Lost in the Movies: August 2018

Patreon update #35: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 16 / film in focus: Medium Cool (+ Sarah Palmer's inner smile, late cinematic popularity, podcast recommendations & more) and preview of Fire Walk With Me & season 2 episodes


Exactly fifty years ago, on August 26 - 29, the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention (and accompanying street protests/riots) unfolded in Chicago. Haskell Wexler was there to capture it on camera for his film Medium Cool, a disorienting mixture of documentary footage and a fictional narrative unfolding in and around this momentous event. Starring Twin Peaks' own Robert Forster as a young cameraman too absorbed in his craft to take account of its political implications, the film is a fascinating document to pick apart and reflect upon. I've known for months that I wanted to make this my film in focus for the big anniversary, and it was compelling to revisit the film at this particular political moment as well (the last time I saw it was around the end of the Bush era, when the left was far more inert than it is now).

This episode also covers one of the most important episode of The Return; Cooper awakens, Diane breaks down, Audrey dances, and Richard goes up in smoke in Part 16. I have a lot to say about all of this, especially the fascinating, pointed juxtapositions of Cooper's story with Diane's (and Audrey's). Twin Peaks discussion continues in listener feedback as I correct something from a previous podcast: the smile we see inside Sarah Palmer's face is not Laura Palmer. But who is it? We have a pretty good idea...

Elsewhere I recommend dozens of podcasts, ask what it takes for forgotten films to become beloved classics, and - for my second tier biweekly preview - draw connections between Fire Walk With Me and several Twin Peaks episodes from the second season.





Line-up for Episode 35

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon - 2nd tier biweekly preview: comparing Fire Walk With Me to individual season 2 episodes

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress - republishing Twin Peaks episode comments from dugpa & Reddit, archive, reviewed Black Panther & Get Out

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 16
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Richard's parents/Hit and run/Jerry/Ben & Beverly/Roadhouse/Audrey's world
FBI in South Dakota (including an aside on the Diane/Cooper juxtaposition)
Mr. C
Las Vegas - Cooper is back/Dougie at work/Dougie at home/The search for Dougie/Assassination/Mitchums
Spirit World - Red Room
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

FILM IN FOCUS: Medium Cool

OTHER TOPICS: Podcast recommendations

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Pt. 14 feedback including the green glove, Diane & Janey-E as sisters, and whose smile is inside of Sarah?

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: Popular, eventually...

OUTRO

Patreon update #34: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 15 (+ Let Me In, Spielberg biography, the era of the mix CD & more)


The Return rewatch is approaching its conclusion with Part 15, in which Mr. C enters the strange convenience store/motel space to ask the Jeffries kettle about Judy; Dougie-Cooper watches Sunset Boulevard and decides to electrocute himself; Jacoby, Nadine, and Otis Redding finally bring Norma and Ed together after a half-century of quiet frustration; and we all bid a poignant farewell to the Log Lady. Elsewhere, this podcast episode features some spillover from last week's epic entry (my longest yet); I recorded the "other topics" section as part of a longer section for Episode 33, but it was too long so I moved it here (there's still more to come next week). This includes some musings on the short window of the "mix CD" phenomenon in the late nineties and early zeroes (as well as my own first comical attempt to make a mix), brief reflections on a TV episode I watched (Colony) and a book I've been reading (Steven Spielberg: A Life in Film by Molly Haskell), and my ambivalent reaction to some recent elections and the media response. "Opening the Archive," meanwhile, concludes the vampire-film essay I began reading last week. There's no listener feedback or film in focus this week, and I also had virtually no updates, so this is a much shorter podcast than last time. Incidentally, however, I do plan on posting quite a bit on this site in the next few days, as I revive some Twin Peaks content that I published on other sites a few years ago...so stay tuned for that.




Line-up for Episode 34

INTRO (including brief mention of the archive pages as works in progress)

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 15
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Jacoby + Ed & Norma + RR Franchise/Richard's parents/Steven & Gersten + Becky/James + Freddie + Roadhouse/Audrey's world/standalone scenes
Mr. C
Las Vegas - Dougie at home/The search for Dougie/Assassination
Spirit World - Convenience store & motel
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Coffee, pie, and donuts
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

OTHER TOPICS: Colony, the era of mix CD, Molly Haskell's biography of Steven Spielberg, left-wing candidates - centrist analysis & available electorate

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: Let the Right One In (2 of 2) - Let Me In, the U.S. remake

OUTRO

Patreon update #33: DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES • Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 14 / film in focus: Sorry to Bother You (+ Let the Right One In, abuse in Mulholland Drive, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Incredibles 2 & more) and preview of Walter/Pianist/Bleeding Drunk character studies


"We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside of the dream. But...who is the dreamer?" "I had a dream about this place..." "Somebody spoke and I went into a dream..." "Don't...fall...asleep..." "Hey baby wake up, come and dance with me!"

This is my longest episode yet, even longer than the last time I featured a film in focus (Holy Smoke! in June) despite that previous episode including special guests (Em and Steve of No Ship Network) and the most acclaimed part of the new Twin Peaks (Part 8). In some ways, however, Part 14 is even denser than Part 8, including not only a motherlode of mythology (Gordon's dream, the trip to Jack Rabbit's Palace and Andy's vision, Freddie's origin story, Sarah's face trick) but important ongoing plot points as well. Certain subjects - the inclusion of the Upanishads, Sarah's place in the narrative, the nature of Judy, even an aside on the Throbbing Gristle album Giftgas - required extended treatment. Additionally, I had a lengthy piece of listener feedback onhand, one that I'd been holding off until Monica Bellucci's appearance (the listener uses "Who is the dreamer?" as the springboard to discuss that recent "Is Cooper the guilty dreamer?" essay and theories about Mulholland Drive as an allegory for childhood trauma). This feedback inspired my own long reply, which detours into Rita Hayworth's traumatic history as well as something I once witnessed at a hypnotist's show. And finally, my film in focus takes up a good chunk of the episode; Sorry to Bother You, the acclaimed new surrealist/sci-fi/satirical comedy from Boots Riley, is the rare new release I felt compelled to seek out and discuss. Its explicitly political - explicitly Marxist - message resonates with the current moment and I wanted to relay my own roller coaster experience on this first viewing (I loved the early scenes, felt a bit lost during the middle section, and was back on board by the ending).

In fact, I recorded so much material that the podcast originally ran well over three and a half hours and had to be cut down. This includes splitting up the originally mammoth "Other Topics" section - this week, I'm sharing a number of other podcasts about Sorry to Bother You (including some excellent interviews with Riley) as well as some thoughts on Incredibles 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and a childhood alarm clock. However, a dozen other podcast recommendations, along with discussions of the brief mix CD era and a Spielberg bio I'm reading, will have to wait for later episodes. Episode 33 concludes with a new "Opening the Archive" subject (also to be continued next week), focused on the vampire film Let the Right One In as well as the book it's based on. Finally, for my biweekly preview I shared three quick character sketches: Walter, the manager of Norma's Double R franchise; the mysterious Pianist who accompanies Cooper's dinner at the Vegas restaurant; and the Bleeding Drunk, whose annoying presence inspired one of my stronger little studies.

Oh, and there are loads of links in the show notes.


WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: added "5 from Fandor" video to Back to the Future post from 2015

WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon: 2nd tier biweekly preview - Walter/Pianist/Bleeding Drunk character studies

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: archive, 4 Ways to Watch Fire Walk With Me (discussion of Nightmare on Elm Street 4 - subject returns in "Other Topics")

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 14
The feel & structure of the episode
Trinity test site in New Mexico desert
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Frank's family/Chad in jail/Hit and run/Drugs/Freddie/James/Ben & Beverly/Sarah/Roadhouse
FBI in South Dakota
Mr. C
Las Vegas - Dougie at home/The search for Dougie
Spirit World - Red Room/Purple World Tower/Convenience Store/Zone Spiral
The Other Side - Odessa
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Coffee, pie, and donuts
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

FILM IN FOCUS: Sorry to Bother You

OTHER TOPICS: Sorry to Bother You podcasts, Incredibles 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 as a very 80s movie, rock n roll chicken alarm clock

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Twin Peaks pianist, different types of UK football, old Epcot rides, Cooper as the guilty dreamer in The Return & sexual abuse as the secret of Mulholland Drive - followed by my reply about the Mulholland Drive theories & Rita Hayworth's traumatic history

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: Let the Right One In (1 of 2) - the book & Swedish film

Patreon update #32: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 13 (+ This Sporting Life, living in 3 centuries, the decline of Hollywood, Richard and Audrey Horne & more)


Cooper is back with a vengeance; the first half of Part 13 is almost entirely dominated by both of his incarnations. Among other topics, this podcast episode digs into the nature of Mr. C and his juxtaposition not with the "whole" Cooper but with the equally partial "Dougie." Listener feedback encourages further discussion on the decline of Hollywood as the physical (and spiritual) center of the film industry as well as the Horne family's purpose in the Twin Peaks' third season. My Opening the Archive reading of the British New Wave essay ends with a review of This Sporting Life. (I actually forgot to mention what the next archive highlight will be, despite teasing it at the end of this episode - it's my essay on Let the Right One In as a novel, Swedish film, and American remake.) And just for fun, I'm re-visiting a Twitter thread, and some replies, from a while back in which I explored how close certain events are to past eras compared to today, a nineteenth-century president whose grandchildren are still alive, and a woman whose life spanned three centuries (meaning that she lived at the same time as people who were alive in the 1600s and also people still alive today).




Line-up for Episode 32

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: archive, Twin Peaks character runners-up

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 13
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Richard's father/Becky/Ed & Norma/RR Franchise/Jacoby/Sarah/James/Roadhouse/Audrey's world
Mr. C
Las Vegas - Dougie at work/Dougie at home/Assassination/Mitchums
Spirit World - Red Room
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Coffee, pie, and donuts
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer


OTHER TOPICS: The Passage of Time & Lifespans - how close events are to the present and earlier events, living in 3 centuries, generations close together & far apart

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Pt. 10 feedback including Audrey Horne's original storyline, Pt. 12 feedback, Richard Horne's importance

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: British New Wave (3 of 3): This Sporting Life

OUTRO, including the possibility of making some older segments public on YT

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