THE GIFT:

using the gift of intuition to understand

the allegorical and dream-like moving paintings

of David Lynch

 

By Gary W. Wright

 

        After choosing the art life and becoming one with the art of painting and the art of life, David Keith Lynch merged animation with painting to create a short and quirky indie film that he called a “moving painting.”  As time passed, live action and a dream-like spirit entered these animated moving paintings before they disappeared and were replaced by entirely live action but equally dream-like and dream filled indie feature films that Lynch also called moving paintings that gave audiences the impression that they were dreaming…without dreaming.  And from a distance, the dream-like and dream filled indie moving paintings of Lynch seemed difficult to understand.  However, as Lynch noted in Catching The Big Fish: meditation, consciousness and creativity [2006], his own look at his art life, paintings, moving paintings, meditations, and creative processes, “…people sometimes say they have trouble understanding a film, but I think they understand much more than they realize.  Because we’re all blessed with intuition-we really have the gift of intuiting things” [Lynch 19].

        Thus, using the gift of intuiting things, we could see that in the animated sight of six painted male heads and torsos becoming progressively more ill and then throwing up pink streams of vomit to the sound of a siren wailing endlessly and disconsolately, Lynch implicitly roasted the sickly film art and falling and failing fortunes of the five major Hollywood studios and of the Walt Disney Studios by the late Sixties in his first allegorical work of film art, the repeating one minute film loop and literal short indie moving painting SIX MEN GETTING SICK [1967].  Ominously, SIX MEN GETTING SICK also eerily and presciently anticipated the sickened and outraged dismay that all six of the major American studios would feel after the helicopter crash that killed actor/director/writer Victor “Vic” Morrow and illegally hired and employed child extras Renee Chen and Myca Le around 2:20 am in the early morning of July 23, 1982 on the George Folsey jr. produced John Landis set of the twilit, allegorical, Kathleen Kennedy associate produced, Frank Marshall executive produced and Landis and Steven Spielberg produced Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller docufeature film TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE [1983].  However, despite this ominous memory of the twilit future, the gift of intuiting things could also be used to come up with various interpretations of the second allegorical Lynch short indie moving painting and the first to be both dream-like and implicitly dream filled, THE ALPHABET [1968], a full colour work that mixed animated painting with live action.

 

“Please remember

you’re dealing with the human form.”

 

        Curiously, this short moving painting began with a colour live action shot of a beautiful young woman in a white nightgown-played by Lynch’s first wife Peggy-lying on a bed presumably asleep with a white bedsheet drawn up to her waist as children’s voices chanted “A-B-C” five times.  When the chanting stopped, the live action film and the young woman disappeared and a surreal colour animated painting began that implicitly was a dream of the young woman and one that was filled with soft abstract imagery and hard geometric shapes through which moved upper and lower case letters of the English alphabet as a male voice sang.  When this dreamy moving painting ended, the voices of children again chanted “A-B-C” five times.  When the chanting ended for the second time, the dream disappeared and a cinematic nightmare began that saw the lovely young woman menaced by animated upper case letters of the alphabet while she spoke the “A-B-C Song” sung by children in kindergarden.  When the young woman finished speaking the “A-B-C Song”, she vomited up bright red blood on the white bedsheet, ending the moving painting.

        Given that the moving painting started with the voices of children chanting “A-B-C” five times, Lynch possibly implied that he was roasting commercial television and networks like ABC in THE ALPHABET.  On the other hand, given that upper case capital letters menaced the lovely young woman before she vomited blood, in the end, Lynch may have been implying in THE ALPHABET that he was worried that capitalism in general rather than commercial television in particular would sicken if not kill the free and pure spirit of his indie moving paintings.  Last but not least, given that the letters of the alphabet could be combined into words that could interpret, criticize and even roast his indie moving paintings, Lynch was also perhaps implicitly worrying about the arrival of written reviews of his film art in THE ALPHABET.  Curiously, given that this menacing alphabet also presciently anticipated the equally fearsome arrival of Alphabet Inc. and its all conquering Google, THE ALPHABET also ominously anticipated digital and internet events to come.

        Significantly, THE ALPHABET fittingly and presciently anticipated an equally prescient Lynch indie moving painting to come that would be released by Universal Studios.  For the closing titles listed THE ALPHABET as “…an H. Barton Wasserman Production”, evoking Lew Wasserman, the sinister gangster head of Universal Studios-kull wahad!  A future cinematic collaboration with Universal that Lynch inched closer to when he donned the writer/director/animator/editor/producer hats and created the allegorical short indie moving painting THE GRANDMOTHER [1970], a curious work that mixed animated painting with black and white and colour live action cinematography.

 

“Matt!  Matt!”

       

        Curiously, this short moving painting was about two strange and abusive young parents-played by Robert Chadwick and Virginia Maitland, respectively-who perhaps symbolized the iconoclastic young film artists of New Hollywood.  THE GRANDMOTHER was also about their small, gentle, sweet, quirky and, alas, abused and perennially black suit, black bow tie and white dress shirt wearing son Matt-played by Richard White-who all were grown in a Garden of Eden evoking setting in animated painting sequences at the beginning of the piece.  Just as curiously, Matt resembled and was perhaps linked to the equally small, weak, lost and confused English schoolboy Jute-played by Sean Bury-in the allegorical Lindsay Graham indie docufeature film IF…[1967].  A significant implication, for Matt found and used a magic seed to grow a luving and titular grandmother-played by Dorothy McGinnis-in a spare bed in the attic of the family home, a grandmother who was perhaps linked to Queen Victoria.

        Significantly, while Matt’s grandmother was just as unable to leave the attic to confront his parents and end his abuse as a veteran Old Hollywood film artist was to help a novice young New Hollywood film artist, particularly one as uninterested in imitating New Hollywood as Lynch, at least she was a warm and luving presence that he could turn to for luv, sympathy, support and encouragement.  This helpless inability to help Matt caused him to use daydreams localized in a “theatre of the imagination” to kill his nightmarish parents, the first time the wistful and powerful waking dreams of a character featured prominently in a Lynch moving painting.  Soon after, the kindly grandmother died, leaving only her ghost in a rocking chair in a lonely graveyard to comfort Matt.  However, since the moving painting ended with a black and white still shot of Matt screaming in agony at the sight of the ghostly grandmother in that rocking chair, that comfort was doubtful.  Perhaps, given the possible link of the grandmother to Queen Victoria, THE GRANDMOTHER was really an allegorical dig at the UK that hoped that the English monarchy would finally die out like Queen Victoria and the grandmother, and the United Kingdom would move on to a more free and freedom luving democracy no matter how painful that transformation would initially be, as painful as Matt’s final agonized scream, in the end.

        At any rate, Matt’s nightmarish young father and mother anticipated an even more abusive and nightmarish father and a nightmarishly complicit mother in two allegorical and indie telemoving painting exhibitions and an equally allegorical and indie moving painting to come from Lynch, three future works that also featured a murdered daughter who haunted the living like the ghost of the grandmother haunted Matt.  Just as significantly, the dreaming…without dreaming style of THE GRANDMOTHER implicitly impressed Hal Ashby, for he became the first film artist to implicitly address Lynch in the allegorical indie docufeature film HAROLD AND MAUDE [1971], a film released on December 20, 1971 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to THE GRANDMOTHER.  Then the ambiguous inability to tell if THE GRANDMOTHER was a nightmare experienced by Matt or Matt’s nightmarish reality continued when Lynch donned the writer/director/animator/editor/composer/special and visual effects/producer hats and collaborated again with THE GRANDMOTHER sound designer/sound editor Alan Splet on the allegorical, black and white, stop motion animation enhanced and dream filled and dream-like indie moving painting ERASERHEAD [1977], released on March 19, 1977.

 

“!But they’re still not sure it is a baby!”

 

        Curiously, the moving painting began with the floating head of Henry Spencer-played by John “Jack” Nance-superimposed horizontally from sinister left to the righteous right of the screen over a small moon hanging motionless in space.  Then the camera point of view [POV] slowly zoomed in and moved onto the floating moon and then through a hole in the shack of the Man In The Moon-played by Jack Fisk.  This mysterious man disappeared, the horizontally floating head of Spencer then reappeared, he opened his mouth, and an insubstantial and superimposed creature that resembled an umbilical cord with a head appeared in the midst of his open mouth and then floated out of his mouth.  The Man In The Moon then reappeared in his shack and pulled a lever, causing the worm-like creature to be cut free from Spencer and then fall through space and time into a pool of water.

        The POV then returned to Earth and Spencer standing close to and staring anxiously into the camera.  He then turned and walked toward a concrete wall that looked like the stage of a theatre, and turning to his sinister left disappeared into some sort of tunnel within the “theatre stage.”  He then reappeared walking through a bleak and decaying industrialscape looking, in his black suit, black tie and white dress shirt, like an older and more anxious and worried Matt from THE GRANDMOTHER with upcombed black or dark brown hair.  Significantly, Spencer also evoked the sight and sound of the similarly suited young hellion Alexander “Alex” DeLarge-played by Malcolm McDowell, who also played Mick the Crusader in IF…-walking through the streets of a future London to the flat of his parents after his successful Ludovico Treatment and release from prison in the allegorical Stanley Kubrick docufeature artbuster A CLOCKWORK ORANGE [1971], implying an interest in Kubrick in ERASERHEAD.  Indeed, the implicit link to Kubrick reminded us that extraterrestrials watched over the people of Earth in the allegorical and Ozian themed Kubrick docufeature artbuster 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [1968] like the Man In The Moon watched over Spencer, reaffirming the implicit interest in, and possibly linking Spencer to, Kubrick in ERASERHEAD.

Soon Spencer reached his apartment building and took the elevator to his apartment on the second floor.  Before entering apartment 26, Spencer was hailed from across the hallway in the doorway of apartment 27 by the Dark, dark haired and eyed, dangerous, sexy, steamy, perhaps Queen Elizabeth II linked and Wicked Witch of the West evoking Beautiful Woman Across The Hall-played by Judith A. Roberts-who told him that his girlfriend had called on the common hallway phone to tell him that her parents had invited both of them over for dinner.  Message received, Spencer stepped into his apartment and closed the door with some relief.  Once inside his dark and gloomy apartment, Spencer despondently wandered around and pondered his solitary bachelor life, as lonely and depressed as unsuccessful bachelor boxer David “Davy” Gordon-played by Jamie Smith-in his own dark and gloomy apartment in the allegorical Kubrick indie docufeature film KILLER’S KISS [1955], reaffirming the implicit interest in Kubrick and the implicit link of Spencer to Kubrick in ERASERHEAD.

Soon Spencer was trudging through the now dark and still decaying industrialscape to the house of the garrulous, embittered and Edward “Eddie” Fisher resembling and perhaps linked retired plumber Bill X. and his Deborah “Debbie” Fisher resembling and perhaps linked wife Mrs. X-played by Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates, respectively.  Here his girlfriend, the blonde, thin, wanly pretty and Carrie Fisher resembling and perhaps linked Mary X-whose age and hair colour implicitly linked her to New Hollywood film art, making it fitting that the name of Mary X had the same cadence as Hollywood, and played by Charlotte Stewart-waited inside the house, her face framed by the white curtained window on the door like she was a puppet in a puppet show stage.  Just as fittingly, the number on the X manse was 2416, which reaffirmed the film’s implicit interest in Kubrick, as the number reminded us of the 1962 release of the allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Alfred Hitchcock and Edward D. “Ed” Wood jr. roasting Kubrick indie docufeature film LOLITA [1962], and of the 1964 release of the allegorical Kubrick docufeature film DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB [1964].  A very fitting evocation, indeed, as the blonde Mary and Mrs. X evoked the equally blonde Charlotte Haze and her beautiful and rebellious teenage daughter Dolores “Lolita” Haze-played by Shelley Winters and Suellyn “Sue” Lyon, respectively-in LOLITA.

And so Henry endured an embarrassing evening with Mary and her parents that included watching transfixed as the supper chicken on its platter twitched its legs and oozed blood from a hole in its torso like it was trying to give birth.  Thus, it was fitting that soon after the twitching chicken affair, Henry discovered that Mary had given birth to a baby, leading to the marriage of Henry and Mary and Mary and the baby joining Henry at his gloomy apartment.  At this point, ERASERHEAD became the opposite of THE GRANDMOTHER, as it saw the young and poor couple struggle to deal with the premature, nightmarish and unnamed mutant baby of indeterminate sex who came across as a deformed version of the Star Child seen at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and resembled the umbilical cord with a head creature seen in the dream-like beginning of the moving painting, a nightmarish creature that took a fiendish delight in manipulating and harassing its parents and driving them crazy with constant wailing.  This toxic torment caused Spencer to reaffirm his resemblance to Matt by retreating into his own theatre of the imagination that he used to deal with reality, hidden inside the innards of the radiator in his apartment. 

Here in the warm and comforting womb-like interior, the Light, always smiling, blonde and Glinda the Good and Marilyn Monroe evoking Lady In The Radiator-played by Laurel Near-waited to luv and comfort Spencer like the grandmother arrived to luv and comfort Matt in THE GRANDMOTHER, and like a young, beautiful, buxom and brunette German prisoner of war-played by Kubrick’s future and third and last wife, Christiane Harlan-sang movingly on a barroom stage to jaded and raucous French troops of the 701^st Regiment at the end of the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Kubrick docufeature film PATHS OF GLORY [1957].  Curiously, the blonde Lady In The Radiator looked like Mary in a Monroe wig and white dress, albeit a Mary Monroe with swollen growths on her cheeks, implicitly linking her to both Old and New Hollywood.  Significantly, the latter link reminded us of the possible implicit link of the grandmother to Old Hollywood in THE GRANDMOTHER.  However, unlike the grandmother, who only comforted but did not help Matt, the Light, virtuous and sweet Lady In The Radiator did her best to stomp away Henry’s troubles, symbolized by more creatures who resembled umbilical cord with heads, on the lit stage in the theatre of the imagination.

Significantly, late in the moving painting, after Mary left Henry and the baby and returned to her parents and after the Beautiful Woman Across The Hall had a damp sexual romp with Henry in his apartment, the Lady In The Radiator reappeared in her theatre of the imagination and sang the allegorical and Lynch written tune “In Heaven” [1977], evoking the beautiful and singing German lass at the end of PATHS OF GLORY again.  When the sweetly banal song ended, Spencer found himself in this theatre of the imagination, setting off the first extended sequence in a Lynch moving painting where the normal laws of time and space were abandoned.  During this dreamy sequence, Henry tried, but failed, to embrace the Lady In The Radiator on stage in the theatre.  Soon after, she disappeared, and Spencer literally lost his head, which fell through time and space and was found by a street urchin-played by Thomas Coulson-and taken to a pencil making factory where its brains were tested by a pencil machine supervisor-played by Hal Landon jr.-and found to be fine for use as pencil erasers on the pencils being mass produced on the machine.  Thus, using our intuitive gift, we could see that his curiously positive pronouncement implied the fear of Lynch that Kubrick had embraced a more commercial and mass produced form of lookalike and sex and violence luvin’ docufeature artbuster with A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, the last film Kubrick released before Lynch began creating ERASERHEAD.

Significantly, however, after that dire and dismissive implication, the film ended with Spencer literally cutting his ties to his mutant Star Child baby by cutting the baby open and letting it die, setting off another extended and hallucinatory sequence that broke free from the normal laws of time and space and that evoked the equally liberating and hallucinatory space/time journey of the implicitly Cowardly Lion linked Commander David Bowman-played by Keir Dullea-at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  Indeed, the sequence was shot the same way, with dreamy and hallucinatory imagery intercut with the frozen and bug-eyed face of Spencer evoking the hallucinatory and psychedelic imagery intercut with the frozen face or eye of Cdr. Bowman at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  Unlike at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, however, the hallucinatory sequence saw the overthrow of the extraterrestrial control of the Man In The Moon and the destruction of his moon, allowing Spencer to return to the dreamy and timeless realm of the theatre of the imagination bathed in radiant light and embracing the mysterious Lady In The Radiator, the cheekily deformed woman of his incandescent radiator dreams, perhaps implying that Lynch believed that Kubrick should leave film art behind and embark on a life of retirement with Christiane.

Significantly, the sight and sound of Henry cutting his ties to his baby and the final passionate and luving embrace of Henry and the Monroe resembling Lady In The Radiator also implicitly affirmed that Lynch felt that it was time for him to cut himself free from the implicit fear of capitalism seen in THE ALPHABET and his literally starving artist phase and to embrace a more commercial but no less uncompromising style of quirky, dream-like and dream filled indie moving painting.  Thus, it was fitting that a moody moon, worms, and a character named Paul-played by Darwin Joston-figured prominently in ERASERHEAD, as they foreboded an equally moody moon, worm and Paul filled and uncompromising but more commercial Lynch indie moving painting to come.  At any rate, ERASERHEAD implicitly impressed John Milius and implicitly made him hope that Lynch would always be a quirky indie moving painter who would never be seduced by Hollywood, for he implicitly linked Lynch to the eternally wild and free indie surfer Leroy Smith-played by Gary Busey-in the allegorical and Ozian themed indie docufeature artbuster BIG WEDNESDAY [1978], released on May 25, 1978.

Alas for Milius, Lynch was soon seduced by Hollywood when he was persuaded by actor/producer/writer Mel Brooks to make his next indie moving painting with Brooks, a curious pairing implicitly linked to the equally tragicomic odd couple Elwood and Jacob “Jake” Blues-played by Dan Akroyd and John Belushi, respectively-who fittingly triumphed with a rousing performance with the Blues Brothers Band in a real life theatre of the imagination at the end of the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Landis docufeature film THE BLUES BROTHERS [1980], a film released on June 20, 1980 whose implicit interest in Lynch on one level was affirmed by allusions to ERASERHEAD.  Perhaps inspiring Lynch to don the co-writer/director hats and, with Brooks and again with Splet, abandon film art for film art’s sake for the wonderful world of commercial film art with the twilit, allegorical, black and white, dream-like and dream and nightmare filled indie moving painting THE ELEPHANT MAN [1980], a film released on October 2, 1980 that was inspired by the allegorical Sir Frederick Treves book The Elephant Man And Other Reminiscences [1923], and by the allegorical Ashley Montagu book The Elephant Man: a study in human dignity [1971].

 

“Oh, Mr. Merrick.

You’re not an Elephant Man at all.”

 

Significantly, the moving painting began with a closeup of the face of a young and pretty brunette woman-played curiously by both Lydia Lisle and Phoebe Nicholls-in a framed photograph.  This framed photo turned out to be that of the mother of the horrifically deformed and despondent but sweet, sincere, devout, educated, imaginative, artistic and intelligent Joseph Carey “John” Merrick aka “the Elephant Man”-played by John Hurt-who looked like the son of Spencer and the equally deformed Lady In The Radiator.   Then, after a surreal and nightmarish prologue that purported to explore the supposedly elephant linked birth of Merrick and also established the nightmarishly dreamy spirit of the moving painting, we found ourselves at a freak show at a carnival in Victorian London where the adult Merrick was being displayed like a real life blockbuster beast.  Thus, it was fitting that this carnival freak show linked the Elephant Man to film art, for it reminded us that the first short films were exhibited at carnivals.  Indeed, the sign advertising “FREAKS” outside the freakshow house evoked the carnival freaks that were implicitly linked to various countries such as Canada, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom in the allegorical and implicitly Adolf Hitler and Nazi bashing Tod Browning docufeature film FREAKS [1932], reaffirming the implicit link of the Elephant Man to film art.

Here at the carnival, we quickly met the Sir Ridley Scott resembling and implicitly linked Doctor Frederick Treves-played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.  Indeed, the appearance of Hurt as Merrick affirmed the implicit link of Dr. Treves to Sir Scott, for Hurt played the doomed Kane in the eerily and presciently twilit, allegorical, computer generated imagery [CGI] enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly George Lucas roasting Sir Scott indie docufeature artbuster ALIEN [1979].  Soon we were following Dr. Treves through the festive carnival crowd and the corridors of the freak show house, a real life theatre of the deranged imagination, to see the Elephant Man.  Prevented from doing so when Merrick’s performance was cancelled by an outraged Alderman-fittingly played by Frederick Treves, a younger descendant of Dr. Treves-Dr. Treves hunted down his violent and unscrupulous “proprietor” Bytes-played by Freddie Jones-and spirited Merrick away from his cruel and controlling clutches to the peace and security of a quiet and remote isolation ward room in the top floor of the London Hospital.  Significantly, as Bytes resembled and evoked both Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, a link to the latter increased by his Justin Trudeau evoking boy helper-played by Dexter Fletcher-and Robert Silverman, an extra in the allegorical David Cronenberg indie docufeature film RABID [1977], Lynch implied that the “terrible” Elephant Man symbolized the “terrible” Cronenberg.

Indeed, a sign on a building wall that stated PICKFORD WHARFS OFFICE that Dr. Treves walked by as he strolled determinedly through the gritty streets of London, gritty streets that evoked the equally gritty industrialscape that Spencer walked through at the beginning of ERASERHEAD, on the way to his first meeting with Merrick and Bytes at the beginning of the moving painting that openly linked Bytes, Merrick and Dr. Treves to Toronto film art and film artists reaffirmed that Lynch was implicitly addressing the Toronto based Cronenberg in THE ELEPHANT MAN.  The resemblance of the name of John Merrick to that of Ronald “Ron” Merrick-played by Ronald Mlodzik-in the allegorical Cronenberg indie docufeature film SHIVERS [1975] also affirmed the implicit interest in Cronenberg in THE ELEPHANT MAN.  The fact that an Ivan Reitman resembling and implicitly linked cab driver-played by Roy Evans-dropped Merrick off at the London Hospital to receive the care of Dr. Treves reaffirmed the implicit link of Merrick to Cronenberg, reminding us that Reitman was the executive producer/music supervisor of RABID and the producer/music supervisor of SHIVERS. The fact that, soon after his arrival at the London Hospital, an extra in the audience during the presentation of Merrick by Dr. Treves to a group of doctors in a medical theatre resembled Doctor Roger St. Luc-played by Paul Hampton-in SHIVERS, also affirmed the implicit interest in Cronenberg in THE ELEPHANT MAN.  The presence of the Merrick sympathizing Princess Alexandra-played by Helen Ryan-also affirmed the implicit interest in Canada in the film, for Princess Alex reminded us that the Princess Alex was a popular live theatre in Cronenberg’s hometown of Toronto just up King Street from the headquarters of the Toronto International Film Festival [TIFF].

This implicit link was not surprising, as the early allegorical indie docufeature films of Cronenberg, from his first, TRANSFER [1966], released the same year as Lynch’s first moving painting, SIX MEN GETTING SICK, to THE BROOD [1979], had caused such negative comments and criticism that Cronenberg was treated with as much fear and loathing as Merrick at the time.  So much that only the year before, Cronenberg had been implicitly linked to the Evil and gleefully violent Doctor John Leslie Stevenson aka “Jack the Ripper”-played by David Warner-in the eerily twilit and allegorical Nicholas Meyer docufeature film TIME AFTER TIME [1979], a film that also implicitly linked Dr. Stevenson’s naïve and innocent but altruistic and Good literary friend Herbert George “H.G.” Wells-played by McDowell-to Sir Scott, apparently due to Sir Scott’s implicit support of Cronenberg in the implicit form of the Good duellist Armand D’Hubert-played by Keith Carradine-in the allegorical indie docufeature artbuster THE DUELLISTS [1977]. 

Alas for poor Merrick, his stay at the London Hospital was a mixed blessing.  For he was treated well by Dr. Treves and slowly used his charm, intelligence, sensitivity and artistry to win over hospital director F.C. Carr Gomm-played by Sir John Gielgud-older head nurse Mrs. Mothershead-played by Wendy Hiller-and young nurse Nora-played by Lesley Dunlop-to his cause.  He also inspired the sympathetic friendship of the renowned actress Mrs. Kendal-played by Anne Bancroft-who curiously resembled Merrick’s mother and the Beautiful Woman Across The Hall in ERASERHEAD as well as both Margot Kidder and Margaret Trudeau to reaffirm the film’s implicit interest in Canada and its film art and film artists, and whose performance of a scene from the allegorical William Shakespeare play ROMEO AND JULIET [1597] with Merrick was one of the most moving moments in the film.  Unfortunately, Merrick also drew the callous, blockbuster loot lusting and implicitly Meyer linked London Hospital night porter-played by Michael Elphick-and the crowds of equally callous paying customers the porter brought to see Merrick in his lonely room at night to affirm the implicit interest in Meyer in THE ELEPHANT MAN.

Thus, using the gift of intuiting, we discerned that the slow discovery during Merrick’s stay at the London Hospital over the course of the film that he was not the terrible Elephant Man but a shy, sensitive, intelligent, creative and talented indie artist and truly human being who used his imagination to cope with his life like Cronenberg, Lynch, Matt and Spencer, his liberation from the madcap machinations of the ironically and truly monstrous and terrible night porter and the cruel control of the equally monstrous and terrible Bytes, who briefly kidnapped Merrick and spirited him away to a freak show in France before he was freed by the other unusual showmen and women also dismissed as freaks and returned to London, and his acceptance and embrace by Dr. Treves, Mr. Carr Gomm, Mrs. Mothershead, Nora, Mrs. Kendal, Princess Alexandra and mainstream London society before his death at the end of the film implied the confident belief of Lynch that Cronenberg was also not the enfant terrible he was regarded as at the time but a shy, sensitive, intelligent, creative and talented indie film artist and truly human being underneath his misunderstood exterior, and the equally confident hope of Lynch that Cronenberg would break free from the control of the Canadian government and its film production initiative and from the control of blockbuster loot lusting Hollywood producers so as to succeed as a fearless and idiosyncratic film artist who would also in time be accepted and embraced by Canadian and world audiences before he died, in the end.  On another level, the moving painting also explored the obsession of directors like Meyer and Sir Scott with creating blockbuster beasts, and implored them to never forget the vital humanity of their film art like Dr. Treves slowly came to understand the vital humanity of Merrick over the course of the film.  Indeed, the journey through a star filled expanse of space that followed the death of Merrick evoked the space journey of the implicitly Lucas linked Captain Dallas-played by Tom Skerritt-and the rest of the doomed crew of the cargo hauling space freighter Nostromo in ALIEN to reaffirm the implicit interest in Sir Scott on one level in THE ELEPHANT MAN. 

The sight and sound of Dr. Treves treating Merrick to a Christmas panto with a beautiful and helpful blonde fairy-played by Beryl Hicks-who evoked the Lady In The Radiator in a real, live and Princess Alex evoking theatre of the imagination, a real life theatre of the imagination enjoyed by many as at the end of THE BLUES BROTHERS instead of the personal theatre of the imagination only enjoyed by Matt in THE GRANDMOTHER or Henry in ERASERHEAD, also implied the hope of Lynch that he had left the film student underground and was now in the mainstream with THE ELEPHANT MAN.  Alas, however, Merrick’s fondness for the 23^rd Psalm ominously anticipated an upcoming film set disaster on July 23, 1982 in yet another eerie memory of the twilit and disastrous future that haunted film art in the years before the fateful and fatal date. 

Curiously, however, and despite this twilit foreboding, THE ELEPHANT MAN was an excellent, moving, memorable and successful film that was nominated for eight Academy Awards but, alas, won none.  Just as curiously, soon after this Oscar snub, Terry Gilliam implicitly linked Lynch to the exquisitely polite and implicitly Scarecrow linked indie outlaw leader Robin Hood-played by John Cleese-in the eerily twilit, allegorical, madcap, fantastic realist, Ozian themed and satirical indie animaction artbuster TIME BANDITS [1981], released on July 16, 1981.  Not long after, on August 7, 1981, Lynch was implicitly linked to the wild and irrational small town criminal Tarver-played by J. Don Ferguson-and gunned down by his abused and Carrie Fisher resembling daughter Telena-played by Marin Kanter-as he attacked a group of dead end and implicitly American and Canadian film artist linked bikers at the end of the eerily twilit and allegorical Kathryn Bigelow and Lafayette “Monty” Montgomery indie docufeature film THE LOVELESS [1981], perhaps implying the conviction of Bigelow and Montgomery that the indie moving painting outsider Lynch would destroy himself trying to take on New Hollywood.  Not long after the release of THE LOVELESS, Lynch was also implicitly roasted as a naïve innocent being led to his doom by Evil, experienced, shrewd, and seductive Hollywood as surely as the naïve, innocent and implicitly Lynch linked Florida lawyer Ned Racine-played by Hurt-was led astray by the Evil, experienced, shrewd and seductive Matty Walker-played by Kathleen Turner-and persuaded to murder her husband Edmund Walker-played by Richard Crenna-for the life insurance money in the equally twilit and allegorical Lawrence Kasdan indie docufeature film BODY HEAT [1981], released on August 28, 1981.

The following year, Susan Seidelman implicitly worried that the success of THE ELEPHANT MAN would go to the head of Lynch and that he would abandon his small, personal and low budget indie moving paintings and make beastly mainstream blockbuster schlock for Hollywood like the Lynch resembling and implicitly linked indie punk rocker Eric-fittingly played by real life indie punk rocker Richard Hell-abandoned New York and the feisty, bored and restless punkette Wren-played by Susan Berman-for fame and fortune in Los Angeles at the end of the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film SMITHEREENS [1982], a film released on May 18, 1982 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to THE ELEPHANT MAN.  Alas, soon after, the eerily and ominously twilit memories of the future that had been haunting fiction and film for years came true when the fatal and fateful TZ disaster occurred on the Landis set of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, changing audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre forever.  And so the dread allegorical Zone Wars broke out, a brutal worldwide conflagration that raged to this day. 

And so one of the first implicit films of the Zone Wars that was actually being wrapped up at the time of the disaster was released only a month later in August of ‘82, a film in which Lynch was implicitly linked to the earnest West German astrophysicist and intrepid alien hunter Doctor Johann Hoffman-played by Otto von Wernherr-who was also killed like Tarver at the end of the eerily and ominously twilit and allegorical Slava Tsukerman indie docufeature film LIQUID SKY [1982].  As for Sidney Lumet, he implied his more optimistic hope that the idiosyncratic and cigarette smokin’ indie artist Lynch would refuse generous offers to churn out Hollywood dreck and stick to and succeed with his more personal, original, imaginative and indie moving paintings like the struggling, chain smoking and implicitly Lynch linked indie lawyer Francis P. “Frank” Galvin-played by Paul Newman-refused to accept a generous compensation offer on behalf of a client from a Roman Catholic hospital in a medical malpractice suit five days before the trial and went ahead and won the trial against all odds in his equally idiosyncratic indie way in the allegorical indie docufeature film THE VERDICT [1982], a film released on December 7, 1982 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN.

Soon after, Lynch affirmed the implicit fears of Seidelman in SMITHEREENS that he would abandon small, personal and quirky indie moving paintings for beastly blockbuster fare when he announced that he was going to team up with indie Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis and his daughter Raffaella to create a cinematic version of the allegorical and implicitly Philip K. Dick toasting and Robert A. Heinlein roasting Frank Herbert indie docufiction novel Dune [1965].  Later that year, Peter Yates had the tragicomic and implicitly Terry Gilliam linked “sorcerer” Ergo the Magnificent-played by David Battley-team up with the Good, virtuous, Perseus evoking and implicitly Lynch linked Prince Colwyn-played by the ironically and unfortunately surnamed Ken Marshall-to hunt down and triumph over a huge, slavering, extraterrestrial and implicitly Landis linked blockbuster Beast-voiced by Trevor Martin-and his remorselessly violent and Jun horde evoking legions of Slayers so as to free from the Beast’s bleak bondage and marry the pretty Princess Lyssa-played by Lysette Anthony-and liberate the planet Krull of the Beast’s cruel tyranny at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film KRULL [1983], a film released on July 29, 1983 that fittingly saw Jones play Prince Colwyn’s wise and knowing mentor, Ynyr, and Francesca Annis play his prescient long lost luv, the Widow of the Web.

Not long after, Michael Chapman implicitly hoped that Lynch would go on to greater success with his quirky and indie moving paintings like the implicitly Lynch linked high school football star Stefan Djordjevic-played by Tom Cruise-went on to greater success in college at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film ALL THE RIGHT MOVES [1983], a film released on September 23, 1983 whose setting in a small steel mill dominated Pennsylvania town pointed the way to an equally small lumber mill dominated Washington town in a Lynch indie telemoving painting series to come.  For his part, Francis Coppola implicitly warned quirky indie loner Lynch that DUNE would be scythed down by dismissive audiences and scathing reviews like the quirky and implicitly Lynch linked indie loner biker Motorcycle Boy-played by Mickey Rourke-was gunned down by police at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film RUMBLE FISH [1983], a film released on October 7, 1983 whose implicit and prescient Lynch addressing intent was affirmed not only by allusions to ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN, complete with mostly black and white film stock, but also by the painting used as the film’s one sheet or movie poster, one of the last painted one sheets ever commissioned by Hollywood. 

Fittingly, soon after the release of RUMBLE FISH, memories of the Arrakian future continued when Cronenberg also implicitly and presciently warned Lynch that his attempt to exorcise the TZ disaster and bring harmony back to audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre with DUNE would destroy him as surely as the Lynch resembling and implicitly linked John Smith-played by Christopher Walken was killed trying to bring health and harmony back to his fellow Americans with the extrasensory powers [ESP] he gained after a serious head injury suffered in a traffic accident in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film THE DEAD ZONE [1983], a film released on October 21, 1983 that was inspired by the allegorical Screamin’ Stephen King indie docufiction novel The Dead Zone [1979].  Then Alex Cox kicked off the new film year by implicitly roasting the indie Lynch and his embrace of blockbuster sly fi in the implicit form of young indie punk repo man Otto Maddox-played by Emilio Estevez-and his embrace of the madcap hunt for a mysterious ’64 Chevy Malibu with extraterrestrial powers and a big finder’s bounty in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film REPO MAN [1984], a film released on February 24, 1984 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN. 

As for Reitman, he implicitly linked the thoughtful, dreamy and cigarette luvin’ Lynch to the equally thoughtful, dreamy and cigarette luvin’ Doctor Raymond “Ray” Stantz-played by Akroyd-and had him do his best to exorcise the haunting ghosts of the TZ disaster and bring harmony back to audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film GHOSTBUSTERS [1984], released on June 7, 1984.  For his part, Brian De Palma also implied that Lynch’s attempt to save film art with a moving painting of Dune would be just as unsuccessful as the tragicomic attempt of the claustrophobic and implicitly Lynch linked Jacob “Jake” Scully-played by Craig Wasson-to save the life of the Bigelow resembling and perhaps linked Gloria Revelle-played by Deborah Shelton-in the twilit and allegorical docufeature film BODY DOUBLE [1984], released in mid-October of 1984.  A week later, James Cameron also implicitly linked Lynch to the courageous but doomed and twilit memory of the future haunted time traveller Kyle Reese-played by Michael Biehn-who died trying to both free the world from beastly blockbuster machinations and cleanse audiences, film art, film artists, the Temple Theatre and the universe of the TZ disaster in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and Ozian themed indie docufeature Zonebuster THE TERMINATOR [1984], released on October 25, 1984.

For his part, King also implicitly and presciently roasted Lynch that year in the allegorical indie docufiction novel Thinner [November 1984], published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman.  Indeed, with its obsession with dreams and with all of its raucous allusions to Dune and THE ELEPHANT MAN, King implied his belief that Lynch was a one hit wonder who would disappear after the implicitly expected failure of DUNE like the implicitly Lynch linked William “Billy” Halleck, whose name evoked loyal House Atreides man Gurney Halleck of Dune, wasted away to nothingness after a curse that made him thinner and thinner no matter how much he ate was placed on him by a Fremen Naib and Merrick evoking leader of a roving band of gypsies.  All of which were the implicit encouragements and inspirations that Lynch needed when he donned the writer/director hats and collaborated again with Jones, Nance, Splet, Frederick Elmes-co-director of photography [DOP] on ERASERHEAD-and Freddie Francis-DOP on THE ELEPHANT MAN-on the twilit and allegorical indie moving painting DUNE, released on December 14, 1984 just in time for the Christmas holidays.

 

“Where there was war,

Maud’dib would now bring peace.

Where there was hatred,

Maud’dib would bring love.”

 

Intriguingly, the moving painting began after a second opening title that proclaimed “…A DAVID LYNCH FILM” in bold gold letters with the same star filled expanse of space that began ERASERHEAD and ended THE ELEPHANT MAN, neatly linking the beginning of DUNE to the end of the last moving painting of Lynch.  Soon the head and shoulders of the young, beautiful, blonde and Princess Alexandra evoking Princess Irulan-played by Virginia Madsen-appeared in this starswept expanse of space, slowly fading in and out of existence like the Cheshire Cat as she set the galactic stage for audiences, a stage that included revelations that its events took place thousands of year in a future where humans had dispersed across the universe with the help of a powerful spice called melange that was used by the Spacing Guild to move across the universe…without moving, a spice produced only on a desert world known variously as Arrakis or Dune whose people had a legend that a Messiah would come who would lead them out of darkness, implicitly affirming from the outset that Lynch hoped to triumph over the TZ disaster, break free from the Twilight Zone and bring happiness, health and harmony back to audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre with DUNE.  Curiously, the appearance of the pretty princess reaffirmed the link to THE ELEPHANT MAN, as she recalled Merrick’s equally loquacious mother floating in the midst of the closing interstellar journey and wrapping up the proceedings at the end of THE ELEPHANT MAN. 

Then her catty Cheshire monologue ended, the opening titles flashed over a montage of shots of the desertscape of Arrakis, and then we found ourselves on the planet Kaitain with Princess Irulan, wearing a white wedding-style dress that evoked a similar white wedding-style dress worn by the gleefully wicked and implicitly Dorothy linked Margaret-played by Anne Carlisle-at the end of LIQUID SKY, walking through the cavernous, crowded, bustling and emerald green and gold Imperial Palace throne room of her father Emperor Shaddam IV-implicitly linked to Heinlein in Dune, and played by Jose Ferrer-who resembled Irvin Kershner, director of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed, Lucas executive produced and implicitly Spielberg roasting indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK [1980], implying that Lynch was roasting Kershner on one level in DUNE.  Indeed, the Emperor’s implicit link to Kershner and Lucas was affirmed by the arrival of his bald, ESP aided and Wicked Witch of the West evoking Bene Gesserit advisor, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam-played by Sian Phillips-for she evoked the Cloud City major domo Lobot-played by John Hollis-of the implicitly Great Oz linked and possibly also Landis linked Lando Calrissian-played by Billy Dee Williams-in STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and the equally bald denizens of the allegorical and implicitly Kubrick roasting Lucas indie docufeature film THX 1138 [1971] and the equally ESP aided Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters of the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy.

While the cavernous emerald green and golden throne room bustled and hustled, a spaceship slowly landed at the landing pad of the palace, a slow nighttime descent that evoked the equally slow arrival in nighttime New York and descent of the dimunitive spaceship carrying an alien drug and orgasm fiend at the beginning of LIQUID SKY.  A fitting evocation of the addicted alien invader of LIQUID SKY, for soon a melange spice addicted and aided, presciently and intergalactically dreaming, and truly elephantine blockbuster beast of a Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator left the landed spaceship and arrived in the throne room floating in a massive tank of orange melange gas, looking like a massive version of the worm-creatures in ERASERHEAD and evoking Merrick in his freak show cage in THE ELEPHANT MAN and the sight and sound of the sinister and lounging Jabba the Hutt in the opening segment on Tatooine in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed, Lucas executive produced and implicitly Spielberg roasting Richard Marquand indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI [1983].  Indeed, the implicit link of the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator to Lucas and the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy was reaffirmed by the fact that the mutated man was accompanied by still human First and Second Stage Spacing Guild companions in full length black leather, their bald pates also evoking the bald denizens of THX 1138.

However, despite this implicit link to Lucas, the arrival of the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator and his entourage at the Emperor’s throne room was detected with ESP by Reverend Mother Mohiam and revealed to the Emperor before the room’s golden doors opened with the words “…He’s here, my Lord!”  Significantly, these words evoked little blonde Carol Anne Freeling-played by Heather O’Rourke-saying “…They’re here!” at the beginning of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and Spielberg co-written and co-executive produced Tobe Hooper docufeature film POLTERGEIST [1982], implicitly linking the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator to, or at least evoking, Spielberg and the twilit and disastrous year of 1982.  The Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator’s implicit link to or evocation of Spielberg and the fatal and fateful year of 1982 was reaffirmed by the first words spoken by the Emperor to the Spacing Guild entourage when the throne room was emptied of his large and expensively attired entourage.  For the reassuring phrase “…We are alone” evoked the catchphrase “…We are not alone” for the allegorical and implicitly Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau roasting Spielberg docufeature film CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND [1977].  Last but not least, the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator’s implicit link to or evocation of Spielberg and 1982 was reaffirmed by the fact that the Navigator resembled the stranded alien E.T. in the eerily twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and implicitly Terry Gilliam addressing Spielberg docufeature film E.T., THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL [1982], making it fitting that E.T. and the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator were both created by Carlo Rambaldi.

Significantly, after implicitly linking Emperor Shaddam IV to Kershner and implicitly linking the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator to, or at least evoking, Spielberg and the twilit and disastrous year of ’82, the Emperor was soon confiding to the Navigator a plot to destroy the House Atreides, an aristocratic House led by someone called Duke Leto Atreides, whose popularity threatened the peaceful and conservative corruption of the reign of the Emperor.  This petulant plot involved luring House Atreides to the forbidding and melange producing desert planet of Arrakis already mentioned by Princess Irulan in her intro and allowing them to take over the mining of the addictive and expensive spice melange before wiping out House Atreides with an invasion of Imperial Sardaukar “terror troops” and the soldiers of House Harkonnen.  This pernicious plot reminded us that Spielberg was inspired by the success of STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and its avalanche of popular movie tie-in merchandise to create E.T., THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL to promote its own avalanche of movie tie-in merchandise in the hopes that this movie tie-in merchandise would also be so popular that Spielberg would be as independently wealthy as Lucas which, alas, it what happened.  Thus, it was significant that after the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator agreed on behalf of the Spacing Guild to work with the Emperor and House Harkonnen to ship their soldiers and spaceships to Arrakis to wipe out House Atreides in order to protect and maintain the Guild’s vital supply of melange, the action shifted to the castle of House Atreides on planet Caladan.

Alas for Lynch and the dedicated and talented cast and crew of DUNE, due to the fact that the Mexican crew members at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City where the truly moving painting was created would only create sets, props and even models out of wood, the exterior model of Castle Caladan was made out of wood as well to match the equally wooden interior sets, a strange and stubborn obsession with wood that was revealed by Ed Naha in the insightful and tragicomic book The Making Of DUNE [1984].  Unfortunately, as a wooden castle was unbelievably dumb and not much protection as an attacking army could easily destroy it by setting it on fire, the sight of the wooden Castle Caladan immediately shocked the until then eager and exuberant young audience right out of the state of suspension of disbelief so vital for a film or indie moving painting and in particular a sly fi indie moving painting like DUNE to work at the opening night screening of DUNE that my teen friends and I attended at the Stanley Theatre in Vancouver in mid-December of 1984.  So much so that the until then rapt audience instantly became angry, cursing, cynical, detached and restless observers for the rest of the moving painting, looking at their watches frequently and convinced that Lynch and company had failed them like Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg had failed them with the TZ disaster, like Lucas and Marquand had failed them with STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI, and like Lucas had failed them again by working with Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg on the desperate, dumb and dismal twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, and Ozian themed indie docufeature film INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM [1984].

As such, the angry audience probably did not notice that Caladan had a fitting Canada evoking cadence.  Fitting indeed, for the first interior shot introduced us to the Duke’s son, the David Paul Cronenberg resembling and implicitly linked Paul Atreides-who also looked like a club patron in LIQUID SKY, and was played by Kyle MacLachlan-who sat alone in a room of the castle preparing for the upcoming move to Arrakis.  A diligent son who soon turned out to be a visionary dream haunted and naturally powerful telepath like some of the psychic young people of the allegorical Cronenberg indie docufeature film STEREO [1969], and the Good, Cameron anticipating and implicitly Reitman linked psychic “scanner” Cameron Vale-played by Stephen Lack-in the twilit, allegorical, and implicitly De Palma roasting Cronenberg indie docufeature film SCANNERS [1980], affirming the implicit link of young Atreides to Cronenberg in DUNE. 

Significantly, the implicit link of Paul to David Paul was reaffirmed by the arrival of the implicitly Lucas linked Suk physician Doctor Wellington Yueh-played by Dean Stockwell, who openly linked DUNE to the Twilight Zone via his two roles as Lieutenant Katell and Lt. Yamuri in the allegorical Buzz Kulik telefilm “A Quality Of Mercy” [1961], from the third season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series-the equally loyal and Carr Gomm resembling Atreides military man Gurney Halleck-played by Patrick Stewart-who unexpectedly put Paul through his training paces with a deadly serious shields and knife fight that affirmed that young Atreides was indeed a man amongst men and women despite his sadolescent youth and baby face, a deadly serious fight thoughtfully pondered by the loyal and perhaps Hitchcock linked Atreides Mentat Master of Assassins Thufir Hawat-played by Jones.  For Hawat resembled the Good Doctor Paul Ruth-played by Patrick McGoohan-in SCANNERS, as well as Hitchcock. 

A rigorous and vigorous training session with a new sound amplifying “weirding module” against a wooden fighter machine that Halleck and Hawat insisted that Paul undertake after the fight with Halleck also affirmed the implicit link of young Atreides to Cronenberg, for these sound amplifying weirding modules developed by House Atreides evoked the memorable use of sound to enhance the telepathically induced and often violent mayhem in SCANNERS, memorable sound design and literally mind blowing violence that reminded us of the equal importance of memorable and all enveloping soundscapes in the indie moving paintings of Lynch.  Soon after the training session, a walk through the wooden castle halls of Castle Atreides that led to Paul meeting up with the loyal House Atreides swordmaster Duncan Idaho-implicitly linked to Harlan Ellison in Dune, and played by Robert Jordan-who resembled an Evil scanner assassin-played by Denis Lacroix-in SCANNERS reaffirmed the implicit Cronenberg addressing intent of DUNE.  Informed by Idaho to visit his father, Paul dutifully complied, which unfortunately led to another major problem with DUNE. 

For we found that the Good, thoughtful, knowing, mature, disciplined, rational, humane and human Duke Leto Atreides-played by Jurgen Prochnow-was implicitly and ridiculously linked to Landis, a film artist who shared the Duke’s ambitions for greatness but was anything but Good, thoughtful, knowing, mature, disciplined, rational, humane and human.  Curiously, the Duke also resembled Peter Kastner, a Toronto born and raised actor who played Peter Mark in the seminal allegorical Don Owen indie docufeature film NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE [1964], reaffirming the implicit interest in Toronto based film artists like Cronenberg in DUNE.  For NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE was one of the first Canadian feature films made in Canada in decades and a film so good that it kicked off a neo eon of Canadian indie docufeature film art, and one of the Rebel Sixties Canadian indie docufeature films that inspired Cronenberg to become a film artist. 

The film’s implicit interest in Cronenberg was also affirmed when Reverend Mother Mohiam arrived at Castle Caladan to reprimand Paul’s rebellious, Glinda the Good and Jennifer O’Neill evoking and perhaps linked and Jean Simmons resembling Bene Gesserit mother Lady Jessica-implicitly linked to Deborah Nadoolman, the wife of Landis, and played by Annis-for bearing a son for Duke Leto rather than a girl, and to test the vital humanity of Paul in one of the most memorable scenes in DUNE and Dune.  Significantly, this creepy test of the vital humanity of Paul that curiously initiated him into the ranks of the all female Bene Gesserit was a symbolic rape that saw young Atreides forced by compelling Voice and threat of quick poisonous death to place his hand into a small, symbolically vaginal and emerald green pain amplifying box whose increasing levels of imaginary pain made it feel like Paul’s right hand was burning to a useless crisp inside the small box.  Just as significantly, this creepy and unforgettable scene recalled the equally intense knife and shield fight just finished with the equally bald Halleck that welcomed Paul into the ranks of men and evoked the increased heart rate that Vale inflicted on transcendent yoga master Peter Tubbs-played by Graham Batchelor-in SCANNERS to reaffirm the implicit link of Paul to Dave. 

Then it was off to a brief stop at the planet Giedi Prime, a soulless planetwide industrialscape that evoked the equally soulless industrialscape Henry walked furtively through at the beginning of ERASERHEAD and the grimier industrial neighbourhoods of London that Dr. Treves walked through at the beginning of THE ELEPHANT MAN, to meet the Evil House Harkonnen before travelling to Arrakis.  Significantly, this brief stop also affirmed the implicit interest in Canada and its film art and film artists in DUNE.  For the exuberantly Evil, grossly obese and floating suspensor aided Baron Vladimir Harkonnen-implicitly linked to Vladimir Nabokov in Dune, and played by Kenneth McMillan-was implicitly linked to Bob Clark, who had come up to Canada to create the highly successful and allegorical indie docufeature film PORKY’S [1981].  Significantly, Baron Harkonnen was joined in his perfidy by his implicitly Spielberg linked Mentat Piter De Vries-played by Brad Dourif-and his equally Evil and implicitly Kubrick and McDowell linked nephews the Beast Rabban and Feyd Rautha-played by Paul Smith and Sting, respectively. 

Just as significantly, after House Atreides and their fleet of fly evoking spaceships soared through a painting frame enclosed doorway that affirmed that audiences were experiencing an indie moving painting and into a blockbuster Spacing Guild Heighliner and moved…without moving across the universe from Caladan to Arrakis with the help of a truly at one with the dreaming universe Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator in a mystic and moving sequence, Duke Leto and Paul soon met the implicitly Sir Scott linked planetary ecologist Dr. Liet-Kynes-played by Max Von Sydow-reaffirming the implicit interest in Cronenberg in DUNE.  The fact that the spice melange created on Arrakis expanded the latent telepathic powers of young Atreides after arriving on Arrakis reaffirmed his implicit link to Cronenberg, reminding us that STEREO was obsessed with developing the latent ESP of humanity, and that the synthetic drug ephemerol was used to develop or depress ESP powers in SCANNERS. 

The visionary sleeping dreams and waking visions that revealed the past, present and future to Paul throughout DUNE also evoked similar visions that revealed the pasts, presents and futures of people to Smith when they touched him after a head injury suffered in a car accident gave Smith ESP in THE DEAD ZONE, also affirmed the implicit link of Paul to David Paul.  Last but not least, the sight and sound of the ESP aided Reverend Mother Mohiam, Paul’s mother, now an equally ESP aided Fremen Reverend Mother, and Paul’s dimunitive sister Alia-played by Alicia R. Witt-also an ESP aided and mischievous Munchkin of a girl who was born a Reverend Mother, all suffering bad nose bleeds after Paul successfully transmuted and changed the Water of Life, which was the bile of a newborn worm of Arrakis, to become the Kwisatz Haderach, the universe’s super being, which implicitly symbolized becoming a successful film artist whose film art appealed equally to males as well as females, also affirmed Paul’s implicit link to Cronenberg, for the bloody sight reminded us that victims of psychic assault often suffered nose bleeds in SCANNERS. 

Thus, using our gift of intuiting things…without intuiting things, the fact that young Atreides survived the Harkonnen/Imperial attack on Arrakis, a perfidious assault complete with huge explosions that evoked the huge explosion that brought down the hovering helicopter in the TZ disaster to affirm the implicit link of the dead Duke Leto to Landis, a passing that evoked the passing of Cronenberg’s own father in 1973, and affirmed that he had indeed mastered his creative powers and virility by learning how to control his ESP and the sound amplifying “weirding” modules, ride the giant phallic sandworms of Arrakis, huge blockbuster beasts revered as “Shai’halud” that evoked a much smaller animated worm seen frolicking in ERASERHEAD, the mastery of which fully initiated Paul into the ranks of fearless Fremen warriorhood to create an inner balance of female and male sides within young Atreides, and successfully swallow and transmute the Water of Life in order to become one with the universe forever as the moody, all seeing and all creating and destroying Kwisatz Haderach known to all as Maud’dib, and, with the help of the fearless, faithful, experienced, knowing, sturdy and perhaps Coppola linked Fremen naib leader Stilgar-played by Everett McGill-the rest of the equally fearless and faithful Fremen and the primal and unstoppable giant worms of Arrakis to triumph over the Dark and Evil Forces of Emperor Shaddam IV and his Sardaukar, the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, and House Harkonnen, in the end, implied the hope of Lynch that Cronenberg and his indie docufeature film art would succeed where Lucas did not by triumphing over the Dark and Evil lusts for beastly blockbuster loot that contributed to the TZ disaster and the TZ disaster itself, ending the dread allegorical Zone Wars and freeing audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre from the Twilight Zone…forever.  As such, it was fitting that the letters for art appeared in scrambled anagram form at the beginning of the surname Atreides.  And how equally fitting that Kwisatz Haderach had the same syllable cadence as David Cronenberg.

Unfortunately, after initially flocking to DUNE, audiences just as quickly abandoned the quirky and indomitable indie moving painting.  For the bizarre implicit links of Landis and Nadoolman to Duke Leto “the Just” and Lady Jessica, and the equally bizarre sights of wooden castles, rayguns, sets, and spaceships and the many changes from Dune, such as the sound amplifying weirding modules, the Caucasian actors portraying the dark skinned Fremen, the sight and sound of Caucasian Fremen wandering the desert in the blazing sun without protective robes so as to show off their stillsuits, the lack of mention of the Butlerian Jihad, and the appearance and disappearance of Hawat in the final showdown with the Emperor and the Harkonnens turned off old fans of the novel and possible new fans of the moving painting.  The fact that Lynch also appeared in an uncredited cameo as the head of a melange spice harvester on Arrakis who was reluctant to abandon a valuable load of spice when the harvester was attacked by a sandworm also may have dismayed audiences, for the cameo made Lynch look like he had made DUNE simply to amass blockbuster loot.  As a result, DUNE was as much of a disaster for Lynch as the TZ disaster, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, and STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI were for Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Lucas, Marquand, Marshall and Spielberg.  Not surprisingly, Lynch was so disappointed with DUNE that he no longer listed DUNE amongst his moving paintings, and insisted that Alan Smithee be credited as the director of the expanded 1989 telemoving painting version of DUNE [Lynch 59-60 and 179, and Rodley 116].

However, despite not living up to the hopes and dreams of audiences, cast, crew and film artist, when the indie moving painting transcended the frustrating nightmare of its creation in Mexico City, a harrowing experience where everything that could go wrong did go wrong that was chronicled in The Making Of DUNE, and when it all came together, DUNE was still the fearless and iconoclastic moving painting event of the year.  Indeed, in its strongest scenes, like Paul and Gurney’s shield fight, Paul’s creepy and rapacious encounter with Reverend Mother Mohiam’s vaginal pain amplifying box, the heady and mystic moving…without moving Spacing Guild transportation of House Atreides across the galaxy from Caladan to Arrakis with the help of a Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator hidden away in his cosmic theatre of the imagination in a colossal Heighliner spaceship, the sandworm attack on the spice harvester soon after arrival on Dune, the Harkonnen and Sardaukar attack on Arrakis, the escape of Paul and Lady Jessica from the Harkonnens and the Sardaukar and their flight into the deep desert, Paul’s mastery of a sandworm and his transmutation of the Water of Life, the final knife battle with the exuberantly Evil Feyd Rautha and, last but not least, the sight and sound of Paul-Maud’dib using his cosmically attuned imagination to cause rain to fall on Arrakis at the end of the moving painting in an implicit affirmation of Lynch’s belief that Cronenberg had the power to transform anything that he imagined into heady, transcendent, inspirational and world liberating film art, DUNE easily succeeded in its embattled but determined quest to exorcise the TZ disaster and win back angry audiences to the cause of heady and uplifting film art.

The visionary moving painting was also quite prescient, as Cronenberg did indeed go on to lead the world film art movement to even greater success, making it fitting that his transformation from reviled Canadian film monster into beluved Canadian film hero began after the release of DUNE.  With its emotionally, intellectually, physically, psychologically, psychically, sexually and spiritually strong Bene Gesserit sisterhood and female Fremen warriors, including the implicitly Sofia Carmina [SCC] Coppola and Dorothy linked Chani, the young woman of Paul’s prescient dreams-played by Sean Young-and an equally fearless and indomitable day to day producer in the form of Dino’s doughty daughter, Raffaella De Laurentiis, DUNE also broke new ground for women as in Dune, affirming that women would play a significant role in the dread allegorical Zone Wars both behind and in front of the camera.  And how fitting that Paul’s fremen nickname, Maud’dib, was taken from the stealthy and plucky desert mouse of Arrakis, given that the Walt Disney Company seized the twilit day and began its memorable and all conquering rise from the depths of despair to the heady heights of film art triumph the year of the release of DUNE with the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Spielberg toasting and Landis roasting Ron Howard docufeature film SPLASH [1984].

Curiously, Lynch did not have long to wait for an implicit reply to DUNE, for Coppola implicitly and more sympathetically linked Lynch to the talented trumpet and piano playing jazz musician Michael “Dixie” Dwyer-played by Richard Gere-and implicitly hoped for better things for Lynch, given that Dwyer left New York for Hollywood fame and fortune with his sweetheart Vera Cicero-played by Diane Lane-at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature artbuster THE COTTON CLUB [1984], released on the same day as DUNE.  Not surprisingly, the following year saw more film artists implicitly reply to Lynch and DUNE.  Indeed, Lynch was implicitly linked to the strange and blockbuster loot lusting thief Richard Nolan-played by Will Patton-who frantically hunted down Roberta Glass and the elusive Susan-played by Rosanna Arquette and Madonna, respectively-but was unable to take the priceless Nefertiti Earring from them in the end of the twilit and allegorical Siedelman docufeature film DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN [1985], released on March 29, 1985.

For his part, Luc Besson implicitly and sympathetically linked Lynch to the also implicitly Great Oz linked Fred-played by Christophe Lambert-whose murder and rebirth implied the hope of Besson that Lynch would also rise like a human phoenix from the ashes of DUNE and create another memorable indie moving painting that would get him back in black at the end of the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed indie docufeature film SUBWAY [1985], a film released on April 10, 1985 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to DUNE and THE BLUES BROTHERS.  One month later, Jean-Luc Godard implicitly begged to differ, implying in the concluding murder of the chain smoking and Lynch resembling and implicitly linked Jim Fox Warner-played by Johnny Hallyday-that Lynch had brought about his own artistic death with DUNE at the end of the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film DETECTIVE [1985], a film released on May 10, 1985 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to DUNE. 

Lynch was also implicitly roasted in the form of the chubby, sexually ambiguous, blockbuster bucks lusting and Lynch resembling and implicitly linked Francis Buxton jr.-played by Mark Holton-the fiendish arch-nemesis of the equally sexually ambiguous and implicitly Godard linked Pee Wee Herman-played by Paul Reubens-in the madcap twilit and allegorical Tim Burton animaction film PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE [1985], a film released on July 26, 1985 whose implicit interest in roasting Lynch on one level was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, the implicit link of Francis Buxton sr.-played by Ed Herlihy-to De Laurentiis, and the resemblance of “fortune teller” Madame Ruby-played by Erica Yohn-to Reverend Mother Mohiam.  Donna Dietch also curiously linked Lynch and MacLachlan’s tumultuous collaboration on DUNE to the equally tumultuous romance of the implicitly Lynch linked Vivian Bell and the implicitly MacLachlan linked Cay Rivvers-played by Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau, respectively-and also implicitly hoped that Lynch and MacLachlan would recover from the failure of DUNE and go on to better things given that Vivian and Cay went on to better things at the end of the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film DESERT HEARTS [1985], released in August of ’85.

For his part, Barry Levinson wrapped up the film year by implicitly and sympathetically linking Lynch to young Sherlock Holmes-played by Nicholas Rowe-and allowing Lynch to symbolically triumph over Cronenberg and THE DEAD ZONE by having the teenaged English schoolboy Holmes triumph over his wrathful and implicitly Cronenberg linked fencing teacher Rathe-played by Anthony Higgins-at the end of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg co-executive produced docufeature film YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES [1985], released on December 4, 1985.  The following year, Cameron implied his hope that Lynch would recover from the failure of DUNE and join him in further battles against the twilit and CGI enhanced blockbuster beast by having the implicitly Lynch linked Corporal Dwayne Hicks-played by Biehn-be the only Colonial Marine to survive the nightmarish mission on LV-426 at the end of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and Ozian themed indie docufeature Zonebuster ALIENS [1986], released on July 14, 1986.  Not long after the release of ALIENS, Tim Hunter implied that Lynch killed his film art with DUNE as surely as the troubled, Buxton resembling, and implicitly Lynch linked sadolescent Samson “John” Tollet-played by Daniel Roebuck-killed a teenaged girl named Jamie-played by Danyi Deats-and left her naked body in the grass near a river in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film RIVER’S EDGE [1986], a film released on August 27, 1986 whose setting in a small, troubled and twilit Pacific Northwest town also anticipated another small, troubled and twilit Pacific Northwest town in a Lynch telemoving painting series to come.

Curiously, RIVER’S EDGE also linked well with the next moving painting of Lynch, for Elmes worked on it as DOP, and Dennis Hopper also appeared in it as the feckless and paranoid Feck, and openly linked RIVER’S EDGE to the Twilight Zone via Hopper’s troubled and Adolf Hitler haunted character Peter Vollmer in the allegorical Stuart Rosenberg telefilm “He’s Alive” [1963] from the fourth season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series.  Linked well, indeed, for on August 30, 1986, only days after the release of RIVER’S EDGE, Lynch donned the writer/director hats and returned to the Temple Theatre to implicitly respond to the implicit roast of himself in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE and struggled to leave behind the DUNE disaster as well as the TZ disaster and get back on his quirky and indie moving painting path when he collaborated again with De Laurentiis, Dourif, Elmes, MacLachlan, Nance, Splet, Stockwell and Patricia Norris-costume designer on THE ELEPHANT MAN and now back as production designer-on his most indie and original moving painting since ERASERHEAD, the twilit, allegorical, dream-like, dream and nightmare filled and Ozian themed indie moving painting BLUE VELVET.

 

“I don’t know if you’re a detective

or a pervert.”

 

        Curiously, after the opening titles, including a second one stating “…A David Lynch Film”, appeared over a sadly and wistfully rustling curtain of blue velvet to the sound of an equally sad and wistful orchestral Main Theme composed by Angelo Badalamenti that evoked the also sad, wistful and circus evoking John Morris composed Main Theme that accompanied the opening titles of THE ELEPHANT MAN, the Ozian imagery began immediately in BLUE VELVET, with the POV falling slowly out of a big blue and cloudless summer sky to the sad but soothing sounds of the allegorical Lee Morris and Bernie Wayne written Bobby Vinton tune “Blue Velvet” [1963].  A gentle descent from the big blue sky that not only implied that Lynch was abandoning the heady intergalactic mysticism of DUNE and literally dropping down from space for a more grounded and down to Earth approach in BLUE VELVET and evoked the POV falling out of the sky at the beginning of the first three episodes of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, but evoked the sight and sound of the farmhouse of Dorothy Gale and Toto-played by Judy Garland and Terry the Cairn terrier, respectively-falling out of the tornado twisting sky and down onto vibrantly colourful and flower filled Munchkinland at the beginning of the allegorical and implicitly Canadian Prime Minister William King and German Chancellor Adolf Hitler roasting Victor Fleming film THE WIZARD OF OZ [1939].  Indeed, to implicitly link BLUE VELVET and THE WIZARD OF OZ, vibrantly colourful and florid Munchkinland was evoked when the POV settled down beside a white picket fence set off with bright red and yellow tulips.  Ironically, however, this peaceful and dreamy opening shot also evoked the final shot of the camera rising up into a clear blue sky at the end of the murderous and nightmarish BODY HEAT to prepare us for more murderous mayhem to come.

        The surreal, overlap dissolve montage of shots that followed established the small Ozian town of Lumberton, whose woodsy three syllable name evoked the equally woodsy and three syllable town of Hollywood, and evoked the woodsy upbringing of Lynch as the son of a father in the United States Forestry Service.  Significantly, the surreal opening montage also evoked the similar opening overlap dissolve montage of shots that established the setting and tone of some of the early and eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Landis indie docufeature films like ANIMAL HOUSE [1978], and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON [1981], the latter beginning with an equally sad and soothing Vinton cover of the allegorical Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers written tune “Blue Moon” [1963], and the despondent and wistful post-TZ disaster twilit and allegorical Landis docufeature films TRADING PLACES [1983] and INTO THE NIGHT [1985].  Thus, Lynch implicitly introduced a Landis snake into the peaceful and harmonious Garden of Lumberton right at the outset, implying that he was addressing Landis in BLUE VELVET. 

However, the blue sky and dreamy beginning also recalled the opening image of a big blue sky in a Tour de France billboard seen in the madcap cycling dream of Herman that began PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, a gleefully dismal, childish, silly and curiously homoerotic film that sympathetically likened the frantic quest of Herman to recover his beloved stolen bicycle to the equally frantic quest of Godard to recover his film form and reconnect with audiences with another popular film, reaffirming the implicit Burton addressing intent of BLUE VELVET.  Indeed, Lynch’s implicit interest in the eccentric new film artist was affirmed by the fact that the name of Lumberton looked and sounded like Tim Burton. 

The POV then switched from that florid white picket fence to the sight and sound of a middle aged man watering the Garden of Eden and Munchkinland evoking plants and flowers of the yard surrounding a Gale farmhouse evoking white wooden house.  Curiously, this scene reaffirmed the moving painting’s interest in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, for the house and its white picket fence recalled the red and white house and white picket fence of Herman, while the sight and sound of Mr. Beaumont watering his fecund property reminded us that Herman also watered his lawn after leaving his house at the beginning of PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE.  Soon this man suffered some sort of stroke, leaving him lying helpless on the ground in a surreal scene, a supine state that evoked the sight of the legs of the equally supine and also squashed Wicked Witch of the East sticking out from beneath the Gale farmhouse after it settled down in Munchkinland at the beginning of THE WIZARD OF OZ, making the stricken man the implicit Wicked Warlock of the East figure of BLUE VELVET. 

Curiously, after the POV dived beneath the grass to ponder brutal and battling beetles, which perhaps symbolized the equally brutal and battling film artists of the allegorical Zone Wars, the POV then switched to a handsome young fellow crossing a fecund field.  This handsome young man turned out to be the implicitly Burton and Scarecrow linked Jeffrey Beaumont-making it fitting that a “Burton” was hidden in the letters that made up Jeffrey Beaumont, and played by MacLachlan-back in town from college to drop by the hospital and visit the stroke victim, who turned out to be his father Tom Beaumont-his T.B. initials fittingly shared by Tim Burton, and played by Jack Harvey-and to watch over the family’s small and indie Beaumont Hardware store.  Significantly, after a moving and emotional visit with his stricken father in his hospital bed, young Beaumont found a severed and Vincent Van Gogh evoking ear in the grass of a vacant lot while walking back home from the hospital.

Taking the ear in a paper bag to the Lumberton Police Department [LPD] headquarters, he was soon talking to LPD Detective J.D. Williams-played by George Dickerson-who evoked the detectives of DETECTIVE.  Meeting Det. Williams led Beaumont to visit the Williams house that night, where he met the detective’s beautiful and implicitly Glinda the Good linked blonde daughter Sandy-played by Laura Dern-who resembled Mary X and Nathalie Baye’s Francoise Chenal in DETECTIVE, and who reaffirmed the film’s implicit interest in Burton.  For the beautiful blonde Sandy recalled Herman’s equally blonde and tenacious girlfriend Dottie-played by Elizabeth Daily-in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE-and the ridiculously blonde and implicitly Dorothy linked Ann Chambers-played by Domino aka SCC-in the twilit, allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Lucas addressing Burton short docufeature animaction film FRANKENWEENIE [1984].  In addition, the name of Sandy Williams evoked that of Sandy Wilson and her then recent twilit, allegorical and implicitly Lucas roasting and dismissing indie docufeature film MY AMERICAN COUSIN [1985]. 

Significantly, at this first meeting, Williams was also able to impart enough overheard info to Beaumont that he quickly found out that the severed ear belonged to a man named Donald James Watts-played by Dick Green-who was the husband of a local, Bigelow resembling and implicitly Dorothy linked singer named Dorothy Ellen Vallens-played by Isabella Rossellini.  The arrival of Williams also soon led to the most open implication that Beaumont was linked to Burton.  For soon after their first meeting in the warm and tree whispering summer darkness on the sidewalk outside the Williams house, young Beaumont showed up in a cool and sleek ’75 Cadillac Coup DeVille that was the orangey-red colour of Pee Wee’s beloved bicycle in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE to pick up Williams outside her high school and drive her away from her Kennedy, Lucas and Spielberg resembling and implicitly linked girl friends and off to Arlene’s diner to discuss the mysteries he had unravelled in Lumberton with the insight she had given him.  Sitting down in his booth seat on the right side of the screen, his head and upper body briefly blocked out the “Lum-“ in “Lumberton” on the sign of a store across the street seen through the diner’s front window, openly linking Beaumont to “-berton” for a second or two.  Thus, with our gift of intuiting things, we saw that Jeffrey’s implicit link to Burton implied that Lynch wanted to teach the young film artist some serious lessons in life and film art and wake him up to how Evil both could be at times in BLUE VELVET.

Evil, indeed, for Vallens turned out to be a complex character who sang “Blue Velvet” onstage accompanied by BLUE VELVET composer Badalamenti on the piano like a sad Lady In The Radiator at a real life theatre of the imagination called the Slow Club, and like an equally sad and wistful Dorothy in Kansas at the beginning of THE WIZARD OF OZ.  Curiously, Vallens liked to dress in black, evoking the Wicked Witch of the West, resembled the Beautiful Woman Across The Hall in ERASERHEAD, and also evoked Lady Torrance-played by Anna Magnani-in the allegorical Lumet docufeature film THE FUGITIVE KIND [1960].  Alas, to preserve the life of her kidnapped husband and son Donald “Donny” Watts jr.-played by Jo Jo Snipes-Vallens was also being forced into depraved acts of sado-masochistic sex by the Evil, impotent, black leather jacket wearing and implicitly Wicked Warlock of the West linked drug dealing thug Frank Booth-played by Hopper-whose presence openly linked another Lynch indie moving painting to the TWILIGHT ZONE. 

Significantly, on top of playing feckless Feck in RIVER’S EDGE, Hopper also played the drunken, dishevelled and Bytes evoking father of Motorcycle Boy in RUMBLE FISH.  This open link to RUMBLE FISH reminded us that the surname of Vallens evoked that of Sherry “Cherry” Vallens-played by Lane-in the other Coppola film of 1983 inspired by a young adult novel by S.E. Hinton, the twilit and allegorical Coppola indie docufeature film THE OUTSIDERS [1983], a film alluded to in BLUE VELVET, implicitly linking Francis “Frank” Booth to Francis “Frank” Coppola.  Curiously, however, Vallens also resembled the possibly Bigelow linked Simone-played by Diane Salinger-in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, reaffirming the implication that Lynch was actually addressing and responding to the first feature film of Burton in BLUE VELVET.  Indeed, with her black wig off, the short haired and pale skinned Vallens resembled Herman, a fitting resemblance given that Herman briefly disguised himself as a woman to avoid a police dragnet while getting a ride with the intense escaped convict Mickey-played by Judd Omen-in a 1959 Edsel Corsair Convertible Coupe in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE.

In addition, the name of the insidious Frank Booth evoked not only that of Frank Coppola and L. Frank Baum, the author of the allegorical children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz [1900] that inspired THE WIZARD OF OZ and the implicit Ozian theme of BLUE VELVET, but also that of the equally insidious Francis Buxton jr., the arch nemesis of Herman in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, whose rotund form and hilarious luv of blockbuster bucks appeared to be Burton’s way of mocking the equally bloated and blockbuster bucks costing but not making DUNE to reaffirm the implicit interest in addressing Burton in BLUE VELVET.  In fact, Frank Booth and Frank Buxton jr. shared the same F.B. initials, implicitly affirming their link, while a Burton evoking “Barton” was hidden in the letters comprising Frank Booth.  The sight and sound of Booth being trailed and supported by an Evil Ozian quartet which included the implicitly Evil Scarecrow linked thug Paul and the implicitly Evil Tin Man linked thug Raymond-played by Nance and Dourif, respectively-also reaffirmed the implicit Burton addressing intent of the film, for the name of Raymond evoked a dachshund named Raymond-played by a dachshund named Rusty James-in FRANKENWEENIE, while the name of Paul evoked not just young Paul Atreides in DUNE but also reminded us that Paul Reubens played Herman in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE.

Curiously, while Beaumont was haunted by nightmares that evoked the nightmares of Herman and Merrick and the prescient dreams and visions of Paul-Maud’dib, BLUE VELVET again lacked the dream worlds and dream people of ERASERHEAD.  However, the indie moving painting was as twilit as DUNE, for the Beaumont surname evoked Charles Beaumont, one of the writers on the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series, as well as a town named Beaumont mentioned in the third Dante episode of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE.  Indeed, the link of BLUE VELVET to the TWILIGHT ZONE was openly affirmed not just by the presence of Hopper, but also by the return of TWILIGHT ZONE tv vet Stockwell as the implicitly Godard linked drug dealer Ben.  The arrival of Hopper as the Wicked, psychotic, impotent and black leather jacket clad Booth reaffirmed the indie moving painting’s twilit ambience and Lynch’s determination to rid Mr. Beaumont, Vallens, Lumberton and Hollywood of disastrous twilit disease, an implication helped along by the fact that the name of Frank Booth evoked TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE executive producer Frank Marshall.

Thus, with young Beaumont shooting the troubled childman Booth dead, near the end, Lynch implicitly triumphed over Coppola and freed film art from the Twilight Zone, the TWILIGHT ZONE, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE and the TZ disaster, and also implicitly hoped that Burton would grow up, take the Dark Side of Hollywood more seriously and make up for the exuberantly awful nonsense of PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE with some more serious and uplifting film art that would free audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre from the twilit shadow of troubled New Hollywood film artists like Coppola, and Hopper for that matter, as he literally was a troubled New Hollywood film artist best known for the allegorical and implicitly Coppola and Lucas addressing indie docufeature film EASY RIDER [1969].  Indeed, this implication that film art was being saved with the death of Booth was affirmed by the fact that his death led to the liberation and rescue of Dorothy, literally linked to film art as Rossellini was the daughter of Italian film artist Roberto Rossellini and Swedish film actress Ingrid Bergman. 

Last but not least, the sight and sound of the POV rising up, as at the end of the first two episodes of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, from a happy, harmonious and healthy Dorothy after she embraced an equally liberated, happy, harmonious and healthy little Donny, in the end, and back up into the clear blue sky from which the POV fell at the beginning of the indie moving painting also implied the hope of Lynch that he would be able to rise back up to headier cinematic heights after releasing all of his anger and frustration in BLUE VELVET.  Indeed, seeing the beautiful blonde Sandy next to her attractive blonde mother Mrs. Williams-played by Hope Lange-evoked the equally blonde and Charlotte and Lolita Haze evoking Mary and Mrs. X in ERASERHEAD, affirming that Lynch was getting back to his indie moving painting roots in BLUE VELVET.  Luckily for Lynch, audiences implicitly sympathized with his plight, for they eagerly embraced this twilit and tragicomic peace offering.

Curiously, Lynch did not have long to wait for an implicit reply to BLUE VELVET, for Coppola again became the first to implicitly reply to the latest indie moving painting of Lynch when he implicitly roasted Lynch again in the implicit form of naïve and eager beaver young American soldier 2^nd Lieutenant Jack “Dildo” Willow-played by D.B. Sweeney-who was killed in the Vietnam War at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film GARDENS OF STONE [1987], a film released on May 8, 1987 whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by the film’s allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE and PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, the presence of Stockwell as the implicitly De Laurentiis linked Captain Homer Thomas, and the presences of James Caan and Anjelica Huston as the Booth and Vallens resembling but more healthy and harmonious couple Clell Hazard and Samantha “Sam” Davis, respectively.  Unfortunately for all, however, soon after the release of GARDENS OF STONE, jurors at the TZ trial that ended on May 29, 1987 found Landis and his four co-defendants-longtime producer pal Folsey jr., first assistant director Dan Allingham, mechanical special effects supervisor Paul Stewart, and helicopter pilot Dorsey Wingo, respectively-not guilty of manslaughter in the TZ disaster, a verdict that no doubt displeased an ex-Eagle Scout from Arrakis like Lynch.

Not long after, Sir Scott implied that the decision of the implicitly Lynch linked New York Police Department [NYPD] Detective Mike Keegan-played by Tom Berenger-to leave the dangerously wealthy and seductive New York socialite Claire Gregory-played by Mimi Rogers-and return to his wife Ellie-played by Lorraine Bracco-symbolized his hope that Lynch would leave behind the self defeating urge to create more dangerously seductive and disastrous blockbuster beasts like DUNE and return to creating better, more personal and creative, and lower budgeted indie moving painting film art like BLUE VELVET at the end of the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature artbuster SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME [1987], a film released on October 9, 1987 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET and DUNE.  Curiously, the following year Coppola implicitly reaffirmed how displeased he was with BLUE VELVET by teaming up with Lucas to implicitly roast Lynch again in the form of the chain smoking and irrepressibly upbeat indie car maker and inventor Preston Tucker-played by Jeff Bridges-who tried but failed to take on the Big Three American car and truck makers with his innovative Tucker Torpedo, in the end, implying that Coppola and Lucas believed that the cigarette luvin’ and equally indie and irrepressible Lynch would also fail to succeed as an indie film artist in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film TUCKER [1988], a film released on August 12, 1988 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the return of Stockwell as the troubled aviator, film artist and inventor Howard Hughes.

The following year, Martin Scorsese implied that it was time for Lynch to leave behind his angst over the DUNE and TZ disasters and get his art life and moving paintings back on track in the Nineties like the implicitly Lynch linked abstract painter Lionel Dobie-played by Nick Nolte-left behind his sorrow over his breakup with Paulette-played by Arquette-and moved on to a new luver-played by Brigitte Bako-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature short film “Life Lessons”, the first panel of a twilit and allegorical cinematic triptych called NEW YORK STORIES [1989], released on March 1, 1989.  For his part, Gilliam implicitly linked Lynch to the fittingly and exuberantly looney King o’ the Moon-played by Robin Williams-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, madcap and implicitly Cameron roasting and toasting indie animaction film THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN [1989], released on March 10, 1989.  Curiously, John Glen also implicitly roasted Lynch that year in the implicit form of the dastardly Milton Krest-played by Anthony Zerbe-and had him take on the lady killin’ and implicitly Lucas linked British super spy James Bond-played by Timothy Dalton-in the twilit and allegorical docufeature film LICENSE TO KILL [1989], released on June 13, 1989.

As for Lynch, the Boy Scout from Arrakis openly alluded and responded to ALL THE RIGHT MOVES, BODY HEAT, LICENSE TO KILL, PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, RIVER’S EDGE, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME, THE DEAD ZONE, THE LOVELESS, Thinner, and YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES when he collaborated again with Badalamenti, MacLachlan, McGill, Nance, Norris, Stewart, Witt, Frances Bay-who played Aunt Barbara in BLUE VELVET-Catherine Coulson-a camera and production assistant on ERASERHEAD-Dwayne Dunham-editor of BLUE VELVET-and Jonathan Sanger-producer of THE ELEPHANT MAN-and surprisingly collaborated for the first time with Hunter-director of RIVER’S EDGE-and Montgomery-co-writer and co-director of THE LOVELESS-and explored the effect of the murder of another teenaged girl on another small, troubled and twilit Pacific Northwest town with another intrepid, young and Sherlock Holmes evoking mystery solver in the twilit, allegorical, dream-like and dream and nightmare filled indie telemoving painting series TWIN PEAKS [1990-91], released on April 8, 1990.

 

“You want to know

who killed Laura?

…We all did!”

 

Significantly, the beginning of the first episode of the telemoving series implicitly affirmed that Lynch was not happy with the outcome of the TZ trial, for the overlap dissolve montage of surreal snapshots that established the scenic and forested environs of the small town of Twin Peaks, WA with its cascading waterfall all to the tune of Badalamenti’s sad and wistful instrumental Main Theme again evoked the similar montage of establishing shots that began the early films of Landis and BLUE VELVET-indeed, the opening image of a robin evoked the robins of light and luv of that latter film-immediately implying that Lynch was meditating on Landis and the TZ disaster again in TWIN PEAKS as much as on Hunter and RIVER’S EDGE.  Indeed, INTO THE NIGHT was openly alluded to later in the series in the form of the twilit, allegorical and Badalamenti and Lynch written Julee Cruise tune “Into The Night” [1990], a sad and wistful tune sung by the Lady In The Radiator evoking Cruise onstage at another theatre of the imagination at the Roadhouse bar in Twin Peaks, affirming the implicit interest in Landis and the TZ disaster in TWIN PEAKS.

Curiously, however, this montage of establishing shots to the tune of the Main Theme of TWIN PEAKS also evoked the montage of establishing still photos of small town life to the tune of the Michael Kamen composed main theme that began THE DEAD ZONE, implying that Lynch might also be addressing Cronenberg again or King or both on other levels in TWIN PEAKS.  The shots during this opening montage of lumber mill machines mindlessly sharpening saw blades, including blades with shark fin shapes, also evoked the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Spielberg docufeature film JAWS [1975], implying that Lynch was also addressing Spielberg on another level in TWIN PEAKS.  Levels within levels and meanings within meanings continued when the opening montage and the Main Theme ended and Peter “Pete” Martell-played by Nance-arrived on the scene.  For the name of Pete Martell evoked film artist Paul Bartel, linked forever to the fateful and fatal year of 1982 by the allegorical Bartel indie docufeature film EATING RAOUL [1982].

This implicit interest in twilit film artists and the TZ disaster was reaffirmed shortly after we met Martell on the fateful 23^rd of February 1989, a day that evoked the July 23, 1982 date of the TZ disaster.  For setting off to do some fishing, Martell soon discovered the body of the beautiful, blonde and Madonna resembling and implicitly linked teenager Laura Palmer-played by Sheryl Lee, whose surname fittingly evoked that of Myca Le-lying on a rocky beach wrapped in plastic like the body of Edmund Walker in BODY HEAT, implicitly affirming that Lynch was responding to that film on one level in TWIN PEAKS.  The fact that the shocked and horrified reaction to the death of Laura by her fellow teens at Twin Peaks High School and the rest of the people of Twin Peaks was so different from the callous indifference shown by the teens of RIVER’S EDGE to the death of the implicitly Lynch film art linked Jamie also implied Lynch’s disapproval of that film.

Significantly, while the body of Palmer also evoked that of Jamie in RIVER’S EDGE, the fact that the first name of Laura began with an “L” and ended with an “a” also implicitly linked her to L.A.  This implicit link to L.A. was reaffirmed by Laura’s surname, for Palmer reminded us that L.A. was the city of the palm trees as well as the city of Hollywood and the angels.  Thus, the implication was that beautiful blonde Laura Palmer symbolized Hollywood film art, and her death symbolized the death of beautiful blonde obsessed Hollywood film art in the TZ disaster.  Indeed, the surname of Palmer openly linked Laura and TWIN PEAKS to the twilit and disastrous events of July of ’82, for a character named Palmer-played by David Clennon-appeared in the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical John Carpenter docufeature film THE THING [1982], a film which was playing in theatres on the day of the TZ disaster.  The name of Laura Palmer also evoked that of Laura Fischer-played by Charlotte Rampling-in THE VERDICT, reaffirming the link of TWIN PEAKS to the fateful and fatal year of 1982.

Curiously, it was fitting that the star of ERASERHEAD found her body, for the ghostly presence of Laura haunted TWIN PEAKS like the equally blonde, dreamy and implicitly film art linked figure of the Lady In The Radiator haunted ERASERHEAD.  A haunting presence that reminded us that another beautiful young Laura named Laura Hunt-played by Gene Tierney-haunted the allegorical Otto Preminger film LAURA [1944].  Indeed, Palmer would turn out to have been seeing an implicitly Lucas linked psychiatrist named Doctor Lawrence Jacoby-played by Russ Tamblyn-at the time of her death, a luver who openly linked TWIN PEAKS to LAURA, and, hence, to Hollywood film art, for the surname of Dr. Jacoby evoked an artist named Jacoby-played by John Dexter-in LAURA. 

Significantly, the mystery surrounding the death of Laura and the identity of her murderer were both eventually solved by the Good, handsome, courageous, creative, patient, perseverant, indomitable and dream haunted and guided Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] Special Agent Dale Cooper-played by MacLachlan-whose black suit and tie and white dress shirt evoked Henry’s daily duds in ERASERHEAD.  Curiously, while FBI Special Agent Cooper evoked the teenage Holmes in YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, and NYPD Det. Keegan in SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME, he also evoked FBI Special Agent Ellis Stoner in Thinner, reminding us that the opening overlap dissolve montage that kicked off TWIN PEAKS evoked a similar montage of photos that kicked off THE DEAD ZONE, a film inspired by the King novel of the same name.  This implied that FBI Special Agent Cooper was linked to King, an implication reaffirmed by the fact that Cooper was as fond of fresh baked pies as Heidi Halleck, the wife of the implicitly Lynch linked Billy Halleck, in Thinner.  A distraught character in Thinner named Leda Rossington whose first name was an anagram of Dale also affirmed the implication that Coop was linked to King rather than Cronenberg.

The Red Draped Room, its wavy lined floor evoking the equally wavy lines of a television on the fritz, seen in the surreal, visionary and helpful dreams of FBI Special Agent Cooper and its importance to the mysterious saga also affirmed the implication that Coop was linked to King.  For the Red Room evoked “redrum” in the allegorical and implicitly Kubrick roasting King indie docufiction novel The Shining [1977], an implicit link to the latter novel reaffirmed by the fact that the Great Northern Hotel near Twin Peaks evoked the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.  In addition, the sight and sound of Laura’s distraught and implicitly Spielberg linked father Leland Palmer-played by Ray Wise-throwing himself on her coffin as it was lowered into her grave evoked an equally distraught Tony Glick throwing himself on the coffin of his son Danny as it rested in its grave at the boy’s funeral in the allegorical King indie docufiction novel ‘Salem’s Lot [1975], reaffirming the implicit link of Coop to King.  At any rate, FBI Special Agent Cooper was not implicitly linked to Lynch, as Lynch showed up in the series as the implicitly self mocking and hearing impaired FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole, whose name was taken from a Lynch resembling Paramount Studios employee named Gordon Cole-played by Burt Moorhouse-in the allegorical Billy Wilder docufeature film SUNSET BOULEVARD [1950], again openly linking Twin Peaks and its denizens to Hollywood film art and film artists in TWIN PEAKS.

Alas, while it was too late for Laura to be saved by Coop or by the Rod Serling resembling and implicitly linked Twin Peaks Police Sheriff Harry S. Truman-the straight man of the Cooper/Truman duo who evoked Tom Skerritt’s implicitly Lucas linked Sheriff Bannerman in THE DEAD ZONE, and was played by Michael Ontkean-it was not too late to implicitly blast Spielberg and imply that he was responsible for the TZ disaster given that he instigated and was in overall charge of the production of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE.  For the eventual rapist/killer of Laura and of her lookalike brunette cousin Madeleine “Maddy” Ferguson-also played by Lee-turned out to be Bob-played by Frank Silva-the Dark Side of Laura’s father, Leland, whose implicit link to Spielberg was affirmed by the fact that his wife and Laura’s mother Sarah Palmer-played by Grace Zabriskie-resembled Amy Irving, Spielberg’s film actress wife at the time.  Curiously, one of the clues that guided FBI Special Agent Cooper to cracking the case was an upper case letter “R” that was found under the right ring finger of Laura, evoking the implicit fear of capitalism in THE ALPHABET.  Just as curiously, the outing of Leland as the rapist/murderer led to the exorcism of Bob to free Leland, telemoving paintings, telefilms, moving paintings, films, film and telefilm artists, audiences and the Temple Theatre from Bob’s Dark and twilit grip, kicking off a whole new era of telefilm and film art in time for the Nineties. 

Alas, after the moving exorcism of Bob midway through season two, TWIN PEAKS quickly lost steam and its way.  The fact that the series also ended with Coop’s Light Side trapped in the Evil Black Lodge version of the Good dreaming Red Draped Room, and his Dark Side-perhaps inhabited by the Evil spirit of Bob, and also played by MacLachlan-on the loose in the real world implied that Lynch was still annoyed that King implicitly roasted him in Thinner.  Indeed, Coop’s liberated Dark Side reminded us that writer Thad Beaumont’s Dark Side, Alexis Machine, broke free and fought a desperate battle with Beaumont throughout the twilit and allegorical King indie docufiction novel The Dark Half [1989], reaffirming that King was being roasted on one level in TWIN PEAKS.  In addition, Lynch also implicitly roasted other film artists like Bigelow, Burton, Cameron, SCC, Daily, Gilliam, Kennedy, Kershner, Kubrick, Marshall, Reubens, Scorsese, Sir Scott, Wilson, Aldo the mynah, Peter Bogdanovich, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, John Milius, Roman Polanski, William Shatner, Paul Verhoeven,  and Zhang Yimou in the implicit forms of Robert “Bobby” Briggs-played by Dana Ashbrook-James Hurley-played by James Marshall-Michael “Mike” Nelson aka “Snake”-played by Gary Hershberger-Shelly Johnson-played by Madchen Amick-Lucy Moran-played by Kimmy Robertson-Leo Johnson-played by Eric Da Re-Catherine Martell-played by Piper Laurie-Douglas “Dougie” Milford-played by Tony Jay-Blackie O’Reilly-played by Victoria Catlin-Malcom Sloan-played by Nicholas Love-Twin Peaks Police Deputy Andrew “Andy” Brennan-played by Harry Goaz-Richard “Dick” Tremayne-played by Ian Buchanan-Nadine Hurley-played by Wendy Robie-Julie-played by Diane Caldwell-Waldo the mynah, Margaret Lanterman aka “the Log Lady”-played by Coulson-Major Garland Briggs-played by Don Davis-Andrew Packard-played by Dan O’Herlihy-District Attorney Daryl Lodwick-played by Ritch Brinkley-Ronette “Ronnie” Pulaski-played by Phoebe Augustine-Jean Renault-played by Michael Parks-Benjamin Horne-played by Richard Beymer-and Jonathan-played by Mak Takano-respectively, in TWIN PEAKS, affirming the implicit link of Twin Peaks to Hollywood, and setting the stage for a twilit trio of Hollywood addressing indie moving paintings from Lynch to come that were openly set in the Greater Los Angeles Area [GLAA].  Curiously, Lynch also alluded to the presciently twilit and allegorical Ted Kotcheff indie docufeature film FIRST BLOOD [1982] in TWIN PEAKS, a link affirmed by the presence of Chris Mulkey as Hank Jennings, for Mulkey played police Officer Warren in FIRST BLOOD.

Significantly, TWIN PEAKS also saw FBI Special Agent Cooper visit the Good White Lodge version of the timeless dreamland Red Draped Room in his dreams at night.  Timeless, indeed, for in one of these dreams he experienced a few nights after Laura was murdered, he had the same dream that Laura had on February 22^nd, the night before she died.  In this past and future dream, Laura and a dimunitive, dancing and implicitly Wilder linked Dream Man-played by Michael Anderson-imparted cryptic insights to help an old Cooper sitting in a chair solve the rape/murder of Laura, the first time a character in a work by Lynch visited a timeless dreamland and interacted with its dream denizens since Henry visited the Lady In The Radiator in her radiator theatre of the imagination in ERASERHEAD.

Just as significantly, the implicitly Besson linked Michael “Mike” Gerard aka “the One-Armed Man”-played by Al Strobel-the implicitly Cronenberg linked Tall Dream Man-played by Carel Struycken-and a mysterious, jovial , hilarious and luvable old waiter-played by Hank Worden-visited Coop in dreams and reality, the first time in a Lynch work that dream characters were met in the real world and real characters met in the dream world.  A noteworthy appearance of dreamworld people in reality that occurred again when Lynch implicitly switched from an implicit and memorably quirky meditation on the twilit death of film art in the Eighties to an implicit and equally memorably quirky meditation on the sunlit rebirth of film art in the Nineties when he donned the writer/director hats and collaborated again with Badalamenti, Bay, Dern, Dunham, Elmes, Jones, Lee, Jones, Lee, Nance, Norris, Rossellini, Zabriskie and Lisa Ann Cabasa, Sherilyn Fenn, David P. Kelly and Ed Wright-who played Jenny, Audrey Horne, Jerry Horne and Dell Mibbler, respectively, in TWIN PEAKS-and MGM-distributors of BLUE VELVET-on the daylit, allegorical, dream-like and Ozian themed indie moving painting WILD AT HEART [1990], a film released on May 19, 1990 and inspired by the daylit and allegorical Barry Gifford indie docufiction novel Wild At Heart [1990].

 

“If you’re truly wild at heart,

you’ll fight for your dreams.”

 

Curiously, and shockingly, after the opening titles appeared, including the second which read “…A FILM BY DAVID LYNCH”, superimposed over billowing flames to the wistful sound of the orchestral Main Theme by Badalamenti, as wistful as the Badalamenti Main Theme for BLUE VELVET, the moving painting began in Cape Fear somewhere between North and South Carolina with the luvable, Elvis Presley luvin’, snakeskin jacket wearing and implicitly Scarecrow linked lunk Sailor Ripley-who also evoked Marlon Brando’s equally snakeskin jacket wearing  and implicitly Presley linked Valentine “Val” Xavier in THE FUGITIVE KIND, and was played by Nicolas Cage, who played Smokey in RUMBLE FISH and the Evil and implicitly Landis linked aspiring gangster Vincent Dwyer in THE COTTON CLUB, respectively-fighting and killing in self defense a Billy Dee Williams resembling thug named Bob Ray Lemon-played by Gregg Danbridge-when he attacked Ripley with a knife in a brutal, bloody and ultraviolent altercation that killed the implicitly Wicked Witch of the East figure of this healing and openly Ozian themed dream.  A defensive murder that led to Ripley serving 22 months and 18 days in prison before rejoining his ditzy but equally luvable, beautiful, blonde, ruby red high heels wearing and implicitly Dorothy linked sweetie Lula Fortune-who also evoked Joanne Woodward’s implicitly Brigitte Bardot linked Carol Cutrere in THE FUGITIVE KIND, and was played by Dern.  Significantly, as 22 months and 18 days was about the length of time it took Lynch to recover from the DUNE debacle with the healing praise for, and success of, BLUE VELVET, the implication was that Ripley was linked to Lynch and Miss Fortune was linked to his indie moving paintings and the fortune and misfortune he experienced with them.

Thus, the sight and sound of Ripley driving Fortune down the Yellow Lined Road across the United States in a ’65 Ford Thunderbird to freedom and happiness in California in defiance of Lula’s controlling, equally blonde and implicitly Old Hollywood and openly Wicked Witch of the West linked mother Marietta Fortune-played by Dern’s mother Diane Ladd-a fiery, passionate and cigarette smokin’ cross country road trip during which the two luvbirds exuberantly rocked and rolled and slowly revealed themselves to each other and to audiences and that evoked the equally madcap cross country flight in LOLITA of Lolita and the luvstruck and implicitly Hitchcock linked Professor Humbert Humbert-played by James Mason-implied the hope of Lynch that he had defiantly defeated and freed himself from his controlling audience and film artist detractors and demons with BLUE VELVET and TWIN PEAKS and was reborn and ready to start anew in the Nineties.  Indeed, the fact when he was not luving Lula, Ripley was also protecting and saving Miss Fortune from the Wicked Marietta and various madcap mobsters and heinous assassins who were implicitly linked to film artists who had implicitly roasted and toasted Lynch throughout the Eighties like the implicitly Cameron linked Mr. Reindeer-played by William M. Sheppard-the implicitly Eleanor and Francis Coppola linked Juana and Reggie-played by Zabriskie and Calvin Lockhart, respectively-their daughter, the implicitly SCC linked Perdita-played by Rossellini-the implicitly Cox linked Marcellos Santos-played by J.E. Freeman-and the Booth evoking and implicitly either Kubrick or Oliver Stone and Nikko the Flying Monkey King linked Vietnam vet Bobby Peru-played by Willem Dafoe, who played the implicitly Cronenberg linked biker Vance in THE LOVELESS-tangling with an impertinent and implicitly Besson linked bar punk-played by Brent D. Fraser-hanging out with the implicitly Landis, Lucas and Spielberg linked good ol’ boys Rex, Buddy, and Sparky-played by Eddy Dixon-who wrote and performed the allegorical theme tune “Relentless” [1981] for THE LOVELESS-Pruitt T. Vince, and John Lurie, respectively-or reminiscing with Miss Fortune about other associated Evildoers and characters they had met in their lives like the implicitly Lumet linked Uncle Pooch-played by Marvin Kaplan-implicitly affirmed that Lynch symbolically triumphed over his detractors and demons and over Hollywood and its Wicked and controlling blondes in WILD AT HEART. 

Indeed, the presence of Harry D. Stanton as the Good and implicitly Sir Scott linked private detective Johnny Farragut who tried and failed to track down Sailor and Lula for the Wicked Marietta affirmed the film’s implicit interest in Cox and Sir Scott, as Stanton played the implicitly Scarecrow linked Nostromo mechanical engineer Brett in ALIEN and Otto’s embittered but faithful and Repo Code quoting and following mentor Bud in REPO MAN.  Significantly, Sailor succeeded in the end with the help of Glinda the Good-played by Lee-who evoked the equally aerial and beautiful blonde fairy in the panto at the end of THE ELEPHANT MAN and looked like SCC’s blonde and Goldilocks evoking Ann Chambers in FRANKENWEENIE in the first intervention by a timeless dream world character in the time and reality and pain plagued world of mortal men and women in a Lynch moving painting-or was the Third Stage Navigator the first in DUNE?  And, given that the final passionate smooch of Sailor and his beloved Lula after he finally signalled his commitment to marrying her by singing her the allegorical and Presley and Vera Matson written Presley tune “Love Me Tender” [1956] at the end of WILD AT HEART evoked the final equally passionate embrace of Henry and the Lady In The Radiator at the end of ERASERHEAD, Lynch also implicitly reassured audiences that his work on commercial television had not diminished his commitment to his own quirky indie moving paintings and his hope that things would work out better for himself and his indie moving paintings, and for audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre, in the Nineties.

Curiously, soon after the release of WILD AT HEART, Warren Beatty implicitly linked Lynch to indomitable do-gooder and crime and criminal battler Detective Dick Tracy-played by Beatty-and had him triumph over the violent and implicitly John Waters linked gangster Big Boy Caprice-played by Al Pacino-and the luvlorn and Dorothy Vallens/Lady In The Radiator evoking nightclub singer Breathless Mahoney aka “the Man With No Face”-played by Madonna-at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced animaction film DICK TRACY [1990], released on June 13, 1990.  As for Marshall, he implicitly linked Lynch to Doctor Ross Jennings-played by Jeff Daniels-and had him triumph over the implicitly Cameron linked spider expert Doctor James Atherton-played by Julian Sands-and a plague of deadly, poisonous and CGI enhanced spiders plaguing the small town of Canaima with the unlikely help of the intrepid and implicitly Spielberg linked bug exterminator Delbert McClintock-played by John Goodman-at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film ARACHNOPHOBIA [1990], a film released on July 18, 1990 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET and the return of Bay as Mrs. Evelyn Metcalf.

Significantly, the return of Lynch in 1990 with another more commercial Hollywood moving painting like WILD AT HEART rather than a more personal, self-financed and film art for film art’s sake indie moving painting like ERASERHEAD was an enthusiastic embrace of the dangerous and seductive Hollywood blonde that Hopper anticipated that Lynch would make that year despite the DUNE and TZ disasters when he had the implicitly Lynch liked Harry Madox-played by Don Johnson-give up on the sweet, wholesome, beautiful and Dorothy evoking brunette Gloria Harper-played by Jennifer Connelly-and give up trying to escape the Wicked and seductive clutches of the beautiful, bewitching, deadly and implicitly Hollywood linked blonde Dolly Harshaw-played by Madsen-and embrace Harshaw at the end of the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film THE HOT SPOT [1990], a film released in August of ’90 whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE and ERASERHEAD, and by the return of both Madsen as Harshaw and of Nance as a small town bank manager named Julian Ward.  Burton also implicitly roasted Lynch that year in the form of Edward Scissorhands-played by Johnny Depp-and implicitly predicted that audiences would turn on Lynch again like the denizens of a stultifying suburb turned on Scissorhands at the end of the twilit and allegorical animaction film EDWARD SCISSORHANDS [1990], a film released on December 6, 1990 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN.  For their part, Albert Pyun and Marvel Comics closed the film year by implicitly linking Lynch to squeaky clean good guy Steven “Steve” Rogers aka “Captain America”-played by Matt Salinger-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film CAPTAIN AMERICA [1990], a film released on December 14, 1990 that was based on characters created by Jolly Jack Kirby and Joshin’ Joe Simon for Timely/Marvel Comics that failed miserably to kick off the Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU].

The following year, Sean Penn followed Hopper from the actor to the writer/director ranks and implied that he was also sending a message to Lynch by having the implicitly Lynch linked small town Deputy Joe Roberts-played by David Morse-not imitate young Beaumont and gun down the Wicked Frank-that is, his troubled, law breaking, violent and implicitly Spielberg linked younger brother Frank Roberts, played by Viggo Mortensen-in the end, implying that Penn believed that it was important to let a little bit of one’s Dark Side remain alive in order to have enough Rebel fire in the belly to create good film art in his first twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film THE INDIAN RUNNER [1991], a film released in May of ’91 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, THE ELEPHANT MAN, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.  Later that month, Sir Scott implicitly roasted Lynch and WILD AT HEART co-writer Gifford in the implicit forms of Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer-played by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, respectively-in the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed indie docufeature artbuster THELMA AND LOUISE [1991], a film released on May 20, 1991 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to WILD AT HEART. 

The following month, and despite the failure of DUNE, Cameron also implied that he thought that Lynch was becoming a blockbuster menace when he implicitly linked Lynch to the new, improved and CGI enhanced “liquid metal” T-1000 Terminator cyborg assassin from the future-played by Robert Patrick-despite the fact that Lynch showed no interest in CGI in his indie moving paintings in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and Ozian themed indie docufeature Zonebuster TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY [1991], a film released on July 1, 1991 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.  Not long after the release of T2, Bigelow implicitly agreed with Cameron, for she implicitly linked Lynch to the doomed blockbuster loot lustin’ L.A. bank robber gang leader and mystic surfer Bodhi-played by Patrick Swayze-who was hunted down by the implicitly Lucas linked FBI Agent Jonathan “Johnny” Utah-played by Keanu Reeves-at the end of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and Cameron executive produced indie docufeature artbuster POINT BREAK [1991], a film released on July 10, 1991 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.  Curiously, Zhang also implicitly roasted Lynch that year, perhaps for sympathizing with the plight of Chinese occupied Tibet in TWIN PEAKS, in the twilit and allegorical docufeature film RAISE THE RED LANTERN [1991], released on September 10, 1991.  Soon after, Mike Figgis also implicitly roasted Lynch in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film LIEBESTRAUM [1991], a film released on September 13, 1991 whose title was inspired by the allegorical Franz Liszt composition “Liebestraum” [1850], which took its title from a German word meaning “luv dream”, a phrase that fittingly evoked the luving, dream-like and dream filled moving paintings of Lynch.

 

“Diane!

This one’s for the road.”

 

Significantly, this luving dream began with the young, earnest, sensitive, thoughtful and implicitly Cronenberg linked architecture professor Nick Kaminsky-played by Kevin Anderson-showing up in Hollywood cadenced Elderstown to watch over his old, ailing and hospitalized adoptive mother Lillian Munssen nee Anderssen-played by Kim Novak-a sight and sound that evoked the return of the equally young, earnest, sensitive and thoughtful young Beaumont to Hollywood cadenced Lumberton to watch over his old, ailing and hospitalized father at the beginning of BLUE VELVET.  Soon Kaminsky met his old and implicitly Lynch linked friend Paul Kessler and his beautiful and beguiling young wife Jane-played by Bill Pullman and Pamela Gidley, respectively.  Significantly, Paul resembled MacLachlan, particularly in TWIN PEAKS, and had a first name that evoked Paul Atreides in DUNE, while Jane evoked Joan Chen’s Jose Packard in TWIN PEAKS and had short auburn hair that evoked the red hair of House Harkonnen in DUNE, affirming their implicit link to Lynch and his film art.

Curiously, Kessler was a developer supervising the destruction of the Ralston Building, a heritage building with an unique cast iron exterior that was going to be replaced with a shopping complex and that resembled the Bradbury Building in BLADE RUNNER, particularly in nighttime rain shots, linking the building and the film to the twilit and disastrous summer of ’82.  Indeed, this implicit link was reaffirmed by the Figgis soundtrack, which sometimes evoked the memorable and haunting Badalamenti soundtrack for TWIN PEAKS, and sometimes evoked the equally memorable and haunting Vangelis soundtrack for BLADE RUNNER.  Thus, it was no surprise to discover that there had been a twilit trio of murders at the Ralston Building decades earlier, which occurred when the wealthiest man in Elderstown, Burnett Ralston III-played by Bernie Sheredy-killed his wife Mrs. Ralston-who, with her blonde hair and white summer dress, resembled Marilyn Monroe, and was also played by Gidley-and her luver, the Orson Welles resembling manager of his department store-also played by Anderson-when he discovered them making adulterous luv in the building, before killing himself.

Intriguingly, over the course of LIEBESTRAUM, Jane and Nick slowly fell in luv, just as their previous incarnations had decades ago.  And, just like their previous incarnations, this swelling romance led to them making adulterous luv in the Ralston building, adulterous luvmaking that evoked the equally adulterous luvmaking of Matty and Ned in BODY HEAT.  Significantly, however, the two adulterous luvbirds noticeably escaped the murders that killed their previous incarnations, despite the fact that Paul had realized the two were falling in luv, had tracked them down to the Ralston Building and had listened to them make luv, in the end.  Thus, using our gift of intuiting things once more, we could see in the successful closing luvmaking of Jane and Nick that Figgis implied his belief that Cronenberg had bested Lynch with his post-1982 film art and had exorcised the twilit ghosts of the TZ disaster, making him indeed rather than Lynch the true cinematic Messiah who had led film art out of the twilight Eighties and into the daylit Nineties. 

Making it fitting that Cronenberg also implicitly roasted Lynch that year in the implicit form of troubled and drug addicted writer William Lee-played by Peter Weller-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film NAKED LUNCH [1991], a film released on December 12, 1991 whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE and TWIN PEAKS and by its Badalamenti evoking soundtrack composed by Howard Shore.  But not before King implicitly affirmed that he was being addressed in the implicit form of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper in TWIN PEAKS by implicitly roasting Lynch again in the demonic form of the diabolically handsome and persuasive Leland Gaunt, proprietor of the insidious Needful Things curio shoppe in the coffee and fresh baked pie luvin’ town of Castle Rock, Maine in the twilit and allegorical indie docufiction novel Needful Things [October 1991], an implicit roast of Lynch affirmed by the novel’s allusions to DUNE, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.

Intriguingly, Lynch implied that he was more irritated by the implicit roasts from Figgis and King and even more infuriated by Spielberg’s most ominous implications of wrongdoing in the TZ disaster yet in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced animaction film HOOK [1991] than he was by the implicit roasts from Bigelow, Cameron, Cronenberg, and Hopper, for Gidley returned as the doomed and implicitly Figgis linked prostitute Teresa Banks, MacLachlan returned as the implicitly King linked FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, and Wise as the implicitly Spielberg linked Leland Palmer when Lynch donned the co-writer/co-executive producer/director hats and collaborated again with Amick, Anderson, Ashbrook, Augustine, Badalamenti, Bay, Coulson, Cruise, Hershberger, Lee, Prochnow, Silva, Stanton, Strobel, Wise, Norris-now back as both production and costume designer-Miguel Ferrer-who played the implicitly Charles Beaumont linked FBI Agent Albert Rosenfeld in TWIN PEAKS-Mark Frost-co-creator and co-executive producer of, and occasional writer and director for, TWIN PEAKS-Gregg Fierberg-producer of TWIN PEAKS-Deepak Nayar-2^nd assistant director in the first year of TWIN PEAKS and 1^st assistant director in the second year of TWIN PEAKS, respectively-Heather Graham, Andrea Hays and Walter Olkewicz-who played Annie Blackburn, indie Double R Diner waitress Heidi, and Jacques Renault, respectively, in TWIN PEAKS-Chris Isaak-whose heartbroken and lonesome allegorical tune “Wicked Game” [1990] figured prominently in WILD AT HEART-and Mary Sweeney-an editor on TWIN PEAKS-to implicitly affirm that TWIN PEAKS was addressing Zone War film artists by bringing the indie telemoving painting series to the big screen to complete a MacLachlan Trilogy and meditate on the fateful and fatal year of ‘82 in the tenth anniversary year of the TZ disaster in the twilit, allegorical, dream-like, dream filled, and Ozian themed indie moving painting TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME [1992], released in May of ’92.

 

“Who are you?”

 

Significantly, the indie moving painting began with a storm of snow on a television set in a motel room to the sad sound of a mournful and elegiac Badalmenti instrumental tune, reminding us that the quirky and haunted town of Twin Peaks, WA first appeared on television and that Spielberg began his career in television.  Then the credits began to appear superimposed over this background of snow, with the second stating “…A FILM BY DAVID LYNCH”.  Then the titles for Sheryl Lee and Ray Wise appeared before all of the rest of the opening titles, implicitly affirming the importance of the implicitly Madonna linked Laura Palmer and the implicitly Spielberg linked Leland Palmer to TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and implicitly affirming right from the outset that Lynch was indeed using his latest indie moving painting to reply to HOOK. 

When the titles ended, the snow and the television were destroyed with a metal bar that turned out to be wielded by Leland Palmer-played again by Wise-who then used the bar to murder Teresa Banks-played by Gidley-immediately and implicitly affirming that Lynch did not like HOOK or LIEBESTRAUM, and was also disappointed with the cancelling of TWIN PEAKS.  Indeed, a snow filled television screen figured prominently in POLTERGEIST, affirming that Lynch was implicitly roasting Spielberg and meditating on the fateful and fatal year of ’82 again in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME as he had implicitly done in TWIN PEAKS, an implication reaffirmed by allusions to INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.  As the indie moving painting progressed, we also discovered that 759 EAK was the license plate on Leland’s ’75 Chevrolet Caprice Classic, reaffirming his implicit link to Spielberg, for the plate reminded us of the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Spielberg docufeature film JAWS [1975]. 

Then the body of Banks, wrapped in plastic like that of Palmer in TWIN PEAKS, floated down Wind River in Oregon.  Soon after, the scene shifted from Fargo, North Dakota to Oregon and some tragicomic adventures with two new FBI Agents, the implicitly Lucas linked Special Agent Chester “Chet” Desmond-his surname evoking Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond in SUNSET BOULEVARD in another allusion as in TWIN PEAKS, and played by Isaak-and the Mark Hamill evoking Agent Samuel “Sam” Stanley-played by Keifer Sutherland-as they investigated the murder of Banks in the tiny town of Deer Meadow near Portland, Oregon, with the help of the strange, red wigged, red dress wearing and perhaps SCC linked Lil the Dancer-played by Kimberly A. Cole-and the lack of help of the implicitly Cameron and Marshall linked Deputy Cliff Howard and Sheriff Cable of Deer Meadow-played by Rick Aiello and Gary Bullock, respectively.  Indeed, the serial number on the plane that brought Special Agent Desmond from Fargo to a private airport in Portland affirmed the implicit link of Desmond to Lucas, for N78038 reminded us that the allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Ralph Bakshi roasting Lucas indie docufeature film AMERICAN GRAFFITI [1973] was released in 1973, that 1980 saw the release of STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, that 1983 saw the release of STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI, and that 1987 was the tragicomic tenth anniversary year of the release of the allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Spielberg roasting Lucas indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE [1977].

Curiously, after irritating the cranky and coffee luvin’ superintendent Carl-played by Stanton-while following a lead at the Fat Trout Trailer Park in Deer Meadow,  Desmond disappeared just as he was reaching for an intriguing ring lying on top of a pile of dirt underneath a trailer home owned by Mrs. Chalfont-Tremond-whose Tremond surname evoked a widow named Mrs. Elaine Tremont who was featured in a newspaper article at the end of ‘Salem’s Lot in another affirmation of the implicit link of Coop to King, and played again by Bay as in TWIN PEAKS.  Significantly, at this point TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME stopped being a dream-like and dream and nightmare filled mainstream moving painting as audiences had experienced since THE ELEPHANT MAN and turned into the most quirky, iconoclastic, dream-like and dream and nightmare filled, and non-mainstream moving painting Lynch had created since ERASERHEAD.  The moving painting also showed little interest in linear time, which was obviously an important change in the approach to indie moving paintings for Lynch, for his moving paintings were all dream-like and dream and nightmare filled non-linear and non-mainstream indie moving paintings forever after TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, a rejection of mainstream cinema perhaps caused by increasing frustration that the Hollywood studios allowed twilit film artists like Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg and their disappointingly supportive friend Lucas to continue to create film art. 

And the dream truly unfolded after Desmond disappeared when the scene shifted to a regional FBI headquarters in Philadelphia where FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper-played again by MacLachlan-met with FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole and FBI Special Agent Albert Rosenfeld-played again by Lynch and Ferrer, respectively-and then all three struggled to come to grips with the puzzling appearance of the phantom of the long lost and perhaps Cox linked FBI Special Agent Phillip Jeffries-played by David Bowie, who openly linked the film to Landis via his role as English assassin Colin Morris in INTO THE NIGHT-a long lost agent whose arrival set off a tv infused dream sequence that reminded us again that Spielberg began his career in television and that saw the return of Mrs. Chalfont-Tremond and her grandson-played by young Lynch lookalikes Austin J. Lynch in TWIN PEAKS and Jonathan Leppell in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, respectively-and the implicitly Wilder linked Dream Man-played again by Anderson-as well as the arrival of the Lumberjack-played by Prochnow-a dream sequence that ended with the dimunitive Dream Man leaving for the safety of the timeless Red Draped Room.

Then TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME became the reverse of TWIN PEAKS.  For instead of haunting the Pacific Northwest town and the moving painting with her ghostly presence, luvly Laura Palmer-looking, dressing and acting more like Madonna than in TWIN PEAKS, and played again by Lee-filled the moving painting with her bewitching living presence in the final days of her life in her painting filled house and room and at Twin Peaks High School in Twin Peaks, WA, days often spent in the company of the implicitly Amy Heckerling linked Donna Hayward-played by Moira Kelly.  Final days in which dreamworld characters showed up in the real world to desperately warn and save Laura, including Mrs. Chalfont/Tremond and her grandson, and the implicitly Besson linked Michael “Mike” Gerard aka “the One-Armed Man”-played again by Strobel-reminding us that dreamworld characters visited Coop in the real world and real world characters met up with Coop in the dreamworld in TWIN PEAKS.  Final days in which Laura also wound up just above the border in Canada working as a prostitute entertaining the implicitly Stone linked Buck-played by Victor Rivers-in a bordello owned by crazy Canuck Jacques Renault-played again by Olkewicz-which was the nightmare world equivalent of the dreamworld Red Draped Room, complete with strange characters making kooky captioned comments.  In addition, Annie Blackburn-played again by Graham-also showed up in Laura’s bed to tell her to pass on the message that the Light Side of Cooper was trapped in the Evil Black Lodge, despite the fact that Laura died before she met Coop in real life, a message that meant nothing until the dream haunted denizens of Twin Peaks returned to the small screen.

Significantly, in these final days, Laura slowly realized that Bob, her nightmare rapist-played again by Silva-was the Dark Side of her father Leland, particularly during a truly nightmarish and blue lit sequence when she was raped in her bed by Bob before he turned into her Dark Father.  A realization that, alas, did not prevent her from being brutally raped and murdered by her Dark Father, in the end, a dark, disturbing and depressing conclusion that implicitly affirmed how and angry and upset Lynch was with Spielberg and with the infuriating implications of twilit wrongdoing in HOOK, and how convinced Lynch was that Spielberg had killed his film art and himself with his inability to prevent the TZ disaster, implicitly affirming that TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was not a prequel to TWIN PEAKS but a cinematic response to HOOK.  An implicit indie moving painting response that reminded us that HOOK was not the only post-82 film of Spielberg that had contained ominous and infuriating scenes that implied that Spielberg had known of the illegal use of Chen and Le after hours on the Landis set of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE but had done nothing to stop their use on that fateful and fatal night, for INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, the twilit, allegorical, Kennedy and Marshall produced and implicitly Cameron addressing docufeature film EMPIRE OF THE SUN [1987] and the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed, and Lucas executive produced Spielberg docufeature film INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE [1989] also contained ominous and infuriating scenes that implied that Spielberg had known about the illegal use of the children but had done nothing to stop their use. 

Curiously, though, after murdering Laura, Leland found himself in the dreaming Red Draped Room, where he appeared to be freed from his Dark Side by Bob, perhaps implying the hope of Lynch that Spielberg would also exorcise his Dark Side, in time.  Last but not least, Lynch also implied his hope in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME that the success of TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART meant that the spirit of his own quirky indie moving paintings and telemoving paintings in particular was immortal and indestructible and would continue to thrive despite the continued Dark and Evil presences of Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Lucas, Marshall and Spielberg.  For midway through TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, Laura dreamed that she had entered and moved around inside a painting given her in the real world by the mysterious and painting luving Mrs. Chalfont-Tremond.  A painting, probably painted by Lynch, of a Red Room that turned in the dream of Laura into a real Red Room in a dream Red House, then into a dream Blue Room in a dream Blue House that Laura wandered around in with the help of Mrs. Chalfont-Tremond and her grandson as if in a maze, as blue as a Blue Rose and blue velvet in an affirmation of the importance of the colour blue in the moving painting, literally linking Laura to, and making her a symbol of, the indie moving paintings and telemoving paintings of Lynch. 

An implicit embodiment of the indie moving paintings of Lynch on one level whose immortal spirit was consoled after her death by the Light Side of FBI Special Agent Cooper in the Good White Lodge linked dreaming Red Draped Room at the end of the moving painting before he had even arrived in Twin Peaks to investigate and solve her murder, implying that Lynch saw the Good White and the Evil Black Lodge dreaming Red Draped Rooms as timeless places, and thus the fact that Cooper entered the Red Draped Room after the murder of Laura in TWIN PEAKS or before her murder in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was immaterial, for all that mattered was that he had entered a dreamworld where time did not exist.  Significantly, the end of the truly moving painting also affirmed the implicit hope of Lynch that the spirit of the film art of the city of the Angels in general, and the spirit of his own art for art’s sake indie moving paintings and indie telemoving paintings in particular, were also immortal and indestructible despite the post-82 resurgence of Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg.  Indeed, a ghostly angel-played by Lorna MacMillan-who had first appeared in a painting in Laura’s bedroom before disappearing and then reappearing and hovering overhead as Coop consoled Laura in the Red Draped Room, implicitly affirmed the link of Laura Palmer to Los Angeles, the City of the Angels and the Palms, home to the Hollywood studios and to Lynch and Spielberg.  The floating and consoling angel also evoked the floating fairy in the panto at the end of THE ELEPHANT MAN, and the consolation that the equally floating Glinda the Good gave Sailor at the end of WILD AT HEART, reminding us that with a beautiful but wayward teenaged blonde living it up and then dying, in the end, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was a curious fusion of TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART. 

Alas for Lynch, the implicit link of the doomed Laura to indie moving paintings was all too fitting.  For, after kicking off the Nineties so well with TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was curiously and disappointingly flat despite memorable dreaming…without dreaming sequences and some movingly nightmarish scenes, coming across more as the two hour pilot for a new TWIN PEAKS indie telemoving painting series rather than as an indie moving painting and, thus, died in theatres as surely as luvly Laura.  In addition, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME also did not resolve the ending of TWIN PEAKS, implicitly affirming that it was replying to HOOK, no doubt explaining why the indie moving painting was hated by most audience members.

Curiously, with its many allusions to TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART, Disney later in ’92 implicitly toasted and roasted Lynch and his efforts to whip Hollywood into shape in the form of the cocky young lawyer with the FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole evoking name of Gordon Bombay-played by Estevez-and his attempts to get an implicitly New Hollywood linked team of misfit hockey players into shape in order to beat the implicitly Folsey jr. linked Coach Reilly-played by Land Smith-and his intimidating Hawks at the end of the twilit and allegorical Stephen Herek animaction film THE MIGHTY DUCKS [1992], released on September 20, 1992.  A year later, Tony Scott implied his hope that Lynch’s luv of indie moving paintings would survive the critical storm unleashed on TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME like the luv of the implicitly Lynch linked Clarence Worley-played by Christian Slater-for his young, beautiful, blonde and newlywed wife Alabama-played by Patricia Arquette-survived the stormy shootout between mobsters and the police at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film TRUE ROMANCE [1993], a film released on September 8, 1993 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART, the return of Hopper as Clarence’s dad Clifford, and the sound of the twilit, allegorical and Isaak written Isaak tune “Two Hearts” [1993] over the closing titles.

An implicit sympathy and fondness for Isaak and Lynch shared that year by Bernardo Bertolucci, for he also implicitly hoped that Lynch would survive the TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME debacle and return a new and reborn indie moving painter and that film art as a whole would be reborn in the tenth anniversary year of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE like the aspects of the dead Tibetan Lama Norbu-played by Ruocheng Ying-were reincarnated in the forms of a twilit trio of children, Gita, Raju, and Jesse-played by Greishma M. Singh, Raju Lal and Alex Weisendanger, respectively-in the daylit and allegorical indie docufeature film LITTLE BUDDHA [1993], a film released on December 1, 1993 whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by allusions to DUNE, THE ELEPHANT MAN, TWIN PEAKS and TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, by the presence of Isaak as Jesse’s father Dean Conrad, and by the fact that it reminded us of Lynch’s interest in transcendental meditation,

The following year, Besson implicitly roasted Lynch in the implicit form of the Wicked and psychopathic DEA Agent Stansfield-played by Gary Oldman-in the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed indie docufeature film LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL [1994], a film released on September 14, 1994 whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by allusions to ERASERHEAD.  Soon after, Burton also implicitly roasted Lynch in the form of exuberantly awful and madcap indie film artist Edward D. “Ed” Wood jr.-played by Depp-in the twilit and allegorical docufeature artbuster ED WOOD [1994], released on September 24, 1994 and a good choice given that some characters and scenes in BLUE VELVET, ERASERHEAD, and TWIN PEAKS did indeed evoke similar characters and scenes in the allegorical Wood jr. indie docufeature film GLEN OR GLENDA [1953].  Last but not least, Roland Emmerich also implicitly and sympathetically linked the two Davids, Cronenberg and Lynch, to Doctor Daniel Jackson and Colonel Jonathan “Jack” O’Neil-played by James Spader and Kurt Russell, respectively-and had them team up to stop the Evil, insidious and implicitly Spielberg linked extraterrestrial transsexual Ra-played by Jaye Davidson-and his blockbuster Earth terminating bomb at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film STARGATE [1994], a film released on October 28, 1994 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, DUNE, E.T., THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL, and the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Spielberg roasting Cronenberg indie docufeature film THE FLY [1986].

For their part, Bigelow and Cameron teamed up again to furiously and implicitly link Lynch to the callous and also implicitly Wicked Warlock of the West linked music producer Philo Gant-played by Michael Wincott-and have the implicitly Coppola and Nikko the Flying Monkey King linked serial killer Max Peltier-played by Tom Sizemore-kill him at the end of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Lucas addressing indie docufeature artbuster STRANGE DAYS [1995], a film released on September 3, 1995 whose implicit Coppola and Lynch addressing intents on two levels was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, RUMBLE FISH, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and WILD AT HEART.  As for Verhoeven, he implicitly and tragicomically likened the rivalry between Lynch and Bigelow to the rivalry between the Las Vegas showgirls Cristal Connors and Nomi Malone-played by the Fenn resembling Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley, respectively-in the allegorical docufeature film SHOWGIRLS [1995], a film released on September 21, 1995 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to WILD AT HEART, the live twilit and allegorical Lynch indie moving painting INDUSTRIAL SYMPHONY NO. 1: THE DREAM OF THE BROKEN HEARTED [1990], the twilit and allegorical Bigelow indie docufeature film NEAR DARK [1987], and the presence of MacLachlan as Stardust Hotel Entertainment Director Zack Corey, the man caught between Connors and Malone.  The same month, Penn implicitly hoped that Cameron and Lynch would put aside their differences and work together as cinematic brothers like the initially antagonistic and implicitly Cameron linked ex-con John Booth-played by Morse-and the implicitly Lynch linked jeweller Freddy Gale-played by Jack Nicholson-eventually put aside their differences and reached out to each other at the end of the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film THE CROSSING GUARD [1995], released in September 1995. 

The following year, Sir Scott implicitly hoped that Lynch would weather and survive the storm of criticism heaped on him after the release of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME like the implicitly Lynch linked Captain Christopher “Skipper” Sheldon-played by Jeff Bridges-weathered and survived an unexpected storm while sailing in the Caribbean with a crew of teen sailors in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature artbuster WHITE SQUALL [1996], released on February 2, 1996.  For his part, Cronenberg implicitly roasted Lynch in the implicit form of the automobile accident and premature ejaculation troubled film/telefilm artist James Ballard-played by Spader-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film CRASH [1996], released on May 17, 1996.  Soon after, Disney also implicitly roasted Lynch in the implicit form of the nefarious Evildoer Justice Frollo-played by Tony Jay-in the twilit and allegorical Trousdale and Wise animation film THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME [1996], released on June 19, 1996.  King also implicitly roasted Lynch again that year in the twilit and allegorical indie docufiction novels Desperation [September 1996] and The Regulators [September 1996], the latter under his Richard Bachman pseudonym as in Thinner.

For his part, Kenneth Branagh ended the film year by having the troubled and implicitly Lynch linked Hamlet-played by Branagh-triumph over the implicitly Cameron linked King Claudius-played by Derek Jacobi-at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film HAMLET [1996], a film released on December 25, 1996 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to DUNE and THE ELEPHANT MAN.  As for Lynch, the Eagle Scout from Arrakis implicitly roasted Lucas when he donned the writer/director hats and collaborated again with Badalamenti, Bowie, Gifford, Nance, Nayar, Norris-back again as costume and production designer-and Sweeney on the twilit, allegorical, dream-like, and dream and nightmare filled indie moving painting LOST HIGHWAY [1997], released in early February of 1997.

 

“You’ll never have me.”

 

Significantly, Lynch’s most dark, depressed, sad, sombre, despondent, depressed, gloomy, lifeless, listless, lonely, wistfully sexy and violent indie moving painting began with Bowie singing the theme song as the opening titles flew into the screen from the distance, opening credits in Yellow Brick Letters that did not begin by stating that this was “…A David Lynch Film” to implicitly affirm how low spirited Lynch was at the time he created this latest indie moving painting, and the POV raced restlessly over a presumably lost highway at night, sending the moving painting immediately hurtling straight into the feverish dream world FBI Special Agent Jeffries vanished into in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, implicitly affirming from the outset that Lynch was continuing his new commitment to non-mainstream film art for film art’s sake indie moving paintings that he had implicitly affirmed in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. 

Then the face of the implicitly Lucas linked tenor saxophonist Fred Madison-played by Pullman-appeared, smoking pensively on a cigarette in the darkness of his house one morning.  Significantly, Madison was alone in the darkness and in the frame of the moving painting, establishing a theme of loneliness with only one character in a frame at a time that continued for the rest of the moving painting.  Soon Madison’s beautiful brunette wife Renee-played by Arquette, who played Frank’s dotty wife Dorothy Roberts in THE INDIAN RUNNER as well as Alabama Worley in TRUE ROMANCE, respectively-appeared all alone in her frame.  Significantly, the allusions to THX 1138 during the moving painting’s early scenes at the Lynch painting filled Madison house, paintings that evoked the Lynch paintings seen in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME to affirm that LOST HIGHWAY was another Lynch indie moving painting, and the location of that house at 7035 Hollis affirmed the implicit Lucas addressing intent of the moving painting, as the address reminded us that AMERICAN GRAFFITI was released in ’73.  Alas, this surreal sequence led to Madison’s apparent murder of Renee.

Just as curiously, while in prison for the murder of Renee, Madison literally returned to a youthful stage known as Pete Dayton-played by Balthazar Getty.  Released by the baffled prison authorities into the care of his implicitly David and Carolyn Cronenberg linked parents Bill and Candace Dayton-played by Busey and Lucy Butler, respectively-Dayton was led astray from the petite and Marcia Lucas evoking brunette Sheila-played by Natasha G. Wagner-by falling in lusty and longing luv with the beautiful, bewitching, young, and implicitly Hollywood linked blonde lost girl Alice Wakefield-also played by Arquette-a sight and sound that also affirmed the implicit Lucas addressing intent of LOST HIGHWAY.  For it reminded us that the implicitly Cowardly Lion linked Curt Henderson-played by Richard Dreyfuss-fell in luv with and frantically followed an equally and fittingly beautiful, bewitching and implicitly Glinda the Good linked blonde in a white ’56 Ford Thunderbird-played by Suzanne Somers-throughout AMERICAN GRAFFITI, a link to that film implicitly affirmed by the white ’55 Ford Thunderbird Renee was seen driving off in late in the moving painting.  Thus, the sight and sound of Alice and Pete killing and robbing the sleazy and implicitly Landis linked porn director Andy-played by Michael Massee-before Alice abandoned Pete after their final luvmaking session, and young Pete turning back to the older Fred soon after, implied the belief of Lynch that Lucas would not succeed or break audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre free from Landis and the TZ disaster by trying to return to the Skyrocking heights of his youthful film art life with a new STAR WARS trilogy as he announced that he was creating that year, just as he had failed to bring the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy to a triumphant trimax with STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI, a deadly denouement implicitly symbolized by the death of Renee.

Last but not least, after transforming back into Madison, Madison and another dream world denizen who, like the One-Armed Man, was unrestrained by the normal laws of time and space, the diabolically mischievous Mystery Man-who evoked Bengt Ekerot’s equally implacable and mischievous Death in the allegorical Ingmar Berman indie docufeature film THE SEVENTH SEAL [1957], and was played by Robert Blake-teamed up to hunt down and kill Wakefield’s controlling “luver”, an Evil and violent porn/snuff film linked gang boss implicitly linked to De Laurentiis known variously as Dick Laurent and Mr. Eddy-played by Robert Loggia, who like Bowie also linked the moving painting to Landis via his role as the equally Evil gang boss Sal Macelli aka “the Shark” in the twilit and allegorical Landis docufeature film INNOCENT BLOOD [1992], allowing Lynch to implicitly triumph over De Laurentiis and DUNE as well on another level in LOST HIGHWAY.  Last but not least, Madison’s resemblance to FBI Special Agent Cooper and the film’s many allusions to TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME-including snow filled television screens, Bill and Renee wandering around the maze of their painting filled house, and scenes lit with the same eerie blue light that was seen during Bob/Leland’s rape of Laura in her bedroom-also implied that Madison’s lonely agony symbolized Lynch’s own lonely agony on another level after the failure of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. 

And so the indie moving painting ended with Madison fleeing from the police in Laurent’s stolen Benz down a lost highway all alone in the darkness as at the beginning of the moving painting and screaming in furious and frustrated agony and perhaps trying to escape the situation by inducing a transformation back into Dayton but unable to do so, implicitly reaffirming that Lynch believed that Lucas would not succeed by returning to his youth with another STAR WARS trilogy.  And so the ending of LOST HIGHWAY also allowed Lynch to implicitly triumph over Figgis, for it reminded us that Pullman played the implicitly Lynch linked Kessler who was defeated at the end of LIEBESTRAUM.  And then the POV began racing restlessly over that lost highway at night seen at the beginning of the moving painting as Bowie again sang the lonely and haunted theme song, bringing the indie moving painting full anguished and tragicomic circle.

Curiously, Depp implied his support for Lynch that year in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film THE BRAVE [1997], released on May 10, 1997.  For his part, Taylor Hackford had the implicitly Lynch linked and FBI Special Agent Cooper evoking young hotshot lawyer Keven Lomax-played by Reeves-move from Florida to a law firm in New York and eventually triumph over its Satan and perhaps Landis linked head John Milton-played by Pacino-at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE [1997], a film released on October 13, 1997 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.  The following month, Verhoeven curiously implied that the triumph of the implicitly Lucas linked Johnny Rico-played by Casper Van Dien-and his fellow gung ho space marines over nasty, extraterrestrial and CGI enhanced bugs that were attacking Earth equated with a triumph of Lucas over Lynch and his indie moving paintings in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced animaction film STARSHIP TROOPERS [1997], a film released on November 7, 1997 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE and ERASERHEAD.

As for Coppola, the sight and sound of the young, naïve, inexperienced and implicitly Quentin Tarantino linked lawyer Rudy Baylor-played by Matt Damon-learning all about the Dark Side of the legal profession before his closing victory over the corrupt and implicitly Lynch linked veteran lawyer Leo F. Drummond-played by Jon Voigt-implied that Coppola wished young Tarantino well, hoped he would triumph over Lynch and urged him to be careful in his film art life at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature film THE RAINMAKER [1997], a film released on November 18, 1997 that was inspired by the twilit and allegorical John Grisham indie docufiction novel The Rainmaker [1997] and whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to ERASERHEAD, THE VERDICT, TUCKER, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART, and by the returns of Madsen, Rourke, and Stockwell as Jackie Lemancyzk, the implicitly Verhoeven linked J. Lyman Stone aka “Bruiser” and Judge Harvey Hale, respectively.  Curiously, Landis then kicked off the new film year by again implicitly linking Lynch to Elwood Blues-played again by an actor now spelling his last name Aykroyd-and by now implicitly linking Lucas to honourary “Joliet” Jake, “Mighty” Mack McTeer-played by Goodman-and having them and a Good super Blues Brothers Band defeat an Evil Louisiana Gator Boys super blues band in a closing battle of the blues bands at the spooky swamp palace of Queen Moussette-played by Eryka Badu-so as to implicitly free audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre from the TZ disaster and the Twilight Zone in time for a neo eon of CGI enhanced film art at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film BLUES BROTHERS 2000 [1998], released on February 6, 1998.

Later that year, Gilliam implicitly replied to STRANGE DAYS by having the implicitly Lynch and Coppola linked Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo-played by Depp and Benicio Del Toro, respectively-infuriate the despondent, disgruntled, lonely, unhappy and implicitly Bigelow linked diner waitress-played by Ellen Barkin-in a memorably tragicomic encounter at the North Star Coffee Lounge in Las Vegas in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and madcap animaction film FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS [1998], a film released on May 15, 1998 whose implicit Coppola and Lynch addressing intents was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, LOST HIGHWAY, STRANGE DAYS, THE LOVELESS, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, WILD AT HEART and the often eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Coppola indie docufeature films YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW [1966], MARIO PUZO’S THE GODFATHER [1972], APOCALYPSE NOW [1979] and ONE FROM THE HEART [1982].  Not long after, Emmerich again implied his support for Lynch by implicitly linking him to the exuberant worm expert Doctor Nick Tatopoulos-played by Matthew Broderick-and having him help the U.S. military triumph over the implicitly Spielberg linked blockbuster CGI enhanced beast Godzilla and the beast’s 200 gremlin evoking spawn at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film GODZILLA [1998], a film released on May 20, 1998 whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE and ERASERHEAD. 

As for Spielberg, he implicitly linked Lynch to U.S. Ranger sniper Private Daniel Jackson-played by Barry Pepper-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film SAVING PRIVATE RYAN [1998], released on July 21, 1998.  Later that year, Landis returned to implicitly link Lynch to Roy-played by Steven Banks-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and implicitly Bigelow and STRANGE DAYS roasting indie docufeature film SUSAN’S PLAN [1998], released on October 29, 1998.  An implication that was ignored for now when Lynch implicitly replied to Spielberg and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN when he donned the director hat and collaborated again with Badalamenti, Francis, McGill, Norris, Stanton, Fisk-the Man In The Planet in ERASERHEAD and now back as production designer-and Sweeney-now a co-writer and co-producer as well as editor-and contrarily teamed up with Disney to abandon the non-mainstream dream-like and dream and nightmare filled indie moving painting phase kicked off with TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME with his strangest due to being straightest and most normal moving painting yet, the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed docufeature moving painting THE STRAIGHT STORY [1999], released on May 21, 1999.

 

“A brother’s a brother.”

 

Curiously, THE STRAIGHT STORY began with the opening titles appearing over a black and star filled expanse of space as at the beginning of DUNE, ERASERHEAD, and THE ELEPHANT MAN, implying at first that the moving painting would be like those indie moving paintings instead of Lynch’s straightest and most normal moving painting yet.  Of course, this star filled expanse of space evoked the star filled expanse of space that began each STAR WARS film, a fitting allusion given that Lucas returned to the Temple Theatre that year with the first film of his new STAR WARS Tragic Trilogy.  Then the stars and opening titles disappeared, and the camera slowly fell out of the sky like the farmhouse of Dorothy as at the beginning of BLUE VELVET, setting the slow pace of the moving painting.  Eventually, the POV landed to the left of a small white wooden house that fittingly evoked Dorothy’s farmhouse.  Just as fittingly, beside the small white house, a short and hefty older woman named Dorothy-played by Jane G. Heitz-sunned herself on a reclining lawn chair, affirming the implicit Ozian theme of the film.

After Dorothy got up from the chair and exited stage right, the sound of someone falling was soon heard from inside the small white house.  Soon after, we discovered that the old and Morrow resembling and implicitly linked and Scarecrow linked widower Alvin Straight-played by Richard Farnsworth-had fallen and was lying prone inside his house, evoking the sight and sound of Mr. Beaumont suffering a stroke outside his house at the beginning of BLUE VELVET.  However, unlike Mr. Beaumont, Straight was not hospitalized for the rest of the film and saved by the exorcising and healing actions of an inquisitively determined, fact finding, mystery solving and ultimately triumphant son or grandson.  Instead, Straight got himself back on the Straight and narrow himself after a quick checkup from the Spielberg resembling and implicitly linked Doctor Gibbons-played by Dan Flannery-that implicitly affirmed that the film was indeed replying to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN on one level.

Curiously, with his white cowboy hat back on his head after his fall and feisty and indomitable demeanour, Straight evoked Morrow’s equally feisty, indomitable and white cowboy hat wearing police Captain Franklin in the allegorical John Hough indie docufeature film DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY [1974], affirming his implicit link to Morrow.  Indeed, the aerial helicopter shots of Laurens, Iowa that began THE STRAIGHT STORY after the opening titles appeared over the starry expanse of space evoked similar aerial helicopter shots of the California countryside that began DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY.  Thus, given Straight’s implicit link to Morrow, it was fitting that Farnsworth, like Morrow, Loggia and Bowie, openly linked THE STRAIGHT STORY to Landis via his character Jack Caper in INTO THE NIGHT.  It was also grimly fitting that Farnsworth openly linked THE STRAIGHT STORY to 1982 via his role as gentleman British Columbian train robber Bill Miner in the allegorical Phillip Borsos indie docufeature film THE GREY FOX [1982].  Curiously, Lynch’s longtime friend Sissy Spacek, who played Straight’s despondent and mentally challenged daughter, “Blue” Rose, also openly linked the film to the twilit and disastrous year of ’82 via her character Beth Horman in the allegorical Costa-Gravas indie docufeature film MISSING [1982].

Significantly, when a phone call informed Straight that his estranged brother Lyle-played by Stanton-had suffered a stroke at his place in Mount Zion, Wisconsin, the equally ailing and double cane wielding Straight set off east from his home in Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion with an ever present pack of Swisher Sweets in his right breast pocket to patch things up with his ailing, mysterious and implicitly Great Oz linked brother.  Unusually, however, Straight did not drive to Mount Zion in a car or a truck.  Instead, he first drove a ruby red Rheds driving mower, and then, when it broke down, an Emerald City green and yellow 1966 John Deere riding lawn mower purchased from the implicitly Lucas linked John Deere dealer Tom-played by McGill-both pulling a hand made wooden trailer that he used as a mobile house, from Laurens to Ozian Mt. Zion alone along the Yellow Lined Road, an obdurate and determined quest that evoked the equally obdurate and determined quest to find and save 101^st Airborne Paratrooper Private James Francis Ryan-played by Damon-in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.  Tragicomically, Straight rolled along so slowly on his two riding lawn mowers that he appeared to be moving…without moving like a non-mutated and fully human Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator in one of the many wistful allusions to DUNE in the film, a slow and thoughtful journey through scenic vistas that made the film come across as a moving landscape painting that was in complete contrast to Madison’s fast and frenzied flight in a stolen Benz down the road to nowhere at the end of LOST HIGHWAY.

Along the way, Straight met people implicitly linked to various twilit film artists and actors and reached out to soothe and heal all of them, such as a friend who resembled Wilder and the implicitly Hitchcock linked Laurens Ace hardware store/manager Pete-played by Ed Grennan.  Straight also met a distraught and despondent Kennedy resembling and implicitly linked woman-played by Barbara Robertson-who hit and killed a deer with her car.  Significantly, an implicitly Cronenberg linked World War II vet named Verlyn Heller-played by Wiley Harker-led to Straight enjoying a drink with Heller in a bar and revealing that he had been a sniper in Europe in WWII like the implicitly Lynch linked Pte. Jackson in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, reaffirming the implication that Lynch was responding to that much more intense and violent film on one level in THE STRAIGHT STORY.  Significantly, the revelation that Straight served in Europe in WWII reminded us that Morrow played Sergeant Chip Saunders in the allegorical telefilm series COMBAT [1962-67], reaffirming the implicit link of Straight to Morrow.

Curiously, a firefighter who looked like a Lucas resembling English bobby-played by Peter Ellis-seen in Trafalgar Square in London in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON reaffirmed the film’s implicit interest in Landis.  A significant reminder, for one of the last people that Straight met before he slowly seeped into Mount Zion on his going somewhere slow journey was an Aykroyd resembling and implicitly linked bachelor Priest-played by John Lordan-reminding us that Aykroyd was a staunch and unswerving friend of Landis before and after the TZ disaster, had a small role in the Landis directed prologue and the Dante directed epilogue of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, co-starred in BLUES BROTHERS 2000, THE BLUES BROTHERS-both of which were alluded to in THE STRAIGHT STORY-and TRADING PLACES, and had another small role as big bad biker Bob in SUSAN’S PLAN.

Thus, using our gift of intuiting without intuiting once again, the implication was that the sight and sound of the scruffy, scrappy but sweet and luvable Scarecrow Alvin finally meeting and reconciling with the mysterious, cranky, unhappy, and implicitly Landis linked loner the Great Lyle, as alone, abandoned, lonely and embittered as Landis in his beat up house in Mount Zion, WI symbolized Landis and Morrow reconciling with and achieving peace with each other, allowing audiences, film art, film artists, and the Temple Theatre to release the TZ disaster, escape the Twilight Zone, end the dread allegorical Zone Wars and kick off a neo eon of daylit, CGI enhanced and Skyrockin’ allegorical film art in the New Year, decade, century and millennium.  Indeed, linked to the Twilight Zone were the two stubborn and blues sufferin’ brothers, for over the course of the barely moving painting we discovered that the Straight brothers had grown up on a farm in Moorhead, Minnesota.  A distinctly twilit town, for Moorhead reminded us that Agnes Moorhead had starred as the harried and unnamed woman who desperately fought off strange and dimunitive aliens from Earth in the allegorical Douglas Heyes telefilm “The Invaders” [1961], a famous season two episode of the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series.

And so Lynch implied his hope wrapped up in an allegorical cinematic luv letter straight from his heart that audiences and film artists would wipe the slate clean of the TZ disaster in 1999 and start over again with a new millennium of film art in 2000.  And so Lynch also implied that Straight’s lonely but determined journey on another level symbolized his own lonely but determined journey since the failure of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME.  And so Kubrick implied his fear that it would be back to the same old twilit and callous Hollywood killing and raping with carefree impunity in the new millennium, destroying artists like the implicitly Lynch linked jazz pianist Nick Nightingale-played by Todd Field-and the mysterious and implicitly Bigelow linked masked showgirl-played by Abigail Good and voiced by Cate Blanchett, respectively-in his last bitter and cynical twilit and allegorical docufeature artbuster EYES WIDE SHUT [1999], a film released on July 13, 1999 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, LOST HIGHWAY, PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, TWIN PEAKS, and TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and the inclusion of the twilit and allegorical Isaak tune “Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing” [1995].  And so, and despite the implicit roasting he received in LOST HIGHWAY, Lucas surprisingly and implicitly linked Lynch to earnest and determined young Jedi Knight Obi Wan Kenobi-played by Ewen McGregor-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Cameron and Spielberg roasting indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE [1999], released on May 19, 1999.  And so the following year, Bigelow implicitly agreed with Kubrick and affirmed that some aspects of, and grudges in, film art would continue in the neo millennium when she implicitly roasted Lynch again in the form of chain smoking poet Thomas Janes-played by Penn-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and implicitly Landis, Lucas, Lynch and Spielberg roasting indie docufeature artbuster THE WEIGHT OF WATER [2000], released on September 9, 2000.

As for the quirky Eagle Scout from Arrakis, he implicitly replied to Bigelow, Cameron, Kubrick, Landis and Lucas when he donned the writer/director hats, collaborated again with Anderson, Badalamenti, Fisk, Montgomery, Sweeney-again a co-producer as well as editor-Scott Coffey-who played Teddy in LOST HIGHWAY-Peter Deming-DOP of LOST HIGHWAY-and Pierre Edelman and Michael Polaire-producers of THE STRAIGHT STORY-and left behind the straight and narrow for another twilit L.A. and more familiar quirky and iconoclastic adventures in the twilit, allegorical, dream-like, dream and nightmare filled, and Ozian themed indie moving painting MULHOLLAND DRIVE [2001], released on May 16, 2001.

 

“This is the girl.”

 

        Indeed, after a twilit trio of opening titles, with the third title proclaiming “…A FILM BY DAVID LYNCH” to implicitly affirm the greater confidence that Lynch had in this latest indie moving painting, the moving painting headed straight into the dreamworld as in LOST HIGHWAY by beginning with a surreal jumble of jitterbugging young couples in Fifties clothing that evoked the high school sock hop at the beginning of AMERICAN GRAFFITI, with one of the dancing couples evoking and resembling a young George and Marcia Lucas and another a young Kennedy and Marshall, and one of the dancing women evoking and resembling Garland and another a young Sarah Polley, young dancing couples who faded away into the sight of a brilliantly lit, pretty, petite, beaming and Lady In The Radiator evoking young blonde woman-played by Naomi Watts-centred between two elderly companions who evoked Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip-played by Jeanne Bates and Dan Birnbaum, respectively-who basked in the cheers and claps of a delighted and unseen crowd.  Significantly, the pretty young blonde resembled Gloria Price-played by Irene Kane-in the allegorical and implicitly Hitchcock toasting Kubrick indie docufeature film KILLER’S KISS [1955], the first feature film of Kubrick.  Indeed, the dancing couples the blonde emerged from affirmed the link, reminding us that Kane was a hostess at a lonely hearts dance club with the Hollywood cadenced name of Pleasureland in KILLER’S KISS, immediately and implicitly affirming that Lynch was addressing Kubrick on one level in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

        Then the twilit trio and the cheers and claps faded away and were replaced by a mysterious bedroom and a bed with steamy ruby red sheets before fading to black.  Then the POV shifted to the sight of a long black 1997 Cadillac De Ville Stretched Limousine or 1995 or ’98 Lincoln Town Car Stretched Limo with the ominously twilit and disastrous license plate of 2GAT123 being driven slowly and with the same ponderous pace and sense of inescapable menace seen, heard, and felt throughout EYES WIDE SHUT along winding Mulholland Drive through the nighttime Hollywood Hills above the beautiful and bewitching twinkling vista of L.A. while the opening titles slowly appeared and then vanished on the screen.  Significantly, the long black limo evoked the equally long black Chrysler New Yorker limousine driven by the shrewd and sensitive but strong, steely and implicitly Glinda the Good linked bodyguard/chauffeur Lornette “Mace” Mason-played by Angela Bassett-in STRANGE DAYS, implicitly affirming from the outset that Lynch was also addressing Bigelow on one level in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.  Indeed, when the opening titles ended, the POV shifted inside the back of the limo where we found a beautiful, bewitching, dark brown or black eyed, Beautiful Woman Across The Hall evoking and implicitly Bigelow linked young brunette woman-played by Laura E. Harring-wearing pearl earrings and a Wicked black dress sitting all alone like Madison at the end of LOST HIGHWAY instead of Mason’s most pesky and non-paying client, the implicitly Lucas and Scarecrow linked ex-Los Angeles Police Department [LAPD] vice squad officer and intinerant SQUID playback peddler Leonard “Lenny” Nero-played by Ralph Fiennes-in STRANGE DAYS, affirming the film’s implicit interest in Bigelow.

        Significantly, while implicitly linked to Bigelow, this beautiful and bewitching brunette also evoked the sight and sound of the implicitly Besson linked Doctor William “Bill” Harford-played by Tom Cruise-being driven slowly in the back of a taxi through nighttime New York and into the country to a castle evoking mansion where a strange and masked orgiastic party was held in EYES WIDE SHUT.  A fitting reminder, for suddenly the Aykroyd resembling and implicitly linked limo driver-played by Scott Wulff-stopped the car and threatened to shoot the shocked and bewitching brunette, reminding us of the suspicious death of the Laura Palmer evoking Amanda “Mandy” Curran-played by Julienne Davis-in EYES WIDE SHUT. 

Curiously, however, as the shocked brunette pondered the gun pointed at her, she was ironically saved by a speeding car that crashed into the long black limo like an Ozian tornado, a “surprise” crash that we had been prepared for by the ominous and disastrous license plate that killed the sinister and homicidal driver and his equally menacing companion in the front passenger seat-played by A.I. Smithee-and an accident that perhaps symbolized the shocking failure of Bigelow’s masterpiece, STRANGE DAYS, to be embraced by audiences and the all too quick exit of that fine and fearless feature film from the Temple Theatre, a failure and quick exit that would have shocked and depressed Bigelow as much as an unexpected car accident.  And then all was silence, smoke and entangled cars in the darkness on Mulholland Drive, evoking the getaway car abandoned by the ex-Presidents Gang pondered by police officers and FBI Agents like Utah in the darkness on Mulholland Drive at the beginning of POINT BREAK to reaffirm the implicit interest in Bigelow on one level in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.

        Wandering from the wreck in a daze in her Wicked black dress with one pearl earring still in place like a lost, confused but still living Wicked Witch of the East, the beautiful and bewitching brunette stumbled all alone like the characters in LOST HIGHWAY down the Hollywood Hills and into the fecund and florid Ozian Munchkinland streets below.  Curiously, she walked by a street sign reading Franklin Ave 7400, reminding us that Morrow played Capt. Franklin in DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY, a film released in 1974, to implicitly link the beginning of MULHOLLAND DRIVE to THE STRAIGHT STORY.  Soon after, the bewitching brunette walked past a sign reading Sunset Blvd before stumbling into and falling asleep in the garden of an apartment or condo building, a sequence filled with allusions to AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, implicitly affirming that Landis was also being addressed on another level in the film. 

Then it was the next morning, and the sun shone full and bright on that L.A. apartment or condo or conapt building situated in a naturally lush and colourful garden that implicitly affirmed the link of L.A. to the equally colourful and lush Munchkinland that swept away the grim and black and white Dirty Thirties Kansas prologue of THE WIZARD OF OZ.  Soon the mystery brunette was woken up by the sound of a taxi driver-played by Desi Singh-carrying the huge and heavy travelling trunk of a red haired, fifty-something and perhaps Glinda the Good linked female passenger-played by Maya Bond-out of the apartment building and into the trunk of his taxi, causing the mysterious and bewitching brunette to sneak into the building and open apartment of the departing red haired woman and hide inside, before the departing red head returned and locked up her apartment.

        Curiously, as the Wicked mystery brunette laid down her head to sleep and perhaps to dream, the POV shifted not far away to an all day breakfast restaurant called Winkie’s also located on Sunset Boulevard, a name that reminded us that the land of the Winkies was, along with the lands of the Gillikins, Munchkins and Quadlings, one of the four lands of Oz, openly affirming the Ozian theme of MULHOLLAND DRIVE.  Soon one of the patrons of Winkie’s, the Landis resembling and implicitly linked Dan-played by Patrick Fischler-revealed to his friend, therapist or friendly therapist, the possibly Folsey jr. linked Herb-played by Michael Cooke-that he was haunted by two similar terrifying nightmares set in that very same Winkie’s but at a truly twilit time that was neither “…day or night, kind of half night” that involved confronting a frightening person living behind the restaurant.  Convincing Dan that he had to go outside to face down this nightmare, Herb paid for their breakfasts and led the worried and anxious Dan outside to the back of the restaurant, a sequence done mostly in close-ups to isolate the characters as in LOST HIGHWAY. 

Curiously, and alas for Dan, at this point a third twilit nightmare that aped the first two began, leading to him being literally scared to death by a Wicked Witch of the West resembling but implicitly Scarecrow linked person with a dirty face and hooded black clothing-reminding us that the Wicked Witch of the West cruelly ruled the Winkies in THE WIZARD OF OZ, and played by Bonnie Aarons-whose dirty face and hood evoked the sunburnt vampires of the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Lucas addressing Bigelow indie docufeature film NEAR DARK [1987] to reaffirm that the film was addressing Bigs on one level.  And so with his death, Dan became the implicit Wicked Witch of the East linked character of the Ozian themed film whose death opened wide the gates of the healing spiritworld dream.  Opened wide, indeed, for the death of Dan led to a series of shots of men talking to each other on the phone about the missing and bewitching dark tressed beauty hidden in the conapt, kicked off by Mr. Roque, the mysterious Dream Man and head Munchkin-played by Anderson.

        The scene then switched to LAX and the arrival perhaps later that same morning of the twilit trio who were seen at the end of the jitterbug dance contest prologue, the pretty, perky, petite, innocent, naïve and perhaps Polley and implicitly Dorothy linked young blonde woman and the elderly couple who not only evoked Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, but were also implicitly linked to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry-played by Clara Blandick and Charley Grapewin, respectively-in THE WIZARD OF OZ.  Bidding farewell to each other outside the airport, the young blonde and the elderly woman revealed that their respective names were Betty and Irene, which was a fitting name for the former, given that she was wearing a shiney spangled pink top very similar to that favoured by the frustrated hair stylist Elizabeth “Betty” Johnson-played by Laura F. Boyle-in SUSAN’S PLAN, and which was also a fitting name for the latter, as she again evoked Irene Kane’s Gloria Price in KILLER’S KISS.

        Leaving the airport by taxi, Betty soon arrived at the same apartment/condominium complex the mystery brunette stumbled into and hid inside, one with an inner courtyard that evoked the apartment complex with an inner courtyard where Price and her implicitly Hitchcock linked boxer luver David “Davy” Gordon-played by Jamie Smith-lived in in KILLER’S KISS to reaffirm that Kubrick was being implicitly addressed in the film on one level.  Curiously, Betty was led by the little dog hectoring, Munchkin hairdo sporting and Wicked black dress wearing conapt superintendent Coco Lenoix-played by Old Hollywood starlet Ann Miller-to the painting filled apartment/condo of Betty’s Aunt Ruth, who turned out to be the red headed middle aged woman we had seen leaving earlier.  We also soon found out that Betty was staying in the ruthless apartment/condo for a while in the hopes of landing a part in a real Hollywood film, for she was filled with dazzling dreams of magical movie star fame and fortune.  Alas for Betty, the conapt evoked the London apartment of the perhaps Christiane Kubrick linked Alex Price-played by Jenny Agutter-in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, immediately draping her hopeful stay in L.A. in a twilit and ominous shroud.

        Quickly discovering the mystery brunette taking a shower as she explored the conapt, the aspiring film actress revealed to her that she was the fittingly Hollywood cadenced Betty Elms from Deep River, Ontario, evoking the Deep River apartment building in which lived Dorothy Vallens in BLUE VELVET.  Unable to remember who she was due to head injuries suffered in the car accident, the mysterious brunette woman adopted the name “Rita” from a one sheet on the wall for the allegorical and implicitly Hitchcock roasting Charles Vidor docufeature film GILDA [1946], a film released the year that Lynch was born that starred Rita Hayworth as the eponymous Gilda and that constantly evoked the allegorical and implicitly Jack Warner roasting Michael Curtiz film CASABLANCA [1942].  Fittingly, on one of the painting filled walls of the apartment, paintings that reminded us that we were experiencing another Lynch indie moving painting in an apartment whose winding hallways evoked the winding hallways of the implicitly moving painting embodying blue painting house in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME to reaffirm the moving painting nature of the piece, hung a reproduction of the allegorical Johannes Vermeer painting “The Girl With A Pearl Earring” [1655], reminding us that the accident left “Rita” wearing one pearl earring, and that the painting was also alluded to in THE WEIGHT OF WATER, reaffirming the implicit link of “Rita” to Bigelow.  Indeed, with her head wrapped in a towel after the shower, the bewitching mystery brunette looked like the turban wearing girl in the painting, affirming the link of “Rita” to paintings in general and to “The Girl With A Pearl Earring” in particular, making it fitting that “art” was hidden in “Rita” and reminding us that Bigelow was a talented painter like Lynch before she embraced film art, reaffirming the implicit link of “Rita” to Bigelow.

        Then the POV switched to daylight helicopter shots of downtown L.A. that evoked similar shots of downtown L.A. on the night of December 31, 1999 in STRANGE DAYS to also affirm the implicit interest in Bigelow in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.  Soon after we found ourselves in the conference room of Ryan Entertainment, where the tragicomic sight and sound of the young and implicitly Burton and Tin Man linked film artist Adam Kesher-played by Justin Theroux-and his manager Robert Smith-played by David Schroeder-meeting with producer Ray Hott-played by Robert Katims-and one Mr. Darby-played by Marcus Graham-and two menacing financiers, Luigi and Vincenzo Castigliane-played by Badalamenti and Dan Hedaya, respectively-in the conference room of Ryan Entertainment to discuss the female lead in the next twilit and allegorical Kesher docufeature film THE SILVIA NORTH STORY [200?].  Alas for Kesher, Smith, Hott and Darby, the Castigliane brothers quickly confirmed their sinister appearances by insisting that Kesher only cast a pretty young blonde actress with the Camilla Bowles and Cecil Rhodes evoking name of Camilla Rhodes-played by Melissa George-for the lead role in THE SILVIA NORTH STORY.  Outraged by their insistence, Kesher stormed out of the meeting and the building housing Ryan Entertainment in downtown L.A. and ran straight into an extra who linked the film openly to SUSAN’S PLAN.

        For on the sidewalk outside the building, Kesher met a valet played by Daniel Rey, who played a gay hair stylist named Enrique in SUSAN’S PLAN.  The open link reminded us that SUSAN’S PLAN revolved around a madcap plot by a bunch of twilit and implicitly film artist linked characters led by the implicitly Bigelow linked Susan-played by Natassja Kinski-to kill her implicitly Coppola linked ex-husband with the Mulholland evoking name of Paul Holland-played by Adrian Paul.  As the implicitly Lynch linked Roy, whose rundown and twilit bungalow was numbered 20133, was the least roasted character in SUSAN’S PLAN, perhaps Lynch was moved to respond to the Landis film because he was disappointed by the presence of Boyle, who played Donna Hayward in TWIN PEAKS, as Betty in SUSAN’S PLAN, a shrewdly ditzy character who spent most of the film wearing a Barbie t-shirt under her spangly pink top, openly and wryly linking her to product placement filled and movie tie-in merchandise promoting beastly blockbuster filmmercials rather than serious film art for film art’s sake indie moving paintings and equally indie docufeature artubusters like those of Bigelow, and also got away with the murder of Holland, in the end.

Rey’s valet reaffirmed the film’s open link to SUSAN’S PLAN, for he handed Kesher the keys to his grey 1997 Porsche Boxster, a car which resembled the equally grey ’97 BMW Z3 driven by Holland shortly before he was gunned down in SUSAN’S PLAN.  After pausing to thoughtfully smash in the front windshield of the Castigliane brother’s familiar long black limo, Kesher fled the scene and returned to his hilltop L.A. home with its wide open view of the city below, where his day got worse.  For wandering into the house, he surprised his wife Lorraine-who resembled Kinski’s Susan in SUSAN’S PLAN, and was played by Lori Heuring-in bed with the big, muscular, handsome, goateed and implicitly Cowardly Lion linked Gene the pool maintenance man-played by Billy Ray Cyrus-linking Kesher to Water to affirm his implicit link to the water frozen Tin Man-played by Jack Haley-in THE WIZARD OF OZ and leading to a dustup with Gene and Lorraine that was lost by Kesher, to his increased embarrassment and despair. 

Driving off and talking by cellphone to his assistant Cynthia-played by Katharine Towne-Kesher discovered that he was fired and that THE SILVIA NORTH STORY was shut down by Hott due to his refusal to accept Rhodes as lead actress.  Going into hiding at the Park Hotel in downtown L.A., Kesher met the Kubrick resembling and implicitly linked manager Cookie-played by Geno Silva-affirming again that Lynch was also implicitly addressing Kubrick on one level in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.  From here another phone call with Cynthia led Kesher to drive to a nearby corral for a strange encounter with the mysterious and implicitly Great Oz linked Cowboy-played by Montgomery, who openly linked the film and Camilla/Rita to Bigelow due to being the co-writer/co-director of THE LOVELESS-who promised to help him solve his problems.

        Curiously, as the story of Kesher progressed oddly, the story of Betty and “Rita” progressed equally oddly, with lots of money and an unusually shaped blue key found in the purse of “Rita”, Betty and “Rita” briefly believing that the real name of “Rita” was Diane Selwyn, a steamy audition by Betty for a film produced by the implicitly Lucas linked Wally Brown-played by James Karen, who openly linked the film to 1982 and POLTERGEIST via his role as the callous real estate man Mr. Teague in that film-Betty’s failure to audition for Kesher’s film, the discovery of the real and dead Diane Selwyn-played by Johanna Stein-at another conapt building in L.A. and Betty and “Rita” falling in luv with each other.  Soon after a steamy luv scene in the bed of Aunt Ruth’s conapt one dreamy night, the two luvbirds also woke up and taxied off into the night to visit a real live theatre of the imagination in downtown L.A. called Club Silencio late in the moving painting.  Here the dynamic duo experienced a moving and memorable Spanish language performance of the allegorical and Joe Melson and Roy Orbison written Orbison tune “Crying” [1961] by Rebekah Del Rio as herself, who evoked a lonesome and auburn haired Lady In The Radiator and resembled Sydney Walsh’s FBI employee Miss Deer in POINT BREAK. 

Significantly, here at the Silencio, “Rita”, now wearing a peroxide blonde wig that caused her to resemble Iris-played by Brigitte Bako-in STRANGE DAYS to reaffirm her implicit link to Bigelow, found a small and mysterious blue box in her purse that evoked Reverend Mother Mohiam’s pain amplifying and human testing box in DUNE.  Just as significantly, after leaving the club and returning to Aunt Ruth’s conapt, “Rita” also found that the unusually shaped blue key opened the blue box, releasing the full and unrestrained power of the logically illogical dream powering the events of MULHOLLAND DRIVE, a dream that saw “Rita” transform into a successful film star and bewitching wife of Kesher also named Camilla Rhodes with the help of the Cowboy.  Curiously, while bewitching and mysterious “Rita” slowly transformed into successful movie starlet Camilla, exuberant and hopeful Betty transformed into the dull eyed, limp haired and bitterly disappointed, angry, unsuccessful, lonely and solitary film actress Diane Selwyn, a transformation that included allusions to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY to implicitly reaffirm that the film was addressing him on one level.  And then the film ended almost the way it began, with Betty/Diane now sitting all alone in the back of the black limo being driven through the darkness along Mulholland Drive until the car stopped, Camilla/“Rita” appeared outside and led Betty/Diane up rather than down the night shrouded hillside to a party at the Kesher house where Kesher announced that Camilla/“Rita” and himself were going to get married, an announcement that made Betty/Diane so bitter and angry that she hired the woefully inept, tragicomic and implicitly Gilliam linked hitman Joe-played by Mark Pellegrino-to kill Rhodes.

Soon after Betty/Diane committed suicide, a suicide that curiously occurred after the United Kingdom linked Canadian actress was terrorized by the Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip evoking Irene and her companion after they had been released from miniature imprisonment by the dirty faced Scarecrow behind Winkie’s, a desperate suicide that caused Betty/Diane to die and disappear like the Wicked Witch of the West and truly led to silencio, spoken sadly by the mysterious Blue Haired Lady-played by Cori Glazer-back at the Club Silencio before fading to black, in the end.  Thus, using our gift of intuiting things again, we could see that the transformation of the lost, confused, amnesiac and beautiful bewitching brunette “Rita” into the successful film actress Camilla and wife of Kesher and her triumph over the initially sweet Betty transformed into angry, bitter, solitary and suicidal Diane implied that Lynch believed that Bigelow would triumph over the failures of STRANGE DAYS and THE WEIGHT OF WATER to find audiences and also triumph over Landis and SUSAN’S PLAN and even Kubrick and EYES WIDE SHUT with another fine feature film, while Polley would not succeed as an indie film artist like her mentor Bigelow. 

 

 

 

And so Lynch kicked off his indie film art life in particular and indie film art in general in the neo millennium with one of his finest and most thought provoking indie moving paintings.  And so later that year, Spielberg implicitly roasted the indie and idiosyncratic Lynch in the implicit form of odd Mecha android boy David-played by Joel H. Osment-and implied that Lynch would fail to fully connect with audiences like David was unable to fully connect with all of the people he met on his journey throughout the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE [2001], a film released on June 26, 2001 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE, THE ELEPHANT MAN and TWIN PEAKS.  And so a year after its memorable and haunting release, MULHOLLAND DRIVE became one of the first Lynch indie moving paintings to be released on DVD with an insert in the case that gave audiences “…David Lynch’s 10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller” and hilariously unhelpful “tips” like “…notice appearances of the red lampshade” and “…notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup”.  However, despite how silly and unhelpful his “tips” were, Lynch at least finally and openly acknowledged for the first time that his indie moving paintings were allegorical and filled with signs and symbols that, if interpreted correctly with the gift of intuiting things, would lead to solving his cinematic mysteries and, eventually, to blissful and eternal transcendental enlightenment in this life and the next.

And so the following year, Cronenberg curiously commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the TZ disaster by ignoring Landis and implicitly roasting Lynch again in the implicit form of troubled childman Dennis “Spider” Cleg-played by Fiennes as an adult, and by Bradley Hall as a boy, respectively-who killed his sweet, kind, brunette and implicitly Glinda the Good linked mother-played by Miranda Richardson-as a boy when he became convinced that she had been murdered by his father Bill-played by Gabriel Byrne-and replaced by an Evil and implicitly Wicked Witch of the West and Hollywood linked blonde-also played by Richardson-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film SPIDER [2002], a film released on May 21, 2002 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to DUNE, ERASERHEAD, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, THE ELEPHANT MAN and THE GRANDMOTHER.  And so Neil Jordan implicitly came to the defense of Lynch soon after, as the painting and gambling luving, down on his luck and implicitly Lynch linked thief Bob Montana-played by Nolte-triumphed over the implicitly Cronenberg linked police Inspector Roger-played by Tcheky Karyo-and the implicitly Cameron linked bodybuilder Phillipa-played by Julien Mourel-at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film THE GOOD THIEF [2002], a film released on September 6, 2002 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to DUNE, LOST HIGHWAY, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, THE DEAD ZONE, THE WIZARD OF OZ, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and WILD AT HEART.  Then Sir Peter Jackson closed off the year by implicitly linking Lynch to the far sighted Faramir of Gondor-played by David Wenham-and had him join the Light Forces of Good in a desperate battle to defeat the implicitly Lucas linked Dark Forces of Evil Sauron and bring health and harmony back to the Third Age of this Middle Earth between Heaven and Hell in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature artbuster THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS [2002], a film released on December 5, 2022 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to TIME BANDITS.

The following year, Keith Gordon implicitly mocked Lynch’s luv of strange and surreal imagery, people lip synching to classic pop songs, and his obsession with ambiguously murderous mystery-All clues!  No solution!-in all of his indie moving paintings and indie telemoving paintings since BLUE VELVET in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film THE SINGING DETECTIVE [2003], released on January 17, 2003.  Later that year, Jonathan Mostow curiously and implicitly linked Lynch to the new CGI enhanced female TX Terminator-played by Kristanna Loken-despite the fact that CGI was still absent from his indie moving and telemoving paintings in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES [2003], released on July 2, 2003.  As for Burton, he unexpectedly and implicitly completed a Lynch Trilogy in fitting Edwardian fashion by implicitly linking Lynch to the exuberant and tale telling Edward Bloom-played as a young man by McGregor, and as an older man by Albert Finney, respectively-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced animaction arbuster BIG FISH [2003], released on December 4, 2003.  The Sir Jackson ended the year by having the implicitly Lynch linked Faramir of Gondor-played again by Wenham-join the Light Forces of Good in triumphing over the implicitly Lucas linked Dark Forces of Evil Sauron at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature artbuster THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING [2003], a film released on December 1, 2003 whose implicit interest in Lynch on one level was affirmed by the presence of Gothmog the Balrog-played by Lawrence Makoare-whose hideously deformed face evoked that of Merrick in THE ELEPHANT MAN.

The following year was the twentieth anniversary year of the release of DUNE, making it fitting that Columbia-TriStar Pictures and Marvel Comics had the implicitly Cronenberg linked DAILY BUGLE photographer Peter Parker aka “Spider-Man”-played by Tobey Maguire-battle and finally triumph over the implicitly Lynch linked Doctor Otto Octavius aka “Dr. Octopus”-played by Alfred Molina-at the end of the twilit, allegorical, and CGI enhanced Sam Raimi super satirical animaction film SPIDER-MAN 2 [2004], a film released on June 25, 2004 whose implicit Lynch roasting intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to DUNE and MULHOLLAND DRIVE and that helped successfully rejuvenate the  MCU.  Curiously, a year later, Ang Lee also implicitly linked Lynch to the cowboy Ennis Del Mar-played by Heath Ledger-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufiction film BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN [2005], released on September 2, 2005.  Shortly thereafter, Jason Reitman implicitly roasted Marvel and toasted Lynch in the form of the indomitably indie, iconoclastic, eccentric, outrageous and cigarette luvin’ Nicholas “Nick” Naylor-played by Aaron Eckhart-Vice President of the Academy of Tobacco Studies [ATS], a Washington based tobacco lobbyist group who triumphed over the implicitly Lee linked Captain-played by Robert Duvall-at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film THANK YOU FOR SMOKING [2005], a film released on September 9, 2005 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to MULHOLLAND DRIVE and SPIDER-MAN 2.

The following year, Richard Kelly implicitly linked Lynch to the aspiring film artist and time traveller Boxer Santoros-played by Dwayne Johnson-an indie character trapped between battling and implicitly film artist linked and CGI supporting Republicans and implicitly film artist linked and CGI rejecting Neo-Marxists in the tragicomic twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and Ozian themed indie docufeature film SOUTHLAND TALES [2006], a film released on May 21, 2006 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent on one level was affirmed by allusions to DUNE, LOST HIGHWAY and MULHOLLAND DRIVE and by the return of Del Rio as herself.  As for Lynch, he donned the writer/co-producer/director hats and implicitly roasted and triumphed over Kubrick again, responded to Kelly, wrapped up his Dern and L.A. Trilogies, and reflected on his film art life when he collaborated again with Coffey, Dern, Harring, Ladd, Stanton, Sweeney, Theroux, Watts, Zabriskie and Studio Canal in the twilit, allegorical, dream-like and dream and nightmare filled and Ozian themed indie moving painting INLAND EMPIRE [2006], released on September 6, 2006.

 

“Cast out this wicked dream

that has seized my heart.”

 

Curiously, the moving painting began with a black and white sequence that was implicitly set in “…a Baltic country”, evoking the Eastern European countries from which hailed the ancestors of Kubrick, Landis and Spielberg.  Just as curiously, this sequence involved an unidentifiable young woman being led on “…a grey winter day” into a hotel room in an old hotel that evoked the mysterious Lost Highway Hotel in LOST HIGHWAY and forced into prostitution by an equally unidentifiable man, reminding us that TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME began with a rendezvous in a motel room between Teresa Banks and Leland Palmer that went violently awry.  Thus, it was fitting that the black and white moving painting then headed off into a colour sequence perhaps involving the same, emerald green dress wearing and implicitly Dorothy linked young brunette woman-played by Karolina Gruzska-sitting on another bed with steamy ruby red sheets as in MUHOLLAND DRIVE and as alone as Betty/Diane at the end of MULHOLLAND DRIVE in a hotel room while sobbing away and watching snow on a tv screen, reminding us that TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME began with a snow filled tv screen and immediately implying that Lynch was addressing that film on one level in INLAND EMPIRE. 

Then the snow on the tv disappeared, and a bizarre television shitcom involving a family of rabbits complete with canned laughter briefly appeared on the screen, before being replaced by the sight of an anxious and distraught woman-played by Zabriskie-walking through a daylit, tree shaded and wealthy suburban neighbourhood.  Soon that mysterious sight disappeared, and the rabbit tv show began in earnest, evoking the mysterious, haunting and implicitly Spielberg linked Bunnyman named Frank-played by James Duval-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Cameron, Lucas and Spielberg addressing Kelly indie docufeature film DONNIE DARKO [2001], implicitly affirming that the moving painting was replying to Kelly on one level.  Then this bunnyman sequence sequed into a scene involving an Evil and implicitly Kubrick linked Wicked Phantom-played by Krzyztof Majchrzak-who arrived to confront another man in an opulent room straight out of the surreal ending of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY or seen throughout the allegorical and implicitly Landis addressing docufeature artbuster BARRY LYNDON [1975], affirming the implication that Kubrick was being implicitly roasted on one level of the moving painting.  Then the opulent room faded away, and the strange epilogue ended, and Part One of INLAND EMPIRE began.

A Part One that began with the anxious woman seen on tv earlier, an Eastern European or Russian accented and implicitly Glinda the Good linked neighbour-still played by Zabriskie-in an emerald green dress walking agitatedly through that daylit, tree shaded and wealthy L.A. suburban neighbourhood to pay a visit to the equally opulent mansion of the Polley resembling and perhaps linked film starlet Nikki Grace-played by Dern.  Significantly, while Zabrinda enjoyed fresh roasted coffee and talked to Nikki in expensive arm chairs in a well appointed living room just inside the front door, it was noticeable that Nikki was linked like Palmer in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, Fred and Renee in LOST HIGHWAY, and Betty and “Rita” in MULHOLLAND DRIVE to moving paintings as she sat in her chair with a painting behind her listening to and puzzling over Zabrinda in the first of a number of links of Nikki to paintings in the indie moving painting that implied that she symbolized the indie moving painting film art of Lynch in INLAND EMPIRE. 

Just as significantly, Zabrinda used her magic to persuade Nikki to look to her right into a possible future where the young actress got the lead female role in the twilit and allegorical indie moving painting ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS [200?], an indie moving painting based on “…a Polish gypsy folk tale” that turned out in time to be a remake of the never finished twilit and allegorical indie moving painting 47 [200?], a film that was based on “…a Polish gypsy folk tale” curiously called “Vier Sieben”, which translated from German into “Four Seven”, that was brought to a halt by the murders of the two leads during production.  Curiously, 47 was produced and directed by the Folsey jr. and Landis evoking pair of Freddy and Kingsley Stewart-played by Stanton and Jeremy Irons, respectively.  Indeed, Stewart’s last name evoked that of Paul Stewart, the special effects supervisor on the Folsey jr. produced Landis set of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE who was one of the three other co-defendants with Folsey jr. and Landis at the TZ disaster trial, affirming the implicit link of Stewart to Folsey jr. and Landis.  Stewart’s last name also reminded us the other Paul Stewart, the director of the allegorical telefilm “Little Girl Lost” [1962], from the third season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE series, an episode that inspired the creation of POLTERGEIST.  Thus, it was grimly fitting that Irons played Stewart, as Irons was linked to the twilit and disastrous year of ’82 forever via his character Nowak in the allegorical Jerzy Skolimowski docufeature film MOONLIGHTING [1982].  All of which implicitly affirmed that a twilit cadence haunted the creation of Stewart’s new indie moving painting and INLAND EMPIRE, a twilit cadence implicitly reaffirmed by the Morrow evoking title of ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS, and by the fact that the moving painting was a remake of the murder scarred 47, murders that evoked the deaths of Chen, Le and Morrow in the TZ disaster.

Curiously, Nikki slowly became one with ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS and transformed into the indie moving painting’s female lead Susan Blue, along the way falling in luv with the moving painting’s implicitly Kelly linked male lead Devon Berk and his main male character Billy Side-both played by Theroux-the names of Billy and Susan evoking Billy Zane’s Sam and Kinski’s Susan in SUSAN’S PLAN to affirm that Landis was being implicitly addressed on one level in INLAND EMPIRE.  Not surprisingly, the amorous relationship of Nikki and Devon annoyed Nikki’s possessive and intimidating husband Piotrek Krol-played by Peter J. Lucas-who was dragged into the creation of ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS as well.  Significantly, this amorous relationship included a luvmaking session off set shot in the same way and with the same eerie blue light as Leland’s nightmarish rape of Laura in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, reaffirming that that moving painting was being addressing on one level in INLAND EMPIRE.  Significantly, this allusive luvmaking session ended Part One of INLAND EMPIRE, a grimly fitting way to end Part One given that TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME ended the comeback of Lynch after the failure of DUNE and forced him to work hard to reconnect with audiences and his indie moving paintings.

Just as significantly, Part Two began with Nikki/Susan sneaking into the back of the soundstage and seeing herself in the distance going over a scene with Devon, Kingsley and Freddy.  Curiously, this rehearsal had happened earlier, affirming that Nikki/Susan had become one with the timeless and illogical dream logic of the indie moving painting like FBI Special Agent Cooper in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and Betty and “Rita” in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.  When the foursome heard her in the back of the soundstage and Devon left to investigate like he had done earlier, Nikki disappeared from the foursome and Nikki/Susan fled.  Significantly, as Nikki/Susan fled to the right side of the screen a reflection of her fled to the left of the screen, implicitly affirming that Nikki/Susan had parted ways with reality and was heading down a new and dangerous path.  A new path that saw and heard her fleeing from Devon and from her husband, who unexpectedly showed up in the soundstage to glare at her, and to her hiding inside the Smithee house, one of the sets with the number 1358 that was being constructed for ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS.

And so Nikki/Susan was now trapped in the Smithee house and discovering that it was occupied at times by the dance luving Dream Girls, a group of young and beautiful Ladies In The Radiator who were implicitly linked to real film actresses, as one resembled Scarlett Johansson, and whose dance to the sound of the allegorical and Gerry Goffin and Carole King written Little Eva Boyd tune “Locomotion” [1962] evoked the Sparkle Motion girl dancers of DONNIE DARKO to reaffirm that Kelly was being implicitly addressed on one level in INLAND EMPIRE.  Significantly, while trapped in the Smithee house, Nikki/Susan sometimes lived with her husband, now transformed into Smithee-also played by Lucas.  Nikki/Susan also discovered that the house was as timeless as the Red Draped Room and just as filled with insights and visions-one of which evoked HOOK-which explained her situation and established a link with the imprisoned young woman in the Baltics met at the beginning of the moving painting.

Part Three began when Nikki/Susan left the Smithee house with the raucous Dream Girls and joined them selling sex on Sunset Boulevard.  Eventually, this led Nikki/Susan to be stabbed by Billy’s wife Doris Side-played by Julia Ormond-a woman who had been hypnotised by the Evil Phantom and transformed into the implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked character of the film.  This stabbing of Nikki/Susan led to her dying and then, after the final moving scene shot for ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS, coming back to life as Nikki, evoking the sight and sound of the mysterious dead woman returning to life as Betty’s new Diane Selwyn at the end of MULHOLLAND DRIVE.  At this point, and to the baffled consternation of Stewart and the rest of the cast and crew of ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS, Nikki wandered off the street set to another real life theatre of the imagination whose back stairwell and winding hallways led briefly back to the Smithee house where Nikki/Susan found a gun which she used to gun down the Evil Phantom outside the 47 moving painting evoking Room 47 and implicitly free film art in general and that of Lynch in particular from either the Evil grip of Kubrick, Landis, Spielberg, the TZ disaster, the TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME disaster, or from all five. 

And so, with the Evil Phantom vanquished, Nikki/Susan used the insight she had gotten from her time in the timeless Dream World to free the young imprisoned woman from her Lost Highway Hotel room, a liberation first seen on the imprisoned woman’s tv set to implicitly link her to tv shows like TWIN PEAKS and its cinematic spinoff, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, to implicitly affirm that Lynch was liberating himself from that fiasco on one level in INLAND EMPIRE.  And so the liberated woman returned to her husband, which happened to be Krol/Smithee, reminding us that FBI Special Agent Cooper tracked down luvly Laura in the dreaming Red Room at the end of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, but was unable to free her, thus implicitly reaffirming that Lynch was indeed releasing that reviled indie moving painting with this ending.  Indeed, the liberating ending reminded us that INLAND EMPIRE began with the young imprisoned woman watching snow on a tv set, evoking the tv screen filled with snow seen at the beginning of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, also implicitly affirming that INLAND EMPIRE was coming full healing and harmonizing circle and that TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was being released by the liberating ending of INLAND EMPIRE.

At any rate, with this luving union achieved, Nikki returned to exactly the moment that Zabrinda the Good had worked her magic on Nikki the day they met in her L.A. mansion at the beginning of the moving painting, only to turn to the right again as she had done initially and this time see her whole and harmonious self looking back at her, evoking the back to the future past ending of DONNIE DARKO to reaffirm that Lynch was also addressing that film on one level in INLAND EMPIRE.  And so Ozian health and harmony implicitly returned to Lynch, Polley and to the moving painting and the world, and there was a short pause and then the film ended with a curious musical epilogue as the closing titles played that saw Harring and Kinski reappear, implying that some unresolved issues in MULHOLLAND DRIVE involving SUSAN’S PLAN had also been finally resolved.

And so Lynch returned to fine indie moving painting form in INLAND EMPIRE, releasing the anger and pain of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME to bring a luv for film art back into his heart, a newfound luv helped by the new luv that bloomed between Lynch and Emily Stofle, who played Lanni, one of the buxom Dream Girls of INLAND EMPIRE.  And so the irrepressible, iconoclastic and indie Lynch affirmed that he was his most quirky creation in the twilit and allegorical BlackandWhite indie documentary film LYNCH (one) [2007], a film released on June 23, 2007 that followed his journey creating INLAND EMPIRE.  A quirky character who made one wonder again why he hadn’t just taken advantage of his name and reputation after the success of ERASERHEAD to secure indie financing for his indie moving paintings and avoid Follywood and its beastly blockbuster machinations, given how happy and alive he was seen and heard to be while creating INLAND EMPIRE in LYNCH (one).  A happy creative period that resulted in INLAND EMPIRE that implicitly did not impress Cronenberg, for soon after the release of LYNCH (one), Cronenberg implicitly roasted Lynch yet again in the implicit form of expatriate and London based Russian gang leader Semyon-played by Armin Mueller-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufiction film EASTERN PROMISES [2007], a film released on September 8, 2007 whose implicit Lynch roasting intent was affirmed by allusions to INLAND EMPIRE and SPIDER, and by the presence of Watts as a part Russian London midwife named Anna Ivanovna.

For his part, in the sight and sound of the implicitly Lynch linked Romanian linguist Dominic Matei-played by Tim Roth-getting hit by lightning, regressing in age, romancing and quickly leaving the young, beautiful, blonde and reincarnated Laura/Rupini/Veronica Buhler-played by Alexandra M. Lara- Coppola implied that he was roasting the sight and sound of the older Lynch getting hit with Cupid’s arrow, falling in lusty luv and marrying Stofle after creating INLAND EMPIRE, and predicting that the marriage would soon end in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH [2007], a film released on October 20, 2007 whose implicitly Lynch addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to DUNE, ERASERHEAD, LITTLE BUDDHA, SOUTHLAND TALES, THE DEAD ZONE, THE ELEPHANT MAN and TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and by the presence of the Badalamenti resembling and implicitly linked Professor Doctor Roman Stanciulescu-played by Bruno Ganz.

Bigelow also implied that she was roasting Lynch and his ability to keep on keepin’ on despite one cinematic disaster after another in the form of the equally indestructible and implicitly Lynch linked U.S. military bomb disposal expert Sergeant William James-played by Jeremy Renner-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature artbuster THE HURT LOCKER [2008], a film released on September 4, 2008 whose implicit Lynch addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to DUNE, GARDENS OF STONE, INLAND EMPIRE and MULHOLLAND DRIVE, and by the presence of a suicide bomb victim at the end of the film referred to in the closing titles as the Black Suit Man-played by Suhail Al-Dabbach-who resembled the Evil Phantom in INLAND EMPIRE.  Then it was off to implicitly roast Cronenberg when Lynch returned with Ormond and Pullman for some seriously crazy clown time as executive producer of daughter Jennifer Chambers Lynch’s twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film SURVEILLANCE [2009], released on May 21, 2008.

 

“David, grow up!”

 

Curiously, the film began with the Coop evoking FBI Special Agent Sam Hallaway-played by Pullman-and his female partner FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Anderson-played by Ormond-arriving at a police station in the middle of Nowhere, USA.  Significantly, the police chief, Captain Billings, was played by Michael Ironside, which implicitly linked Billings to Cronenberg, given that Ironside began his film art life playing the Evil and ambiguously linked scanner Daryl Revok in SCANNERS.  Indeed, the film’s allusions to the twilit and allegorical Cronenberg indie docufeature film A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE [2005], and the appearance of a befuddled and pouty teenaged boy named David-played by Kent Wolkowski-reaffirmed the implication that the Lynches were addressing Cronenberg in SURVEILLANCE. 

Thus, the sight and sound of FBI Special Agents Anderson and Hallaway initially fooling Capt. Billings and his fellow perhaps implicitly film artist linked officers with their FBI routine before being slowly and surely revealed over the course of the film to actually be the two gleefully insane serial killers that Capt. Billings and his officers were looking for and killing all of them one by one implied that Anderson and Hallaway symbolized Lynch frere and pere and that their killing spree symbolized striking back at all of the American and Canadian film artists like Cronenberg and Coppola that had roasted Lynch pere over the years in order to truly cleanse the Temple Theatre and lead audiences out of the twilight-kull wahad!  Indeed, the appearance on the soundtrack of the twilit, allegorical and Lynch written Lynch tune “Speed Roadster” [2009], a tune that later appeared on the allegorical Lynch recording CRAZY CLOWN TIME [2011], affirmed the importance of SURVEILLANCE to Lynch.

For his part, Antoine Fuqua implicitly linked Lynch to ex-U.S. secret agent Michael “Mike” Banning-played by Gerard Butler-and had him fight to liberate the White House, and, implicitly, film art, from the CGI enhanced blockbuster beast in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN [2013], a film released on March 18, 2013 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.  The following year, Disney, Marvel and James Gunn teamed up to implicitly link Lynch to the irascible and fittingly ravaging Yondu Udonta-as fittingly blue skinned as blue velvet or a Blue Rose, and played by Michael Rooker-adoptive father and indie mentor of the equally indie and part human/part extraterrestrial and implicitly Besson linked Peter “Pete” Quill aka “Star Lord”-played by Wyatt Oleff as a boy, and by Chris Pratt as an adult, respectively-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced super satirical animaction film GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY [2014], a film released on July 21, 2014.  A tragicomically marvelous implication that made it fitting that later that year David Ayer implied in the sight and sound of the seasoned, knowing, sad eyed, cigarette luvin’ and implicitly Lynch linked World War II U.S. tank commander Staff Sergeant Donald “Wardaddy” Collier-played by Brad Pitt-teaching the young, naïve, inexperienced and implicitly Gary W. Wright linked Private First Class Norman “Machine” Ellison-played by Logan Lerman-how to fight and win the Nazi War that Wright would learn from veteran film artists like Lynch how to fight and win the Zone Wars in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film FURY [2014], a film released on October 15, 2014 whose title and contents evoked the equally American and embattled WWII adventures of Sgt. Nicholas “Nick” Fury and his Howlin’ Commandos that Kirby and Smilin’ Stan “the Man” Lee created for Marvel Comics. 

A fitting evocation indeed, for the following year Disney, Marvel and Joss Whedon implicitly linked Lynch to the renegade A.I. Evildoer Ultron-played by Spader-and had him hunted down and terminated by the implicitly Cronenberg linked android Vision-played by Paul Bettany-at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced super satirical animaction film AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON [2015], a film released on April 13, 2015 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE, ERASERHEAD, INLAND EMPIRE and LOST HIGHWAY, and by presence of the implicitly Emily and Riley Lynch linked Wanda Maximoff aka “the Scarlet Witch” and Pietro Maximoff aka “Quicksilver”-played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, respectively.  An implicitly tragicomic and marvelous interest in Lynch that continued two years later when Dis, Marv and Gunn again implicitly linked Lynch to Yondu the Blue Ravager-played again by Rooker-for more adventures with the implicitly Besson linked Peter “Pete” Quill aka “Star Lord”-played again by Oleff and Pratt, respectively-and the rest of the goofy indie Guardians in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced super satirical animaction film GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 [2017], a film released on April 10, 2017.

As for Lynch, he implied that he had not entirely exorcised TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME from his system with INLAND EMPIRE when he donned the co-writer/directors hats, curiously and doggedly returned to Twin Peaks, WA yet again and implicitly joined the lamentable sub-genre of the dread allegorical Zone Wars known, alas, as Cinema Garite when he collaborated again with Amick, Ashbrook, Badalamenti, Beymer, Bowie, Coffey, Coulson, Cruise, Davis, Del Rio, Deming, Dern, Dunham, Fenn, Ferrer, Fischler, Frost, Getty, Goaz, Hershberger, Kelly, Lee, MacLachlan, Marshall, McGill, Olkewicz, Robertson, Stanton, Stewart, Strobel, Struycken, Tamblyn, Watts, Wise, Witt, Zabriskie, the dynamic duo of Brent Briscoe and Robert Forster-who played determined Detectives Domgaard and McKnight, respectively, in MULHOLLAND DRIVE-Frank Collison-who played Timmy Thompson in WILD AT HEART-and Michael Horse-who played Deputy Tommy “Hawk” Hill in TWIN PEAKS-on the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, dream-like and dream and nightmare filled indie telemoving painting series TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES [2017], released on May 21, 2017.

 

“Mr. Hastings,

are you the author

of an online journal or blog entitled

THE SEARCH FOR THE ZONE?”

 

Curiously, the series began with the older and implicitly King linked Light Side of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper-played again by MacLachlan-trapped with the implicitly Cronenberg linked Tall Dream Man-played again by Struycken-and struggling to leave a black and white theatre of the imagination not seen in TWIN PEAKS or TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME rather than the full colour and dreaming Red Draped Room.  Of course, this black and white theatre of the imagination evoked such early black and white Lynch indie moving paintings as THE GRANDMOTHER, ERASERHEAD, and THE ELEPHANT MAN, implying that it symbolized his cinematic roots.  Then the POV switched to reality and the free Dark Side of Coop-played again by MacLachlan-now looking indigenous with dark skin, long black hair, and black leather jacket and still on the violent rampage in the real world, evoking the rampaging Dark Side of Beaumont in The Dark Half again to reaffirm the implicit link of Coop to King and causing the worlds of dreams and nightmares to interact with the real world more in the new series than in TWIN PEAKS or TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME.

Soon Coop found himself back in the timelessly dreaming Red Draped Room.  A timeless dreaming room that Cooper managed to escape with the help of the implicitly Besson linked Phillip Gerard aka “the One-Armed Man”-played again by Strobel-and the older but still eternal spirit of the implicitly film art and moving painting linked Laura Palmer-played again by Lee-and the anguished and equally eternal spirit of the implicitly Spielberg linked Leland Palmer-played again by Wise.  Then it was off to another world never seen before either, a king of purple lighthouse floating in space which perhaps symbolized the new world of digital and CGI enhanced film and telefilm art, in order to take the last step towards the real world with the help of an eyeless woman named Naido-played by Nae Yuuki.

Alas for Cooper, he then found himself back in the real world trapped in the body of a Las Vegas based Lucky 7 Insurance agent named Douglas “Dougie” Jones-also played by MacLachlan-but wearing the familiar black suit, tie and dress shoes of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper.  This half Coop and half Jones manifestation forced “Dougie Cooper” to undergo a tragicomic and strenuous journey over the course of the rest of the series before he finally freed himself from the identity of Jones with the help of healing cups of rejuvenating coffee and some damned good cherry pie-of course!-and faced down his Dark Side.  Curiously, Coop’s struggle to free himself from Jones also implied an interest in exorcising Gary W. Wright aka “Gardevil, the Fan with no Fear”, for only after leaving behind an implicitly Greater Toronto Area [GTA] linked Greater Las Vegas Area [GLVA] and several characters that evoked Gardevil and his “insightful” website did Cooper triumph over his Dark Side.

Indeed, the CN Tower evoking tower of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas affirmed the implicit interest in the GTA in TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES.  The resemblance of Lucky 7 Insurance boss Bushnell “Battlin’ Bud” Mullins-played by Don Murray-to John Tory, then and current Mayor of Toronto; the resemblances of Las Vegas Police Department [LVPD] Detectives D. and T. Fusco to Robert “Rob” Ford, the last Mayor of Toronto, and his older brother Douglas “Doug” Ford, elected Premier of Ontario in 2018-played by David Koechner and Larry Clarke, respectively; and the resemblance to Gardevil of a determined and dimunitive Munchkin assassin named Ike “the Spike” Stadtler-played by Christopher Zajac-Denek-reaffirmed the implicit interest in GTA film art, film artists and film “scholars” in the series.  In addition, the Mississauga evoking Las Vegas suburb of Rancho Rosa where Jones lived and the resemblance of his wife Janey-E-played by Watts-to then and current Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, affirmed the implicit interest in Zone War film “scholars” based in Mississauga in TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES.  The fact that the Arthurian streets of Guinevere, Merlin and Lancelot Court featured prominently in Rancho Rosa and that the Excalibur Hotel and Casino was seen in Las Vegas also affirmed the implicit interest in Wright in the series, as the names of the hotel and the streets reminded us that the eerily twilit, prescient, allegorical and implicitly Lucas addressing John Boorman docufeature film EXCALIBUR [1981] inspired and even anticipated Gardevil. 

The presences of Caleb L. Jones and Amanda Seyfried as Steven Burnett and the implicitly Polley linked Rebecca “Becky” Burnett, respectively, also openly affirmed the implicit interest in the GTA and its film art, film artists and film “scholars” in TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES.  For Seyfried played the troubled and equally implicitly Polley linked prostitute Chloe in the twilit and allegorical Atom Egoyan indie docufeature film CHLOE [2009], and Jones played the ambiguously linked Syd March in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Brandon Cronenberg indie docufeature film ANTIVIRAL [2012], both created in the GTA.  In addition, the presences of Jennifer J. Leigh and Tim Roth as Chantal Hutchens and Gary “Hutch” Hutchens, respectively, also affirmed the implicit interest in Canadian film art, film artists and film “scholars” in the series, as the two tragicomic hillbilly assassins evoked and were implicitly linked to Cameron and his latest wife, Suzy Amis.  An implication reaffirmed by the resemblance of Twin Peaks Deputy Chad Broxford-played by John Pirrucello-to Canadian film artist Denis Villeneuve.  Of course, the brief appearance in Twin Peaks of the legendary biker Wally Brando-played by Michael Cera-openly affirmed the implicit interest in GTA film artists in TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES, as Cera was born and raised in Brampton, Ontario.  The inclusion on the soundtrack of the allegorical and Lynch re-mixed Muddy Magnolias tune “American Woman” [2015], which evoked and mocked the allegorical and Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson written Guess Who tune “American Woman” [1970], also affirmed the implicit interest in Canada and its art and artists in TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES.

Curiously, the fact that Audrey-played again by Fenn-was discovered to not only still be living in Twin Peaks but surprisingly married to a bibliophilic character named Charlie-played by Clark Middleton-who resembled a more handsome and virile triplet brother of spikin’ Ike and the poor ol’ bibliophilic Gardevil also affirmed the implication that the Boy Scout from Arrakis was brooding over the GTA and its film art and film artists, and in exorcising its dread allegorical Zone War obsessed film “scholar” at the end of TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES.  Indeed, the fact that a Buckhorn, South Dakota character named William “Bill” Hastings-played by Matthew Lillard-resembled Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC] personality Jonathan Torrens, that Hastings was accused of killing the town librarian, and that Hastings was also killed real dead for being the writer of an internet blog devoted to revelations about the Zone that evoked the worldwide web blog devoted to “revelations” about the Zone Wars created and constantly updated by Gary William “Bill” Wright reaffirmed the implication that Lynch was addressing and exorcising the poor ol’ Gardevil to cleanse the universe and get the film and telefilm worlds back on the right path on one level in the series.

Finally releasing all of these implicitly Canadian and GTA film art linked characters, the newly restored and rejuvenated FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper left Las Vegas and returned to Twin Peaks to triumph over his embodied Dark Side and the even more Evil spirit of the implicitly Landis linked Bob-played again by Silva-with the help of an attentive Gerard watching over Coop in the Light dreaming Red Draped Room and the Forceful Green Rubber Glove of Destiny-!PoW!-ably worn by the indomitable Freddie Sykes-played by Jake Wardle-in the real world, in the end.  A concluding eucatastrophic triumph that evoked the triumph over the equally nightmare linked Wicked Phantom at the end of INLAND EMPIRE, and implied that Lynch also used the series to release any ill feelings that he might have felt toward King.  Indeed, the sight and sound of a world weary and deafer than ever FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole-played again by Lynch-resignedly and determinedly tracking down Coop throughout the series and helping him in his concluding triumph over his Dark Side implicitly affirmed that Lynch released his animosity for King on one level at the end of the series.  The increased horror content of TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES also affirmed the implicit interest in King.  Alas, this increased horror content, overall grimness, listlessness, lifelessness and lack of the irresistible and quirkily upbeat charm of TWIN PEAKS despite its equally grim search for the rapist/killer of Laura Palmer also made TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES less enjoyable and memorable than the original telemoving painting series.

Curiously, FBI Special Agent Cooper’s Dark Side also evoked Depp throughout TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES, reminding us that Depp played the implicitly Lynch linked Raphael in his film THE BRAVE.  Indeed, Lynch alluded to THE BRAVE in the series, particularly when Coop’s Dark Side beat the big and intimidating gangland boss Renzo-played by Derek Mears-in an arm wrestle, for the boss evoked the sinister McCarthy-played by Marlon Brando-in THE BRAVE.  Thus, Lynch also implied that he was not pleased that the mega-successful and wealthy actor/writer/director/producer who had been implicitly linked to Lynch in EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and ED WOOD had linked himself to the far less successful Lynch, and was also triumphing over and exorcising Depp with Coop’s triumph over his Dark Side at the end of TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES. 

Curiously, and last but not least, the fact that CGI realized or enhanced dream people and creatures helped Coop defeat his Dark Side, including Senorita Dido-played by Joy Nash-in that black and white theatre of the imagination, and then track down the older and reincarnated Laura Palmer in the amnesiac form of Carrie Page-in fact, an alternate universe version of Palmer, due to the fact that Coop saved her from being murdered on February 23, 1989, and played again by Lee-also implied the hope of Lynch that CGI had indeed freed film art from the TZ disaster and kicked off a new era of film art, in the end.  Or did it, given that Coop and Page/Palmer’s trip back to the Palmer house in Twin Peaks, WA and the series itself ended with the two characters standing in the darkness in the street outside the house with Cooper suddenly uncertain as to what year it was, as if he had stepped back into the Red Draped Room, and then with Page/Palmer just as suddenly screaming in terror?

At any rate, Sir Scott and Villeneuve also implicitly allowed Lynch in the implicit form of the odd and cigarette smoking Mecha-Replicant Man Agent K-his letter designation reminding us that Lynch’s middle name was Keith, and played by Ryan Gosling-to triumph at the end of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and Sir Scott executive produced Villeneuve docufeature artbuster BLADE RUNNER 2049 [2017], released on October 3, 2017.  For his part, King implicitly reaffirmed that FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper was indeed an implicit roast of him by implicitly roasting Lynch again and TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES and petulantly dismissing both as insubstantial as the implicitly Lynch linked Scott Carey in the end of the twilit and allegorical indie docufiction novella Elevation [October 2018], and affirmed his implicit Lynch roasting intent with allusions to Badalamenti, MULHOLLAND DRIVE and Thinner. 

Roger Eggers also implicitly linked Lynch to haunted lighthouse keeper Thomas “Tom” Wake-played by Defoe-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film THE LIGHTHOUSE [2019], a film released on May 19, 2019 whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by allusions to TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES.  And, last but not least, and somehow fittingly, given that he had played the implicitly Lynch linked pianist Nick Nightingale in EYES WIDE SHUT, Field implicitly roasted Lynch in the form of the increasingly disturbed and Gustav Mahler luvin’ piano virtuoso and super conductor Lydia Tar-played by Cate Blanchett-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced indie docufeature film TAR [2022], a film released on September 1, 2022 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to DUNE, INLAND EMPIRE, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, THE ELEPHANT MAN and the Lynch newspaper comic strip THE ANGRIEST DOG IN THE WORLD [1983-92].  All of which implicitly affirmed that, right to the end, in order to implicitly and fully understand and truly appreciate the iconoclastic, allegorical, dream-like and dream and nightmare filled indie moving paintings and telemoving paintings of Lynch and those who implicitly responded to him in fiction and film art, important it was to intuitively crack the allegorical code with…the Gift.

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Anolik, Lili.  “David Lynch’s Dark Art”.  Vanity Fair No. 679.

        [Hollywood 2017]: 118-23.

King, Stephen.  Desperation.  New York: Signet, 1997.

-----.  Elevation.  New York: Scribner, 2018.

-----.  Needful Things.  New York: Viking, 1991.

-----.  ‘Salem’s Lot.  New York: Pocket Books, 1999.

-----.  The Dark Half.  New York: Viking, 1989.

-----.  The Regulators.  New York: Signet, 1997.

 

-----.  Thinner.  New York: Signet, 1984.

Lynch, David.  Catching The Big Fish: meditation, conscious-

        ness and creativity.  New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/

        Penguin, 2006.

Lynch, David and Kristina McKenna.  Room To Dream.

        New York: Random House, 2018.

Naha, Ed.  The Making Of DUNE.  New York: Berkely Books,

        1984.

Rodley, Chris, ed.  Lynch On Lynch.  London:

        Faber and Faber Limited, 1997.