A Dream Come True

A Dream Come True is an extensive investigation of the working relationship between two revered artists, David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, as an insightful collage that bridges the gap between academic analysis and investigative journalism.

The working relationship between director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti is one of the most fruitful and celebrated in cinema history. Yet despite their success and fame, this is the first book written about their decades-long collaboration. It offers new, valuable insights to fans of both Lynch’s and Badalamenti’s work.

The book analyses David Lynch the filmmaker through the lens of Angelo Badalamenti’s music via extensive creative biographies of both, in-depth investigations into how the individual music pieces and scores came to be, how they were altered and changed during the editing process, and what clues both music and sound design can give to unlock the mysteries of individual works. It includes several of their collaborations, including Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive, among others.

The result is an insightful collage of exclusive interviews with many of Lynch’s and Badalamenti’s colleagues and friends, transcribed music examples, direct quotes, previously unpublished photographs, dialogue taken from the films, and a careful examination of secondary—sometimes contradictory—sources.

More than 15 industry professionals, including Oscar-winning sound designer Randy Thom, music editor Lori Eschler, music editor and composer John Neff, musician Barry Adamson, PA John Wentworth and film director Mark Pellington, share their experiences and insights in exclusive interviews. For each film, an analysis of both music and sound design reveals how the use of these twin elements helps establish and amplify moods and emotions, and how they serve as keys to interpret the individual films and TV shows.