Thursday, June 26, 2014

Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me

We finally got a working disc from Netflix and picked up where we left off: Leo slapping Shelly for not cleaning their half-constructed house correctly. Fire Walk With Me makes no sense if you haven't seen the series. It doesn't even make much sense if you have.

  • The opening subtitle identifying Theresa Bank's body was unnecessary, since the events surrounding her death & disposal were taken care of in exposition. Was Lynch afraid that viewers would get confused on the timeline? I can see people maybe getting confused at that point in the movie, but later scenes clear up who died first. 
  • There are other subtitles in the movie, though besides the usual Black Lodge titles, the one identifying Ronette Pulaski is needed only because she's only in about 3 episodes of the show, and even in that case Laura could have just said "Hi Ronette".
  • The entire timeline is screwed up, but in a way I find interesting. When David Bowie appears, was that before or after the events of the TV show? Was it the evil Cooper who could simultaneously appear on the security camera while looking at the monitor? No matter what, I loved that whole bit, which was low-tech while being totally creepy. 
  • The old lady & her son weren't explicitly evil in their single scene in the TV show (which also introduced the concept of the creamed corn), and really they're more like benign guides than BOB-level evil. They're seen in the convenience store sequence laughing with The Man From Another Place, BOB, and an assortment of other creatures. The room above the convenience store seems separate from the Black Lodge, maybe more of a benign meeting place for these supernatural beings than an expressly evil place. 
  • The opening sequence, with Chris Isaak and Kiefer Sutherland as FBI agents, is entirely forgettable and only serves to show a) what Lynch had to work with when Kyle MacLachlan refused to offer more than a cameo and b) introduce the jade ring. The scene with Lil the Dancer is interesting in its weirdness, though its odd that Cole would feel the need for covert briefing (couldn't they have just done it in a car or some other private place?)
  • My biggest complaint was that Cooper's fate is left unknown. But I think that points to a fundamental flaw in the movie's structure: while it focuses almost exclusively on Laura Palmer, it leaves enough clues about the nature of the Black Lodge to lead viewers to expect some sort of explanation, especially with the late-game addition of the origin of MIKE's problem with BOB.
  • Back to the subtitles: When BOB and Leland are in the Black Lodge after killing Laura, BOB is confronted by MIKE & the Man from Another Place and told to return their garmonbozia (pain and sorrow). That refers to the creamed corn that the old woman talked about in the show.