For over a year, I've been publishing "Twin Peaks Cinema" podcasts on my Patreon, and now it's time to begin sharing them publicly. I decided to start with capsules on four features by Twin Peaks season one directors Duwayne Dunham, Tina Rathborne, Lesli Linka Glatter, and Caleb Deschanel. Their work is discussed both on its own terms and in light of not just Twin Peaks more broadly but their own specific episodes of the series. Often, oddly enough, the greatest links are found not in their visual style (although there's some of that) but in the screenplays they didn't even write! As Cooper once said, "when two events occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must always pay strict attention."
This is an opportune moment for this episode since my long-planned Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter covering this particular topic should finally see the light of day in the next week or two - plus one of the films' holiday spirit is relevant as the weather changes, the leaves fall, and the last day of October approaches (though of course this isn't going to be much of a year for trick-or-treating). Although the films were grouped chronologically - based on the directors' first visits to Twin Peaks - they all share a common theme, centering children as their protagonists. For whatever reason, the world as seen by adolescents and preteens, in all its excitement, melancholy, and confusion, provided a great gateway into that small town in the woods.
Stay tuned and bookmark this post for more news and eventually, the next Journey Through Twin Peaks video chapter.
Consider this post both an announcement and a placeholder for the next, long-delayed "missing chapter" of my Twin Peaks video series - about the collaborators on the original series, it's provisionally titled "A Candle in Every Window" (playing on my memory of a quote from the Mark Frost introduction to the re-published Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, the I can't find the actual passage at present). I will update this post with my progress as I go (which I will also be keeping track of on Twitter) and I will cross-post the video here when I'm done.
Though I'm hesitant to proclaim deadlines given how often they get postponed, in this case I can make a commitment as well. All of my available "online project" free time will be devoted to this video from now on - I won't even tackle my monthly patron commitments until the video is uploaded on YouTube (another incentive to get it done by the last week of September if not sooner). [revision 9/18: unfortunately, I quickly discovered that I need to finish a Mark Frost book, thanks to a hard library due date, and complete one more public podcast which I overlooked, but after THAT, no distractions!] Updates begin, hopefully, as soon as tonight...
UPDATES ON THE PROGRESS OF CHAPTER 34:
* * *
September 18: re-wrote the narration after losing the file I recorded in July (this version is shorter, although still too long, and will require less cutting as I tighten the chapter during editing)
September 21: re-recorded the narration, catching up to where I was mid-summer
September 23: although not directly related to this video, I published a tie-in public podcast on films by Twin Peaks episode directors (listen to it here) - this was also the last obstacle in my path to focusing entirely on chapter 34 during my "online work" time
September 26: finally began editing the video - I will now use this post to track, day-by-day, how far this process has progressed so stay tuned and keep checking in
September 27: narration is cut down (some material may be saved for an eventual standalone video) and I've begun choosing clips for the introduction
September 28: continued choosing clips for the introduction - a montage of house/lights footage from different films by episode directors
September 29: finished intro montage and began designing "editors" mosaic sequence (displaying a clip from every original series episode on the same screen)
September 30: continued designing "editors" mosaic sequence (chose clips for each episode and began creating titles/freeze-frames etc
October 1: completed the "editors" mosaic sequence; here is a screenshot:
October 2: created opening of "directors" sequence with clips of directors' credits and juxtapositions with their Mad Men episodes
October 3: continued "directors" sequence with Mad Men episodes and some of their feature films
October 4: finished "directors" sequence including side-by-side montage of episodes and feature films (this was by far my longest day)
October 5: created quick "production designer/cinematographers/composer" sequence and began "writers" sequence - now all that remains is the Harley Peyton/Robert Engels part, which is about half the chapter but much less visually complex than other sequences, and I'll have all day today to work on it
October 6: created the majority of the Harley Peyton/Robert Engels writers sequence (although I spent too much time trying to figure out what clips had been used in past chapters through a more in-the-weeds approach than necessary) and I stopped working at the point where I would cross-reference other Engels work; also, worth noting there will be one coda after Engels is finished, addressing Frost in a way that transitions into the following chapter
Is 2014 only or already six years ago? Boyhood chronicles a coming-of-age unfolding over a decade, leading up to the tail end of the Obama era (when the last of the millennials entered college). Given everything that's happened since then, the film's hopeful ending feels like a time capsule. When I recorded this review in 2019 I decided to combine my earlier essay, written when Boyhood was brand new, with further reflections as the movie's present receded into the past. This episode also continues my Ethan Hawke podcast series; although he's a supporting player in the movie, this role rhymes with his work in the Before trilogy (likewise directed by Richard Linklater), which also chronicles a character's journey in real time.
I originally planned to cover the surreal Robert Altman film 3 Women on my patron podcast this month, but at the last minute I was reminded that August 2020 is the seventieth anniversary of Sunset Boulevard's premiere. So I switched gears and drove into the heart of the midcentury American film industry. The Billy Wilder classic has some surface (and deeper) ties to Twin Peaks as well as other David Lynch films and I enjoyed digging into it for the first time in twelve years. My 2008 review of the film as part of a Hollywood-on-Hollywood series, one of my favorite essays, is also incorporated into the Opening the Archive reading series. I also cover several characters, locations and storylines on both sides of the law, and spend a lot of time laying out my plans for the fall, winter, and spring with an emphasis on how I hope to get back into the rhythm of Journey Through Twin Peaks after a summer of delays. And my Lost in Twin Peaks rewatch dives into the thick of mid-season two, dissecting where the show went right and wrong...
