Lost in the Movies

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS #13 w/ Devil's Advocates - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me author Lindsay Hallam (YouTube & extended PATREON) premieres tonight


This has been a year of Fire Walk With Me commemorations as the film turns thirty. In May, I published my extensive podcast series on the Twin Peaks movie, two weeks' worth of episodes on various aspects timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Cannes premiere. At the same time, I shared a particularly relevant Twin Peaks Cinema episode on The Sweet Hereafter (coincidentally celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of its own Cannes debut). And now, today is the anniversary of the U.S. wide release and I've timed the latest conversation for this occasion. I last spoke to Lindsay Hallam, author of the "Devil's Advocate" series book Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, in 2018 when her study was published (in fact this was the last written interview to be published on my site before I switched over entirely to audio conversations). We dig into that project again in this discussion - her book views Fire Walk With Me as a horror film, trauma film, Twin Peaks entry, and David Lynch film - but I also wanted to discuss a broader range of subjects, some of which were not included in her book (or touched upon only briefly). Chief among these was her fascination with both Fire Walk With Me and the Lynch filmography in general as forms of melodrama, linking the surrealist auteur to the great filmmakers of the fifties like Douglas Sirk and Nicholas Ray. Between my "Small Town Blues" series on Twin Peaks Cinema this past winter and my current "Ray's Haunted Fifties" coverage on the same podcast (which will soon make my Patreon episode on Bigger Than Life public), this is obviously a terrain I like to explore so the second part of our talk particularly hones in on it. We also focus on the horror genre, the analysis of "affect" in cinema, and meta-questions about season three and possible future Peaks that my guests and I always seem to circle back to.

The public discussion begins by tracing her journey toward writing the book, and the form it took...

PART 1 on YouTube
(premieres at 8 pm tonight, August 28)

After that half hour, another fifty-plus minutes are exclusive to the $5/month tier on my Patreon, casting the net wider while teasing out those melodrama connections...

Listen to...




Purchase her commentary on Martyrs, video essay on the Gothic Fantastico boxset & essay in the book Women of Lynch


(her connection to Lee Harvey Oswald may have been one degree more removed than I remembered)

(overlapping w/ most of Lindsay's categories of analysis)



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belated July 2022 Patreon round-up: LOST IN THE MOVIES patron podcast #93: Coffee and Cigarettes (+ feedback/media/work updates including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Russian Revolution, failures of the decadent right, history of malls, archive reading: Lady and the Tramp & more) + 3 TWIN PEAKS Character Series advances & Twin Peaks Conversations podcast



Once again, a fairly random viewing - one of just two movies I watched in July - provides the film in focus to anchor this month's podcast. I happened to see Jim Jarmusch's quirky Coffee and Cigarettes because I was visiting someone who had an old DVD of it onhand and was intrigued by the title. Reflecting on both its seventeen-year production (assembled into an anthology from disparately shot but aesthetically similar short films) and the nineteen years since its release, I'm able to explore themes that always interest me regarding the passage of time - alongside other threads working their way through these blackout sketches of (usually) two actors playing themselves in a fictional, often contentious, conversation.

There were a lot of political topics dredged up by this month's podcast recommendations, including the legacy of revolutions, what Boris Johnson's resignation tells us about the state of the right and its appeal, and how shopping malls have evolved as cultural touchstones. There's a bit more feedback this time than last time (all from YouTube), another Marvel movie to discuss in brief capsule form, and for the second month in a row I have an essay on a fifties classic to share from my archive.

Meanwhile, having finally caught up to June's Twin Peaks character studies in late July, I caught up to July's just a few days into August. That's an improvement at least, and now I'm on pace to provide three advance entries to patrons every month going forward. This trio was particularly striking despite the low ranking, not only for the characters' onscreen antics but also the performers' offscreen lives...

(become a patron to discover their identities)


I introduced and cross-posted the full conversation on the site last week but actually the one post to make it up on schedule in July was Part 2 of this exchange with the hosts of the weird fiction podcast Counter Esperanto for the $5/month tier's reward...



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Rebel Without a Cause as Twin Peaks Cinema #16 - Ray's Haunted Fifties (podcast)



The title of this summer season, "Ray's Haunted Fifties," evokes Rebel Without a Cause probably more than any other film. This is by far Nicholas Ray's most famous work, so famous indeed that it transcends his own reputation as a director to become an indelible piece of American pop culture mythology. If all of the director's films are haunted, Rebel feels particularly so given not just its own wounded characters but the tragically young deaths of all three leads, most famously James Dean himself (the star died, still in his twenties, before the movie was even released). And if you were to select a handful of Hollywood classics to represent the fifties, Rebel would be up there; it defines our image of that decade to the present day as surely as Elvis Presley records on the jukebox, Leave it to Beaver episodes on the black-and-white living room set, or posters of Marilyn Monroe below movie theater marquees. That aspect of Rebel - the almost intuitively iconographic - is what first leaps to mind when connecting it to Twin Peaks, which calls back several decades (to Lynch's own childhood) for its touchstones of teen culture. James Hurley is obviously derivative, as is Bobby Briggs in his own way, and the way the adolescent characters congregate with one another to take refuge from and figure out the adult world is quite reminiscent of Rebel's second half in particular. All of that occurs in the pilot and much of it is lost as the series progresses and loses touch with its high school roots. But Fire Walk With Me indicates deeper, richer thematic connections to Rebel Without a Cause, linking Laura Palmer to James Dean and Natalie Wood alike - both the characters they play, and the actors themselves.



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TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS #12 w/ Counter Esperanto hosts Jubel Brosseau & Karl Eckler (YouTube & extended PATREON)


Numerous Twin Peaks podcasts have popped up in the past decade, most (including one of my own) following the episode-by-episode format - but few have taken as unique an approach as Counter Esperanto. Jubel Brosseau and Karl Eckler bring to their discussions a deep fascination with and knowledge of both weird fiction and local Pacific Northwest lore. This plus their evocative radio voices, eerie and transporting soundscapes, and penchant for reading haunting short stories by H.P. Lovecraft and other authors makes for one of the most atmospheric podcasts I've listened to, Twin Peaks or otherwise. Though they took several years off of their initial Peaks focus to cover a broader range of subjects, they've recently returned to The Return: hosting guests like John Thorne for retrospectives of different season three sections (although their musings tend to wander across the whole series). With that in mind, this seemed like a perfect time to finally contact them directly - after years of corresponding on Twitter and as guests and feedback-writers to the Sparkwood & 21 podcast in the mid-teens. In both the public and patron-exclusive parts of this conversation, we explore some familiar themes like the passage of time both before and since the new season, where that material fits in with the original series and Fire Walk With Me, and whether or not there will be (or should be) more Peaks. And given their specialty, we also explore topics that have not come up on Twin Peaks Conversations before, including their upbringing on the eastern side of Washington (where the pilot takes place, but not where it was shot) and how the visions of David Lynch - and Mark Frost - both complement and depart from literary concepts of "the Weird."

That question is particularly emphasized in the first half-hour of the podcast, up for free on YouTube...

PART 1 on YouTube

And we continue exploring Peaks and related subjects for another fifty-three minutes, exclusive to the $5/month tier...

Listen to...



The intro/outro music/soundscape comes from their episode




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Monkey Business (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #44)



My fifth season focus on "Hollywood Classics" continues after last month's Swing Time with another, quite different Ginger Rogers vehicle. This time she shares the screen not with Fred Astaire but with Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, and a mischievous chimpanzee. Grant plays a bumbling scientist who concocts a formula for renewed youth which both he and his wife end up consuming. Howard Hawks directed this zany comedy in the early fifties, at a time when the film could recall the antic energy of thirties screwballs (which Grant himself had starred in) while also passing the torch to a new generation of movie stars, represented by Monroe. It's interesting to consider that, thanks to the industrial disruptions of the shift to sound in the late twenties (which sent many actors to pasture long before they could have expected), these Golden Age icons were among the first to truly age onscreen. How appropriate that, in this case at least, they do so in a story about characters aging down as well as up.

This is the rare episode of Lost in the Movies to be delayed several days (usually I publish a new podcast on the first Wednesday of each month); I was catching up with several different deadlines simultaneously and this got bogged down in the process. These projects were the last of a long line, however, and now I'm on the clear for a mid-August breather. With these words, I finally end three and a half months of endlessly imminent deadlines. What a relief!


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LINKS



MY RECENT WORK




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belated June 2022 Patreon round-up: LOST IN THE MOVIES patron podcast #92 - The Power of Nightmares (+ feedback/media/work updates: King Kong vs. Godzilla, In the Line of Fire, political shifts, the Iraq War, archive reading: An American in Paris & more) + 3 TWIN PEAKS Character Series advances & Twin Peaks Conversations podcast




Just a few weeks after my last (belated) monthly podcast, there wasn't much to update in terms of viewing, listening, or behind-the-scenes work, but I did have one film/series I wanted to zoom in on. Adam Curtis' eccentric 2004 BBC program The Power of Nightmares offers a cutting, hypnotic audiovisual analysis of the dance between American neoconservatives and Middle Eastern Islamists which eventually led to the War on Terror. I'd seen, and never forgotten, the first chapter not long after it was first released. This time I watched the whole thing and reflected on it from a different standpoint than I had at the time, further to the left and more deeply skeptical of the government line on Al Qaeda (even so, some of the wild discrepancies and overreaches that the film highlights remain astounding). Hopefully I can watch more Curtis films in the near future; I've been fascinated by his style for a long time but never really explored his work. A year ago, my all too ambitious plans included a chapter-by-chapter reaction to the director's recent analysis of the left's ambitions and failures, Can't Get You Out of My Head. Perhaps that will be next in my exploration - when I finally find some time in my schedule.

Elsewhere, I offer some capsules on a handful of films I watched in June, riff on similar Bush era themes based on some podcasts I listened to (touching on my own political evolution - or evolutions), and end the podcast on a lighter note with a reading from my past work on a Gene Kelly musical, albeit one that also toys with issues of war, loss, and wistful regrets.

As I struggled to keep up with various projects, particularly Lost in Twin Peaks, I fell behind on the latest patron reward: the presentation of three character studies each month. Only several weeks after the month ended could I finally share the first one (the other two followed the next week, and I'm already moving ahead on July's advances so they won't suffer the same fate). Despite the delay, this represents a major breakthrough. Remarkably, I never wrote a single character study in all the years since The Return - despite my oft-stated goals. That half-decade was spent, when I focused on this work at all, slowly putting together the posts on minor characters and the like. Hopefully from now on I can move forward at a much quicker pace (on a positive note, when I finally got down to writing it, the first piece didn't take very long at all). (This cross-post accidentally went up last week with most of what you see here, and the reason I removed it and re-publushed today was because two these character studies were not yet ready.)

I won't discuss who these entries cover - the public gets to find that out if/when the series begins official publication in early 2023. But here's where you can find out, and read them ahead of time...

TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance entries for June: #86 / #85 & #84
(become a patron to discover their identities)
following the announcement of


I've already cross-posted both parts of my conversation with Cameron Cloutier in a separate entry, but just to be thorough, here's the $5/month exclusive that went up in June...



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What's that noise in Windom's Cabin? (livestream panel)


Update 2024: This post was initially labeled as a "podcast panel" but I've relabeled it as "livestream panel" to reflect the fact that this was really a one-time event with little to no access to an archive recording afterwards. As such, consider the purpose of this post to be a description of something that happened at the time rather than an introduction that links to the panel itself.

This past Sunday, I participated in "Windom's Cabin," an online conference gathering Twin Peaks-related podcasters, artists, actors - included those from Peaks itself - and other content creators to discuss the show, the film, and its multimedia universe for a paying audience (the proceeds went to several charities selected, I believe, by the organizer Warren Friedrich). Dozens of panels were scheduled throughout the afternoon on topics like the production of the series itself, fan tributes to the work, and more. Although the live aspect of the event is over, the material remains archived and available to those who donate $35 for a ticket here...

My particular panel focused on podcasts and lasted about an hour, during which we discussed our approaches to the subject, the nuts and bolts of the process, and other podcasts that explored the nooks and crannies of Peaks. Alongside myself and Lost in Twin Peaks, the panel featured hosts of an eclectic, idiosyncratic array of shows: Creamed Corn and the Universe, Damn Fine TV, Blue Rose Task Force, Diane..., and The Twin Peaks Tattoo Podcast, as well as the website 25 Years Later.... Several of these individuals and programs I've been engaging with for years; others I was encountering for the first time. It was a great discussion opening up many more avenues to pursue - and that's just one small fragment of the vast web Warren wove on this day. To hear more about this project, you can listen to his recent interview on Cameron Cloutier's recent "'Twin Peaks' Thought of the Day" video.

I myself appeared on Cameron's show for the first time in years a week ago, and earlier this month I was welcomed to the Uncut Gems podcast for a group chat on Fire Walk With Me. So it's been a busy month for guest appearances! It's also going to be a busy weekend coming up for my patrons as I catch up with July rewards like the advance character entries, the monthly podcast, and a Twin Peaks Conversations episode with podcasters whom I mentioned near the end of the "Windom's Cabin" panel. On the flip side, I'm slowing down my public approach as I pause Lost in Twin Peaks till around November (discussed in a rare Monday status update earlier this week in case you missed it). Hopefully this will allow more time to pursue multiple projects in the second half of 2022.

(P.S. In case you're wondering, that all-too-appropriate flute music that interrupted our discussion at one point, courtesy of a Twitter video I was uploading at the time, can be found in context here.)
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Pausing Lost in Twin Peaks again (+ my plans going forward)


Status updates are generally reserved for Fridays but this one (like the last announcement of a Lost in Twin Peaks pause, back in November) couldn't wait. My weekly/daily podcast has been a struggle to maintain all summer, despite working with long-ago previously recorded material. I kept going as long as I did in order to hit the fifth anniversaries of each season three episode but I've finally reached my limit. More details are in the announcement I uploaded to my podcast feed:


This means the pressure is off a bit, but I still have a pace to maintain if I want to resume the podcast this fall and then continue not just to the end of The Return but also through the entirety of the second season (which I skipped over this spring in order to cover Fire Walk With Me for its own big anniversary). I also want to get a grip on my character series, releasing advance entries for patrons and building up some steam so that it can premiere in 2023, as well as experiment with the "Generations" video idea that I discussed recently. All in all, while I'll be shifting my focus toward building a backlog rather than maintaining a public pace, I'll still be pretty busy. As always, you can keep tabs on my progress on various projects here.

By the way, you may have noticed that yesterday I published a belated Patreon round-up for June. That was an accidentally scheduled draft which I've taken down and postponed till next week because two of the character study advances still weren't ready. Another good thing about this change in schedule is that it allows more time to catch up and keep up with patron rewards; thank you all for your patience!
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Live From Twin Peaks • discussion w/ the Obnoxious and Anonymous podcast


A few weeks after we recorded an episode of my own Twin Peaks Conversations podcast, and many years after my last talk with Cameron Cloutier in his "'Twin Peaks' Thought of the The Day" format, we reunited to sift through a variety of topics, including the recent deaths of Twin Peaks legends Lenny Von Dohlen and Julee Cruise, upcoming and wished-for releases of David Lynch films on the Criterion Collection, potentially controversial figurines, an online Peaks conference we'll both be taking part in, and further musings on the unique flavor of Cameron's recent fan film Queen of Hearts. Of course, that's just the main line of questioning; along the way, we dig into the deleted scenes of Lost Highway, Clint Eastwood's directing career, the pedigree of action film villains, analogizing Lynch's production to the Apollo 11 mission, Mary Sweeney's role or non-role in the editing of Inland Empire, the Z to A boxset, the vibes of an avant-garde Blue Velvet documentary, Disney CEO Bob Iger's mangled memories, what a mid-90s sixth season version of Peaks would have looked like, the blurred line between merchandisable entertainment and profound art with disturbing themes, plus much more...including, as always, speculation about the possibilities for a fourth season.

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On Dangerous Ground as Twin Peaks Cinema #15 - Ray's Haunted Fifties (podcast)



Just as my Lost in the Movies podcast recently kicked off a six-month season devoted to Hollywood classics, Twin Peaks Cinema is going to explore a similar terrain through an auteurist lens in a more focused period - I'm calling this miniseries of three podcasts "Ray's Haunted Fifties." I'm not sure I've ever heard David Lynch speak about Nicholas Ray as a particular aesthetic or thematic touchstones although Rebel Without a Cause is all over the Twin Peaks pilot and many have observed the connections between Fire Walk With Me and Bigger Than Life. On Dangerous Ground emerges from earlier in the decade, its gritty black-and-white noir milieu closer to our popular cinematic conception of the forties than the fifties, with its gritty black-and-white noir milieu. Indeed, much of the movie unfolds in an urban landscape quite far from Peaks but when the cynical police officer Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is dispatched to a rural crime scene, connections begin to reveal themselves. Before exploring those links, I read a full review of the film that I wrote over ten years ago to establish the story and flesh out the mood. In the discussion which follows, we tease out Jungian concepts that relate as much to Mark Frost's vision of Peaks as Lynch's, while observing the dynamic between Wilson and the blind hermit Mary Malden (Ida Lupino) in light of Cooper and Laura. I also discovered a fascinating dispersion of Leland Palmer's personal qualities between the young, mentally ill perpetrator of the crime (Sumner Williams) and the ferocious patriarch (Ward Bond) who seeks vengeance against his daughter's killer. In the heat of July, the new season of Twin Peaks Cinema finds its footing on a thick blanket of snow...



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LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #39: Season 3 Part 10 (The Return - "Laura Is the One") podcasts & illustrated companion


All episodes & show notes for my podcast coverage of Twin Peaks season 3 part 10
July 16 - 22, 2022
(illustrations for storylines, character rankings, TIME cover & all categories)

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Announcement: Considering the "Generations" video essay (& series) for the end of 2022


UPDATE 2023: The project has now been delayed until later in the 2020s, once Journey Through Twin Peaks is complete. The rest of this post is the original write-up from 2022...

Yesterday I significantly updated my "Plan for Journey Through Twin Peaks" & more tracking page to reflect a new goal for 2022-23. The "Generations" video is something I've been discussing for months without quite formally announcing. Here's the description for that project:

Use found footage, popular music, and my own scripted narration to produce a video essay, ideally 10-15 minutes but hopefully no more than half an hour, surveying the "MAGA Meltdown" era (2015 - 22) through the eyes of each generation living through this period: the unnamed "future" generation (born in or after 2014), the zoomers (born 1997 - 2013), the millennials (born 1980 - 96), generation X (born 1963 - 79), the boomers (born 1946 - 62), the silent generation (born 1929 - 45), the greatest generation (born 1912 - 28), and the lost generation (born in or before 1911). The concept is based on my "Seven American Generations" post from several years ago, and would continue as a series in future years covering past seven- or eight-year eras through these same generations, at younger ages, alongside earlier generations.

Read on for more details (plus a status update on other work).

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