Three Comrades

We begin at the end of the Great War, as it was still known at the time - how could there be a "I" if there wasn't yet a "II" - as a German officer speaks to soldiers weary from years of war and relieved to be returning home. His words are not draped in glory, honor, and nationalism but relief and generosity toward the "enemy"; indeed, while Germany would be punished rather severely at the Treaty of Versailles (several months later), in this moment there is no sense of victors and losers, only survivors. When nationalism does emerge as a force to be reckoned with, it's an explicit blight upon the city that most of Three Comrades unfolds within (apparently designed around Berlin in the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, although the metropolis onscreen seems quieter, more like a bustling but provincial town, and therefore all the more ominous). Dr. Becker, leader of a leftist group - quite likely Communist, but as unnamed as the likely National Socialist thugs who wreak intermittent havoc throughout the film - argues for reason even as a torch-wielding parade descends on his beleaguered audience.

JOURNEY THROUGH TWIN PEAKS: The Return (video)

MOST CURRENT UPDATE (7/12): After seven weeks of copyright dispute, including a long period during which the video was blocked, it's back up on YouTube.

For the third anniversary of the season three premiere, May 21, I've long planned to unveil my first video essay dealing directly with the Showtime series. This is to be a survey of "The Return"'s narrative chronologically, dealing more with the overall shape and viewer perceptions than the details of the plot (which would be saved for the thematically or geographically organized chapters of the forthcoming Part 6). The form this video itself takes, however, remains an open question: as I script the narration right now I'm realizing just how long this chapter could be - far too long for a single YouTube upload (even though I originally intended it to be my longest of those). I may have to turn this one "chapter" into an entire "Part," releasing each of the "mini-chapters" separately as, well, actual full-fledged chapters - in this case, only the section covering the two-hour premiere would go up tomorrow - this would also be helpful if I end up getting as bogged down in the editing process as I have in the scripting, since there would be less material to put together before the deadline. Or I'll stick to the original plan by cutting my narration way down, streamlining the presentation into a much more rapid take on the full season. The process has become so complicated that I even forgot to publish this update in time; for once, my ritualistic Wednesday site post is a half-hour late! Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow in some capacity so stay tuned. Meanwhile, if you missed them, you can check out my recent trilogy of chapters on the evolution of the Lynch aesthetic and particularly the "Mary Sweeney years" in which the director's and editor's collaboration coincided with a radical shift in style.

UPDATE (6/12) - While the video was blocked on YouTube, I cross-posted it to Vimeo, which I usually reserve for full parts rather than individual chapters:

UPDATE (5/27) - To make sure subscribers were aware that the video had gone up, I shared this video:

And this announcement video, with excerpts and an explanation, was posted when the chapter was initially withheld on Sunday. If you have any trouble viewing the full video over the next few weeks, you can see clips here:

I also published an earlier excerpt/teaser, with just the Parts 1 & 2 section, on the May 21 deadline when the rest of the chapter was not ready. This was deleted a few days later when I uploaded the full video.

JOURNEY THROUGH TWIN PEAKS: David Lynch's aesthetic evolution & the Mary Sweeney years (videos)

Update 8/8/21: The YouTube version of chapter 32 is now age-restricted and cannot be embedded (you can view it here). Here is the same chapter on Vimeo:

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In these three chapters of the ongoing video series, I explore the Twin Peaks director's visual style as it evolved over the course of a half-century with particular attention to his features. I also introduce David Lynch's decade-long collaboration with editor/writer/producer Mary Sweeney and discuss the disastrous debut of Fire Walk With Me at Cannes in 1992 (for way more where those clips came from, check out Barry Norman's acerbic time capsule of that year's festival).

Chapter 31, "Unstubborn Stylist," chapter 32, "Dream Souls," and chapter 33, "On the Other Side" were supposed to be combined but as I wrote and recorded narration, gathered material, and finally edited the footage - allowing plenty of breathing room for Sweeney's rhythms in the second video - I realized there was just too much there. The first chapter covers Cannes '92, an overview of Sweeney's work, a comparison between the stylistic arc of Lynch's six Peaks episodes and his ten features, and an exploration of his early films' aesthetic. The second chapter covers Sweeney's and Lynch's work in three films from 1997 to 2001. Originally I thought that split would be enough, but I needed a third chapter to cover Lynch's drift into his own digital online experiments, the re-evaluation of Fire Walk With Me, and Sweeney's film Baraboo.

Chapter 36, my full chronological overview of season three, remains scheduled for May 21 - just over a week away. Starting tomorrow, all available time will be used to create this chapter. Therefore chapters 34 and 35 - covering Mark Frost and other original series collaborators - will probably have to premiere out of order in late May or early June (this is also how I made sure "7 Facts About Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" went up by New Year's Eve 2014). Meanwhile, you can read about my last couple new chapters, "The Dance Resumes" (about Lynch and Frost on the cusp of creating season 3) and "25 Years Later..." (about the in-between years), visit the full Journey playlist, and keep up with each step of my work in "The path through Journey Through Twin Peaks".

Update 5/14: When published on the morning of May 13, this post originally described just two chapters, one already published and the other forthcoming, and was revised late the following night when I realized there would be three videos on this subject.

Update 6/20: I compiled the three chapters into a single standalone Vimeo video:

JOURNEY THROUGH TWIN PEAKS: "25 Years Later..." on the in-between era (video)

It took longer than expected (doesn't it always?) but I've finally finished my follow-up chapter after resuming Journey Through Twin Peaks nearly a month ago. This entry continues to examine the "in-between years" of the series, this time casting a wider net all the way from the release of Fire Walk With Me to the premiere of season three. Among the fish caught in this net: the Twin Peaks festival and magazine Wrapped in Plastic that arose simultaneously in the early nineties, the decades of television - ranging from network quirk to cable prestige - inspired by Peaks, and the (mostly) behind-the-scenes preparations of Lynch and Frost for season three. Next week I'll have another update ready, hopefully with several videos but at least one (focusing on David Lynch's work) if all else fails. You can keep track of my progress on the "path through Journey Through Twin Peaks" page. See you in the Lynchverse...

Update 5/30: At the time I forgot to mention a recent announcement about another video on my channel. I'll place it here now so it has a cross-post on this site...