Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 38: The Return, Part 4

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Tinted windows on what? The camera cut around to reverse shots and point of view shots and all sorts of things. I'm not trying to be snarky; I don't understand what you mean. 

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The reverse shot is through the rear window of the car, perspective from the middle of the front seat.

 

Unless, of course, you're talking about some totally other scene that I didn't recognize as a day to night.

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Sorry I'm coming in so late to this thread, and I need to go back and check, but was Sonny Jim the same kid looking out the window at the hitmen in episode 3? Or am I nuts?

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5 minutes ago, jharp said:

Sorry I'm coming in so late to this thread, and I need to go back and check, but was Sonny Jim the same kid looking out the window at the hitmen in episode 3? Or am I nuts?

 

Different kids. The kid that watches the hitmen has straighter hair and is skinnier

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16 minutes ago, Mike Danger said:

 

Different kids. The kid that watches the hitmen has straighter hair and is skinnier

Yeah I just realized that. I'm a big ol' wrongy pants.

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On 2017-6-5 at 2:54 AM, LadyHawke said:

The reverse shot is through the rear window of the car, perspective from the middle of the front seat.

 

Unless, of course, you're talking about some totally other scene that I didn't recognize as a day to night.

It's a different scene, towards the end of the episode, where Gordon and Albert discuss their concerns about Cooper after meeting him. It's the scene where Cole turns his hearing aid all the way up. It takes place outside and is intensely blue.

 

Like the blue curtains in Doppeldale's room, it made me think of the letter read out on the pre-season podcast concerning Lynch's prohibition of blue props. But the colour pallette of this season has been so different that I suspect I'm reading far too much into that.

 

That said, even precluding any mystical or otherwise symbolic meaning, it's an effective if blunt method for setting a sombre mood for the scene. They are blue, both figuratively and literally. 

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I think the blue in that scene matches the hue of Dr. Jacoby's blue lens pretty exactly. I doubt that means anything.

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On 6/1/2017 at 5:42 PM, Frohike said:

The way she delivers her lines to Andy after her fall makes it seem like she does understand how cell phones work, but part of her finds it completely abject and wrong in spite of herself.

 

I think maybe Jake and Chris and some of you other people are just a little too young to understand how deeply weird it is that telephones don't have cords attached to them. Or how weird it is to be talking on the phone and have the person you're talking to walk up to you. As someone who is almost 50 and had finished graduate school before owning a cordless phone, I wouldn't say Lucy's reaction to cell phones is plausible, but I definitely feel like I get the joke.

(I remember a long time ago someone explaining, "cyberspace is the place you are in when you talk to someone on the telephone" and that made total sense to me, as does the phenomenon that talking on the phone while trying to drive is way more dangerous than talking to your passenger.  I suspect that my mental model of what's going on when I talk on the phone is shaped differently than someone who grew up with cordless phones or cell phones.)

That said, I totally agree with Jake and Christ that Lucy's role so far has been one-note and disappointing, with the slight exception of her moment fawning over Wally.

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On June 4, 2017 at 7:10 AM, James said:

That's a good point, but my point about the timing of the precision wasn't that it's difficult, it's that it doesn't conform to my conception of what Lynch is interested in. I could be entirely wrong, of course, but getting things to line up frame-by-frame in a way that can only be seen if people edit together the videos and watch them on their computers just doesn't seem like it would come from the same guy who is happy to just put an owl over Bob's face and so on. I could be entirely wrong, of course, and as Jake says, Lynch would probably never elaborate on that. I don't mean to be discount the careful and deliberate work that Lynch puts into his art - it's clearly very intentional, even when it's improvised - this just doesn't seem like the kind effort he makes. It seems too neat. But I could have him wrong on that. 

 

Is it possible that Mark Frost might have suggested it? It seems more like his sort of thing - in a way it's a kind of game to play with the viewer, and it feels more concrete, like the stuff in the cave. Secret codes and maps and all that. Things that line up just so.

 

I don't know, that's just the impression I get. 

 

I noticed that, too. I don't know if I'd say that makes it a coincidence, though. Perhaps the sex is what attracted the motion blur monster, but in coming to get them, it also found Cooper, or the pink room, or whatever. 

 

I haven't watched the side-by-side Purple Room/glass box scene yet. I'm curious but also weary, and felt the need to explain why before I actually watch it. I think for Lynch certainly, but really for most filmmakers (even the most calculated/left/brained), you edit for things like rhythm, narrative, performance, and continuity, before you edit to match up two scenes that are not going to be watched side by side by the vast majority of viewers, perhaps not by any. The poetics of the work always has to come first, before the mathematics (and of course that a somewhat ironic statement, given the often intensely-structured nature of poetry, but think of it like cutting a line off to fit the metre, even if there was more to say).

 

My suspicion going in is that it is a coincidence, but maybe I'll feel differently after watching. I just always wince at the implication that the flow of the material and the sensibility being expressed doesn't demand a certain rhythm of cutting, quite aside from any "neat" trick that is being imposed upon it.

 

As for Frost making a creative/aesthetic decision like that in postproduction, from what I understand Lynch rather zealously protects his turf when it comes to filmmaking as opposed to screenwriting. In a recent interview, he was rather insistent that Frost's creative role ended with the writing. While Frost himself might differ in that opinion (I'm sure he visited the editing bay, and am positive he was present on set at least some of the time), I think he would concede that he stays away from advising Lynch on stylistic matters. Another way in which this project uses a film-directing model rather than a show-running one.

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On 6/1/2017 at 2:17 PM, marblize said:

mentioned but I'm rewatching the original in between new episodes and this connection gave me chills. It might look like a reach here but if you watch the scenes it's pretty uncanny. Bob very specifically straight devours Maddie's chin, as does the cat to the water buffalo. A couple of folks in the episode 2 thread commented on how it looked like the cat was killing and making out with the water buffalo, and, well, that certainly checks out wrt to the former scene. Present-day Sarah definitely changes her expression and perks up a bit when the weird mouth stuff starts happening (though this could just be a reaction to the intense violence). To me it seems like the violent gesture is visually echoing in the room 25 years later. I wonder if we'll see more of that. I assume it's not an actual plot point but it's a hell of a reverberating mood bit.

 

On 6/2/2017 at 0:44 PM, Argobot said:

The original series treated women in a very similar way though. Josie, Audrey, the whole One-eyed Jack's plot, it's all there. It's less obvious because you can't show nudity on network TV and because of the fashion of the time, but the original series was far from perfect in that regard.

 

It's complicated conversation because where do you draw the line between parody (Tammy Preston) and a questionable choice (Jade being completely topless in her first scene). I would find Tammy less frustrating if the Jade scene had been directed better. Or the Daria scene.

 

I don't want to be frustrated by these things, because I genuinely believe that Lynch has no ill will towards women. As long as he's not using his authority to take advantage of anyone, this stuff shouldn't really matter. But it does matter because society is so tipped towards this kind of portrayal of women's bodies. That's not really something you can blame on Lynch nor is it something you could reasonably expect him to fix by eliminating female nudity (except maybe Jade's nudity, I really did not like that scene), but it will always stand out until we start seeing more diverse depictions of sex and sexuality in mainstream pop culture. 

Re: the lions activities on Laura's mothers tv: 

At risk of not reading all the comments, the lion is smothering the buffalo. It's their M O, MODUS OPERANDI!!! 

When they get the prey down and it's still squirming one female goes for the kill by smothering , cutting off all airways. Mouth and nose!!

Females are the bad asses of the lion kingdom. The lazy male is back grooming his mane waiting for his lions share of the kill. And that also means he eats first and as much as he wants. 

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At risk of not reading all the comments, the lion is smothering the buffalo. It's their M O, MODUS OPERANDI!!! 

When they get the prey down and it's still squirming one female goes for the kill by smothering , cutting off all airways. Mouth and nose!!

Females are the bad asses of the lion kingdom. The lazy male is back grooming his mane waiting for his lions share of the kill. And that also means he eats first and as much as he wants. 

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At the risk of leaving a bad first impression, I have a compulsion to point out that Cooper does not say "hi" after spitting out the hot coffee. He's saying "coffee" with a burned mouth fully open. You can see his mouth open vertically, close slightly, and open wider again as he attempts to pronounce the 2 syllables of the word coffee, without closing his mouth. This ends up sounding sort of like "hoaee".

 

 

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On 2017-6-17 at 5:55 PM, LostInTheMovies said:

The poetics of the work always has to come first, before the mathematics (and of course that a somewhat ironic statement, given the often intensely-structured nature of poetry, but think of it like cutting a line off to fit the metre, even if there was more to say).

That's a good way of putting it. It's generally good practice to pursue what feels correct rather than what is measurably so; lighting, for example, is often highly artificial, but manipulated to both produce a look and at least roughly correspond with real sources. As you say, this is true of almost all film-makers, but Lynch in particular seems to place the creation of an emotional landscape far above all else, even plot. In light of that, it would be surprising to me if he were to be so pedantic in the specifics of this match. But I don't think it hurts the editing of either scene, so who knows. 

 

Thanks for the insight on Frost's role in production, also. 

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20 hours ago, cr0ybot said:

At the risk of leaving a bad first impression, I have a compulsion to point out that Cooper does not say "hi" after spitting out the hot coffee. He's saying "coffee" with a burned mouth fully open. You can see his mouth open vertically, close slightly, and open wider again as he attempts to pronounce the 2 syllables of the word coffee, without closing his mouth. This ends up sounding sort of like "hoaee".

 

 

 

If that's true then the subtitle is incorrect - I'm pretty sure I went back and saw that it said "hi," to confirm this.

 

(That said, Showtime has confirmed that the subtitle saying "Where's Bing" at the end of the latest episode was a typo and it was in fact supposed to say Billy, so maybe subtitles should be tossed out as a trustworthy source.)

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I expected Cooper to come back in Part 5 after the scene above at the end of Part 4. Clearly, that was not destined.

 

Two particularly funny scenes for me in this part.

 

In the sheriff's office conference room, Hawk explains to Truman his hunt for "something missing" based on the message from Log Lady Margaret Lanterman, and I think our first sign that Chad is an asshole.

 

Chad: I thought that log woman was 10-96 and not even allowed in this building?

Lucy: That's on account of a kind of gum.

Chad: Wow. I'll chew on that.

Truman: That's enough, Chad.

Andy (angry and serious, to Chad): She gets messages from her log.

Chad: Pinocchio's friend

Truman: Goodnight, Chad.

Chad: [sigh, walks out] : I'll go have a word with my pine cone.

 

The gum bit must be a reference to a scene in Season 2 when Log Lady talks to Maj. Briggs about a message from her log ( she comments, "You wear shiny objects on your chest") , and Norma chastises her to use an ashtray if she's going to spit out her "sticky pitch-gum" instead of putting on the booth or counter, "like you did last time."

Perhaps also a reference to "That gum you like is going to come back in style."

Doubtful it means anything significant, but fun regardless.

 

___

 

I know Wally Brando gets mixed reactions - Personally, I didn't recognize Michael Cera at the time so it didn't take me out at all.

And his monologue was one of my high points. I'm not sure if it was quoted here, but the following was my biggest laugh-out-loud moment to date, recited as a beatnik poem, like all his lines:

 

"My shadow is always with me;

Sometimes ahead, sometimes behind;

Sometimes to the left; sometimes to the right;

Except on cloudy days; or at night."

 

The complete lack of irony in the delivery is what gets me...

 

___

 

More seriously, I noted this just prior to the Wally Brando scene, when Bobby enters the conference room and sees the picture of Laura Palmer.

 

Bobby: What's all this about?

Truman: A message from Margaret Lanterman to Hawk, concerning Cooper.

Bobby: Cooper?

Truman: Special agent Dale Cooper.

Bobby: Yeah, I know. Cooper was the last person to see my father alive.

Hawk: What's that?

Bobby: Yeah, a few days after my Dad died, my Mom told me that Cooper had come by the house and talked to my Dad, and I guess Cooper left town pretty soon after that, I don't …. [trails off]

Hawk: And nobody's has seen or heard from him since?

Bobby: My Dad died in the fire a few days after that.

Truman: Do you know what they talked about?

Bobby: No, I have no idea.

 

This visit must occur after Good Coop has entered the Red Room and Evil Coop has emerged, given that the fire took place outside of the events of the original two seasons.

So Evil Coop met with Briggs at the beginning of his 25+ year adventure, and Briggs' body and its connection to Hastings is what brings Gordon Cole and the rest of the Blue Rose task force back into the picture. We seem to know from Hastings

that Briggs was hiding from something in :The Zone", and that he wanted coordinates, like Evil Coop does. I presumed he was hiding from The Experiment/Mother, but maybe not.

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