A new year brings new seasons for two podcasts: Lost in the Movies (which groups monthly episodes into six-month periods) and Twin Peaks Cinema (which groups them by three-month-long themed miniseries). And the first episode of each links back to the last season: in Lost in the Movies' case, I published Sofia Coppola's 2006 Marie Antoinette a couple weeks ago, echoing the 1938 version of Marie Antoinette which ended my Classic Hollywood theme in December. In Twin Peaks Cinema's case, I'm launching "The Lynchverse" season with perhaps his most acclaimed film, Mulholland Drive - however, this clearly links back to my October-December season too with its theme of "Disordered Stories". Like Rashomon, The Vanishing, and Back to the Future Part II, Mulholland Drive infamously turns what could be a straightforward narrative - a woman survives a car accident with no memory of who she is, while another woman (arriving in Hollywood to become a star) endeavors to crack this mystery - and turns it inside out. Often cited as the greatest film of the twenty-first century, initially it earned a reputation as the crown jewel of the turn-of-the-millennium "puzzle films" although Lynch was going for something more ethereal than some of the other filmmakers grouped in that category. Mulholland's process also differed notably from movies conceived to lead to a certain point: this was supposed to be an open-ended pilot and only after being rejected by ABC and commissioned as a feature by a French production company did Lynch create the "key" to open this mystery box. Twin Peaks may have inspired much of Mulholland Drive (whose series conception was initially a direct spin-off); regardless of how conscious Lynch was of the many connections between the works, they create a resonant echo chamber. In this episode, I combine a longer-than-usual discussion of the Mulholland/Peaks crossover with several pieces of feedback (and my own responses to them), expanding this topic - including aspects like the troubled history of Rita Hayworth, who explicitly inspires the name of one of these characters.
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LINKS FOR EPISODE 21
(featuring myself, Mya McBriar & John Thorne)
"Creative Differences" by Tad Friend
(New Yorker article documenting the making of Mulholland Drive as a TV pilot, before it was turned into a film)
"Haunted by Seriality: The Formal Uncanny of Mulholland Drive" by Jason Mittell
(analysis rooting Mulholland Drive's effect in its abandonment of its open-ended set-up)
(we discuss her view of Mulholland Drive)
(my video essay created after this recording)
But Who Is The Dreamer? Twin Peaks: The Return by Tim Kreider (Politics/Letters)
My full response to Twin Peaks parts of Noelle's feedback are in the Patreon episode
(my video essay exploring abuse in Lynch's early work)
(contains long excerpt of Jeff Simon's Buffalo News review)
by Andrea Chambers & Lee Powell (People Magazine)
MY OTHER WORK ON MULHOLLAND DRIVE
inclusion in a complete survey of Lynch's filmography up to 2014...
w/ individual review & inclusion in a broader essay
inclusion in video essay comparing Lynch to Maya Deren
(including some Mulholland Drive mentions not listed above)
Recently on Lost in the Movies podcast - Marie Antoinette (2006)
Recently on Lost in the Movies patron podcast ($1/month) - Holiday Special / Continuing the 60s... The Apartment (+ capsules on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, 00s archive reading of A Christmas Tale, Andrew Cook's further reflections on 300 & 00s cinema + my plans for the 3 big Twin Peaks projects, feedback/media/work updates & more)
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