Lost in the Movies: January 2018

Patreon update #4: Interstellar & The Prestige (+ millennials, Soviet communism, mumblecore & more) and preview for Fire Walk With Me as horror/art film & Fellini montage


This week brings the first double feature (expect many more, as well as triple and occasionally quadruple features as the number of 2nd-tier patrons - and therefore patron-selected films in focus - grows). Usually they won't be particularly linked but two different patrons recommended Christopher Nolan films this month so I thought it would be a good idea to pair them. I think this was only the second time I saw both of these films, and I was surprised what I had forgotten. Elsewhere, the podcast's theme seems to be generations and the passage of history - I talk about my short film Class of 2002, confusion about millennials, the legacy of the sixties in the eighties, Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, and the curiosity of reviewing a 2002 film in 2009 - and then discussing that film in 2018. I also attempt and probably fail to pronounce "epistolary," "epoch," and "Bujalski."

By the way, make sure you check out the links in the podcast post - this week in particular they're chock full of fascinating tangents.







Line-up for Episode 4

Intro
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WEEKLY UPDATE/2nd tier Biweekly Preview: Fire Walk With me as horror & Fellini montage video

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WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: Class of 2002 5th Anniversary

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WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: Phenomena as part of FWWM/horror, FWWM & season 3, FWWM & original episodes, The Art Life, The Wire viewing diary, upcoming montage (Kieslowski/Winehouse), The Last Laugh for Voyage into the Movies, postponing character series, including Diane recordings in her character entry, background character entry

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FILM IN FOCUS: Interstellar

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FILM IN FOCUS: The Prestige
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TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: audiobooks of The Secret History of Twin Peaks & The Final Dossier, The Lodgers discuss Lynch/Frost collaboration

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OTHER TOPICS: defining (and misdefining) millennials, "tankies" & violence (Marxism-Leninism/Stalinism/the recent Twitter controversy), Hill Street Blues episodes about 60s/70s radicals in the early 80s

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LISTENER FEEDBACK: plausibility of The Prestige, Nolan as blockbuster auteur (would Lynch have followed his path if Dune was a hit?)

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OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Sophomore Slump" (January - March 2009), this week's highlight: Funny Ha Ha


BECOME A PATRON

Patreon update #3: Army of Shadows (+ Hill Street Blues/Mark Frost & more)


This week's "Film in Focus" was a patron recommendation from my friend Max with whom (coincidentally) I first saw this movie on its American release in 2006. Army of Shadows is a magnificent study of the French Resistance, and in this discussion I cover its tangled history (it was a failure in France at the time for a variety of political and aesthetic reasons), its striking ethos (less ideological than existential), its look, and its unusual story structure, among other topics. I also use my "Twin Peaks Reflections" this week to discuss Mark Frost's first episode for Hill Street Blues, which has some significant crossover with his later work on Twin Peaks.


Podcast #3: Army of Shadows (+ Hill Street Blues/Mark Frost & more)


Line-up for Episode 3

Intro
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WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: Mad Men viewing diary, illustrating Twin Peaks characters, upcoming Voyage into the Movies podcast on No Ship Network, Fire Walk With Me as a horror film, Fellini montage video
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FILM IN FOCUS: Army of Shadows
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TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: Mark Frost's first episode for Hill Street Blues
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OTHER TOPICS: Film vs. TV critics on Twin Peaks: The Return, Hill Street Blues & old TV dead ends
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LISTENER FEEDBACK: on Mulholland Drive/Twin Peaks
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OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Typing Up Loose Ends" (November - December 2008), this week's highlight: The Way We Weren't - Art Under Bush

BECOME A PATRON

My film Class of 2002 - 5th Anniversary


Five years ago today, I premiered the the final version of my short film Class of 2002. I'd spent the past month and a half producing it, after writing and casting over the summer and fall (I wrote in detail about the full process a couple days after uploading the video). The project was an unusual one - taking a narrated documentary form and relying on existing snapshots for its visual texture but nonetheless a work of fiction. Over time, I received several surprised responses from people who had thought it was all true. This was both flattering and unsettling - on the one hand, I was pleased they were convinced by my characterization, on the other hand, I didn't want the story to be a "gotcha" gimmick playing a trick on viewers. Indeed several seemed mildly disoriented by this realization (initially I presented the film in blog posts unambiguously marking it as fiction, but eventually people discovered it on YouTube on their own, with little to no context).

Class of 2002 reveals the lives of five characters, as well as a sixth character who knew them all and narrates their stories. It's fairly grim; I scripted some more humorous passages that fell by the wayside as its final form was consolidated - ultimately this needed to be a somber narrative. This bleakness plus its unusual form plus the lack of an eyecatching hook ensured that it would not really be among my most popular material...nonetheless, existing feedback has been fairly positive and I remain very proud of the work. To date, it's the only narrative work I've created in a decade of Lost in the Movies, that rare creation not reliant in any way (aside from general influence of course) on a pre-existing work...although of course almost everything onscreen was captured by other people, long before they came into play here! Additionally, the use of a single narrator's voice interacting with the visual material places it in the general vicinity of my video essay work, however different the context.

For me, the film now stands not just as a look back over the previous decade, but as a bit of a time capsule itself. I was in my late twenties, working two retail jobs less than a year after moving to California, and I was in a different place at the time (literally as well as figuratively). My engagement with audiences through video essays, my (ongoing) political awakening after years of disillusioned quasi-apathy, perhaps especially my illuminating immersion into Twin Peaks...all were still on the horizon, along with more immediate work and life experience that would have a strong effect on me. Above all, I don't think I would be as compelled to end a film in so quietly despairing a fashion as I did here, though that melancholy ambivalence does suit this particular story (and as I noted even at the time, the character's outlook was not necessarily my own).

There's some mature equanimity in this development, but also a sense of renewed energy. As Bob Dylan once chuckled, "Oh, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."



Patreon update #2: Mulholland Drive & Twin Peaks (+ Reactionary Boomers, Stranger Things & more)


I recorded this week's podcast almost immediately after the other, hoping to get into a routine where I was always at least a week ahead of time. And it's a good thing I did, because it ended up being kind of a beast. The film in focus came courtesy of a new patron, with the request that I look at Mulholland Drive not just as a film in and of itself, but a Lynch work with strong links to Twin Peaks. The result was a half-hour segment (much longer than these will usually be) which I enjoyed preparing for. In the latter part of the episode, I touch on some series I've been watching, and ask why suddenly the cultural stereotype of baby boomers has been flipped on its head.

Intro
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WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: 5 Weeks of Fire Walk With Me (Fire Walk With Me & season 3)
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FILM IN FOCUS/TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: connections between Mulholland Drive & Twin Peaks
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(pt. 1: Intro/History of Mulholland Drive)
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(pt. 2: Relationship to original Twin Peaks/Fire Walk With Me, Mulholland Drive's mythology if it continued as a show)
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pt. 3: Relationship to Twin Peaks season 3...iconography/actors, structural similarities - sprawling start, loose ends, tightening at the end, story grows colder/darker at end, identity shift in protagonist, Martha Nochimson's interpretation of Lynchian shifts to darkness, Audrey in s3, Carrie Page & Diane Selwyn, differences...female vs. male perspective, stylistic distinction from the Mary Sweeney era, exception of the Becky sequence)
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ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: The Boomer-ang: has the characterization of boomers as uber-reactionaries gone too far? (plus Showtime's Guerrilla series, Stranger Things season 2 - the Duffers' nostalgia for an era they didn't experience, and Hill Street Blues on Bickering Peaks)
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OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Building Commitments and Community" (August - November 2008), this week's highlight (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me)

Patreon update #1: The Last Jedi & more


Every Saturday from now on, I will offer an update of my Patreon activities. The update will cover the weekly podcast episode, Patreon blog posts, and any other news and information. The content will be accessible to anyone who becomes a patron, while these descriptions will keep regular readers abreast of my activity over there, in case they are thinking about joining, or if they are just curious to know what's going on.

This week, for the only time in the foreseeable future, I'm releasing the intro to the podcast as an illustrated clip on YouTube; it also doubles as an explainer for the format and the Patreon in general. You can hear/view it here:



This week I kicked off my new account with the first episode of my new podcast, and a few blog posts (one to go with the podcast, another a welcome, and another a preview). The Film in Focus this week is The Last Jedi; with the surprising number of second-tier patrons who joined up right out of the gate (meaning they can select future films for me to discuss) it looks like this may be the last one I pick myself, and possibly the last time I just focus on one film in an episode.



Here is the line-up for the podcast episode (the timestamps can be found in the blog post):

Intro
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Brief background for Lost in the Movies
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Explaining weekly podcast format
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Welcome to the Patreon
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FILM IN FOCUS: The Last Jedi
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TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: Difference between old & new Twin Peaks, Mark Frost's contributions
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WEEKLY UPDATE (will usually be after intro)/recent posts: Secret History & The Return, video announcement
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WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: Patreon, illustrating the Twin Peaks character series, Breaking Bad season 1, Hill Street Blues season 2, Fire Walk With Me & European "art films", Fellini montage video
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*skipping additional thoughts/listener feedback this week*
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OPENING THE ARCHIVE "Look Ma, I'm Blogging!": becoming a movie fan in 1990 (VHS collection/movie monster books/Home Alone-Kindergarten Cop/Edward Scissorhands), first weeks of blogging (July - August 2008), this week's highlight: The Brave Little Toaster

Lost in the Movies on Patreon


After much deliberation and preparation, today I finally launched my Patreon account - the first real way for readers and viewers to support my online work since it began nearly a decade ago. You can visit the page for more details, but in summary: there are three basic tiers (as well as a couple advanced commission levels), offering early access to video essays, the ability to choose a topic for me to discuss in a new podcast, and sneak peeks of upcoming work, sometimes months in advance. Perhaps most notably, all levels will have access to the exclusive Patreon podcast, in which I update listeners on my work, share thoughts on a "Film in Focus" (first up will be The Last Jedi), reflect a bit on whatever Twin Peaks topic comes to mind, and offer a guided tour through my archives building up to the tenth anniversary of the site this summer. Within a few days, I will provide a teaser of the first podcast on YouTube.

Thanks to everyone who is interested in becoming a patron, but also of course to those who aren't (or can't) but have enjoyed or shared my work in the past and going forward. This is an exciting new step for me, and I hope you all get something out of it as well!


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