Blue Velvet: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide (Bloomsbury Movie Guides) [Paperback]

Charles Drazin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 1999 | Series: Bloomsbury Movie Guides

Blue Velvet is perhaps avid Lynch's best film to date, and certainly his most well known. Beneath its tranquil, beautifully filmed, small-town ambience, lies violence and depravity on a hideous scale, with Dennis Hopper, as Frank, at its core. This book covers every aspect of the movie: how it was made, the screenplay, the casting, the director, its themes. Passionate, witty, and provocative, the book goes far beyond the usual A-Z.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bloomsbury's new Movie Guide series looks like being easily the best idea to have assaulted the cinema bookshelves . . . Exhaustive, affectionate, commited, intelligent, flip, provocative, and, above all, personal . . . Having read them it's guaranteed that the next time you see these movies, something will have changed, and changed for good."--Uncut

From the Publisher

Bloomsbury¹s Movie Guides, now in pocket-size editions, are A to Z companions to some of the greatest, most memorable films ever made. The books feature scores of entries on all aspects of the making and meaning of movies and include historic, cinematic, and literary references; profiles of the actors and directors; and interviews. Erudite and opinionated, they will change the way you look at films. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (June 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582340293
• ISBN-13: 978-1582340296
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,093,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money!, October 26, 2000

By 

"songlife" (Dayton, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Velvet: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide (Bloomsbury Movie Guides) (Paperback)

This pathetic book is organized as though it's geared for morons - "from A to Z", with absurd topics like 'people like Frank' and 'chipped tooth'. There's even a chapter called 'Pabst Blue Ribbon' in which the author merely tells about how he couldn't find this brand of beer in his local store. Why put this in a book? Also, the chapter concerning Laura Dern, who had a major role in this movie, is only 2 pages and makes the amazing declaration that her mother is Cheryl Ladd! (it's Diane Ladd.) That shows you how much research was put into this book - none. The author is just a guy who is a fan of the movie, did very little research and interviewed no one about it, and spews his pedestrian opinions willy-nilly. For instance, Frank Booth was meant to represent a purely evil, subhuman, subterranean insect in this movie, yet the author goes on about his "pathos" and endearing qualities. And maybe you want to buy this book because there'll be some interviews with the stars, director, or ANYONE? Forget it - all you get are the author's takes on the film, period. He does quote Hopper and Lynch, but only one-liners. Don't waste your time on this mess, or the other book in this series about Goldfinger, either. They're not serious analyzations of the movies - only the uninformed opinions of British fans who got lucky enough to have their books published. The book is intended only for those maniacal fans who'll buy ANYTHING related to the movie. The few pictures are merely stock stills from the movie...no behind the scenes stuff. I wasted my money on this, so please heed my advice and forget this book exists. For a MUCH better, far more intelligent analysis of "Blue Velvet", get Danny Peary's book "Cult Movies" (it's in either vol. 2 or 3).

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything and more!, April 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Velvet: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide (Bloomsbury Movie Guides) (Paperback)

Drazin's book is an excellent guide to one of David Lynch's greatest films. It contains a breakdown of every aspect of the film and more. It is an excellent way for people to delve deeper into the film and find out Lynch's subtle meanings of style. The only thing lacking from this book is the screenplay. If that is what you are looking for then you'll have to look elsewhere.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent appreciation of David Lynch's masterpiece, December 13, 2000

By 

Andy Moore (Bristol, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Velvet: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide (Bloomsbury Movie Guides) (Paperback)

If you value a literate and intelligent appreciation of a complex film, then this book is for you. It has helped me to understand and enjoy (if this word can be used of such a profoundly disturbing film) 'Blue Velvet' without dispelling any of its poetry. It recognizes that there are no final answers to all the mysteries of this extraordinary film. It avoids jargon, and is accessible to the general reader as well as the movie buff. It doesn't cover `every aspect of the movie' as the book description claims, but this seems to me to be a strength. It avoids a lot of the frankly tedious behind-the-scenes production details in favour of a more personal response. So if you really want to know what the budget was or what sort of lenses Frederick Elmes used in Dorothy's bedroom, then this book probably isn't for you. Indeed, if it has a weakness, it's when it does attempt to give the sort of `all you need to know' movie trivia that the AZ format calls for. But this is a small quibble.