July’s VideoVista has my review of the David Lynch documentary Lynch (One).
As I mention it in the review, Here is a link to my old review of Marconi’s Lagerfeld Confidential (2007). Both films are clearly shot around their subjects with their passive participation rather than their active participation. What I mean by this is that both films were made with the consent of their subjects (as opposed to say Broomfield’s Kurt & Courtney (1998) – reviewed by me Here) but neither of them really press their subjects for answers or try to editorialise about their subjects. Both have shape simply by virtue of hundreds of hours of footage being edited into a series of largely disconnected but occasionally memorable scenes.
Ruthless Culture 
> This film does not so much present us with the director as auteur; rather it shows us the director as unflinching despot
This is the only point of interest in Lynch One – that the meditating artist is in fact tyrannical on set, prone to mood swings. It sits quite at odds with his TM quoting public persona of recent years, and leaves you wondering how he’d be if he didn’t meditate. Other than that, I felt this doc was decidely poor, and simply fuel to all Lynch’s detractors that he’s a bit of a chancer (when his body of work clearly suggests otherwise).
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I’m showing my biases here I guess. Not only am I well disposed towards Lynch but I also think that TM is utter bollocks so it didn’t occur to me that there was any kind of tension between a man who meditates every day and a man who throws paddies and swears at people.
I can also see what you mean about it making him look like a bit of a chancer. One of the accusations leveled at Lynch is that his films are just a meaningless procession of images with no coherent vision behind them and you don’t really get the impression from this film that he’s very deliberate in what he does. The footage surrounding Inland Empire is definitely damning from that perspective as he seems to have no idea of what the film is about even as he is filming it.
But then, I’m quite happy for him to work that way. Lynch’s recent films have been a lot more artistic in the sense that they place ideas and images in relation to each other rather than in a strictly representational manner. I have no problem with that, I think it’s a legitimate way of making films ust as it is a legitimate way of painting or sculpting.
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