakers and refreshingly free of jargon, DL on DL is a dazzling performance. It is also a pleasure to read.”
— J. Hoberman, coauthor of Midnight MoviesBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Dennis Lim is a writer and film curator in New York City. He is currently the director of programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. A former film editor and critic at the Village Voice, he is also the editor of The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits.
Jeff Cummings, as an audiobook narrator, has won both an Earphones Award and the prestigious Audie Award in 2015 for Best Narration in Science and Technology. He is also a twenty-year veteran of the stage, having worked at many regional theaters across the country, from A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle and the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and the International Mystery Writers’ Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky. He also spent seven seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.