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Post by JangoB on Aug 11, 2017 7:07:04 GMT
With the new series slowly but surely approaching its end, I'd really like to see your thoughts on this 1992 David Lynch film. I want to revisit it once the series finishes, but I can say that I really love it. Really curious to read your opinions.
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Post by taranofprydain on Aug 11, 2017 7:17:55 GMT
Saw it a few months ago. The early passages just kind of meander, but as soon as Sheryl Lee enters the picture, everything changes. It begomes taut and unnerving. There are some very sad and disturbing things that go on which makes it an uncomfortable view, but I think that it is still a wonderful film. And credit for that must go to Lee, in a stunning performance, and Lynch, directing it for the operatic tragedy it was worth.
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Post by idioticbunny on Aug 11, 2017 16:32:04 GMT
Just watched it only a week or so for the first time before starting the Return season, and I can't believe I waited even that long. While I still have half of Lynch's filmography still to see (but that's only about five films), it's probably my favorite of his works. And not just because Twin Peaks is one of my top three favorite television shows, but because it's a mystery film where you already know how it ends and yet it makes you feel so deeply for this troubled lead character. Very few mystery films really lend you a strong perspective from the victim, and even fewer paint the victim as not a pretty picture. Laura Palmer has an ugly life, and she constantly lives with two faces - the sweet, innocent one she puts on at school and around friends, and the dark, ugly one she wears at night when she goes out. Nowhere is this more evident than when she hysterically laughs after Bobby shoots and kills his drug dealer . But Lynch goes further to explore why she is this way, and that's what makes it so special. It's not just that she lived an ugly life, but that the ugliness is a product of something far worse. On top of that, Sheryl Lee gives the best performance in a David Lynch film (though, if we were counting television, Ray Wise or Kyle MacLachlan would reign supreme there), and she makes my all-time top ten. It's such a devastating performance, but played so frighteningly real with all the little horrors that go with it. Ray Wise continues his greatness here, too, but doesn't quite get the chance to match it (though that'd already be a tough feat, especially without the duplicity of his performance). Also, I want to say the first half hour or so of the film is so underrated. I didn't think it got so much hate, as I actually thought it was damn brilliant. How you lead the audience on for so long and really delve into the mystery outside of Twin Peaks before finally bringing it back to that beloved little town. Also kudos to Lynch for only further confusing audiences with that rather than answering any unanswered questions from the television series. Probably a top 50 movie when all is said and done.
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Post by getclutch on Aug 11, 2017 17:57:57 GMT
Loved it. It leaves you with a mystery inside your head, and you won't be able to shake it's images for days.
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Post by ingmarhepburn on Aug 11, 2017 19:08:20 GMT
I think it's criminally underrated. Of all the films directed by David Lynch, this is the one that has grown more on me after rewatches. It's a wildly imaginative film (the dancing of the girl in the red dress, Laura's visions, the painting on her bedroom's wall), and it's also masterfully shot - Laura entering into the Roadhouse bar and the last scene at the Black Lodge are among the most beautiful and most powerful sequences in Lynch's filmography. Besides this, it has a tour-de-force performance by Sheryl Lee, who gave here one one of the best performances of that decade.
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AKenjiB
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Post by AKenjiB on Aug 12, 2017 2:30:35 GMT
Not a big fan of the early scenes with Chris Isaak but once it becomes about Laura, the film is pretty consistently engaging. Sheryl Lee is Oscar-worthy in my opinion, the direction and cinematography is unsurprisngly fantastic, and the David Bowie scene is one of my favorite film scenes of all time. Honestly, sometimes when i smoke weed, I get bored and just pull up the scene on YouTube. It's so bizarre in the best way.
I also think it's one of the most depressing films of all time, especially since it lacks the show's trademark campy humor. But I think it fits in great with the Twin Peaks universe and I recommend it to anyone getting into Twin Peaks (after they've watched the first two seasons obviously)
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Post by pessimusreincarnated on Aug 12, 2017 4:03:32 GMT
I'll echo the same sentiment others have here that the first act of the movie drags quite a bit, but once the story begins to shift focus to Laura Palmer, it becomes aces. Sheryl Lee is just so goddamn good in this movie- it's the type of revelatory work that we could have guessed she had in her given her scenes in the television series, but it's somehow even better than expected. The nightclub scene is one of the best things Lynch has ever directed; everything about it is perfect, from the performances, to the sound design, to Angelo Badalementi's deliciously lurid piece "The Pink Room".
Overall the film works great as both a companion piece to the series, and on its own. I'll probably watch it again once S3 wraps up, I just might skip the first 30 minutes or so.
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Post by Joaquim on Aug 12, 2017 5:10:23 GMT
I liked it but thought it was a bit underwhelming tbh. I did watch directly after I finished binge watching the show so maybe that has something to do with it idk.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2017 21:16:17 GMT
Fantastic film. I have a few small issues with it, but they're almost completely swept away by the incredible emotional closure to Laura's story you get at the end of the movie. I think it does a great job wrapping up a lot of the Twin Peaks story while also introducing some new extremely interesting stuff (including the Jumping Man, who is creepy as hell).
And the stuff with Isaak and Sutherland in the beginning is great. Can't believe people don't like that part.
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Post by ibbi on Aug 15, 2017 16:03:28 GMT
I'm not a huge fan of it, though I've not seen it in a very long time. If I'm remembering it rightly it's a lot more like the new season than the original series, so maybe that just rubbed me the wrong way at the time That opening bit with Bowie and what not treads the line quite close between being amazing representation of nightmare that very few can do like Lynch can do, and being so bad it's laughable. That Leland-Laura car scene is almost unbearable, and I'm not sure it's in a good way Anyway, I like it more than I don't overall, and that transition from Cooper, and his "who knows when or where?" to Twin Peaks, and then the score comes up, and then BAM Laura Palmer in the flesh is just glorious, and one of my favourite moments in movies, but even that comes grinding to a halt as soon as we see 'Donna'.
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Dougie Jones
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Post by Dougie Jones on Aug 16, 2017 19:05:48 GMT
I find it wildly uneven. It could easily have lost 40 minutes, both in the first act, but also in some of the stuff after we actually get to twin peaks. When it works though, it works fucking great, but I donĀ“t love it as much as I love the series.
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chris3
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I just ordered a slice of pumpkin pie...
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Post by chris3 on Aug 18, 2017 8:32:52 GMT
I think it's a stone cold masterpiece from start to finish and among my favorite movies of all time. I really don't feel like I'm worthy of writing a full-on analysis of its brilliance at this point in time, so apologies for just hurling endless compliments at this work of art in a completely disjointed, rambling fashion...
Here we go: Sheryl Lee deserved an Oscar for her gut-wrenching, operatic embodiment of Laura Palmer. While I completely understand and respect why so many fans of the show are disappointed in the film, I think they're all so, so, so wrong. Fire Walk With Me is the HEART of Twin Peaks. It's a good thing, a BRILLIANT thing, that the movie is completely different in tone to the series. Not only does it make sense from a logical perspective, since we're seeing a very subjective experience from the perspective of a victim (pretty much literally) going through utter hell, but it also allows the film to play as the flip-side, black mirror, evil twin reflection of the TV series. That whole show was about the beautiful, charming surface that hides a seedy underbelly. Fire Walk With Me is that underbelly. It's thematically PERFECT that the movie begins in Deer Meadow, which acts as an evil bizarro Twin Peaks, because the movie itself IS evil bizarro Twin Peaks. And the show needs the movie, because we owe it to the character of Laura Palmer. It's her tragedy that lies at the heart of the narrative, and the show eventually started to treat this as an afterthought. All that charm, quirkiness, quaintness, and humor of the show exists on the back of a story of rape, incest, and murder that is both terrifying and terrifyingly real in our world. David Lynch made an artistically integral, important, and BRAVE choice to finally put this story at the forefront and allow us to see Laura as a three-dimensional person instead of an abstract concept. It also happens to be a movie of ASTONISHING filmmaking throughout. Other than Eraserhead it features the best cinematography of his career, and by far the best editing. Sequences like Laura and Leland in the car, the Pink Room, Laura's nightmare, and the Phillip Jeffries mindf--k just flood over the film and positively seethe with dread and menace. The soundtrack (score and songs) is one of the best in movie history. The structure is downright bizarre. It's more a series of tangential vignettes than a coherent narrative, and I love that about it. It's nightmarish and baffling but also hauntingly beautiful and moving. I absolutely adore Twin Peaks, so I don't say this lightly: aside from the season 2 finale, Fire Walk With Me is BETTER than the original series. As much as I understand why this movie was met with such vehement hatred upon release, I think that its terrible response is one of the biggest crimes of cinema in the 90s. This movie deserved to be hailed as a transcendent achievement and one of the best works of art of the decade. It's right up there next to Mulholland Dr. and Eraserhead as the greatest accomplishments of Lynch's career. So yeah, I'm a fan.
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Post by notacrook on Aug 18, 2017 23:29:52 GMT
Just watched it after taking a break from my Twin Peaks catch-up binge.
What the fuck. That was AMAZING. Seriously, I kinda fucking adored it, which I did not expect considering its divisive reaction from fans and the fact that I'm not the hugest fan of the show in the first place. I'm just gonna say it: I thought this was better than anything in the original first 2 seasons. It was darker and more disturbing, and Lynch was clearly relishing being able to push the limit in a way he just couldn't with Network TV restrictions. While I did like those 2 seasons quite a bit, I always wished they could have gone further into the real depths of corruption and darkness alluded to by its themes of the dark underbelly of the American midwest; with Fire Walk With Me, they were able to do that, and they fucking succeeded and then some.
Sheryl Lee gives what is probably one of the best female performances I've ever seen in a movie. She's just mesmerising in every single scene, perfectly conveying Laura's terror and struggle with the horrors that are rapidly consuming her, as she desperately attempts to cling to a happy-go-lucky facade while descending into true depravity. Lynch makes the viewer really feel how victimised and desperate Laura feels. There are sequences here that are among the most haunting and disturbing I've seen, but they never feel exploitative or unnecessary.
It's not quite perfect. It does feel a little bloated, as I think Cooper didn't really need to be here at all and I could have done without the Bowie stuff. I actually loved the first 20 minutes or whatever with Chris Isaak though. It felt like a classic detective story with some Lynchian mind-fuckery thrown in. Also, they kinda went a bit too far with the angel imagery towards the end for me. Other than these minor quibbles, this was pure brilliance. This isn't the best written post ever, because honestly I'm kinda in a daze after that.
Now, finally, bring on The Return!
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Aug 19, 2017 1:27:55 GMT
There's a lot I could say about this film, but I think what I most admire about it is how Lynch allows Laura Palmer to have her dignity. Instead of just being wrapped in plastic and talked about, he dives straight into her world and doesn't shortchange the ugly details. Not many films ask us to take on the life and full perspective of someone suffering so intensely and openly calls for us to empathize even as we watch her lose herself. For as much grief as Lynch has gotten from some for supposed misogyny, he does everything he can in this film to give Sheryl Lee (who gives an all-time great performance) and the character of Laura Palmer the film they deserve. And at a time when so many wanted Dale Cooper and more of the Twin Peaks offbeat humor, to dive into the profoundly tragic character of Laura Palmer with such care and honesty was the boldest and bravest decision Lynch could have possibly made. Hell, I'd say it's the bravest move of his entire career.
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Post by JangoB on Sept 11, 2017 12:50:59 GMT
Haven't rewatched this yet but I can't stop thinking about the monkey quickly saying 'Judy' right after Laura's murder. As unnerving as anything cinema has to offer. It's about the way it's said - so quickly, almost like a brief whisper and yet it cuts like a sting.
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Sept 11, 2017 13:01:16 GMT
And the stuff with Isaak and Sutherland in the beginning is great. Can't believe people don't like that part. I concur.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2017 21:23:57 GMT
I just rewatched this and I was blown away by it yet again. I would go so far as to say the only Lynch film I would definitively put above it is MD.
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Dec 15, 2017 7:26:47 GMT
Maybe Lynch's darkest. Like witnessing, and sometimes feeling a slow death for two hours.
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