TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS #17 w/ Twin Peaks: Evangelion hosts Craig & Vinny (YouTube & extended PATREON) premieres on Wednesday

The idea of a Twin Peaks fan watching Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time while an Evangelion fan watches Peaks for the first time is already intriguing enough - but Craig and Vinny of the Twin Peaks: Evangelion podcast have taken the concept much further. Craig, an anime skeptic, begins his journey not with the original Evangelion series but with the Rebuild films, while Vinny, a David Lynch novice, jumps right into The Return without ever having viewed seasons one and two of Peaks. Their takeaways are absolutely fascinating, including perspectives on characters they meet long after most viewers were introduced, speculation about parts of the show they missed, and - when they eventually get back to the earlier material - surprised reactions to what built the material before they came in. Both hosts are joining me on my own podcast this month, now that their own project is concluded (along with viewings of some additional anime/Lynch pairings and other fun exercises like casting Twin Peaks characters/actors in Evangelion). We discuss how they initially approached each series, how their expectations were met or defied, and whether or not this has reshaped their perception of broader genres or mediums. We avoid Evangelion spoilers for much of the first half, until I give fair warning. (UPDATE: This cross-post was intended for 8am Sunday morning but went up at 4pm due to a publication mishap; apologies for the confusion.)

You can bookmark and refresh this page within the next few days (or keep an eye on my YouTube channel) for the upcoming premiere...

PART 1 on YouTube

(premieres at 8 pm Wednesday, December 21)

For my $5/month patron tier, we dig deeper into connections between the two shows, discuss why the hosts placed the respective feature films in different parts of their parallel watch-throughs, and explore the impact of the show's finales (meaning both the last parts they watched as newies, and the more conventional endpoints they reached as veterans with recently released material).

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

(also premieres at 8 pm Wednesday, December 21)

Listen to Twin Peaks: Evangelion

(& follow them on Twitter: @TPEvangelion & Instagram: @tpcolonepodcast)

My video essay Neon Genesis Evangelion & Twin Peaks (Side by Side)

All of my own work on Neon Genesis Evangelion & Twin Peaks

including a brand new review of Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 as of Wednesday, December 21

Patreon update #40 (The End of Evangelion, Carrie Page as the dreamer, American Made, The Children Act, Wire's 154 & more) and preview of Zama review

What would you be interested in hearing from "Twin Peaks Reflections" in the future? With the Return rewatch over, I consider some different options and also ask for your input. Additionally, I survey all of the Twin Peaks subjects I've covered so far. Elsewhere on the podcast, I finish reading my 2015 End of Evangelion review, read some follow-up feedback from the listener who discussed Cooper as the dreamer (now she's focusing on Carrie Page as Laura's dream), and run down the films, books, and music I've experienced in the past several months. For the biweekly preview, I share a full review for the first time, of the Argentine film Zama.

Zama, 2016, dir. Lucrecia Martel (October "See the Future" Preview #1 - 2nd tier reward)

Episode 39 (The End of Evangelion, Carrie Page as Laura's dream, American Made, The Children Act, Wire's 154 & more)

Line-up for Episode 39

INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: updated Twin Peaks directory, from now on focusing on my backlog

WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon: 2nd tier biweekly preview - Zama, discussing biweekly preview backlog

WEEKLY UPDATE/work in progress: Ethan Hawke films for Patreon, The Unseen: La La Land, Devil's Bride review, Fire Walk With Me early draft, read Lindsay Hallam's Fire Walk With Me book, Mad Men season 2 premiere viewing diary

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: Where should I go with this section?

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Twin Peaks/Neon Genesis Evangelion, Double R counter patrons - is that shift/cut a continuity error & does it matter, Carrie Page as Laura's dreamer, remembering what Ethan Hawke was in

OTHER TOPICS: American Made, The Children Act, other films I've watched for online work, Dead Poets Society special features, still playing DVDs & CDs, Alan Splet, Roku menu, Spielberg bio, Lynch's Room to Dream bio, Blue Rose Magazine including Women of Lynch episode, Fire Walk With Me book, Classics Illustrated (90s editions), Time Machine books, Common Ground photo book, 154 (Wire album), Live at the Witch Trials (The Fall album), Sister Ray

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: The End of Evangelion (2 of 2)

OUTRO

BECOME A PATRON

Sci Fi Countdown - The End of Evangelion (CinemaVille discussion w/ Bob Clark for Wonders in the Dark)

This morning, I posted my only official entry in the Wonders in the Dark Sci-Fi countdown: an audio discussion with Bob Clark on the film The End of Evangelion, which ranked near the very top of my own ballot.

“The End of Evangelion” is an unusual spin-off of a TV series (only “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” might be more unusual). It both concludes and subverts the series, veering way into experimental territory while still wrapping up the narrative which the show “Neon Genesis Evangelion” began. I’ve covered the film in almost every form imaginable – reviews, written conversations, visual tributes, and video essays – so I decided to take a new appraoch this time. With Bob Clark’s permission, I stepped in as a guest host on the CinemaVille podcast and together we analyze the film, exploring its connections not just to the series but to the Czech play R.U.R., and Dante’s Divine Comedy. There’s a lot to dig into here, some grab some popcorn and get ready to start tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down…

Visit my entry for The End of Evangelion on Wonders in the Dark

Last week, I appeared on Bob's podcast Cinemaville to discuss the series Neon Genesis Evangelion (from which the film is spun off); this time, I took over as guest host to introduce, conduct, and edit the conversation myself. Thanks to Bob for allowing me to step into his shoes for an episode, and I hope listeners enjoy the experience.

Here is the podcast itself:



I've also participated in many other Wonders in the Dark genre countdowns over the years. Here are the previous films I've covered: Marty (both versions) and a video essay on Lady and the Tramp for the Romance Countdown; Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid for the Western Countdown (make sure to check out the comments, where the scholar who edited the 2005 version responded to my review and the controversy surrounding his cut); a video essay on Modern Times for the Comedy Countdown; An American in Paris, 42nd Street (including a video essay), and a visual tribute (using Arlene Croce's prose) to The Gay Divorcee for the Musical Countdown.

Obviously, this is not my first rodeo with The End of Evangelion (nor is it Wonders in the Dark's - Allan Fish wrote about it back in 2011). I've created a "3 1/2 Minute Review" video essay; a video essay comparison of Twin Peaks and Neon Genesis Evangelion (including the film); a lengthy prose essay; a two-part printed conversation with Bob Clark about the film's story and style and its characters; an entry in my Favorites capsule series; and screen-cap visual tributes to a battle sequence and the climactic apocalypse. I even devoted an entire week of blog posts to the subject last year.

Absolute Terror: images from the battle in The End of Evangelion

A visual tribute to Asuka's fight with the Mass Produced Evas in The End of Evangelion

This entry concludes The End of Evangelion Week on Lost in the Movies

The Favorites - The End of Evangelion (#82)

The Favorites is a series briefly exploring films I love, to find out what makes them - and me - tick. The End of Evangelion (1997/Japan/dir. Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki) appeared at #82 on my original list.

What it is • Welcome to the end of the world. This animated masterpiece begins in a flooded wasteland, introducing us to an array of characters who are completely isolated from one another, buried in their own grief, guilt, depression, and loneliness. We are fifteen years after a cataclysmic event that wiped out most of the earth's population, and mere days after the last of many battles with monstrous creatures (called Angels, ironically) who laid waste to this particular city and destroyed the psyches of the teenage warriors forced to fight them. (The battles with the Angels are depicted in the television show Neon Genesis Evangelion, to which this film is a follow-up.) So the scenario is already post-apocalyptic...but we ain't seen nothing yet. At least half the film is consumed by "The Human Instrumentality Project," in which the physical bodies of humanity are dissolved and their souls are fused together in a vast sea of consciousness, dissolving pain and suffering alongside individuality and agency. Shinji, the 14-year-old mecha pilot who is placed at the center of Instrumentality, must decide if he wants relief from his loneliness by dissolving his identity, or if he should seek love and acceptance the hard way, as a separate but active person. The film depicts this process through a gorgeous swirl of rich animation (mixing sci-fi action, spiritual symbolism, and psychological allegory), live-action footage, children's drawings, and other raw material.

Why I like it •

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End of Evangelion, Part 3 of 3: discussion w/ Bob Clark on the film's characters

This series is an episode guide to the Japanese anime television show Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995 - 96) and the spin-off films. Each entry includes my own reflection on the episode, followed by a conversation with fellow bloggers Bob Clark and Murderous Ink.

Foreward: Ending the Evangelion conversations

Three years ago this week, on November 2, 2012, I published my first conversation with Bob Clark on the subject of Neon Genesis Evangelion, episode 1. He was the one who introduced me to the show a year earlier and when I decided to do an episode guide (my first since Twin Peaks in 2008) I realized that it would be good to have him on board. He was much more familiar with the series than I was, and perhaps even more importantly he had a grounding in both the conventions of the anime genre and the techniques of animation in general.

We conducted seven chats to accompany the first seven episodes and then took what I expected to be a short break over the holidays while I worked on a short film and devoted my blog to promoting it. Starting ongoing series without having the end already in sight is a big risk, and sure enough nearly a year and a half passed before Bob and I got back into the flow of things by discussing episode 8 (this time, we also brought the Japanese film blogger Murderous Ink in to offer additional comments - his last contribution was shared yesterday).

That was the spring of 2014, when I was just beginning to fall under the spell of Twin Peaks again (a bigger obsession than anything I've experienced in the past decade) and so after we reached episode 16, the Evangelion project paused once again. This time I had been wise enough to hold off on publishing our discussions, knowing that I didn't want to do so until we had covered everything through the finale and follow-up film at which point I could leisurely schedule the entries on a weekly basis without any further hiatuses.

The opportunity finally arrived this spring, a year after our last pause. This time I was able to give Evangelion the attention it deserved, exploring the fandom and the mythology in a way I never had before (even though I'd watched the series several times up to that point). Bob's and my conversations grew even longer and more intense as we reached the final stretch of the series climaxing with a chat on The End of Evangelion that spanned several hours over two different nights.

The first part of that discussion - dwelling on the themes, motifs, techniques, and mythology of the show - went up yesterday. Today's conclusion focuses on the characters - specifically very brief discussions of Ritsuko and Gendo, longer discussions of Misato, Kaworu, and Rei and a very long, in-depth discussion of Asuka, before concluding with our reflections on the enigmatic Yui. Shinji, of course, figures into most of these different character sections as well.

And with that, my conversations on Neon Genesis Evangelion with Bob Clark - which have formed the core of this episode guide since its inception - will come to an end. In the future, due to logistics and my desire to quickly build up a bigger backlog, I don't plan on doing episodic discussions for my TV viewing diaries...but I am hoping to have series-spanning conversations whenever I finish a show, both with Bob and with other contributors as I go. Next up is The Prisoner, and now that the end of this Evangelion series is in sight maybe I will finally start watching it so that I'm ready to start posting the entries in a month!

Meanwhile, the Evangelion series will continue for another four weeks, as I will offer solo reviews of each Rebuild film before wrapping up with a full directory for the entire series, gathering all the entries in one convenient location. But first, here is my most extensive conversation yet with Bob, a final look at the personalities and themes that made The End of Evangelion, and the show that inspired it, so great.

Final conversation with Bob Clark (part 2)

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End of Evangelion, Part 2 of 3: discussion w/ Bob Clark on the film's style & story (+ final comment from Murderous Ink)

This series is an episode guide to the Japanese anime television show Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995 - 96) and the spin-off films. Each entry includes my own reflection on the episode, followed by a conversation with fellow bloggers Bob Clark and Murderous Ink.

Yesterday I posted my weekly Neon Genesis Evangelion review, on the film The End of Evangelion. My conversation with Bob Clark was so lengthy this week that for the first time I separated it from the review (which was also longer than usual) and split it in two. Today we discuss the film's animation, visual motifs, music, mythology, and the whole mind-boggling concept of Human Instrumentality. Tomorrow the discussion will conclude as we focus on the various characters of Evangelion. Both chats will focus on the film but also occasionally dip back into the series to reference open or unresolved points.

But first, here is Murderous Ink's final contribution to the Neon Genesis Evangelion series:

Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End of Evangelion, Part 1 of 3: My Review (discussion w/ Bob Clark begins tomorrow)

This series is an episode guide to the Japanese anime television show Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995 - 96) and the spin-off films. Each entry includes my own reflection on the episode, followed by a conversation with fellow bloggers Bob Clark and Murderous Ink.

From its first few minutes, Neon Genesis Evangelion has alternated between meditative stillness and frenetic activity. Appropriately then, it's hard to tell if The End of Evangelion - the feature film produced a year after the series ended - takes its sweet time or moves so fast that it leaves us in the dust. Hideaki Anno certainly enjoys making us wait, even if he isn't always to blame: the nature of this vast co-production forces us to sit through a full minute and a half of logos before the film actually begins (aside from this litany of production companies, there are no opening credits). The DVD edition makes us wait even longer by attaching the film's trailer to the beginning of the movie - a trailer which perversely features only live action; the women onscreen are the voice actors appearing as their characters in a mundane alternate universe mostly cut from the movie. Shinji is the first character we see in the actual movie, but the broken boy's eyes are hidden by his bangs in the first shot, and they will mostly remain hidden for about thirty minutes. Likewise, Shinji will barely speak in the first half of the film even though his banshee-like scream closes it with a bang. And yet while Shinji sleepwalks, the world around him collapses.

The 3 1/2 Minute Review: The End of Evangelion (video)

This video is an entry in End of Evangelion Week on this blog: every day a new post on the film will go up.

Here is my follow up to the last "3 1/2 Minute Review" video, which covered the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion - a brief essay devoted to the remarkable follow-up feature film, The End of Evangelion. The first half of the video is spoiler-free; halfway through there is a prominent spoiler warning so that those who haven't seen the film yet can tune out.

Apologies for the poor audio quality of the narration, due to technical difficulties on my end. (update 11/18: I was able to fix the audio on the Vimeo version but not the YouTube)

The End of Evangelion week on Lost in the Movies

Since June (technically, since 2012 although there was a break of several years) I have been surveying the entire series of Neon Genesis Evangelion with an episode guide consisting of weekly reviews and discussions with Bob Clark, the Evangelion fan who introduced me to the show. This week we are scheduled to reach the cinematic climax of that saga, The End of Evangelion - a dazzling fusion of avant-garde experimentation and action anime, and one of my favorite films of all time. Not coincidentally, another ongoing series - my Friday "Favorites" countdown list - is also scheduled to cover The End of Evangelion (which landed at #82 on the top 100 list this is based on). To complete the triumvirate, I decided to create a short video on the film for my biweekly YouTube/Vimeo upload - it should be popping up by today and tomorrow. So the plan was to have three posts on The End of Evangelion this week.

That plan expanded as I realized that my discussion with Bob was so sprawling and in-depth that it made more sense to divide it into three separate entries - which will go up Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - and for the cherry on top I am going to make a screen-cap visual tribute to the film's first half on Saturday (I already screen-capped the second half back when I first watched the movie)

So get ready for seven days of End of Evangelion coverage, starting today with this intro! Here is a schedule for the upcoming entries:

MONDAY - video essay: "The 3 1/2 minute review of The End of Evangelion"

TUESDAY - Neon Genesis Evangelion series - The End of Evangelion: my review in the context of the series, final comments from Murderous Ink & pt. 1 of discussion with Bob Clark

WEDNESDAY - Neon Genesis Evangelion series - The End of Evangelion: pt. 2 of discussion with Bob Clark

THURSDAY - Neon Genesis Evangelion series - The End of Evangelion: pt. 3 of discussion with Bob Clark

FRIDAY - Favorites entry on The End of Evangelion (capsule review discussing it as a standalone film)

SATURDAY - visual tribute to The End of Evangelion

And please share your own reflections and reactions to the discussion as the week goes along, and afterwards as well!

Side by Side - Neon Genesis Evangelion & Twin Peaks (premiering later today)

Every month, I will be offering at least one post on Twin Peaks...up until Showtime re-airs the original series. Then I will post extensive coverage of each episode (mixing new reactions with my many older pieces) immediately after they air. Stay tuned.

Thursday update: Here it is, finally! Vimeo embed and Monday's message are after the jump, and I may also eventually be publishing a longer, separate blog post with images from the video, further thoughts, and relevant links.

Living in the Nineties 1995 - 1999 • "32 Days of Movies" Day 29

Twenty-ninth chapter in "32 Days of Movies", an audiovisual tour through 366 films

(2015 update: included Vimeo embed after the jump)


View "Chapter 29: Living in the Nineties"

Living in the Nineties

When I was in jr. high, I used to see infomercials for a CD compilation called "Living in the 90s." It struck me as absurd at the time - nostalgia for a decade that was still unfolding - but it also made me think. How would people remember the nineties? From the standpoint of 1997 or so, the decade seemed hard to classify. The eighties were gaudy, flashy, and plastic, the seventies shaggy and mauve, the sixties bright and psychedelic. Of course it was easy to think this way when I'd more or less missed out on these eras and could only soak up the pop culture's later depictions of them. Yet I had to wonder: would later decades be able to classify and identify the nineties in such a way?

I'm still not so sure we can - partly because the pop culture had become too self-aware and fast-paced to fall into a "natural" groove, partly because there were few larger-than-life events (with the Cold War over, economic prosperity fostering complacency and inward absorption) to unify cultural experience. Yet if the nineties can be characterized, I think these clips capture some of its spirit.

(continued below, along with NSFW warnings)

Beatific Apocalypse

A visual tribute to the Human Instrumentality Project in End of Evangelion