Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 31: Fire Walk With Me

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Twin Peaks Rewatch 31:

 

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Fire Walk With Me

This week, enjoy our discussion of the Twin Peaks film, Fire Walk With Me. It's a double-size episode about what is essentially two movies in one: the investigation of the Teresa Banks murder, and the final days of Laura Palmer. We think it's great. Join us!

Also as said at the end of the episode, next week is a mix of discussing FWWM-related listener mail, and discussing Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces. So if you have the Complete Mystery Blu-Ray be sure to watch The Missing Pieces for next week. Otherwise, please send in your thoughts on Fire Walk With Me!

The week after next is likely our last episode until the new season starts up (Crazy!!!), which will be mostly focused on reader mail and closing thoughts on what will be the Complete Twin Peaks until next year.

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Also, if you acquired the movie in the LESS THAN SAVORY way that Jake mentioned and the length is around 90 minutes, what you have is just the deleted scenes from the blueray set. Honestly, just rent it the thing from Amazon if that's an option for you. It's worth the $4.

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Yes! Can't wait to hear the podcast on the film and first-timers' response here. First off, want to totally re-inforce what you guys said above. It is sadly REALLY common for people to download the wrong version now. I think more people end up with the deleted scenes than the fanedit though, which is a bit more palatable as they can still go on to watch the finished film without having much spoiled out of context for them. But they will be pretty confused till they realize what happened haha. I created a guide to the FWWM scenes here as a reference for the confused: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/2015/01/twin-peaks-untangling-fire-walk-with-me.html.

 

And here's the last part of my Journey Through Twin Peaks videos: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/2015/02/journey-through-twin-peaks-part-4-laura.html. It covers the film as well as the "afterlife" of Twin Peaks (i.e. stuff like the Log Lady intros, the Missing Pieces, and both Mark Frost's and David Lynch's later work). As always, you can watch it in short individual chapters or as single piece on Vimeo. If you just want to leap into the first chapter of the FWWM videos you can start here: 

 

 

I first saw FWWM about 7 years ago immediately after watching the series. Like many here, I had enjoyed the first half of the show immensely and then been very disappointed by the second (except for the finale, which I loved). But I rented all the discs from Netflix simultaneously and binged them (it was just after the Gold Box came out) so it wasn't as painful as I imagine it might have been watching week-by-week. I didn't know much of the history or context of the show at the time, probably less than any first-timers listening to the podcast or reading the forum, so I was really confused by how bad the show had gotten. I'd seen a few Lynch films at that point - definitely Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, and Eraserhead - so I was really looking forward to the movie.

 

It was not what I was expecting. At all. It really wasn't anything like the show, even the most surreal, disturbing sequences, and the first scene that really shocked me with just how different it was came about 45 minutes in, with the "Wash your hands" scene. I had an unusual reaction to the movie. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, which isn't unusual, but my issues with it came from the remaining connections with Twin Peaks rather than the differences. As into the show as I had been, watching the movie I no longer cared about Cooper, donuts, and red rooms. The movie made me care only about Laura Palmer and I found myself wishing Lynch had dropped every last attempt to link it up to the show and just stuck with the story it seemed he really wanted to tell: the terrible downfall of this character, as moving as it is horrible. I wondered if he wasn't mocking her trauma a bit, however unintentionally, by linking it up to a supernatural tale of possession and the first 30-40 minutes of absurdist humor and bizarre setpieces.

 

But the film stuck with me. The following day I was still shaken by the whole experience, particularly certain sequences (the Pink Room, Mike screaming at Laura & Leland in traffic) and ESPECIALLY Sheryl Lee's amazing performance (I had not been terribly impressed by her on the show but was blown away by her in the movie). I concluded that a movie that had this much of an effect on me had to be some sort of masterpiece, however flawed, uneven, or troubling.

 

Then I went online to look at the reviews (mostly from 1992) and my jaw hit the floor. This film had a 28/100 on Metacric. A 28!!! And the reviews weren't just dismissive, they were savage. The critics savaged everything about the movie, not because they felt it hadn't lived up to its potential but because they felt it had no potential. They implied it was the worst film ever made, called Laura a "typical teenager" (I don't think I found a single review that acknowledged she was an incest victim), made fun of Sheryl Lee, opined that it was cynically made just to satisfy fans ( :blink: ) and declared the film boring. It was as if they'd seen a completely different movie. I was a huge movie buff at that point, well-versed in the history of cinema and criticism, but I don't think I'd ever encountered such an enourmous gap between the experience I had watching a movie and the response of the critics. I'm still kind of trying to figure that out.

 

Anyway, I couldn't and/or didn't want to watch the movie again for 5 years. It had been such a distinctive, profound first viewing I just really wanted to let it sit for a while. Last year I got back into Twin Peaks and have watched the film at least a dozen times since then, frequently in relation to essays I was writing or videos I was making. I can say it not only holds up, but improves every time I see it. When The Missing Pieces (deleted scenes) were released, I began to notice the way that the film worked not just as a unique Lynchian film but as a(n admittedly perverse) conclusion to the Twin Peaks saga. The way I put it in one of the videos: strangely, the TV show needs Fire Walk With Me more than Fire Walk With Me needs the TV show.

 

I love Twin Peaks, but to me Fire Walk With Me transcends the show - even justifies it in a way. Many fans feel it's impossible to understand the movie if you haven't seen the show, but I've heard from lots of non-series viewers who loved it. I think the main stumbling block (aside from people who just don't cotton to Lynch's storytelling style and/or tone) are expectations gleaned from the series. Most of the people who really don't like it are fans of the show, and just can't take the abrupt switch-up. The movie really feels like it comes from a different universe.

 

There's a hell of a lot more to say about the movie but I'll halt there for the moment. Those were my first-time impressions - what were yours?

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My first time watching anything related to Twin Peaks (besides ABC promos and parodies) was the David Bowie scene.

 

I've never looked at a bank of security cameras the same way.

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This movie is a testament to how great Sheryl Lee is as Laura Palmer. Also, it has my favorite dirty bar music. I went to Noir City in SF this year and I swear they played this song in the break between movies. I absolutely love it.

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This movie is a testament to how great Sheryl Lee is as Laura Palmer. Also, it has my favorite dirty bar music. I went to Noir City in SF this year and I swear they played this song in the break between movies. I absolutely love it.

 

The first time I saw the Pink Room sequence, about 5 minutes in I was thinking "Jesus Christ, this is incredible, this is way further-out than Blue Velvet." About 10 minutes in I thought, "This is further-out than Mulholland Drive. Where the hell are we going?" At about 15 minutes in, I wasn't "thinking" anything anymore as I was just totally immersed and hypnotized by the music and the imagery.

 

And hell, that was the bastardized New Line DVD version in which you could actually hear what they were saying!

 

What a scene, what a song. The entire Fire Walk With Me score is incredible, utterly wrenching. Here's the officially-released soundtrack which doesn't even include some of my favorite themes from the film:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqg-vJFLtts

 

Moving Through Time, at 40:55 (especially the second half, which begins at 44:40) is particularly noteworthy. But my favorite track is probably the first, the main theme which is also evocatively titled "She Would Die For Love."

 

Much as I love the soundtrack to the show, this music is on a whole different level. Also really underrated: Angelo Badalamenti's score for The Straight Story.

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One more thing before I shut up (at least for a while): that final scene.

 

Wow.

 

Easily the most beautiful thing David Lynch has ever created. Sheryl Lee should have gotten an Oscar for those 3 minutes alone.

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This movie is a testament to how great Sheryl Lee is as Laura Palmer. Also, it has my favorite dirty bar music. I went to Noir City in SF this year and I swear they played this song in the break between movies. I absolutely love it.

 

That reminds me... another tip for first time watchers:

 

There are some moments in this movie in which dialogue is made near-unintelligible by loud noises/music.  If you have the option to turn on subtitles, don't do it!  Only sort-of hearing what's going on is important to the feeling of those scenes.

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I had thought some of the subtitles were deliberately baked in, notably in the bar scene, similarly to the subtitles in the Red Room in the TV series. Is that not a deliberate choice, and just something that shows up in some editions of the film? I had always thought the subtitles-over-barely-perceptible-English in those scenes was making a deliberate connection!

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I liked the tiny glimpse of pre TP Cooper who was actually terribly unnerved by a dream of his and the agent who arrived in only to disappear during the freaky montage. This made it feel like Cooper's sureness and security in the show is actually a relatively recent development, possibly from preparing for the case when he knew it would eventually appear.

After we got to Twin Peaks I really liked the deeper exploration of Laura's life. Watching the show again made me realise how little it details her as a victim. You know she died in the show, but you get so much evidence of her being destructive that it almost seems like she was a force to be reckoned with when really she was just a disaster trying to do anything should could to change her situation (which I'm assuming is why she was on drugs, in several relationships, in therapy and at one eyed jacks). The film gives a much more human and personal portrayal to her that always seemed to be absent in the show where understanding her was a big mystery.

I had the same feeling about Leland, though to a much smaller degree (mostly cause of the screentime offered to him). In the show it seemed like Leland was a tragic empty vessel that was possessed by the real perpetrator. because it was more ambiguous with the earlier treatment, and then when the Bob/Leland connection is brought to the foreground it feels like they shy away from acknowledging Leland's own agency. In the film it seemed like he was just a terror all the time. Even when he's apologising to Laura it seems to unnerve her.

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I had the same feeling about Leland, though to a much smaller degree (mostly cause of the screentime offered to him). In the show it seemed like Leland was a tragic empty vessel that was possessed by the real perpetrator. because it was more ambiguous with the earlier treatment, and then when the Bob/Leland connection is brought to the foreground it feels like they shy away from acknowledging Leland's own agency. In the film it seemed like he was just a terror all the time. Even when he's apologising to Laura it seems to unnerve her.

 

I actually took that as confirmation that Bob has been there for far longer than simply the previous few weeks. 

 

Actually, here's a question: I've only watched the entire run once and so haven't really been looking at the more subtle hints throughout (if they exist, which they may or may not) -

 

How much of this do you think is Leland's fault, and how much is solely Bob? If Leland is trapped in the Black Lodge, surely that suggests it's entirely Bob committing these awful acts (in much the same way I think most would agree that the Cooper at the end of S2 is not Cooper at all)...

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I distinctly remember feeling ill after watching Fire Walk With Me.  The true horror of what happened to Laura finally set in.

And I can't believe Bobby killed that guy!  Made me rethink his entire character.  Still not sure where I stand on that being a good choice or a bad one, but it's definitely one that stuck with me.

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Actually Leland's doppelganger is in the lodge, not Leland himself. The implication to me is that Leland is not in the Lodge but that he was inhabiting his own body (I don't know what this implies for Cooper, who seems to be absent from his body).

FWWM definitely showed how Bob was there for a long time but also seemed to confirm Leland as culpable to me. His creepy controlling behaviour at dinner is not Bob. Bob is much more unstable and rash he delights in feeding off pain and suffering but Leland is calculated, domineering and controlling. They fit as partners but both act out and want different things.

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Actually Leland's doppelganger is in the lodge, not Leland himself. The implication to me is that Leland is not in the Lodge but that he was inhabiting his own body (I don't know what this implies for Cooper, who seems to be absent from his body).

FWWM definitely showed how Bob was there for a long time but also seemed to confirm Leland as culpable to me. His creepy controlling behaviour at dinner is not Bob. Bob is much more unstable and rash he delights in feeding off pain and suffering but Leland is calculated, domineering and controlling. They fit as partners but both act out and want different things.

I think, in answer to the first part, it's that Leland and the doppelgänger switched just before Leland's death.

As for the second part... I don't know. Maybe I'm too sympathetic? Throughout, I've only ever seen Leland as a victim

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Leland says to Laura in the train car "I always thought you knew it was me!" so he must have been aware of the abuse. I think he knew what he was doing all along but convinced himself that it was consensual (this is not stated outright but it is frequently suggested that he thinks they share some kind of unspoken but mutually-understood secret). This is part of a larger pattern of denial that has made him such a perfect vessel for Bob and foil for Laura as she struggles against her own denial.

 

This also seems to be pretty consistent with the behavior/mentality of incest perpetrators who alternately deny they've done anything at all, blame the victim for "seducing" them, or decide that they are in some sort of an adult relationship with their own child. If the film is about Laura discovering her father is the mysterious abuser, it is also, on a more buried level, about Leland discovering that his "relationship" to his daughter is and always has been rape.

 

He kills Teresa when she threatens to blackmail him, Maddy when she says she's leaving the home where she has served as a surrogate daughter, and Laura when she tells him "stay away from me": in all three cases he is killing what he cannot control, perhaps a way of manifesting what he feels was his weakness in letting Bob in as a child (which the show suggests accompanied a physical molestation). In the Between Two Worlds interview with the Palmer family, Leland says "I didn't do those things" which is just vague and evasive enough to be perfect Lelandspeak. I suspect his continued denial, even after death, while play a role in the 2016 series.

 

Bob also says "I never knew you knew it was me." This is the film's dual stance, which bugged me as an evasion on first viewing but increasingly feels to me like a recognition that evil is BOTH individual and cosmic (as it certainly is in Lynch's view). We are embedded in the operation of larger forces but retain responsibility for our actions and decisions within that web. See also the Mystery Man in Lost Highway and arguably the Creature Behind the Diner in Mulholland Drive and the Phantom in Inland Empire. With Twin Peaks, Lynch was stuck with a more specific mythology and less ambiguous presentation from the show. Viewed without that baggage, I think Leland's culpability in FWWM becomes clearer.

 

The film also implies that Bob is already inside Laura to a certain extent. It doesn't seem as simple as letting Bob in and losing control from then on. She is able to resist him as her father could not and ultimately the film is about her success in doing so - and his failure. If Leland has no chance to fight Bob, I think this would render Laura's struggle both an unfair double standard and a narrative inconsistency.

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I had thought some of the subtitles were deliberately baked in, notably in the bar scene, similarly to the subtitles in the Red Room in the TV series. Is that not a deliberate choice, and just something that shows up in some editions of the film? I had always thought the subtitles-over-barely-perceptible-English in those scenes was making a deliberate connection!

 

Huh, this has me kind of confused now! The version that I originally watched didn't have subtitles, but it seems like most of them do... this is from IMDB:

 

"In most versions of the film certain sequences are sub-titled - at the nightclub where the music drowns out the dialogue and when characters speak backwards - but not in the British version. Apparently, director David Lynch changed his mind so often as to whether they should be included or not, by the time he came to a final decision, the British distributors had already made all their prints (without subtitles) and couldn't afford to make any more."

 

So from what I can gather, the original European theater release as well as the Japanese Blu-Ray release don't include baked-in subtitles, but all of the American releases do. So I guess Lynch's intent was actually for them to be included. This changes my whole perception of those scenes. Weird!

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The DVD I have had some noisy/backwards scenes subtitled, and others not. I ended up turning on the subtitles and I don't regret it, but there wasn't much of importance there either. Anyway, this was my first time seeing the movie, though I've seen the series before I never had the intestinal fortitude to watch the movie until now. I also literraly just finished it (going through the documentary included on the disk as I write this actually) so all I have at the moment is a random ball of thoughts.

 

The first bits, all the way up until twin peaks, were interesting but didn't feel very related to everything else going on. The lady dancing funny in the red dress was specifically a non-sequitur. It was redeemed somewhat by Coop having to come after and investigate the disappearance of the FBI agent, but it still felt strangely detached. I'm not sure (and may actually go back and watch it again) who/what the guy was who showed up in the FBI office on the camera.

 

It was nice to get some Albert and Gordon. Despite not getting why they even needed to be there, I love those guys. I only wish we could have gotten some Major Briggs.

 

Holy crap Bobby is so much more hardcore than the TV series ever makes him look. He's killed a man for godsakes. How did he end up being such a doof character in the main series.

 

At some point James got some acting lessons because his scenes in FWWM have some real feeling to them. The confusion that is his hallmark facial expression was much more "I as a character have no clue what this lady is taking about" which is a lot better than "I as an actor have no clue what facial expression I should be making right now"

 

Lots of good extra stuff in Laura's various conversations, but a lot of stuff you'd think someone would have mentioned during the investigation. In particular, Harold came off a lot more sympathetic in this (I hated him in the series) but you think even with social anxiety he'd send a letter or something to someone about the journal stuff.

 

I'm sure more will dribble out of my mind as I think about it more, but despite the first third being slow, the Twin Peaks part was incredibly vibrant, memorable, and a fitting conclusion to the series that I felt was lacking in the final TV episode.  

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The first bits, all the way up until twin peaks, were interesting but didn't feel very related to everything else going on. The lady dancing funny in the red dress was specifically a non-sequitur. It was redeemed somewhat by Coop having to come after and investigate the disappearance of the FBI agent, but it still felt strangely detached.

 

The production context helps explain some of this: originally Cooper was supposed to conduct the entire Teresa Banks investigation. I think this was Lynch's way of making a film about Laura Palmer that still included the main character of the series. But Kyle MacLachlan was fed up with Lynch and Twin Peaks at this point (supposedly because he felt abandoned during the second season) and refused to make the movie. Eventually they coaxed him into a cameo, and replaced Cooper in the early scenes with the character of Chet Desmond. So yes, the first part of the movie makes a rather awkward fit with the rest and can seem sort of unjustified in a way that maybe it wouldn't if MacLachlan had been more on-board.

 

That said, I've come to really love the Deer Meadow sequence especially Harry Dean Stanton's brilliant walk-on ("You see, I've already gone places...I just want to stay where I am."). I think the replacement of Cooper with Chet highlights how subversive the film is towards its source, and helps distance us further from the series from the get-go. I also love how inscrutable this whole mystery is, how impenetrable the town appears, which feels like the perfect bait-and-switch setup before we plunge into the stark revelation of Laura's psyche. Although of course that aspect could have still been accomplished with Cooper as the protagonist.

 

Deer Meadow also works as a gateway into the second half of Lynch's career, in which he prefers to tell two or more detached but semi-related stories in a single film (think Lost Highway, which also switches protagonists, and Mulholland Drive). Admittedly though the structure doesn't work quite as well in this trial run as it will later on. Ultimately I feel like the first 40 minutes of Fire Walk With Me may hurt its effectiveness as a standalone film but help it as a perverse conclusion to the Twin Peaks saga.

 

Here's a really good piece which talks about the relationship between the two parts of the film: http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-05-15/film/booed-at-cannes-at-bam-rose-cinemas/

 

Key passage: "The contrasting halves of the film's bifurcated narrative find two worlds crashing together, the first a plane of frustrated desire and inscrutable mystery, the second a void into which a young woman is swallowed up. The procedural elements of the first are fundamentally disconnected from the tragedy of the second, suggesting that, in the final estimation, we can't rely on institutions to protect us. They're solving the wrong case."

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I'll have more to say when I'm awake enough to put my thoughts into words, but I will say that Sheryl Lee's performance is incredible. She does a beautiful job conveying Laura's pain, upset, and general aura of fucked-upness, but she's also wonderful with the goofy intoxicated stuff, like when she's trying to talk on the phone, smoke a cigarette, and put on her tights at the same time. I loved her performance, and cared a lot about Laura because of that.

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Okay, so Fire Walk With Me was the first actual Lynch movie I saw (though I did watch the show first, obviously).  I decided ahead of time that I had no idea what to expect and I was just going to roll with it. My roommate and I watched it with an abandon that would probably make David Lynch happy, and it became almost a participatory experience. I wish we had a hidden camera set up because our reactions were hilariously in-sync through much of the movie. Cooper comes on screen: "Yaaaay!" James's motorcycle is heard: "Booooo!" Any time Leland Palmer/Bob comes on screen: "Auuuuaahhh!" (hard to approximate that sound via text) or "Nooooooo!"

 

I'm glad someone mentioned the running time of the movie because my commitment to roll with it extended to keeping track of time, apparently. If you had told me it was 90 minutes I would've gone with it, ditto to if you had told me it was three hours long.

A few thoughts about the actual movie:
 

  • Kiefer Southerland was amazing. I really hope he's in the revival, his character was quirky in just the right way. He fit in with the special brand of FBI weirdness.
  • Annie showing up all bloody in Laura's bed scared the hell out of me. I guess Heather Graham is at her best when she's freaking me out.
  • The scene in the Canadian strip club is wild. Just really interestingly and creatively filmed. I liked the use of subtitles a lot.
  • I laughed aloud when Laura flipped James the bird. You tell him, girl.

 

And again I have to give it up for Sheryl Lee, and to David Lynch for being so fascinated with Laura and passionate about bringing her to life. Someone close to me has a story that wouldn't look too dissimilar to Laura's, and I thought the movie did a very effective job conveying the terror of it, and the complicated ways people react to trauma.

 

Here's something I sent to a friend right after watching it:

This movie is so weird. The beginning and the end are...craziness. And the middle is like a really tense domestic drama, mostly. This movie is bananas.

Now that I've seen a few more Lynch movies that seems applicable to more than Fire Walk With Me. :)

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This is my third time watching Twin Peaks, but first time watching the movie. I think I avoided it the first two times because the reviews were so bad, and I was afraid that it would sour my feelings towards the series even more than the latter half of season 2 did. I watched the movie yesterday in what I think are the optimal conditions: after midnight, drinking good strong beer. Scattered thoughts follow.

 

One more thing before I shut up (at least for a while): that final scene.
 
Wow.
 
Easily the most beautiful thing David Lynch has ever created. Sheryl Lee should have gotten an Oscar for those 3 minutes alone.

 

One of my main fears regarding the movie was that it would be just this brutal and cold depiction of Laura's downward spiral leading up to her death, which would have been too much for me to stomach. I don't know where I got this idea – probably Inland Empire and his coffee commercials – but I was glad that my fears were completely unwarranted. Fire Walk With Me is brutal for sure, but far from "cold". That scene was a testament to that. Simply beautiful!

 

I'll have more to say when I'm awake enough to put my thoughts into words, but I will say that Sheryl Lee's performance is incredible. She does a beautiful job conveying Laura's pain, upset, and general aura of fucked-upness, but she's also wonderful with the goofy intoxicated stuff, like when she's trying to talk on the phone, smoke a cigarette, and put on her tights at the same time. I loved her performance, and cared a lot about Laura because of that.

 

This. I was in awe of her versatility for the entire latter part of the movie. There were other great performances as well. Man, that dinner table scene with Leland more menacing than ever, Laura scared to death by him and Sarah absolutely horrified at Leland touching her daughter. (Incidentally, is the implication that Sarah knew or suspected that something horrible is going on between the two or that Leland is – or is going – insane?)

It took some time to get used to the completely innocent-eyed Donna after the (occasional) femme fatale of the series. She was an excellent choice for the Bang Bang Bar scene, though. I'm not sure if Lara Flynn Boyle could have portrayed the feeling of clearly not fitting in but still acting as if you do as well as Moira Kelly did. She might have, but Moira definitely nailed it.

 

Annie showing up all bloody in Laura's bed scared the hell out of me. I guess Heather Graham is at her best when she's freaking me out.

 

Me too. I also found it interesting that Laura did not mind bloody Annie in her bed or the fact that she suddenly had a ring in her hand, but lost her shit when both of them disappeared.

 

This movie is a testament to how great Sheryl Lee is as Laura Palmer. Also, it has my favorite dirty bar music. I went to Noir City in SF this year and I swear they played this song in the break between movies. I absolutely love it.

 
The bar scene was fantastic, not least because of that song. The minimalism and repetitiveness reminded me of bands like Earth and Pharaoh Overlord, though of course the songs themselves sound quite different.
 

Here's a really good piece which talks about the relationship between the two parts of the film: http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-05-15/film/booed-at-cannes-at-bam-rose-cinemas/
 
Key passage: "The contrasting halves of the film's bifurcated narrative find two worlds crashing together, the first a plane of frustrated desire and inscrutable mystery, the second a void into which a young woman is swallowed up. The procedural elements of the first are fundamentally disconnected from the tragedy of the second, suggesting that, in the final estimation, we can't rely on institutions to protect us. They're solving the wrong case."[/size]

 
The atmosphere of the FBI investigation part was fantastic and made me wish that David Lynch would direct a more traditional film noir-ish movie at some point. However, it definitely felt disconnected from the rest of the movie. Still, I actually appreciate the contrast between the typical cold young drug addict murder investigation and the entirely different kind of investigation on what type of hell a soon-to-be young drug addict murder victim might have been going through. Thanks for linking that piece. I will read it at some point.
 

Then I went online to look at the reviews (mostly from 1992) and my jaw hit the floor. This film had a 28/100 on Metacric. A 28!!! And the reviews weren't just dismissive, they were savage. The critics savaged everything about the movie, not because they felt it hadn't lived up to its potential but because they felt it had no potential. They implied it was the worst film ever made, called Laura a "typical teenager" (I don't think I found a single review that acknowledged she was an incest victim), made fun of Sheryl Lee, opined that it was cynically made just to satisfy fans ( :blink: ) and declared the film boring. It was as if they'd seen a completely different movie. I was a huge movie buff at that point, well-versed in the history of cinema and criticism, but I don't think I'd ever encountered such an enourmous gap between the experience I had watching a movie and the response of the critics. I'm still kind of trying to figure that out.

 

Oh wow.. I don't think I agree with any of those criticism.

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My Twin Peaks circumstances: 

 

I first tried to watch the show probably two years ago. I got mid-way through season one, then stopped for reasons that are unknown to me. When the podcast started up, I felt it would be a good time to return to the show and finish it. I outpaced the podcast pretty early on, but I've been saving Fire Walk With Me until the cast got to it. 

 

I was slightly anxious going into this film because I'd heard many times on the forums that it was essentially a horror movie. I'm not great with the horror genre, Alien is pretty much the furthest I'll wade into horror (which isn't a particularly scary film). When I watched even Twin Peaks it seemed to inspire many nightmares, as if it opened up something in my subconscious in a strange way. The nightmares, as far as I remember, didn't really have anything to do with the show-but they came at the same time. 

 

Regardless, I'm rambling. 

 

This film wasn't a particularly scary one. There were a few scenes where I felt like I needed to cover the screen with my hand and look away, but mostly it just left me with dread. Sheryl Lee and Ray Wise were both excellent. They were stand-out actors in the show and they continued to kill it in the movie. The whole dynamic that existed between Laura/BOB/Leland brought to life the vestigial horror we witnessed in the series proper. I want to echo a comment Lostinthemovies I had (though not with the same ultimate opinion). 

 

This film felt incongrous with the show. Not in a bad way, not implying that it couldn't be good if it wasn't classic Peaks, but it just felt strange to see goofy Leo participating in a drug-den rape (though that event is explained in the show), it felt strange when Bobby lights that dude up (where did that gun come from? Does Bobby always have a gun, or was he expecting to need it? How did Bobby outdraw what seemed to be a career criminal as a highschool loser? Why did that shootout even happen?) 

 

I appreciated that they were willing to tell that story, that felt so distinctly real and intense. I'm glad Lynch managed to sow some more ambivalence into the story; during the series Leland seemed so obviously the victim that it changed the story from one about incest and murder to demonic possesion and that felt cheap. I liked how in FWWM it was clear that it took two to tango, that Leland wasn't blameless. 

 

Hell, I even appreciated Badalementi's score. For the first time, his music was totally welcome to my ears. Though, when I listen to the soundtrack alone, I have to question why he has this weird "Strange Fruit" knockoff, the Sycamore trees song. Weird. 

 

Overall, I have mixed opinions. It wasn't a bad movie, by any means, but it left me feeling confused and slightly drained. 

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I laughed every time Bobby Briggs said The F Word.

 

Also, I just watched The Missing Pieces.  Some of those scenes had no chance of getting into the movie (Pete arguing with Dell Mibbler?), so why were they even filmed?

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I'm ecstatic about this movie now! I love it!!

This was the third time I watched it. The first time I saw it in German, on television, before I ever saw the series. I felt confused and frustrated. I thought it would help to know the series.

Well, it didn't help in my estimation after the second time. But this time around? I think having listened to the weekly discussions might have helped, having read up on the discussions here, especially LostintheMovie's insightful posts might have helped, and just getting into the mindset to enjoy Lynch's visual poetry in motion might have helped, too.

 

I could have argued before why the movie doesn't work in some ways when I didn't quite align with it emotionally, and now I could say why it works so damn well, too. You always know how to rationalize your emotions.

Anyway, this movie really got to me. It depicts brutal situations, but is very empathetic towards Laura and portrays a lot of her inner life as her end comes palpably closer and closer. This story really needed to be told. And while some early segments of the movie feel like they set up for more, for the most part it has an air of finality to it. It feels more like an end to the saga than like a beginning.

 

My only major complaint I still stand by and don't think I will ever change my mind on: I hate it that the convenience store scene and the Tremond boy aren't subtitled. It's just frustrating that way, and I feel what is said should be understood. On the other hand, that you can't understand the dialog in the pink room scene makes it feel even more intense.

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