Lost in the Movies: Journey Through Twin Peaks: Part 3 - The Whole Damned Town

Journey Through Twin Peaks: Part 3 - The Whole Damned Town


Well, it's finally here, just in time for Christmas...after nearly two months of preparation, I've finished Part 3 of my 4-part video series analyzing the narrative cycle of Twin Peaks from the pilot through Fire Walk With Me. This is the longest video yet (split into 8 individual chapters on YouTube or a single 75-minute presentation on Vimeo), and certainly the most ambitious. Half of Part 3 continues the progression through the second half of the series, including the very weak episodes of the mid-season and the astonishing David Lynch-directed finale. The other half makes room for essential asides embracing Twin Peaks as a whole, focused on the colorful ensemble, the palpable spirit of the show (including its early celebration in the media), the development of Agent Cooper as a complex character, and in the chapter which took the most time and effort, the mythology of the series.

If Part 2 hinted at divisions between Lynch and Frost in their interpretation of Laura Palmer, "The Whole Damned Town" further explores their fruitful creative tensions: their varying takes on Cooper (whom Lynch idealizes and Frost humanizes), and their individual contributions to the mythology - Lynch through personal, dreamlike images, Frost through concepts imported from Theosophy, the nineteenth-century spiritual movement begun by Madame Blavatsky. Visually, I had to get more creative in this part of my series, since much of the time I'm speaking of abstract ideas rather than something specifically happening onscreen. I had a lot of fun overlapping images, combining montages with pertinent quotes, and creating collages-in-motion. I've reproduced some of the images below.

Next up is Fire Walk With Me, hopefully early in January. It's my favorite piece of Twin Peaks and will conclude our journey so I'm really looking forward to it. Meanwhile, you can start with Part 1 (Harmony of the Dark Woods) and Part 2 (The Center Cannot Hold), or jump right into Part 3: The Whole Damned Town...


Here are the individual chapters on YouTube, followed by the complete video on Vimeo:

Chapter 12 - Beyond the Investigation (the ensemble)

Chapter 13 - Dead Dogs & Drawer Pulls (episodes 17 - 23)

Chapter 14 - The Spirit of Twin Peaks (Atmospherics, the media & the Access Guide)

Chapter 15 - Cooper's Story (My Life My Tapes)

Chapter 16 - Season of Love and Fear (episodes 24 - 27)

Chapter 17 - The Twin Peaks Mythology (the European Version & Theosophy)

Chapter 18 - The Two-Part Finale (episodes 28 & 29)

Chapter 19 - The Lost Detective (the Black Lodge)


And the full video of Part 3:


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really enjoying these; great work! Can't wait for Part 4!

Joel Bocko said...

Thanks! Always great to hear back from viewers.

Search This Blog