
Blue Velvet
Michael Atkinson(Author)
BFI Publishing
2nd Edition
Published on 7. October 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
88 pages
978-1-83902-371-2 (ISBN)
Description
For many, Blue Velvet is David Lynch's masterpiece. It represents a unique act of cinema: an 80s Hollywood studio film as radical, visionary and cabalistic as anything found in the avant-garde; a mysteriously symbolic and subterranean 'cult' movie that nevertheless has recognisable stars and was broadly distributed; a genre piece with the ambience of a fearsome, hyper-composed nightmare; an American 'art film' by Hollywood's only reputable 'art film' director.
Michael Atkinson's intricate and layered reading of the film shows how crystallises many of Lynch's chief preoccupations: the evil and violence underlying the surface of suburbia, the seedy by-ways of sexuality, the frightening appearance of the adult world to a child's eyes, presenting it as the definitive expression of the traumatized innocence which characterizes Lynch's work.
In his afterword to this new edition, Atkinson situates Blue Velvet within a culture that has changed drastically in the 35 years since its release, and in doing so, he considers the film's lasting significance as it slowly turns from contemporary phenomenon to an interpretable artifact.
Michael Atkinson's intricate and layered reading of the film shows how crystallises many of Lynch's chief preoccupations: the evil and violence underlying the surface of suburbia, the seedy by-ways of sexuality, the frightening appearance of the adult world to a child's eyes, presenting it as the definitive expression of the traumatized innocence which characterizes Lynch's work.
In his afterword to this new edition, Atkinson situates Blue Velvet within a culture that has changed drastically in the 35 years since its release, and in doing so, he considers the film's lasting significance as it slowly turns from contemporary phenomenon to an interpretable artifact.
More details
Series
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
60 colour illus
Dimensions
Height: 189 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 7 mm
Weight
135 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83902-371-2 (9781839023712)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions


Previous edition

Person
Michael Atkinson is Adjunct Professor of Film at Long Island University, USA. He has written widely on film and culture, in publications including Sight & Sound, The Village Voice, The Guardian, Film Comment, The Criterion Collection, Rolling Stone, and Spin. His books include Ghosts in the Machine: Speculations on the Dark Heart of Pop Cinema (2004), Exile Cinema: Filmmakes at Work Beyond Hollywood (2009) and the novel Hemingway Cutthroat (2010)
Author
Adjunct Professor of Film at Long Island UniversityLong Island University, USA
Content
Acknowledgments
2021 Foreword
'Blue Velvet'
Notes
Credits
Bibliography
2021 Foreword
'Blue Velvet'
Notes
Credits
Bibliography