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Watch: What is “Lynchian”?

What defines the unmistakeable cinema of David Lynch? This recent video essay explores this question, using text from David Lynch: The Man from Another Place, the new book by Dennis Lim.

“The paradox of the Lynchian sensibility is that it is at once easy to recognize and hard to define,” intones Kevin B. Lee in What is “Lynchian”? over at Fandor Keyframe.

From the quaint small towns of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet where darkness lurks beneath the surface to the haunted Los Angeles nightscapes of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, Lynch’s films find skewed perspectives on familiar settings.

Returning to certain indelible images, Lynch has mined the same themes and archetypes throughout his career. Watching a Lynch film you often feel as if you’re in a lucid dreamlike state. As difficult as it may be to define or describe, you know Lynch’s style when you see it.

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