THE DREAM UNFOLDS:
using the gift of intuition to understand
the allegorical and dream-like moving paintings
and telemoving paintings
of David Lynch
by Gary W. Wright
After choosing the art life and becoming a painter, David Keith Lynch began creating short, quirky and dream-like indie films that he called ‘moving paintings’, given that they merged animation with painting. As time passed, the animated moving paintings disappeared and were replaced by entirely live action but equally dream-like and dream filled indie feature film moving paintings that gave audiences the impression of dreaming…without dreaming. From a distance, this dream-like and dream filled indie moving painting style of Lynch seemed difficult to understand. However, as Lynch noted in his own look at his art life, paintings, moving paintings, meditations, and creative processes, Catching The Big Fish: meditation, consciousness and creativity (2006), ‘…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’ 1.
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 disconsolately, Lynch implicitly roasted the sickly film art and falling fortunes of the five major Hollywood studios and of the Walt Disney Studios by the mid-Sixties in his first allegorical work of film art, the repeating one minute film loop and literal moving painting that was SIX MEN GETTING SICK (1967), and presciently anticipated the sickened dismay that all six of the major studios would feel after the helicopter crash that killed actor/director/writer Vic Morrow and 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 Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall produced and twilit and allegorical Landis, Joe Dante, George Miller and Steven Spielberg film, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983). With this intuitive gift, we could also come up with various interpretations of the second allegorical Lynch moving painting and the first to be both dream-like and implicitly dream filled, THE ALPHABET (1968), a short work that mixed animated painting with colour film.
‘Please remember you’re dealing with
the human form.’
Curiously, this short moving painting began with a colour film 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 the voices of children chanted ‘A-B-C’ five times. When the chanting stopped, the film and the young woman disappeared and a surreal colour animated painting began 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, a colourful and surreal moving painting that was implicitly the dream of the young woman. 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 ‘ABC Song’ sung by children in kindergarden. When the young woman finished speaking the ‘ABC 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 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 also implied that he was worried that capitalism would sicken if not kill the free and pure spirit of his 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 moving paintings, Lynch also implicitly worried 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 events to come.
Significantly, THE ALPHABET fittingly and presciently anticipated an equally prescient Lynch moving painting to come that would be released by Universal Studios. For the closing titles listed the moving painting as ‘…an H. Barton Wasserman Production’, evoking Lew Wasserman, the sinister gangster head of Universal Studios-kull wahad! A cinematic collaboration with Hollywood that Lynch inched closer to with the creation of the short allegorical moving painting, THE GRANDMOTHER (1970), a curious work that mixed animated painting with black and white and colour cinematography.
‘Matt! Matt!’
Curiously, the film was about two strange and abusive young parents who perhaps symbolized the iconoclastic young film artists of New Hollywood-and were played by Robert Chadwick and Virginia Maitland, respectively-and their abused and perennially black suit, black bow tie and white dress shirt wearing son, Matt-played by Richard White-who, just as curiously, 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 film, If…(1967)-who all were grown in a Garden of Eden evoking setting in animated painting sequences. Curiously, Matt found and then used a magic seed to grow a loving grandmother-perhaps linked to Queen Elizabeth II, given the resemblance of Matt to Jute, perhaps linked to Old Hollywood, and played by Dorothy McGinnis-in a spare bed in the attic of the family home.
While Matt’s grandmother was just as unable to leave the attic to confront his parents and end the abuse as an Old Hollywood film artist was to help a young film artist, particularly one as uninterested in imitating New Hollywood as Lynch, she was at least a warm and loving presence that he could turn to for sympathy. Significantly, the helplessness of his grandmother caused Matt to use daydreams localized in a ‘theatre of the imagination’ to kill his nightmarish parents, the first time the wistful 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, but since the film ended with a still shot of Matt screaming in agony, that comfort was doubtful.
While the meaning of THE GRANDMOTHER remained elusive-perhaps an allegorical dig at the UK that hoped that the English monarchy would finally die out and the country would move on to a more free and freedom loving democracy-Matt’s two nightmarish young parents anticipated an even more abusive and nightmarish father in two allegorical telefilmoving painting series and a moving painting to come from Lynch, three future works that featured a murdered daughter who haunted the living like the ghost of the grandmother haunted Matt. Just as significantly, it was never clear if THE GRANDMOTHER was a nightmare experienced by Matt or Matt’s nightmarish reality, an ambiguity that continued when Lynch collaborated again with sound THE GRANDMOTHER designer/editor Alan Splet on Lynch’s black and white, stop motion animation enhanced and dream filled and dream-like allegorical feature length live action moving painting, ERASERHEAD (1977), released on March 19, 1977.
‘I’ll do what I want to do.’
Curiously, the film began with the floating head of Henry Spencer-played by John ‘Jack’ Nance-superimposed horizontally from sinister left to righteous right over a small moon hanging motionless in space, implying that the moon symbolized the mind of Spencer. Then the camera point of view (POV) slowly moved onto the floating moon and then through a hole into the house of the Man in the Moon-played by Jack Fisk. The horizontally floating head of Spencer reappeared, he opened his mouth, a worm-like creature that resembled an umbilical cord with a head appeared in the midst of his mouth and then floated out of his mouth. The Moon Man pulled a lever, the worm-like creature was cut free from Spencer, and then fell through space and time into a pool of water.
The POV then returned to Earth and Spencer staring anxiously into the camera. He then turned and walked toward a concrete wall that looked like a theatre, and turning to his sinister left disappeared into some sort of tunnel. He then reappeared walking through a bleak and decaying industrialscape looking, in his black suit and tie and white dress shirt, like an older and more anxious and worried version of Matt in THE GRANDMOTHER with upcombed hair. Soon he reached his apartment building and took the elevator to his apartment on the second floor. Before entering apartment 26, Spencer was hailed by the Dark and dark haired and eyed, dangerous, sexy and steamy Beautiful Woman Across The Hall-played by Judith A. Roberts-in apartment 27-or was that 28?-who told him that his girlfriend had called on the common hallway phone to invite him to her parents for dinner. Soon Spencer was trudging through the now dark and still decaying industrialscape to the house of Mr. and Mrs. X.-played by Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates, respectively. Here he was met at the door by his girlfriend, the thin and wanly pretty blonde, Mary X.-played by Charlotte Stewart-whose age and hair colour implicitly linked her to New Hollywood film art, making it fitting that her name, Mary X., had the same cadence as Hollywood. After enduring an embarrassing evening with Mary and her parents, Henry discovered that Mary had given birth to a baby, leading to the marriage of Henry and Mary.
Back at Henry’s apartment, 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 resembled the worm-like creature seen earlier in the dream-like beginning of the film and who was fond of manipulating and harassing its parents. This torment caused Spencer to reaffirm his link to Matt by retreating to his own theatre of the imagination that he used to deal with reality, hidden inside the innards of the radiator in his apartment. Here the Lady In The Radiator-played by Laurel Near-waited to love and comfort Spencer like the grandmother arrived to love and comfort Matt in THE GRANDMOTHER. Curiously, the Lady In The Radiator looked like Mary in a Marilyn Monroe wig and white dress, albeit a Mary Monroe with swollen growths on her cheeks, implicitly linking her to both New and Old 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 worm-like creatures-on the stage in the theatre of the imagination in the radiator.
Significantly, late in the moving painting, Spencer also 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, 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 pronounced fine for use as pencil erasers by the pencil machine operator-played by Hal Landon jr. Using our intuitive gift, we could see that his curiously positive pronouncement implied the hope of Lynch that he could embrace a more commercial form of moving painting without falling prey to the carnal addictions of commercial success-implicitly symbolized by the Dark, dangerous and sexy Beautiful Woman Across The Hall-or sacrificing his commitment to his own quirky and indie moving painting approach to film art.
Indeed, the fact that the film ended with Spencer literally cutting his ties to his mutant baby, finding himself back in the timeless realm of the theatre of the imagination bathed in radiant light and embracing the cheekily deformed Mary Monroe woman of his incandescent radiator dreams, the mysterious Lady In The Radiator, 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 embrace a more commercial but no less uncompromising style of quirky and 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 uncompromising but more commercial Lynch moving painting to come.
On the other hand, it was also noticeable that the black and white imagery, story, soundscape and characters of ERASERHEAD often evoked the presciently twilit and allegorical Francis Coppola docufeature indie film, DEMENTIA 13 (1963), and the equally presciently twilit, allegorical and implicitly Richard Rush and Don Siegel roasting Coppola film, THE CONVERSATION (1974). Thus, the sight of Henry abandoning Mary and embracing the Lady In The Radiator, in the end, perhaps implicitly symbolized the hope of Lynch that Coppola would break free from the grip of Hollywood and succeed on his own with his American Zoetrope Studio. At any rate, soon after the successful release of ERASERHEAD, Lynch was indeed persuaded by actor/producer/writer Mel Brooks to team up again with Splet and abandon film art for film art’s sake but not black and white film for the wonderful world of commercial Hollywood film art and create the surreal, dream-like and dream filled and allegorical moving painting, THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980), 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), released on October 2, 1980.
‘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 John ‘the Elephant Man’ Merrick-played by John Hurt-who looked like the son of Spencer and the Lady In The Radiator. Then, after a surreal prologue that purported to explore the elephant linked birth of Merrick and also made it uncertain that what followed was a dream or a dream-like and dream filled 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. Of course, this carnival freak show linked the Elephant Man to film art, for it not only reminded us that the first films were exhibited at carnivals, but also evoked the carnival freaks implicitly linked to various countries such as Canada, Russia and the U.K. in the allegorical and implicitly Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany bashing Tod Browning film, FREAKS (1932).
Here at the carnival we met Doctor Frederick Treves-played by Sir Anthony Hopkins-who resembled and was implicitly linked to Sir Ridley Scott. 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 twilit and allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly George Lucas addressing Sir Scott film, ALIEN (1979). Soon we were following Dr. Treves through the carnival crowd and the corridors of the freak show house to see Merrick. Significantly, after being moved by Merrick’s plight, Dr. Treves spirited him away from the cruel and violent clutches of his unscrupulous ‘manager’, Bytes-played by Freddie Jones-to the peace and security of the London Hospital. 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 film, RABID (1977), Lynch implied that the ‘terrible’ Elephant Man symbolized the ‘terrible’ Cronenberg.
Indeed, the resemblance of the name of John Merrick to that of Ronald ‘Ron’ Merrick-played by Ronald Mlodzik-in the allegorical Cronenberg film, SHIVERS (1975), reaffirmed the implicit interest in Cronenberg in the film. An extra in the medical theatre audience who resembled Doctor Roger St. Luc-played by Paul Hampton-in SHIVERS during the presentation of Merrick by Dr. Treves reaffirmed the implicit interest in Cronenberg in THE ELEPHANT MAN. A sign on a building wall that stated PICKFORD WHARFS OFFICE that Treves walked by on the way to his first meeting with Merrick at the beginning of the moving painting that openly linked Merrick to Toronto film artists reaffirmed that Lynch was implicitly addressing Cronenberg in THE ELEPHANT MAN. The presence of the Merrick sympathizing Princess Alexandra-played by Helen Ryan-also reaffirmed the implicit interest in Cronenberg’s hometown of Toronto in THE ELEPHANT MAN, for Princess Alex reminded us that the Princess Alex was a popular live theatre in Toronto. The resemblance of Merrick’s sympathetic actress friend, Mrs. Kendal-played by Anne Bancroft-to Margot Kidder and Margaret Trudeau as well as to his mother and to the Beautiful Woman Across The Hall reaffirmed the film’s implicit interest in Canadian film art and film artists.
This implicit link was not surprising, as the early allegorical films of Cronenberg, from his first, TRANSER (1966)-released the same year as Lynch’s first moving painting, SIX MEN GETTING THE 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 so that only the year before Cronenberg had been implicitly linked to the gleefully violent Doctor John Leslie Stevenson aka Jack the Ripper-played by David Warner-in the allegorical Nicholas Meyer film, TIME AFTER TIME (1979), a film that also implicitly linked his naïve and altruistic friend, Herbert George (H.G.) Wells-played by Malcolm McDowell-to Sir Scott, apparently for Sir Scott’s implicit support of Cronenberg in his allegorical film, THE DUELLISTS (1977). Indeed, the arrival of the callous, blockbuster loot lusting and implicitly Meyer linked London Hospital night porter-played by Michael Elphick-who brought equally callous paying customers to see Merrick in his lonely room at night affirmed 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 ‘…the terrible Elephant Man’ was actually a sensitive, artistic and truly human being who used his imagination to cope with reality like Cronenberg, Lynch, Matt and Spencer, his liberation from the cruel control of Bytes and the callous greed of the night porter, and his embrace by Dr. Treves, Mrs. Kendal and mainstream London society before his death at the end of the film implied the confidence of Lynch that Cronenberg was also a misunderstood but sensitive and truly human artist underneath his terrifying exterior, and his hope that Cronenberg would break free from the control of the Canadian government and blockbuster loot lusting Hollywood producers so as to continue to create fearless and idiosyncratic film art that would in time be accepted by Canadian and world audiences, an acceptance that would also lead audiences to lose their fear of ‘…the terrible Cronenberg man’ and to embrace him before he died, in the end.
Fittingly, before the death of Merrick, Dr. Treves treated him to a Christmas panto in a real, live and Princess Alex evoking theatre of the imagination with a beautiful and helpful blonde fairy-played by Beryl Hicks-who evoked the Lady in the Radiator, a real live theatre of the imagination enjoyed by many instead of the personal theatre of the imagination only enjoyed by Matt or Henry that implicitly symbolized the hope of Lynch that he had left the film student underground and was now in the mainstream with THE ELEPHANT MAN. Just as fittingly, Lynch received a Christmas gift as well that year in the form of being implicitly linked to the drug using, dream and vision haunted neuroscientist and intrepid consciousness explorer, Doctor Edward ‘Eddie’ Jessup-played by William Hurt-in the twilit and allegorical Ken Russell film, ALTERED STATES (1980), a film released on December 25, 1980 and the first feature film to implicitly address Lynch, an implication affirmed by the film’s allusions to ERASERHEAD.
Curiously, however, despite the high quality and success of THE ELEPHANT MAN that led to the film being nominated for eight Academy Awards, on August 7th of 1981 of the following year Lynch was implicitly linked to the wild and irrational small time 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 allegorical Kathryn Bigelow and Monty ‘Lafayette’ Montgomery 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 implicitly roasted as a naïve innocent being led to his doom by Evil and knowing Hollywood as surely as Hurt’s naïve and implicitly Lynch linked Florida lawyer Ned Racine allowed himself to be persuaded by Kathleen Turner’s Evil, duplicitous and implicitly Hollywood linked Matty Walker to murder her husband, Edmund Walker-played by Richard Crenna-for the life insurance money in the allegorical Lawrence Kasdan film, BODY HEAT (1981), released on August 28, 1981. Shortly after the TZ disaster, Lynch was also implicitly linked to the earnest West German astrophysicist and intrepid alien hunter, Doctor Johann Hoffman-played by Otto von Wernherr-who was also killed at the end of the presciently twilit and allegorical Slava Tsukerman film, LIQUID SKY (1982), released in August of ‘82.
For her part, Susan Seidelman implicitly worried on September 11, 1982 that the success of THE ELEPHANT MAN would go to the head of Lynch and he would abandon his indie moving paintings for beastly mainstream blockbuster pap 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 L.A. at the end of the twilit and allegorical film, SMITHEREENS (1982), an implication affirmed by the film’s allusions to THE ELEPHANT MAN. As for Sidney Lumet, he implied on December 7, 1982 his more optimistic hope that the idiosyncratic and indie Lynch would refuse generous offers to churn out Hollywood product for the studios and stick to and succeed with his more original and meaningful 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 docufeature film, THE VERDICT (1982), an implication affirmed by the film’s allusions to ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN.
Alas, LIQUID SKY, SMITHEREENS and THE VERDICT were all overshadowed that year by the TZ disaster, a shocking and enraging disaster which Lynch implicitly addressed in his next twilit and allegorical moving painting, DUNE (1984), inspired by the popular and allegorical Frank Herbert novel, Dune (1965), his first cinematic salvo in the dread allegorical Zone Wars and one that was ominously anticipated in THE ELEPHANT MAN by Merrick and his fondness for the 23rd Psalm, which anticipated the July 23rd disaster in 1982 in yet another eerie memory of the twilit future that haunted film art in the years before the TZ disaster. However, despite the TZ disaster, cinematic responses to Lynch and his surreal and dreamy moving paintings still implicitly continued the following year, as Michael Chapman implicitly hoped on September 23, 1983 that Lynch would go on to greater success with his quirky 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), its small, steel mill dominated Pennsylvania town pointing the way to a small, lumber mill dominated Washington town in a Lynch telemoving painting series to come.
For his part, Coppola implicitly warned quirky indie loner Lynch that DUNE would be scythed down by dismissive audiences and scathing reviews like Mickey Rourke’s quirky and implicitly Lynch linked indie loner, Motorcycle Boy, 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 the film’s 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. Not long 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 the Temple Theatre with DUNE would destroy him as surely as the implicitly Lynch 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 film, THE DEAD ZONE (1983), a film released on October 21, 1983 and inspired by the allegorical Screamin’ Stephen King novel, The Dead Zone (1979).
For his part, Brian DePalma implied that Lynch’s attempt to save film art with a moving painting of Dune would be just as tragicomic and unsuccessful as the tragicomic attempt of the implicitly Lynch linked and claustrophobic 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 film, BODY DOUBLE (1984), released in mid-October of ’84. A week before Hallowe’en of ’84, James Cameron also implicitly linked Lynch to the doomed Kyle Reese-played by Michael Biehn-who died trying to 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 and CGI enhanced film, THE TERMINATOR (1984), released on October 25, 1984.
For his part, King also implicitly and presciently roasted Lynch that year in his allegorical 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 that Lynch was a one hit wonder who would disappear after the failure of his version 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. Just the encouragement and inspiration that Lynch needed when he implicitly and sympathetically transformed Cronenberg from the terrible Elephant Man into the charismatic, indomitable and messianic leader of world indie film art and also took on Lucas and Tsukerman when he teamed up again with Nance, Splet, Frederick Elmes-co-director of photography on ERASERHEAD-and Freddie Francis-director of photography of THE ELEPHANT MAN-on his twilit, allegorical, dream-like and dream filled moving painting, DUNE, released on December 14, 1984 in time for the Christmas holidays.
‘For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!’
Intriguingly, DUNE began 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 Lynch moving painting. Soon the head and shoulders of Virginia Madsen’s Princess Irulan appeared in this starswept sea of space, slowly fading in and out of existence like the head of the Cheshire Cat as she set the galactic stage for audiences. The appearance of the pretty Princess reaffirmed the link to THE ELEPHANT MAN, as she recalled Merrick’s equally loquacious mother floating in that star filled expanse of space at the end of THE ELEPHANT MAN, as well as Princess Alexandra in that moving painting. Soon we found ourselves with the pretty pincess-wearing a white wedding-style dress that evoked a similar dress worn by Margaret (played by Anne Carlisle) at the end of LIQUID SKY-in the crowded and bustling throne room of the Imperial Palace on the planet Kaitain with her father, Emperor Shaddam IV-implicitly linked to Robert A. Heinlein in the Herbert novel, and played by Jose Ferrer-who evoked Sir John Gielgud’s Carr-Gomm, the director of the London Hospital in THE ELEPHANT MAN, and resembled and was implicitly linked to Irvin Kershner, director of the Lucas executive produced and twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed film and implicitly Spielberg roasting film, STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980), 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 Gaius Helen Mohiam-played by Sian Phillips-for she evoked the equally bald denizens of the allegorical Lucas docufeature indie film, THX 1138 (1971)-indeed, the Reverend Mother resembled Robert Duvall’s THX 1138-and the ESP aided Jedi Knights of the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy.
While the throne room bustled, a spaceship slowly landed at the landing pad of the palace, a slow nighttime descent that evoked the equally slow arrival and nighttime descent in New York of the dimunitive spaceship carrying an alien drug addict at the beginning of LIQUID SKY. A fitting evocation of the alien drug and orgasm fiend of LIQUID SKY, for soon a melange spice addicted and aided, presciently and intergalactically dreaming and truly elephantine blockbuster beast of a once human Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator left the spaceship and arrived in the throne room floating in a massive tank of melange, looking like a massive version of the worm-creatures of ERASERHEAD and the Elephant Man in his freak show cage and Jabba the Hutt in the opening segment on Tatooine in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed, implicitly Spielberg roasting and Lucas executive produced Richard Marquand trimax, STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983). Indeed, the implicit link of the Third Stage Spacing Guild Navigator to Lucas and the Classic Trilogy was affirmed 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 in the throne room was detected with ESP by Reverend Mother Mohiam and affirmed to Emperor Shaddam IV with the words, ‘…he’s here, my Lord!’ Of course, the words evoked Heather O’Rourke’s Carol Anne Freeling saying ‘…they’re here’ at the beginning of the twilit, allegorical, Spielberg co-written and co-executive produced and implicitly Terry Gilliam addressing Tobe Hooper film, POLTERGEIST (1982), implicitly linking the Navigator to or at least evoking Spielberg and the twilit and disastrous year of 1982. The Navigator’s implicit link to or evocation of Spielberg was reaffirmed by the first words spoken by the Emperor to the Spacing Guild entourage, for the phrase ‘…we are alone’ also evoked the catchphrase ‘…we are not alone’ for the allegorical Spielberg film, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977). Last but not least, the Third Stage Navigator’s implicit link to or evocation of Spielberg and 1982 was reaffirmed by the fact that the Navigator resembled E.T. in the eerily twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and implicitly Gilliam addressing Spielberg film, E.T., THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL (1982). Thus, it was fitting that the Navigator and E.T. were both created by Carlo Rambaldi, openly affirming the link between the two.
Significantly, after implicitly linking the Emperor to Kershner and implicitly linking the Navigator to or evoking Spielberg, Emperor Shaddam IV was soon confiding to the Navigator a plot to destroy the House Atreides, a House led by someone called Duke Leto Atreides, whose popularity threatened the peaceful corruption of the Emperor’s reign. This petulant plot involved luring House Atreides to a forbidding desert planet called Arrakis and allowing them to take over the mining of the addictive and expensive spice melange, and then wiping them out with Imperial Sardaukar terror troops and the soldiers of the House Harkonnen, led by the gleefully depraved and Evil, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen-perhaps linked to Vladimir Nabokov as in Dune, and played by Kenneth McMillan. This pernicious plot reminded us that Spielberg was inspired by the success of STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and its movie tie-in merchandise to release E.T., THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL in the equally greedy hope that the film would also be popular and sell lots of movie tie-in merchandise, so that Spielberg could be as independently wealthy as Lucas. Thus, it was significant that, after the Spacing Guild agreed to work with the Emperor and House Harkonnen to wipe out the Atreides clan, the action shifted to the castle of House Atreides on the planet Caladan where we soon discovered that Duke Leto-played by Jurgen Prochnow-resembled and was implicitly linked to Spielberg. For the implicit link of Duke Leto to Spielberg implied that Lynch felt that Spielberg had brought about his own downfall by lusting after fortune and glory as surely as Duke Leto brought about his downfall for lusting after melange fortune and glory.
Alas for Lynch and cast, due to the fact that the Mexican stage hands at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City where DUNE was filmed 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 interior sets, as Ed Naha revealed in his insightful book, The Making Of DUNE (1984). Unfortunately, as a wooden castle was unbelievably dumb, the sight of the wooden Castle Caladan shocked the audience at the opening night screening of DUNE at the Stanley Theatre in Vancouver that I attended in mid-December of 1984 right out of the state of suspension of disbelief so vital for a sly fi film like DUNE to work. Immediately the till then rapt audience became angry, cynical and detached observers, convinced that Lynch and company had failed them like Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg had failed them in the TZ disaster, like Lucas and Marquand had failed them with STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI, and Lucas had failed them again by working with Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg on the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced disaster, 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, for the Duke’s son, Paul Atreides-who looked like a club patron in LIQUID SKY, and was played by Kyle MacLachlan-was soon implicitly linked to David Paul Cronenberg. Indeed, Paul was a naturally powerful telepath like some of the psychic young people of the allegorical Cronenberg film, STEREO (1969), and the Good, James Cameron anticipating and implicitly Ivan Reitman linked scanner, Cameron Vale-played by Stephen Lack-in the implicitly Meyer roasting Cronenberg film, SCANNERS (1980), affirming the implicit interest in Cronenberg in DUNE. An implication that was reaffirmed when Reverend Mother Mohiam arrived at Castle Caladan to test his humanity with the pain amplifying box and curiously initiate him into the ranks of the Bene Gesserit in a symbolic rape scene, for the increasing levels of imaginary pain that made it feel like Paul’s right hand was burning evoked the increased heart rate that Vale inflicted on yoga master Peter Tubbs-played by Graham Batchelor-in SCANNERS.
The sound amplifying ‘weirding modules’ developed by House Atreides reaffirmed the implicit interest in Cronenberg, as they evoked the memorable use of sound to enhance the telepathic mayhem in SCANNERS, memorable sound design that reminded us of the equal importance of memorable sound design to the moving paintings of Lynch. The fact that Paul’s implicitly Spielberg linked father, Duke Leto, also resembled Peter Kastner, a Toronto born and raised actor who played Peter Mark in the allegorical Don Owen film, NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE (1964), one of the rebel Sixties Canadian feature films that inspired Cronenberg to become a film artist, reaffirmed Paul’s implicit link to Cronenberg. In addition, the resemblance of loyal House Atreides retainers Thufir Hawat, Mentat Master of Assassins, and celebrated swordsman, Duncan Idaho-played by Jones and Robert Jordan, respectively-to Doctor Paul Ruth and an Evil scanner assassin-played by Patrick McGoohan and Denis Lacroix, respectively-in SCANNERS reaffirmed the implicit Cronenberg addressing intent of DUNE. While unplanned, the resemblance of another loyal Atreides retainer, Gurney Halleck-played by Patrick Stewart-to Alfred Hitchcock was fittingly fortuitous. The sight and sound of the implicitly Sir Scott linked Doctor Liet-Kynes-played by Max Von Sydow-who was met on Arrakis, also affirmed the implicit interest in Cronenberg in DUNE.
The fact that the spice melange 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 liquid drug, ephemerol, was used to develop or depress ESP powers in SCANNERS. The sight of the three ESP aided Reverend Mothers, Mohiam, Paul’s Glinda the Good and Jennifer O’ Neill evoking, Jean Simmons resembling and implicitly Kennedy linked mother, Lady Jessica, and his insightful and mischievous kid sister, Alia-played by Francesca Annis and Alicia R. Witt, respectively-suffering bad nose bleeds after Paul successfully transmuted the water of life and became the Kwisatz Haderach, the universe’s super being, 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. The sleeping dreams and waking visions that revealed the past and the future to Paul also evoked similar visions that revealed the pasts and the futures of different people to Smith after a head injury suffered in a car accident gave him ESP in THE DEAD ZONE, in another affirmation of the implicit Cronenberg addressing intent of DUNE. The desertscapes of Arrakis reaffirmed the implication that a Canadian film artist was being addressed in DUNE, for the desertscapes evoked the snowscapes of Canada.
Thus, using our gift of intuiting things…without intuiting things, the fact that young Atreides survived the Harkonnen/Imperial sneak attack on Arrakis and the death of his father-a passing that evoked the passing of Cronenberg’s own father in 1973-and confirmed that he had mastered his creative powers and virility by learning how to control his ESP, ride the giant phallic sandworms of Arrakis-worms that evoked a much smaller animated worm seen frolicking in ERASERHEAD-and successfully swallowing and transmutimg the water of life in order to become one with the universe forever and triumph as the moody, all seeing and all creating and destroying Maud’dib, the ESP aided Kwisatz Haderach, with the help of the fearless, knowing and sturdy Fremen naib or leader, Stilgar-an ambiguous character, as he strangely resembled Lucas, but was possibly implicitly linked to Coppola, and played by Everett McGill-the rest of the faithful and freedom loving Fremen and Shai’halud, the primal and unstoppable phallic worms of Arrakis-the mastery of which initiated Maud’dib into the ranks of fearless Fremen manhood, joining with his creepily rapacious initiation into Bene Gesserit womanhood to create an inner balance of his female and male sides-over the Evil Forces of Emperor Shaddam, the Bene Gesserit, Baron Harkonnnen, his equally twisted and perhaps Marshall linked Mentat major domo, Piter De Vries-played by Brad Dourif-the Beast Rabban-the Baron’s implicitly Stanley Kubrick linked nephew, played by Paul Smith, an implicit interest in Kubrick affirmed by the film’s allusions to the allegorical Kubrick films, PATHS OF GLORY (1957), DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964) and SPARTACUS (1960)-the Baron’s younger and implicitly Landis linked nephew, Feyd Rautha-played by Sting-with the collaboration of the notorious and implicitly Lucas linked Atreides traitor, Doctor Wellington Yueh-played by Dean Stockwell, who openly linked the film to the Twilight Zone via his characters, U.S. Lieutenant Katell and Japanese Lt. Yamuri, in the allegorical Buzz Kulik telefilm, ‘A Quality Of Mercy’ (1961), in the third season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series-and the Spacing Guild implied the hope of Lynch that Cronenberg would survive the TZ disaster and the death of his father and confirm that he had mastered his creative powers by fully unleashing the power of his idiosyncratic indie film art for film art’s sake and leading the serious film artists of the world and their grateful and admiring audiences to victory over crassly commercial and blockbuster loot lusting film artists like Kershner, Lucas and Spielberg and the rest of the members of the Hollywood Director’s Guild, as well as cleansing the way by exorcising the TZ disaster, leaving behind the Twilight Zone, ending the dread allegorical Zone Wars and bringing health and harmony back to audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre, like a real life Maud’dave, kicking off a whole new sunlit film art era. How fitting that the letters for ‘art’ appeared in scrambled anagram form at the beginning of the surname Atreides. How equally fitting that Kwisatz Haderach, the phrase for galactic messiah in DUNE, had the same syllable cadence as David Cronenberg. !Kull wahad!
Unfortunately, after initially flocking to DUNE, audiences soon abandoned the quirky and indomitable indie moving painting. The bizarre fact that Castle Caladan, the sets and spaceships were made of wood and the many changes from Dune, like the sound amplifying weirding modules, the Caucasian actors playing Fremen, the fact that Lynch allowed the Fremen to appear without hooded robes to show off their stillsuits, the lack of mention of the Butlerian Jihad and the appearance and disappearance of Hawat in the final showdown turned off old fans of the novel and possible new fans of the moving painting. The fact that Lynch appeared in a cameo as the head of a mélange spice harvester who was reluctant to abandon a valuable load of spice when his spice harvester was attacked by a sandworm on Arrakis may have also dismayed audiences, for it 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. Indeed, 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 telefilm version of DUNE (1989). 2
However, despite the disappointment, when it all came together and it 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-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 box that strangely initiated him into womanhood, the moving…without moving transportation of House Atreides across the galaxy from Caladan to Arrakis with the help of a Third Stage Navigator hidden away in his cosmic theatre of the imagination in a Heighliner spaceship, the sandworm attack on the spice harvester, the escape of Paul and Lady Jessica from the Harkonnens and their flight into the deep desert, Paul’s mastery of a sandworm that initiated him into manhood, Paul’s transmutation of the Water of Life that affirmed that he was indeed the Kwisatz Haderach, the final knife battle with the exuberantly Evil Rautha and, last but not least, the sight and sound of Paul using his cosmically attuned imagination to cause rain to fall on Arrakis at the end of the film in an implicit affirmation of Lynch’s belief that Cronenberg had the power to transform anything he imagined into heady, transcendent and inspirational film art, DUNE easily succeeded in its fearless and determined quest to exorcise the TZ disaster and win back angry audiences to the cause of heady and uplifting film art-this despite the moving painting’s lack of computer graphic imagery (CGI), which most other film artists immediately began to turn to and develop after the TZ disaster so as to create dangerous effects sequences digitally in order to avoid further film set fatalities, a lack of CGI that became an idiosyncratic hallmark of the post-1982 film art of Lynch.
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 to beloved Canadian film hero began after the release of DUNE. With its psychically powerful Bene Gesserit sisterhood, its fearless female Fremen warriors-including Sean Young’s implicitly Bigelow linked Chani, the woman of Maud’dib’s prescient dreams-and an equally fearless and indomitable female producer in the form of Raffaella De Laurentiis, as De Laurentiis had passed on production duties to his daughter, DUNE also broke new ground for women, affirming that women would play a significant role in the dread allegorical Zone Wars, while reaffirming that women played a significant role in the moving paintings of Lynch. And how fitting that Paul’s Fremen nickname, Maud’dib, referred to the desert mouse of Arrakis, given that the Walt Disney Studio seized the twilit day and began its memorable and embattled rise to film art triumph the year of the release of DUNE with the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Spielberg supporting and Landis roasting Ron Howard film, SPLASH (1984).
Curiously, Lynch did not have long to wait for an implicit reply to DUNE, for on the same day as the release of DUNE, 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 film, THE COTTON CLUB (1984). Not surprisingly, more film artists implicitly replied to Lynch and DUNE in 1985. 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-in order to take the priceless Nefertiti Earring from them in the twilit and allegorical Seidelman film, DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN (1985), released on March 29, 1985.
For his part, Luc Besson also implicitly and sympathetically linked Lynch to the also implicitly Scarecrow linked Fred-played by Christophe Lambert-whose murder and rebirth, in the end, implied the hope of Besson that Lynch would also rise from the ashes of DUNE and create another memorable moving painting that would get him back in black in the twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed docufeature film, SUBWAY (1985), released on April 10, 1985. For his part, 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 in the twilit and allegorical film, DETECTIVE (1985), an implication made on May 10, 1985 that was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE.
Lynch was also implicitly roasted in the form of the Lynch resembling and implicitly linked, sexually ambiguous and blockbuster bucks lusting Francis Buxton jr.-played by Mark Holton-fiendish arch-nemesis of the equally sexually ambiguous and implicitly Lucas linked Pee Wee Herman-played by Paul Reubens-in the madcap twilit and allegorical Tim Burton film, PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE (1985), a film released on July 26, 1985 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, the implicit link of Francis Buxton sr.-played by Ed Herlihy-to Dino De Laurentiis and the resemblance of ‘fortune teller’ Madame Ruby-played by Erica Yohn-to Reverend Mother Mohiam. Donna Deitch also curiously linked Lynch and MacLachlan’s tumultuous experience creating and releasing 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-in the twilit and allegorical film, DESERT HEARTS (1985), released in August of ‘85. Deitch also implicitly hoped that Lynch and MacLachlan would recover from the failure of DUNE and go on to better things like Vivian and Cay, in the end.
For his part, Barry Levinson implicitly and sympathetically linked Lynch to young Sherlock Holmes-played by Nicholas Rowe-and allowed him to symbolically triumph over Cronenberg and THE DEAD ZONE by having Holmes triumph over the wrathful and implicitly Cronenberg linked Rathe-played by Anthony Higgins-at the end of the twilit, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and allegorical film, YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES (1985), a film released on December 4, 1985 that was curiously co-executive produced by Kennedy, Marshall and Spielberg. The following year, Tim Hunter implied that Lynch killed his film art with DUNE as surely as Daniel Roebuck’s Buxton resembling, implicitly Lynch linked and troubled sadolescent Samson ‘John’ Tollet killed a teenaged girl named Jamie-played by Danyi Deats-in the twilit and allegorical Tim Hunter film, RIVER’S EDGE (1986), a film released on August 27, 1986 that was set in a small town in the Pacific Northwest that anticipated another troubled and murderous Pacific Northwest town in a Lynch telemoving painting series to come.
Curiously, RIVER’S EDGE linked well with the next moving painting of Lynch, for Elmes worked on it as cinematographer, and Dennis Hopper appeared as the feckless and paranoid Feck. Linked well, indeed, on August 30, 1986, only days after the release of RIVER’S EDGE, Lynch 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 indie moving painting path again when he rejoined De Laurentiis, Dourif, Elmes, MacLachlan, Nance, Splet, Stockwell and Patricia Norris-costume designer on THE ELEPHANT MAN-on his most indie and original moving painting since ERASERHEAD, the twilit, allegorical, dream-like, dream filled, Ozian themed and CGI free moving painting, BLUE VELVET (1986), released on August 30, 1986.
‘I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert.’
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). For the gentle descent from the sky not only made clear that Lynch was abandoning the heady intergalactic mysticism of DUNE for a more down to Earth approach in BLUE VELVET, but evoked Dorothy’s farmhouse falling out of the sky and down onto vibrantly colourful and flower filled Munchkinland at the beginning of the allegorical and implicitly Nutzi Germany roasting Victor Fleming film, THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939). Indeed, the vibrantly colourful and florid land of 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, preparing us for more murderous mayhem to come.
The surreal, overlap dissolve montage of shots that followed, establishing the small town called Lumberton-whose woodsy name recalled the equally woodsy and three syllable name of the small town of Hollywood, and the woodsy upbringing of Lynch as the son of a father in the U.S. Forestry Service-also evoked the similar overlap dissolve montage of opening shots that established the setting and tone of some of the early allegorical films of Landis, particularly ANIMAL HOUSE (1978), THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980), AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)-which began with an equally sad and soothing Vinton cover of the allegorical Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers written tune, ‘Blue Moon’-TRADING PLACES (1983) and INTO THE NIGHT (1985), implicitly introducing a snake into the Garden of Lumberton in a way that implied that this allegorical moving painting was addressing Landis. However, the blue sky and dreamy beginning also recalled the opening image of the blue sky in the Tour de France billboard that began PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, a gleefully childish, silly and curiously homoerotic film that sympathetically likened the frantic quest of the sexually ambiguous and implicitly Lucas linked P. W. ‘Pee-Wee’ Herman to recover his beloved stolen bicycle to the equally frantic quest of George Walton ‘G. W.’ Lucas to recover his film form and reestablish friendly relations with audiences. Indeed, Lynch’s implicit interest in the eccentric new director was reaffirmed by the fact that the name of Lumberton looked and sounded like Tim Burton.
The film’s implicit interest in Burton was reaffirmed by the arrival of the implicitly Burton and Scarecrow linked Jeffrey Beaumont-played by MacLachlan-for a ‘Burton’ was hidden in the letters that made up Jeffrey Beaumont. Significantly, Beaumont was back in town to watch over the family’s Beaumont Hardware store after a stroke left his father, Tom Beaumont-who shared Tim Burton’s T.B. initials, and was played by Jack Harvey-recovering in a hospital. Curiously, Mr. Beaumont suffered his stroke while watering the Garden of Eden evoking plants and flowers of the yard surrounding the wooden Beaumont house, a scene that reaffirmed the film’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, and the sight and sound of Mr. Beaumont watering his lawn also reminded us that Herman watered his lawn after leaving his house at the beginning of the film. Soon Mr. Beaumont suffered that stroke and collapsed on the lawn, a supine state that evoked the sight of the legs of the Wicked Witch of the East sticking out from underneath Dorothy’s farmhouse in Munchkinland at the beginning of THE WIZARD OF OZ. This implied that Mr. Beaumont was a male version of the Wicked Witch of the East, whose death opened up the gates of the healing Ozian spiritworld dream, and set us up for the arrival of a male Wicked Witch of the West.
Curiously, while walking back through a field after his first visit with his stricken father in the hospital, young Jeffrey encountered a severed and Vincent Van Gogh evoking ear in the grass. Taking the ear in a paper bag to the Lumberton Police HQ lead him to Detective J.D. Williams-played by George Dickerson-who evoked the detectives of DETECTIVE. Meeting Detective Williams led Beaumont to his beautiful and implicitly Dorothy linked blonde daughter, Sandy-who resembled Mary X and Nathalie Baye’s Francoise Chenal in DETECTIVE, and was played by Laura Dern-who was able to impart enough overheard info to Beaumont that he soon found out that the severed ear belonged to Donald James Watts-played by Dick Green-husband of a local and implicitly Dorothy linked singer named Dorothy Ellen Vallens-played by Isabella Rossellini.
Significantly, Vallens was a complex character who sadly sang ‘Blue Velvet’ onstage accompanied by 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 Dorothy-played by Judy Garland-in Kansas at the beginning of THE WIZARD OF OZ. She liked dressing in black like the Wicked Witch of the West and resembled the Beautiful Woman Across The Hall in ERASERHEAD and evoked Anna Magnani’s Lady Torrance in the allegorical Lumet film, THE FUGITIVE KIND (1960). In order to preserve the life of her husband and her son, Donny-played by Jo Jo Snipes-he was also being forced into depraved acts of sado-masochistic sex by the Evil, impotent, black leather jacket wearing and implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked drug dealing thug, Frank Booth-played by Dennis Hopper. Curiously, Hopper played Motorcycle Boy’s father, a dishevelled and drunken character who evoked Bytes in THE ELEPHANT MAN, in RUMBLE FISH. This link to Coppola reminded us that the surname of Vallens evoked that of Sherry ‘Cherry’ Vallens-played by Diane Lane-in the other Coppola film of 1983 inspired by a S.E. Hinton novel, the twilit and allegorical docufeature film, THE OUTSIDERS (1983), implicitly linking Booth to Coppola.
Significantly, Vallens also resembled Diane Salinger’s possibly Bigelow linked Simone in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, reaffirming the implication that Lynch was responding to the first feature film of Burton in BLUE VELVET. Of course, the name of the insidious Frank Booth also evoked the equally insidious, chubby, implicitly homosexual and vaguely Lynch resembling and implicitly linked Francis Buxton, jr., the arch nemesis of Herman throughout PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, whose rotund form and hilarious love of money and Herman’s bicycle appeared to be Burton’s way of mocking the equally bloated and blockbuster lusting DUNE. Indeed, Booth and Buxton shared the same F. B. initials, implicitly affirming their link, while a Burton evoking ‘Barton’ could be made from the letters comprising Frank Booth. The return of Dourif as a thug named Raymond and Nance as a thug named Paul also affirmed 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 the twilit and allegorical Burton film, FRANKENWEENIE (1984), while the name of Paul evoked Reubens in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE.
The film’s implicit interest in Burton was reaffirmed by the arrival of Sandy Williams. For blonde Sandy recalled Herman’s equally blonde and tenacious girlfriend, Dottie-played by Elizabeth Daily-in PEE WEE HERMAN’S BIG ADVENTURE-while her name evoked Sandy Wilson and her then recent and implicitly Lucas addressing twilit and allegorical film, MY AMERICAN COUSIN (1985). In fact, the arrival of Williams the Good also led to the most open implication that Beaumont was linked to Burton. For when Beaumont met Williams at Arlene’s diner to discuss the mysteries he had uncovered in Lumberton and sat down in his chair, his head and upper body briefly blocked out the ‘Lum’ in ‘Lumberton’ on a sign on a store across the street seen through the diner window, openly linking Beaumont to ‘-berton’ for a second or two. Thus, with our gift of intuiting, we saw that Jeffrey’s implicit link to Burton implied that Lynch wanted to teach the young, naïve and innocent film artist some serious lessons in the arts of life and film art and wake him up to how Evil both could be at times.
Curiously, while Jeffrey was haunted by nightmares that evoked the nightmares of Merrick and the prescient dreams and visions of Maud’dib, BLUE VELVET again lacked the dream worlds and dream people of ERASERHEAD. However, the film was as twilit as DUNE, as the Beaumont surname also evoked Charles Beaumont, one of the writers who wrote for the original Twilight Zone television series, affirming the twilit ambience of BLUE VELVET. Indeed, the link of BLUE VELVET to the Twilight Zone was openly affirmed by the return of DUNE and original TWILIGHT ZONE tv vet Stockwell as the implicitly Godard linked Ben. The arrival of Hopper as the psychotic, impotent and black leather jacket clad Booth reaffirmed the film’s twilit ambience and Lynch’s determination to rid Mr. Beaumont, Vallens, Lumberton and Hollywood of disastrous twilit disease. For not only did Frank Booth’s name evoke TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE executive producer Frank Marshall, the presence of Hopper evoked his 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 television series.
Thus, with Beaumont’s victory over the troubled childman Booth, in the end, Lynch implicitly triumphed over Coppola, freed film art from the Twilight Zone and implied his hope that Burton would grow up, take the Dark Side of Hollywood more seriously and make up for the childish nonsense of PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE with some more serious and uplifting film art that would free the world of film art from the twilit shadow of troubled New Hollywood film artists-literally, as Hopper was a troubled and haunted New Hollywood film artist best known for his allegorical film, EASY RIDER (1969). This implication that film art was being saved by the death of Booth was reaffirmed 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. Last but not least, the sight of the POV rising away from a happy, harmonious and healthy Dorothy after she embraced little Donny, in the end, and rising back up into the clear blue sky from which it fell at the beginning of the film also implied the hope of Lynch that he would be able to rise back up to headier cinematic heights with the success of BLUE VELVET. Luckily for Lynch, audiences implicitly agreed, for they eagerly embraced this dark and tragicomic peace offering.
Not all film artists accepted BLUE VELVET, for Coppola implicitly affirmed that he was linked to Booth on one level and implicitly struck back at BLUE VELVET by implicitly roasting Lynch again in the implicit form of naïve young American soldier, 2nd Lieutenant Jack ‘Dildo’ Willow-played by D.B. Sweeney-in the twilit and allegorical docufeature film, GARDENS OF STONE (1987), released on May 8, 1987. Indeed 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 Samatha ‘Sam’ Davis, affirmed the film’s implicit interest in Lynch. 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-not guilty of manslaughter in the TZ disaster, a verdict that no doubt displeased an ex-Eagle Scout from Arrakis like Lynch.
That same year, on October 9, 1987, Sir Scott implied with the many allusions to BLUE VELVET and DUNE in his allegorical film, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME (1987), that the decision of 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 Sir Scott’s hope that Lynch would leave behind the urge to create more dangerously seductive and disastrous blockbuster beasts like DUNE, and return to his better and lower budgeted moving painting film art like BLUE VELVET. Indeed, the allegorical George and Ira Gershwin written tune, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ (1926), was as important to SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME as ‘Blue Velvet’ was to BLUE VELVET, affirming the film’s implicit interest in Lynch. Curiously, on August 12th of the following year, Coppola teamed up with Lucas to implicitly roast Lynch again in the form of the chain smoking and irrepressible indie car maker and inventor, Preston Tucker-played by Jeff Bridges-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film, TUCKER (1988), an implicit allegorical intent affirmed by the return of Stockwell as the troubled film artist and inventor, Howard Hughes.
The following year, Martin Scorsese implied that it was time for Lynch to leave behind his angst over Paul Atreides and DUNE and get his 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 Rosanna Arquette-and moved on to a new lover-played by Brigitte Bako-in ‘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, Terry Gilliam implicitly linked Lynch to the exuberantly looney King o’ the Moon-played by Robin Williams-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and implicitly Cameron roasting madcap animaction film, THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1989), released on March 10, 1989. John Glen also implicitly roasted Lynch that year in the form of Anthony Zerbe’s character Milton Krest in the twilit and allegorical film, LICENSE TO KILL (1989), released on June 13, 1989 and starring an implicitly Lucas linked Timothy Dalton as the latest incarnation of James Bond.
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-and alluded to the presciently twilit and allegorical Ted Kotcheff film, FIRST BLOOD (1982), a link affirmed by the presence of Chris Mulkey as Hank Jennings, for Mulkey played Officer Warren in FIRST BLOOD-when he teamed up again with Badalamenti, Hunter, 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-Tim Hunter-surprisingly, given that he was director of RIVER’S EDGE-Monty Montgomery-another surprise, as he was co-director and co-writer of THE LOVELESS-and Jonathan Sanger-producer of THE ELEPHANT MAN-and explored the effect of the murder of another teenaged girl on another Pacific Northwest town with another intrepid and MacLachlan played young Sherlock Holmes out to solve the murderous mystery, and perhaps came to grips with the fear of television implicitly expressed on one level in THE ALPHABET, by bringing his twilit, dream-like and dream filled allegorical moving painting style to the television milieu that had given the world the original TWILIGHT ZONE television series in the twilit, allegorical and slightly CGI enhanced 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 TWIN PEAKS underlined that Lynch was not happy with the outcome of the TZ trial, for the overlap dissolve montage of surreal snapshots to the tune of Badalamenti’s sad and wistful instrumental main theme for TWIN PEAKS that established the scenic and forested environs of the small town of Twin Peaks, Washington 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 of that latter film-immediately implying that Lynch was meditating on Landis and the TZ disaster again in TWIN PEAKS as much as Hunter. Indeed, the twilit and allegorical Landis film, INTO THE NIGHT (1985), was openly alluded to later in the series in the form of the twilit and allegorical tune, ‘Into The Night’ (1990), a sad and wistful tune with music by Badalamenti and lyrics by Lynch sung by the Lady In The Radiator evoking Julee Cruise onstage at another theatre of the imagination at the Roadhouse, 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 shots of small town life to the tune of the main theme by Michael Kamen that began THE DEAD ZONE, implying that Lynch might be implicitly addressing Cronenberg again or King in TWIN PEAKS. The shots of machines mindlessly sharpening saw blades, including blades with shark fin shapes, also evoked the allegorical Spielberg film, JAWS (1975), implying that Spielberg and his blockbuster machine film art was the actual target of TWIN PEAKS. At any rate, an implicit interest in the twilit and disastrous events of 1982 was also affirmed when we met up with Nance’s Peter ‘Pete’ Martell. For the name of Pete Martell evoked film artist Paul Bartel, linked forever to the fateful year of 1982 by his allegorical 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 23rd 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 Madonnna 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. 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 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 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 1982 , for it evoked Palmer-played by David Clennon-in the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical John Carpenter film, THE THING (1982). The name of Laura Palmer also evoked that of Laura Fischer-played by Charlotte Rampling-in THE VERDICT, reaffirming the implicit interest in 1982 in TWIN PEAKS.
At any rate, 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 art linked figure of the Lady in the Radiator haunted ERASERHEAD. Significantly, Laura’s haunting presence reminded us that another Laura, Gene Tierney’s Laura Hunt, also haunted the allegorical Otto Preminger film, LAURA (1944). Indeed, the name of Russ Tamblyn’s implicitly Lucas linked Dr. Lawrence Jacoby evoked an artist named Jacoby played by John Dexter in LAURA, affirming the implicit link to that film and the implicit link of Laura to Hollywood film art. The fact that the shocked and horrified reaction of Laura’s fellow teens and the rest of the people of Twin Peaks to her death was so different from the callous indifference of the teens of that small town in the Pacific Northwest in RIVER’S EDGE to the death of the implicitly Lynch film art linked Jamie also implied Lynch’s disapproval of that film.
Significantly, the mystery surrounding the death of Laura and the identity of her murderer were both eventually solved by the returning MacLachlan’s dream haunted and guided FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, his black suit and tie and white dress shirt evoking Henry’s daily uniform in ERASERHEAD. One of the clues that aided him was an upper case letter ‘R’ found under the ring finger of Laura, evoking the implicit fear of capitalism in THE ALPHABET. Curiously, while Cooper evoked the teenaged Holmes in YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES and NYPD Detective Mike Keegan in SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME, he also evoked FBI Special Agent Ellis Stoner in Thinner, implying that he actually might be linked to King. Indeed, Cooper was as fond of fresh baked pies as Heidi Halleck, the wife of the implicitly Lynch linked Billy Halleck in Thinner, reaffirming the possibility that Coop was linked to King rather than Cronenberg.
A distraught character in Thinner named Leda Rossington whose first name was an anagram of Dale also affirmed the possibility that Cooper was linked to King. The importance of the dreamy Red Draped Room-its wavy lined floor evoking the equally wavy lines of a television on the fritz, linking it to tv land-to the mysterious saga also affirmed the implication that King was linked to Cooper, for the Red Room evoked ‘redrum’ in the allegorical and implicitly Stanley Kubrick roasting King novel, The Shining (1977), a link to the latter novel reaffirmed by the fact that the Great Northern Hotel near Twin Peaks evoked the Overlook Hotel. Last but not least, the sight of a distraught and implicitly Spielberg linked Leland Palmer-played by Ray Wise-throwing himself on the coffin of his daughter, Laura, 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 novel, ‘Salem’s Lot (1975), reaffirming the implicit link of Cooper to King in TWIN PEAKS. At any rate, Cooper was not implicitly linked to Lynch, as Lynch showed up in the series implicitly linked to himself as hearing impaired FBI Regional Bureau Chief, Gordon Cole, whose name was taken from a Lynch resembling Paramount Studios employee played by Bert Moorhouse in the allegorical Billy Wilder film, SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), linking Twin Peaks to Hollywood and implicitly reaffirming that film art and its artists were being roasted in TWIN PEAKS.
Alas, while it was too late for Laura to be saved by Cooper or by Michael Ontkean’s Rod Serling resembling Twin Peaks Sheriff Harry S. Truman-the straight man of the Cooper/Truman duo who evoked Tom Skerritt’s Sheriff Bannerman in THE DEAD ZONE-it was not too late to implicitly blast Spielberg and imply that he was responsible for the TZ disaster given that he was the head of production of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE. For the eventual 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 Leland’s wife, Sarah-played by Grace Zabriskie-resembled Amy Irving, Spielberg’s wife at the time. It was also not too late to exorcise Bob and free Leland, telemoving paintings and audiences from his twilit grip, kicking off a whole new era of telefilm 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 ended with Cooper’s Light Side trapped in the Black Lodge version of the dreaming Red Draped Room, and his Dark Side-perhaps inhabited with the 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, Cooper’s Dark Side reminded us that writer Thad Beaumont‘s Dark Side, Alexis Machine, broke free and fought a desperate battle with him throughout the twilit and allegorical King novel, The Dark Half (1989), affirming the implicit link of Cooper to King and the implicit meaning of the end of TWIN PEAKS.
In addition, Lynch also implied that he used the series to roast other film artists like Bigelow, Burton, Cameron, Daily, Gilliam, Kennedy, Kershner, Kubrick, Marshall, Reubens, Sir Scott, Aldo the mynah, Peter Bogdanovich, Sofia (SCC) Coppola, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, John Milius, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese, William Shatner, Paul Verhoeven, Sandy Wilson and Zhang Yimou in the form of Dana Ashbrook’s Robert ‘Bobby’ Briggs, McGill’s Edward ‘Big Ed’ Hurley, Gary Hershberger’s Michael ‘Mike/‘Snake’’ Nelson, Kimmy Robertson’s Lucy Moran, Eric Da Re’s Leo Johnson, Piper Laurie’s Catherine Martell, Tony Jay’s Douglas ‘Dougie’ Milford, Victoria Catlin’s Blackie O’Reilly, Nicholas Love’s Malcolm Sloan, Harry Goaz’s Deputy Andrew ‘Andy’ Brennan, Wendy Robie’s Nadine Hurley, Waldo the mynah, Coulson’s Margaret ‘the Log Lady’ Lanterman, Madchen Amick’s Shelley Johnson, Don Davis’ Major Garland Briggs, Dan O’Herlihy’s Andrew Packard, Ritch Brinkley’s District Attorney Daryl Lodwick, Phoebe Augustine’s Ronette ‘Ronnie’ Pulaski, Ian Buchanan’s Richard ‘Dick’ Tremayne, Michael Parks’ Jean Renault, Richard Beymer’s Benjamin Horne, Diane Caldwell’s Julie and Mak Takano’s Jonathan, respectively, in TWIN PEAKS. This affirmed the implicit link of Twin Peaks to Hollywood, setting the stage for a trio of moving paintings to come that were openly set in Hollywood and the Greater Los Angeles Area (GLAA).
Significantly, TWIN PEAKS saw Agent Cooper visit the 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 the same dream that Laura had on February 22nd, the night before she died, a few nights after she was murdered on February 23rd. In this past and future dream, Laura and a dancing, dimunitive and implicitly Wilder linked Dream Man-played by Michael Anderson-imparted cryptic insights to help an old Cooper sitting in a chair solve the 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 Phillip Michael ‘Mike’ Gerard aka the One-Armed Man-played by Al Strobel-the implicitly Cronenberg linked Tall Dream Man-played by Carel Struycken-and Hank Worden’s mysteriously jovial and hilarious but lovable waiter visited Cooper in dreams and reality, the first time in a Lynch work that dream characters were met in the real world. A noteworthy appearance of dreamworld people in reality that occurred again when Lynch implicitly switched from a memorably quirky meditation on the twilit death of film art in the Eighties to a memorably quirky meditation on the sunlit rebirth of film art in the Nineties when he teamed up again with Badalamenti, Bay, Dern, Dunham, Elmes, Fenn, 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 returned to the Temple Theatre to implicitly with the exultantly free, fiery, violent, twilit, Ozian themed, dream-like, THE FUGITIVE KIND evoking and CGI free allegorical moving painting, WILD AT HEART (1990), released on May 19, 1990 and inspired by the allegorical Barry Gifford novel, Wild At Heart (1990).
‘If you’re truly wild at heart,
you’ll fight for your dreams.’
Significantly, the film began in Cape Fear somewhere between North and South Carolina with the lovable, Elvis Presley loving, 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-fighting and killing a Billy Dee Williams resembling thug named Bob Ray Lemon-played by Gregg Danbridge. After serving 22 months and 18 days in prison, Ripley rejoined his ditzy but equally luvable, beautiful, blonde, ruby red high heels wearing and implicitly Dorothy linked sweetie, Miss Lula Fortune-who also evoked Joanne Woodward’s implicitly Brigitte Bardot linked Carol Cutrere in THE FUGITIVE KIND, and was played by Dern-and fled Lula’s implicitly Old Hollywood and openly Wicked Witch of the West linked mother, Marietta Fortune-played by Dern’s mother, Diane Ladd-on a fiery and passionate road trip down the Yellow Lined Road from the Carolinas to California during which they exuberantly rocked and rolled and slowly revealed themselves to each other and to audiences.
Thus, using our gift of intuiting again, the sight of Ripley loving, protecting and saving Miss Fortune from the Wicked Marietta and various madcap mobsters and heinous hitmen who were working for her and were implicitly linked to film artists who had implicitly roasted 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-the implicitly Sofia Coppola linked Perdita-played by Rossellini-and the Booth evoking and implicitly Oliver Stone and Nikko the Monkey King linked Vietnam vet, Bobby Peru-played by Willem Dafoe, who played the implicitly Cronenberg linked biker Vance in THE LOVELESS-plus tangling with other impertinent characters along the way like the implicitly Sir Scott linked bar punk-played by Brent D. Fraser-or reminiscing about other assorted Evildoers and characters they had met in their lives like the implicitly Lumet linked Uncle Pooch-played by Marvin Kaplan-or the implicitly Spielberg linked ‘Christmas’ Dell-played by Crispin Glover-on their star crossed cross country journey and marrying her in the triumphant end, implied the hope of Lynch that he would fight off his critics and his doubts and not give up on film art despite all of his misfortunes at that point in his career.
Significantly, Sailor succeeded in the end with the help of Lee’s floating Glinda the Good-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 another intervention by a timeless dream world character in the time plagued world of mortal men and women in a Lynch moving painting. Given that the final passionate smooch of S and his beloved Miss Fortune after he finally sang her the allegorical and Elvis 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 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 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 lovelorn 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 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 a plague of deadly poisonous spiders plaguing the small town of Canaima and the implicitly Cameron linked spider expert, Dr. James Atherton-played by Julian Sands-with the 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 film, ARACHNOPHOBIA (1990), released on July 18, 1990 and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to BLUE VELVET and the return of Bay as Mrs. Evelyn Metcalf.
Significantly, the return of Lynch in 1990 with another commercial Hollywood moving painting rather than a more personal and self-financed film art for film art’s sake 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. For Don Johnson’s implicitly Lynch linked Harry Madox gave up trying to escape the wicked and seductive clutches of Madsen’s deadly and implicitly Hollywood linked blonde Dolly Harshaw by fleeing to the healing and wholesome arms of Jennifer Connelly’s sweet and shy brunette, Gloria Harper, and embraced the Wicked Harshaw like Henry embraced the Lady In The Radiator at the end of ERASERHEAD and Sailor embraced Lula at the end of WILD AT HEART at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI free Hopper docufeature film, THE HOT SPOT (1990), released in August of ’90 and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET and DUNE as well as ERASERHEAD, and the return of both Madsen from DUNE and Nance as a bank manager named Julian Ward. Tim Burton also implicitly roasted Lynch that year in the form of Edward Scissorhands-played by Johnny Depp-in the twilit and allegorical animaction artbuster EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990), a film released on December 6, 1990 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN.
The following year, Sean Penn also implied that he was sending a message to Lynch in his freshman twilit and allegorical docufeature film, THE INDIAN RUNNER (1991), released in May of ’91 and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to BLUE VELVET, THE ELEPHANT MAN, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART and its use of Hopper as a barkeep named Caesar. And given that the THE INDIAN RUNNER saw David Morse’s small town and implicitly Lynch linked deputy, Joe Roberts, not imitate Beaumont and gun down the Wicked Frank-that is, his wayward brother Frank, played by Viggo Mortensen-in the end, but instead let Frank go free, Penn implied either that a live and well Dark Side was necessary in order to be whole and make good film art, or that Lynch was not one to moralize as he had not had the courage to defeat his Dark Side. The same year, King implicitly affirmed that he was being roasted in the form of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper 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 pie loving town of Castle Rock, Maine in the twilit and allegorical novel, NEEDFUL THINGS (October 1991), an implicit roast of Lynch reaffirmed by the novel’s allusions to DUNE, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.
For his part, despite the failure of DUNE, Cameron also implied that he thought that Lynch was becoming a blockbuster menace, for he implicitly roasted Lynch the following year in the implicit form of Robert Patrick’s CGI enhanced liquid metal T-1000 Terminator cyborg in his twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Zonebuster, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991), released on July 1, 1991 and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART. Bigelow soon implicitly agreed with Cameron, as allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART featured prominently in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and Cameron executive produced film, POINT BREAK (1991), a film released on July 10, 1991 and which implicitly linked Lynch to Patrick Swayze’s doomed anti-establishment surfer and Ex-Presidents bank robber gang leader, Bodhi.
Curiously, Zhang Yimou also implicitly roasted Lynch that year, perhaps for sympathizing with the plight of Chinese occupied Tibet in TWIN PEAKS, in the twilit and allegorical film, RAISE THE RED LANTERN (1991), released on September 10, 1991. Last but not least, Mike Figgis also implicitly roasted Lynch in his twilit and ironically entitled allegorical film, LIEBESTRAUM (1991), released on September 13, 1991 and with a title inspired by the Franz Liszt composition, ‘Liebestraum’ (1850), which fittingly took its title from a German word meaning ‘love dream’, a word which evoked the loving cinematic dreams of Lynch.
‘Diane!
This one’s for the road.’
Significantly, this loving dream began with Kevin Anderson’s young, earnest, sensitive, thoughtful and implicitly Cronenberg linked architecture professor, Nick Kaminsky, showing up in Hollywood cadenced Elderstown to watch over his ailing and hospitalized adoptive mother, Lillian Munssen nee Anderssen-played by Kim Novak-a circumstance that evoked the return of the equally young, earnest, sensitive and thoughtful Beaumont to Lumberton to watch over his ailing and hospitalized father at the beginning of BLUE VELVET, as well as the doomed Edmund Walker in BODY HEAT. 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 looked like MacLachlan-particularly in TWIN PEAKS-and had a first name that evoked Paul Maud’dib in DUNE, while Jane evoked Joan Chen’s Josie Packard in TWIN PEAKS and had short auburn hair that evoked the red hair of the Harkonnens in DUNE.
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. Significantly, the Ralston Building looked like 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 Badalamenti soundtrack for TWIN PEAKS, and at other times evoked the Vangelis soundtrack for BLADE RUNER. Thus, it was no surprise to discover that there had been a twilit trio of murders at the Ralston Building decades earlier, when Bernie Sheredy’s Burnett Ralston III, the wealthiest man in Elderstown, killed his wife, Mrs. Ralston-resembling Marilyn Monroe with her blonde hair and white summer dress, and also played by Gidley-and her lover, Munssen, the Orson Welles resembling manager of his department store-also played by Anderson-when he discovered them making adulterous love, before killing himself.
Intriguingly, over the course of LIEBESTRAUM, Jane and Nick slowly fell in love, just as their previous incarnations had done decades ago. This swelling romance led to them making adulterous love in the Ralston Building as well, in the end, adulterous lovemaking that evoked the equally adulterous lovemaking of Matty and Ned in another allusion to BODY HEAT. Significantly, however, the two adulterous lovebirds noticeably escaped the murders that killed their previous incarnations, despite the fact that Paul had realized the two were falling in love, had tracked them down to the Ralston Building and had listened to them make love. Thus, using our gift of intuiting things again, we could see that in the successful closing lovemaking of Jane and Nick, Figgis implied his belief that Cronenberg had bested Lynch with his post-1982 film art and exorcised the twilit ghosts of the TZ disaster, and was now the true cinematic Messiah who would lead film art out of the twilight in the Nineties. Making it fitting that, with its allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE and TWIN PEAKS and its Badalamenti evoking soundtrack by Howard Shore, Cronenberg also implicitly roasted Lynch that year in his twilit and allegorical film, NAKED LUNCH (1991), released on December 12, 1991.
Intriguingly, Lynch implied that he was more irritated by the implicit roasts from Figgis and King and even more infuriated by more implications of twilit wrongdoing and his implicit link to Rufio-played by Dante Basco-the leader of the Lost Boys in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Spielberg film, HOOK (1991), than he was by the implicit roasts from Bigelow, Cameron, Cronenberg, Hopper, Marshall and Penn, for Gidley returned as the doomed prostitute Teresa Banks, MacLachlan as the implicitly King linked FBI Special Agent Cooper and Wise as the implicitly Spielberg linked Leland Palmer when Lynch teamed up again with Amick, Anderson, Ashbrook, Augustine, Badalamenti, Bay, Coulson, Cruise, Hershberger, Lee, Norris, Prochnow, Silva, Stanton, Strobel, Wise, 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-2nd assistant director in the first year of TWIN PEAKS and 1st assistant director in the second year of TWIN PEAKS-Heather Graham and Andrea Hays-who played Annie Blackburn and indie Double R Diner waitress Heidi, respectively, in TWIN PEAKS-Chris Isaak-whose heartbroken and lonesome allegorical tune, ‘Wicked Game’ (1990), was heard in WILD AT HEART-James Marshall and Walter Olkewicz-who played James Hurley and Jacques Renault, respectively, in TWIN PEAKS-and Mary Sweeney-an editor on TWIN PEAKS-to implicitly affirm that TWIN PEAKS was addressing Zone War film artists by bringing the series to the big screen and to complete a MacLachlan Trilogy in the twilit, dream-like, dream filled, Ozian themed and CGI free allegorical moving painting, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992), released in May of ‘92.
‘Bob is real!’
Significantly, the film began with the opening titles superimposed over a background of snow on a television set in a motel room. When the credits ended, the snow and the television were destroyed with a metal bar that turned out to be wielded by Leland Palmer, who then used the bar to murder Teresa Banks, implicitly affirming right from the beginning that Lynch did not like LIEBESTRAUM and was lashing out in fury at Spielberg and HOOK. Indeed, a snow filled television screen figured prominently in POLTERGEIST, affirming that Lynch was implicitly roasting Spielberg again in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. The scene then shifted to some tragicomic adventures with new FBI Special Agents, the implicitly Lucas linked Chester ‘Chet’ Desmond and the perhaps Cronenberg linked Samuel ‘Sam’ Stanley-played by Issak and Keifer Sutherland, respectively-as they investigated the murder of Banks in Dear Meadow near Portland, Oregon, with the help of the strange and perhaps SCC linked Lil the Dancer-played by Kimberly Ann Cole.
Indeed, the serial number on the plane that brought Special Agent Desmond from Fargo, North Dakota to a private airport in Portland affirmed the implicit link of Desmond to Lucas, for N78038 reminded us that AMERICAN GRAFFITI 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, while 1987 was the tragicomic tenth anniversary year of the release of the allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Spielberg roasting Lucas film, STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE (1977). Indeed, 2TH 504, the license plate on Desmond’s car, reaffirmed his implicit link to Lucas, as the letters evoked THX 1138.
Curiously, 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 Tremont 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-in the Fat Trout Trailer Park in Deer Meadow. Significantly, at this point TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME stopped being a dream-like and dream filled mainstream moving painting with as audiences had experienced since THE ELEPHANT MAN, and turned into a quirky, indie, non-mainstream and dream-like and dream filled moving painting with mainstream cinema in it. The film also showed little interest in linear time, with FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper meeting up with the spirit of the dead Laura Palmer-looking, dressing and acting more like Madonna than in TWIN PEAKS, and played again by Lee-in the White Lodge linked dreaming Red Draped Room before he had even arrived in Twin Peaks to investigate and solve her murder. This implied that Lynch saw the White and Black Lodge dreaming Red Draped Rooms as timeless places. 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.
This was obviously an important change in the approach to moving paintings by Lynch, for his moving paintings were all dream-like and dream filled non-mainstream moving paintings with mainstream cinema in them forever after, a rejection of mainstream cinema perhaps caused by increasing frustration that mainstream cinema allowed twilit film artists like Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg and their disappointingly supportive friend Lucas to continue to succeed. And the dream unfolded after Desmond disappeared when the scene shifted to a regional FBI HQ in Philadelphia as Cooper met with FBI Regional Bureau Chief, Gordon Cole, and FBI Special Agent Albert Rosenfeld-played again by Lynch and Ferrer, respectively-struggled to come to grips with the puzzling appearance of the phantom of long lost 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 who appeared to have one foot in the dreaming Red Draped Room and one foot in the real world.
At this point, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME then became the reverse of TWIN PEAKS. For instead of haunting the moving painting with the ghost of her dead presence, Laura Palmer filled the moving painting with her bewitching living presence in the final days of her life in Twin Peaks, WA. 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-played by young Lynch lookalikes Austin Jack Lynch in TWIN PEAKS, and Jonathan J. Leppell in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, respectively-and Gerard, the One-Armed Man-played again by Strobel. 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 Black Lodge, despite the fact that Laura would never meet Cooper 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 really her father, Leland. Final days which led to her being brutally raped and murdered by Leland, a dark, disturbing and depressing conclusion that implicitly affirmed how angry and upset Lynch was with Spielberg and the twilit implications of wrongdoing in HOOK and convinced 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. Indeed, 759 EAK, the license plate on the car of Leland, affirmed his implicit link to Spielberg, reminding us that the eerily twilit and prescient allegorical Spielberg film, JAWS (1975), was released in ‘75. It reminded us that HOOK and two of the other last four twilit and allegorical Kennedy and Marshall produced films of Spielberg, EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987), and INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989), had all been popular with audiences despite containing ominous implications 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 fatal night-particularly HOOK.
Last but not least, Lynch also implied his hope 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 Dark and Evil likes of Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg. For midway through the film Laura dreamed that she had entered and moved around in a painting given her by the mysterious and painting loving Mrs. Chalfont/Tremond. A painting-probably painted by Lynch-of a Red Room that turned in the dream of Laura into a painting of a Blue Room, then into a Blue Room and then into a Blue House-as blue as a Blue Rose-literally linking Laura to, and making her a symbol of, the moving paintings and telemoving paintings of Lynch. Thus, with the Light Side of Cooper consoling the immortal spirit of Laura in the dreaming Red Draped Room at the end of the film, Lynch implied his hope tha the spirit of indie film art for film art’s sake and telefilm art for telefilm’s art sake in general and that of his own quirky indie moving paintings and telemoving paintings in particular was immortal and indestructible, despite the post-82 resurgence of Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg.
Significantly, it was fitting that an angel-played by Lorna MacMillan-who evoked the floating fairy in the panto at the end of THE ELEPHANT MAN helped Cooper console Laura in the dreaming Red Draped Room at the end of the moving painting. For the angel implicitly reaffirmed the link of Laura Palmer to the City of the Angels and the Palms, home to the Hollywood studios and Lynch. The consoling and floating angel also evoked the consolation that the equally floating Glinda the Good gave to Sailor at the end of WILD OF 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 came across as a curious fusion of TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART. Alas for Lynch, after kicking off the Nineties so well with WILD AT HEART, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was not only curiously and disappointingly flat despite memorable dreaming without dreaming sequences and some movingly nightmarish scenes, but hated by just about everyone-perhaps especially due to the fact that it did not clear up the ending of TWIN PEAKS.
Curiously, with its many allusions to TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART, Disney implicitly toasted and roasted Lynch and his efforts to whip Hollywood into shape that year in the form of the cocky young lawyer with the FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole evoking name of Gordon Bombay-played by Emilio Estevez-and his attempts to get a New Hollywood linked team of misfit kid hockey players into shape in order to beat the implicitly Folsey linked Coach Reilly-played by Land Smith-and his intimidating Hawks in the twilit and allegorical Stephen Herek animaction film, THE MIGHTY DUCKS (1992), released on September 20, 1992. Curiously, the following year, and luckily for Lynch, the first film artists to implicitly reply to TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME were sympathetic to Lynch and his cause. Indeed, Tony Scott implied his hope that Lynch’s love of moving paintings would survive the critical storm unleashed on TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME like the love of Clarence and Alabama Worley-implicitly linked to Lynch and his film art, and played by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, respectively-survived a shootout between mobsters and police at the end of the twilit and allegorical film, TRUE ROMANCE (1993), released on September 8, 1993 and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the reappearance of Hopper as Clarence’s father, Clifford; the sound of Isaak crooning the allegorical tune, ‘Two Hearts’ (1993), over the closing titles; and the film’s allusions to TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.
At the end of that year, on December 1, 1993 in a moving little implicit Christmas present for Lynch, Bernardo Bertolucci also implicitly hoped that Lynch would survive the TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME debacle and return a new and changed moving painter like a twilit trio of children, Gita, Raju and Jesse-played by Greishma M. Singh, Raju Lal and Alex Weisendanger, respectively-who were believed to be three reincarnated aspects of the dead Tibetan Lama Norbu-played by Ruocheng Ying-the moving and thought provoking twilit and allegorical film, LITTLE BUDDHA (1993), a film that also implied a hope that film art could be reborn in a harmonious new era in the tenth anniversary year of the release of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE. Indeed, the film reminded us of Lynch’s interest in transcendental meditation, an evocation of Lynch implicitly affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, THE ELEPHANT MAN, TWIN PEAKS and TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and by the presence of Isaak as Jesse’s father, Dean Conrad.
Roland Emmerich also sympathetically and implicitly linked 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 insidious and implicitly Spielberg linked extraterrestrial Evildoer, Ra-played by Jaye Davidson-and his Earth terminating blockbuster bomb at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced film, STARGATE (1994), released on October 28, 1994 and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, DUNE, E.T., THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL, and the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Spielberg roasting Cronenberg film, THE FLY (1986). However, and not surprisingly, given how much everyone disliked TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, Lynch and the film were soon implicitly roasted in such twilit and allegorical films as the Burton animaction arbuster, ED WOOD (1994), released on September 24, 1994.
For his part, Verhoeven fittingly and implicitly likened the rivalry between Bigelow and Lynch to the rivalry between two Las Vegas showgirls, Cristal Connors and Nomi Malone-played by the Fenn resembling Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley, respectively-in the allegorical film, SHOWGIRLS (1995), released on September 21, 1995. Indeed, the film’s allusions to WILD AT HEART, the live twilit and allegorical Lynch moving painting, INDUSTRIAL SYMPHONY NO. 1: THE DREAM OF THE BROKEN HEARTED (1990), and the twilit and allegorical Bigelow film, NEAR DARK (1987), and the presence of MacLachlan as Stardust Hotel Entertainment Director, Zack Corey, the man caught between Connors and Malone, affirmed the implicit Bigelow and Lynch addressing intent of the film.
For his part, Penn implicitly hoped that Cameron and Lynch would put aside their differences and work together as cinematic brothers in the allegorical film, THE CROSSING GUARD (1995), released in September 1995. An ironic hope, indeed, given that Bigelow and Cameron combined again to furiously and implicitly link Lynch to callous music producer, Philo Gant-played by Michael Wincott-and have the implicitly Coppola linked serial killer, Max Peltier-played by Tom Sizemore-kill him at the end of the twilit, allegorical CGI enhanced and Ozian themed indie docufeature artbuster, STRANGE DAYS (1995), released on September 3, 1995 and whose implicit Lynch roasting and exorcising intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to BLUE VELVET, RUMBLE FISH, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and WILD AT HEART.
Like his younger brother, Sir Scott also implicitly hoped that Lynch would survive the storm of criticism heaped on him after TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME like the implicitly Lynch linked Captain Christopher ‘Skipper’ Sheldon-played by Jeff Bridges-survived an unexpected storm while sailing in the Caribbean in the twilit and allegorical docufeature film, 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 allegorical film, CRASH (1996), released on May 17, 1996. Lynch was also implicitly thrashed by Disney that year in the form of the implicitly Lynch linked Evildoer, Justice Frollo-voiced by Tony Jay-in the allegorical Trousdale and Wise film, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOT RE DAME (1996), released on June 19, 1996. King also implicitly roasted Lynch again in his twilit and allegorical novels, Desperation (September 1996) and The Regulators (September 1996), the latter under his Richard Bachman pseudonym as in Thinner.
For his part, Kenneth Branagh implicitly allowed Lynch a symbolic triumph over Cameron in the form of the triumph of the implicitly Lynch linked Prince Hamlet-played by Branagh-over the implicitly Cameron linked King Claudius-played by Derek Jacobi-in the twilit, allegorical and DUNE and THE ELEPHANT MAN evoking film, HAMLET (1996), released on December 25, 1996. As for Lynch, the Eagle Scout from Arrakis implicitly roasted Lucas when he returned to dreaming…without dreaming again with another veteran from LIEBESTRAUM and Badalamenti, Bowie, Gifford, Nance, Nayar, Norris and Sweeney on his most iconoclastic indie moving painting since ERASERHEAD, the twilit, allegorical, dream-like, dream filled and CGI free moving painting, LOST HIGHWAY (1997), released in early February of 1997.
‘You’ll never have me.’
Significantly, the sad, somber, lifeless, listless, despondent and depressed moving painting began with Bowie singing the theme song as the opening titles flew into the screen from the distance and the POV raced restlessly over a presumably lost highway at night, sending the moving painting hurtling straight into the feverish dream world FBI Special Agent Phillip Jeffries vanished into in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, affirming from the outset that Lynch was continuing his new dream-like and dream filled moving painting with mainstream cinema scenes interspersed throughout it period in LOST HIGHWAY. Curiously, the moving painting then revolved around the implicitly Lucas linked saxophonist, Fred Madison-played by Pullman-who failed to revive his life and career after murdering his brunette wife, Renee-played by Arquette, who played Dorothy in THE INDIAN RUNNER as well as Alabama Worley in TRUE ROMANCE-and after literally returning to a youthful stage known as Pete Dayton-played by Balthazar Getty-implying that Lynch believed that after failing to succeed with the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy, Lucas would also not revive his life and film art by returning to the Temple Theatre with a new and more exuberantly CGI enhanced STAR WARS trilogy. Indeed, Madison’s address at 7035 Hollis affirmed the implicit Lucas addressing intent of the moving painting, as the address reminded us that the allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Ralph Bakshi roasting Lucas docufeature film, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, was released in 1973.
Indeed, the sight and sound of Dayton falling in love with and being led astray from the petite and Marcia Lucas evoking brunette, Sheila-played by Natasha G. Wagner-by a beautiful young Hollywood and Lady In The Radiator evoking blonde porn actress named Alice Wakefield-played by Arquette-also affirmed the implicit Lucas addressing intent of LOST HIGHWAY, for the sight and sound reminded us of the sight and sound of the implicitly Cowardly Lion linked Curt Henderson-played by Richard Dreyfuss-falling in love with and frantically following a fittingly bewitching and implicitly Glinda the Good linked blonde in a white ’56 Thunderbird-played by Suzanne Somers-throughout AMERICAN GRAFFITI. In fact, overall the Dayton scenes evoked AMERICAN GRAFFITI, while the Madison scenes of the film evoked THX 1138, with allusions to STRANGE DAYS also reaffirming the film’s implicit Lucas addressing intent.
In addition, the film also implicitly roasted Cronenberg and Landis in the implicit forms of Pete’s father, Bill Dayton, and a porn director named Andy-played by Gary Busey and Michael Massee, respectively. Last but not least, after a final lovemaking session between Dayton and Wakefield led to Dayton transforming back into Madison, Madison and the diabolically mischievous Mystery Man-who evoked Bengt Ekerot’s equally implacable and mischievous Death in the fortieth anniversary year of the allegorical Ingmar Bergman film, THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957), and was played by Robert Blake-another dream world denizen unrestrained by the normal laws of time and space whose presence affirmed that this was a non-mainstream moving painting like Mrs.Tremont and the One-Armed Man did in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, uniting to implicitly fulfill a vengeful dream of Lynch by hunting down and killing Wakefield’s controlling older lover, a porn/snuff film linked gang boss implicitly linked to De Laurentiis known variously as Mr. Eddy and Dick Laurent-played by Robert Loggia, who like Bowie also linked the moving painting to Landis via his character Sal ‘the Shark’ Macelli in the twilit and allegorical Landis film, INNOCENT BLOOD (1992).
And so Lynch implicitly triumphed over De Laurentiis and the film ended with Madison fleeing from the police all alone in Laurent’s stolen Benz down the lost highway screaming in furious and frustrated agony and perhaps trying to escape the situation by inducing a transformation back into Dayton but unable to, implicitly reaffirming that Lynch believed that Lucas would not succeed 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 as Bowie again sang the theme song, bringing the moving painting full anguished and tragicomic circle.
Curiously, Verhoeven implied that year that the triumph over the extraterrestrial Bugs equated with a triumph over the moving paintings of Lynch in his twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced film, STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997), a film released on November 7, 1997 and whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE and ERASERHEAD. Just as curiously, Depp implied his support for Lynch that year in his ambiguous and mysterious twilit and allegorical film, THE BRAVE (1997), released on May 10, 1997. For his part, Taylor Hackford implied his support for Lynch on October 13th of that year in the twilit and allegorical film, THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE (1997), by having hotshot young FBI Special Agent Cooper evoking lawyer Kevin 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 Al Pacino-implying the hope of Hackford that Lynch would also triumph over Landis and Satanic Hollywood and its blockbuster beasts with quirky moving paintings like LOST HIGHWAY, an implicit Lynch addressing intent affirmed by the film’s allusions to SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART.
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 in his victory over the corrupt and implicitly Lynch linked veteran lawyer, Leo F. Drummond-played by Jon Voigt-implied that Coppola wished Tarantino well and to be careful at the end of the twilit and allegorical docufeature indie film, THE RAINMAKER (1997), released in November 18, 1997 and inspired by the allegorical John Grisham novel, The Rainmaker (1995). Indeed, the film’s allusions to ERASERHEAD, THE VERDICT, TUCKER, TWIN PEAKS and WILD AT HEART, and the return of Madsen, Rourke and Stockwell as Jackie Lemancyzk, the implicitly Verhoeven linked J. Lyman ‘Bruiser’ Stone and Judge Harvey Hale, respectively, affirmed that the film was addressing Lynch on one level. For his contrary part, Emmerich implied his support for Lynch again as in STARGATE, implicitly linking him to exuberant worm expert, Doctor Nick Tatopoulos-played by Matthew Broderick-and having him help the U.S. military triumph over the implicitly Spielberg linked CGI enhanced blockbuster beast, Godzilla, and the beast’s 200 gremlin evoking spawn, in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced film, GODZILLA (1998), a film released on May 20, 1998 and whose implicit interest in Lynch was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE and ERASERHEAD.
For his part, Terry 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 disgruntled and implicitly Bigelow linked waitress-played by Ellen Barkin-in a memorable encounter at the North Star Coffee Lounge in Las Vegas in the twilit, allegorical, madcap and CGI enhanced animaction film, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998), a film released on May 15, 1998 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, LOST HIGHWAY, STRANGE DAYS, THE LOVELESS, WILD AT HEART and the often eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical Coppola docufeature indie films, YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW (1966), MARIO PUZO’S THE GODFATHER (1982), APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) and ONE FROM THE HEART (1982).
As for Spielberg, he implicitly linked Lynch to U.S. Ranger sinper, Private Daniel Jackson-played by Barry Pepper-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Spielberg film, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998). Curiously, Landis implicitly linked Lynch to Roy-played by Steven Banks-later that year in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and implicitly Bigelow and STRANGE DAYS roasting film, SUSAN’S PLAN (1998). An implication that was ignored for now as Lynch implicitly replied to Spielberg when he rejoined 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 his new dream-like and dream filled non-mainstream moving painting with cinematic moments phase for his strangest due to being straightest and most normal film yet, the twilit, allegorical, Ozian themed and CGI free 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 credits appearing over a black and star filled expanse of space as at the beginning of DUNE, ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN. Of course, this expanse of space also evoked the star filled expanse of space that began each STAR WARS film, a fitting allusion given that Lucas returned that year with his first allegorical STAR WARS film in years, the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Cameron and Spielberg roasting film, STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999). Then the stars 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 film. Eventually, the POV landed to the left of a small white house that evoked Dorothy’s farmhouse. Fittingly, beside the small white house, a woman named Dorothy-played by Jane G. Heitz-was sunning herself on a reclining lawn chair, affirming the implicit Ozian theme of the film.
After Dorothy got up and left, the sound of someone falling was soon heard from inside the small white farmhouse. Soon we discovered the Morrow resembling and implicitly linked Alvin Straight-played by Richard Farnsworth-lying prone inside his house, evoking the prone Mr. Beaumont laid low by 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 a resignedly determined, fact finding and mystery solving son or grandson. Instead, Alvin got himself back on the Straight and narrow himself after a quick checkup with the Spielberg resembling and implicitly linked Dr. Gibbons-played by Dan Flannery-that implicitly affirmed that the film was indeed replying to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
Curiously, with his white cowboy hat and feisty and indomitable manner, Straight evoked Morrow’s equally feisty, indomitable and white cowboy hat wearing police Captain Franklin in the allegorical John Hough film, CRAZY LARRY, DIRTY MARY (1974), affirming his implicit link to Morrow. Indeed, the aerial helicopter shots of Laurens, Iowa that began THE STRAIGHT STORY after the credits appeared over the starry expanse of space evoked similar aerial helicopter shots of the California countryside that began CRAZY LARRY, DIRTY MARY. Thus, given Straight’s implicit link to Morrow, it was fitting that Farnsworth, like Bowie in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and Loggia in LOST HIGHWAY, openly linked THE STRAIGHT STORY to the film art of Landis by way of his role as Jack Caper in INTO THE NIGHT. It was also grimly fitting that Farnsworth linked THE STRAIGHT STORY to 1982 via his role as gentleman British Columbian train robber Bill Miner in the allegorical Phillip Borsos film, THE GREY FOX (1982). Curiously, longtime Lynch friend, Sissy Spacek, who played Straight’s despondent daughter, ‘Blue’ Rose, reaffirmed the film’s link to 1982, for she played Beth Horman in the allegorical Costa-Gravas film, MISSING (1982).
Significantly, when a phone call informed Straight that his 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 with an ever present pack of Swisher Sweets in his breast pocket, driving first a ruby red Rheds lawn mower, and then an Emerald City green and yellow 1966 John Deere riding lawn mower with a hand-made wooden trailer attached purchased from the implicitly Lucas linked Tom-played by McGill-at the local John Deere dealership, alone along the Yellow Lined Road to visit and patch up relations with his ailing and implicitly mysterious Great Oz linked brother in Ozian Mount Zion, Wisconsin, an obdurate and determined quest that evoked the equally obdurate and determined quest to save 101st Airborne Paratrooper Pte. James Francis Ryan-played by Matt Damon-in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Curiously, Straight rolled along so slowly 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 that was in complete and ironic contrast to the fast and frenzied automobile dash of Madison down the road to nowhere at the end of LOST HIGHWAY.
Along the way, Straight met people 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 owner/manager, Pete-played by Ed Grennan. Straight also met a despondent woman-played by Barbara Robertson-who hit and killed a deer with her car who resembled and was implicitly linked to Kennedy. Significantly, an implicitly Cronenberg linked WWII vet named Verlyn Heller-played by Wiley Harker-led to Straight revealing that he had been a sniper in Europe in World War II while enjoying a drink with Heller at a bar. This reminded us that Lynch was implicitly linked to sniper Pte. Jackson in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, implicitly affirming that Lynch was replying to that horrific and violent film on one level in the kinder and gentler THE STRAIGHT STORY.
Curiously, a firefighter that 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 creeped into Mount Zion on his going somewhere slow journey was John Lordan’s Dan Akroyd resembling and implicitly linked bachelor Priest, reminding us that Akroyd was a good friend of Landis before and after the TZ disaster, had a small role in the prologue and epilogue of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, co-starred in THE BLUES BROTHERS, and had another small role as the murderous biker Bob in SUSAN’S PLAN.
Thus, using our gift of intuiting without intuiting again, the implication was that the mysterious and Great Lyle in his beat up house in Mount Zion, WI, was implicitly linked to Landis, allowing the film and the millennium to end with Landis and Morrow implicitly forgiving and reuniting with each other so that film art could be finally free of the Twilight Zone in time for the new millenia when Alvin finally arrived at the shack of Lyle. For linked to the Zone the two blues sufferin’ brothers were, as over the course of the moving without moving painting we discovered that the Straight brothers had been raised on a farm in Moorhead, Minnesota. Of course, this twilit town evoked Agnes Moorhead and her appearance as the unnamed and harried woman fending 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 television series. An ironically sweet and hopeful message that also implied that Lynch was committed to wiping the slate clean and starting over again on the straight and narrow himself in the new millennia.
Alas for Lynch, the good vibrations produced by THE STRAIGHT STORY did not last long. For Kubrick implicitly roasted Lynch as being as lost in the Twilight Zone as the naïve and foolish jazz pianist Nick Nightingale-played by Todd Field-in his last, twilit and allegorical artbuster, EYES WIDE SHUT (1999), a film released on July 13, 1999 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to BLUE VELVET, LOST HIGHWAY, PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, TWIN PEAKS and TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and the inclusion of Isaak’s allegorical tune, ‘Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing’ (1995). Bigelow also implicitly roasted Lynch again in the implicit form of chain smoking poet Thomas Janes-played by Penn-in the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Landis, Lucas, Lynch and Spielberg roasting artbuster, THE WEIGHT OF WATER (2000), released on September 9, 2000.
As for the Eagle Scout from Arrakis, he implicitly replied to Bigelow, Kubrick and Landis when he rejoined Anderson, Badalamenti, Fisk, Montgomery, Sweeney-again a co-producer as well as editor-Scott Coffey-who played Teddy in LOST HIGHWAY-Peter Deming-director of photography of LOST HIGHWAY-and Pierre Edelman and Michael Polaire-producers of THE STRAIGHT STORY-and returned to the twilit L.A. and the dream-like and dream filled non-mainstream moving painting with mainstream cinema in it as in LOST HIGHWAY in the twilit, allegorical, dream-like, Ozian themed, DESERT HEARTS evoking and CGI free moving painting, MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001), released on May 16, 2001.
‘This is the girl.’
Indeed, the film headed straight into the dreamworld like LOST HIGHWAY by beginning with a surreal jumble of jitterbugging teens in Fifties clothing-with one of the dancing couples evoking a young George and Marcia Lucas-who faded away into a brilliantly lit, beaming and Lady In The Radiator evoking blonde centred between two elderly companions who evoked Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip-reminding us of the perhaps Queen Elizabeth II linked grandmother in THE GRANDMOTHER, and played by Naomi Watts, Jeanne Bates and Dan Birnbaum, respectively-who basked in the cheers and claps of a delighted crowd before fading away into a mysterious bedroom with a bed with red sheets. Then the POV shifted to the sight of a black 1997 Cadillac De Ville Stretched Limousine or a 1995 or ’98 Lincoln Town Car Stretched Limo-with the ominously twilit and disastrous license of 2GAT123-being driven slowly and with the same ponderous pace and sense of inescapable menace as in EYES WIDE SHUT through the nighttime Hollywood Hills along winding Mulholland Drive above the mesmerizing and twinkling vista of L.A. while the opening titles flashed on the screen. Significantly, the long black limo evoked the equally long black Chrysler New Yorker limousine driven by the sensitive but steely bodyguard/chauffeur Lornette ‘Mace’ Mason-played by Angela Bassett-in STRANGE DAYS.
A fitting reminder of STRANGE DAYS, for when the opening titles ended, the POV shifted inside the back of the limo where we found a beautiful, dark brown or black eyed, dark brown haired, Beautiful Woman Across The Hall evoking and implicitly Bigelow linked young woman-played by Laura E. Harring-wearing pearl earrings and a Wicked black dress silently enjoying the ride instead of ex-LAPD officer and intinerant SQUID playback peddler Leonard ‘Lenny’ Nero-played by Ralph Fiennes-as in STRANGE DAYS. Significantly, while implicitly linked to Bigelow, this beautiful brunette evoked the sight of the implicitly Besson linked Dr. Harford being driven slowly in the back of a taxi through nighttime New York and into the country to a castle like mansion where a strange and masked orgiastic party was being held in EYES WIDE SHUT. A fitting reminder, for suddenly the limo driver-played by Scott Wulff-stopped the car and threatened to shoot the shocked brunette, reminding us of the murder of the implicitly Palmer linked Mandy Curran in EYES WIDE SHUT.
However, the beautiful brunette was ironically saved when a speeding car crashed into the black car like an Ozian tornado, a surprise crash that we had been prepared for by the ominous and disastrous license plate that killed the sinister driver and his equally menacing companion in the front passenger seat-played by Billy Wright-and an accident that perhaps symbolized the shocking failure of STRANGE DAYS to connect with audiences and the quick exit of the fine film from theatres, a shocking, depressing and disappointing failure that would have shocked Bigelow as much as an unexpected car accident. And then all was silence, smoke and crashed and entangled cars in the darkness on Mulholland Drive, evoking the getaway car abandoned by the ex-President’s Gang pondered by police officers and FBI agents in the darkness on Mulholland Drive at the beginning of POINT BREAK to affirm the film’s implicit interest in Bigelow.
Wandering from the wreck in an amnesiac 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 brunette stumbled down the Hollywood Hills and into the streets below with one pearl earring. Curiously, she walked by a street sign reading Franklin 7400, neatly evoking Captain Franklin and the 1974 release date of CRAZY LARRY, DIRTY MARY, and then fell asleep in the garden of an apartment or condo building. Then it was the next morning, and the sun shone full on that L.A. apartment or condo building situated in a naturally lush and colourful garden, evoking the equally lush and full colour Munchkinland that swept away the black and white Dirty Thirties prologue when Dorothy and Toto arrived in the Oz at the beginning 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 heavy travelling trunk of a fifty-something and Kennedy evoking red haired female passenger-played by Maya Bond-out of the apartment and into the trunk of his taxi, causing the mysterious Wicked brunette to sneak into the open apartment of the departing red haired woman and hide inside, before the red haired woman returned and locked up the apartment.
Just as curiously, as the Wicked mystery brunette laid down her head to sleep and perhaps to dream, the POV shifted to an all day breakfast restaurant called Winkie’s, 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 the film. Soon one of the patrons of Winkie’s, the Akroyd evoking but Landis resembling and implicitly linked Dan-played by Patrick Fischler-was frightened to death by an implicitly Wicked Witch of the East or West linked character-whose dirty face and hood evoked the sunburnt vampires of the twilit and allegorical Bigelow film, NEAR DARK (1987), and was played by Bonnie Aarons-who lived behind the restaurant. Thus, Dan became the implicit Wicked Witch of the East linked character whose death opened wide the gates of the healing spiritworld dream. Opened wide, indeed, for the death of Dan led to a series of men talking to each other on the phone about the missing dark tressed beauty, including Anderson’s mysterious and implicitly Great Oz linked Dream Man and head Munchkin, Mr. Roque.
The scene then switched to the arrival in L.A. by airplane later that same morning of the trio who were seen at the end of the dance contest prologue, the blonde, sweet, innocent, pretty, perky, naïve and implicitly Dorothy linked blonde and the elderly couple who not only evoked Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip but were also implicitly linked to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. Bidding farewell to each other outside the airport, the young blonde and the elderly woman revealed that their names were Betty and Irene, respectively, 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 Lara F. Boyle-in SUSAN’S PLAN. Leaving the airport by taxi, Betty soon arrived at the condo seen earlier, which turned out to be the L. A. condo of Betty’s Aunt Ruth, the red headed woman seen leaving the condo earlier when the brunette snuck in behind her back-that Betty was staying in for a while in the hopes of landing a part in a Hollywood film for she was filled with dazzling dreams of film star fame and fortune.
Quickly discovering the Wicked Brunette of the East as she explored the condo, 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 accident, the mysterious brunette woman adopted the name Rita from a poster on the wall for the allegorical and implicitly Hitchcock roasting Charles Vidor film, GILDA (1946)-a film starring Rita Hayworth as the eponymous Gilda that constantly evoked the allegorical and Jack Warner roasting Michael Curtiz film, CASABLANCA (1942)-that was released the year of the birth of Lynch. Fittingly, on one of the painting filled walls of the apartment, 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, hung a reproduction of the allegorical Johannes Vermeer painting, ‘The Girl With A Pearl Earring’ (1665), reminding us that ‘Rita’ was first met wearing pearl earrings, and that the painting was also alluded to in THE WEIGHT OF WATER. Indeed, with her head wrapped in a towel after a shower the morning after the accident, the mystery woman 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 the name of ‘Rita’.
Curiously, as Elms and ‘Rita’ met each other in Aunt Ruth’s apartment, the POV switched to the tragicomic sight and sound of the young and implicitly Burton and Cowardly Lion linked film artist, Adam Kesher, and his manager, Robert Smith-played by Justin Theroux and David Schroeder, respectively-meeting with producer Ray Hott and one Mr. Darby-played by Robert Katims and Marcus Graham, respectively-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 Kesher’s next film, THE SILVIA NORTH STORY, only to have the Castigliane brothers insist that a young actress with the Camilla Bowles and Cecil Rhodes evoking name of Camilla Rhodes-played by Melissa George-play the female lead. Outraged by the suggestion, Kesher stormed out of the meeting and the building housing Ryan Entertainment and straight into an extra who linked the film openly to SUSAN’S PLAN.
For outside Kesher met a valet played by Daniel Rey, who played a gay hair stylist named Enrique who was a friend of Betty 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 ex-husband, the implicitly Coppola linked Paul Holland-played by Adrian Paul-whose name, of course, evoked Mulholland. As the implicitly Lynch linked Roy, whose run down 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 in the film of Boyle, who played Donna Hayward in TWIN PEAKS, by the fact that shrewdly ditzy Betty got away with the murder of Holland, in the end, and by the fact that Betty also spent most of the film wearing a Barbie t-shirt under her spangly pink top, openly and wryly linking her triumphant character to the triumph of product placement filled and movie tie-in merchandise promoting beastly blockbuster filmmercials rather than serious film art for film art’s sake films and moving paintings.
Rey’s valet reaffirmed the film’s link to SUSAN’S PLAN, for he handed Kesher the keys to his grey 1997 Porsche Boxster, a car which resembled the grey ’97 BMW Z3 driven by Holland in SUSAN’S PLAN. Driving home, Kesher’s day got worse when he surprised his wife, Lorraine-who resembled Kinski’s Susan in SUSAN’S PLAN, and was played by Lori Heuring-in bed with Gene, the pool maintenance man-played by Billy Ray Cyrus. Soon after, Kesher was fired and the film was shut down due to his refusal to use Rhodes. Going into hiding at the Park Hotel, Kesher met the Kubrick resembling and implicitly linked manager, Cookie-played by Geno Silva-affirming that Kubrick was also implicitly addressing Kubrick on one level in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.
Fittingly, given the dream logic favoured by the moving painting, Betty and Rita’s quest to discover the real identity of Rita not only led to Betty falling in love with Rita but progressed oddly-and included an unusually shaped blue key found in the purse of Rita-until the two visited a real live theatre of the imagination called Club Silencio late in the film and experienced a moving performance in Spanish of the allegorical and Joe Melson and Roy Orbison written Orbison tune, ‘Crying’ (1961), by singer Rebekah Del Rio, who evoked a lonesome Lady In The Radiator and resembled Sydney Walsh’s Miss Deer in POINT BREAK to reaffirm the film’s implicit interest in Bigelow. Here Rita found a small and mysterious blue box in her purse that evoked Reverend Mother Mohiam’s human testing box in DUNE, and on returning to Aunt Ruth’s condartment, Rita also found that the blue key opened the blue box, releasing the full and unrestrained power of the dream. At this point, Rita slowly but surely transformed into a successful film star and wife of Kesher also named Camilla Rhodes, while Betty morphed into the bitterly disappointed and unsuccessful actress, Diane Selwyn.
Thus, using our gift of intuiting things again, we could see that Lynch implicitly used MULHOLLAND DRIVE to counter Kubrick’s gloomy prognosis in EYES WIDE SHUT that film art was dead. Indeed, the transformation of the befuddled and amnesiac black haired beauty Rita into the successful film actress Camilla and wife of Kesher and of the sweet Hollywood blonde Betty into bitter Diane over the course of the moving painting implicitly affirmed Lynch’s conviction that film art in general, and Bigelow’s films in particular, were both alive and well despite the failure of STRANGE DAYS, and that soulless CGI enhanced blockbuster beasts with their bimbo peroxide blondes were dying. However, the fact that Rita transformed into Camilla and became the wife of Kesher also implied that while Lynch believed that Bigelow would rebound from the STRANGE DAYS disaster like he rebounded from the DUNE debacle, she would never make another Great Wild Film like STRANGE DAYS again and instead would be forced to craft quirky mainstream artbusters like Burton, a fate that the fearless Bigs did not embrace.
We could also see that in the sight of Betty transforming into Diane and losing a film role to Rhodes and losing Rhodes to Kesher that Lynch also implied that he was dressing down Landis for using Boyle to play Betty in SUSAN’S PLAN on one level as well as replying to Bigelow and Kubrick in MULHOLLAND DRIVE. Indeed, the suicide of Betty/Diane, in the end, implicitly affirmed Lynch’s disapproval of SUSAN’S PLAN-how fitting that the name of Diane Selwyn was an anagram for ‘Weeny Landis’! Curiously, the suicide occurred after the Canadian actress hired the woefully inept and implicitly Cameron linked hit man, Joe-played by Mark Pellegrino-to kill Rhodes and after being terrorized by the Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip evoking Irene and her companion, who were indifferently released on her by the Wicked Winkie’s Witch of the West. Thus, Lynch implied that he was roasting Cameron as well in the film and perhaps addressing the death of Lady Diana in 1997. The presence of the implicitly Lucas linked Wally Brown-played by James Karen-also implied a gentle roast of Lucas and his STAR WARS Tragic Trilogy in MULHOLLAND DRIVE.
Significantly, a year after its thought provoking release, MULHOLLAND DRIVE became one of the first Lynch 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’. Thus, Lynch openly acknowledged for the first time that his moving paintings were allegorical and filled with signs and symbols that, if interpreted correctly with the gift of intuiting things, would lead to solving the cinematic mystery and transcendent enlightenment. Allowing the Eagle Scout from Arrakis to make a brave new start in the new millennium, a new start that was no doubt influenced by five implicitly Lynch themed films that were released after MULHOLLAND DRIVE, starting with the allegorical and CGI enhanced Spielberg film, A.I. (2001), released on June 26, 2001.
Significantly, in this film Spielberg implicitly linked Lynch to Joel H. Osment’s odd android/mecha boy David in way that implied that Spielberg felt that Lynch was not quite a truly human film artist or human being. Indeed, as David the odd Mecha boy created by Dr. Alan Hobby-played by Hurt-tried to become human in order to please and reconnect with the surrogate human mother, Monica Swinton-played by Frances O’Connor-who had abandoned him at the beginning of A.I., and failed at both goals, Spielberg implied that Lynch was not only not a fully human film artist, but that he was doomed to never quite connect with his film art or with his audiences. Significantly, this implicit dismissive cinematic snub from Spielberg was followed by another implicit one from Cronenberg in his allegorical film, SPIDER (2002), released on May 21, 2002.
Given that the film revolved around a delusional, memory haunted and implicitly Lynch linked child man named Dennis ‘Spider’ Cleg-played by Ralph Fiennes-who as a boy-played by Bradley Hall-killed his Good and gentle brunette mother-played by Miranda Richardson-when he became convinced that she had already been murdered by his father, Bill-played by Gabriel Byrne-and replaced by an Evil, blonde and Hollywood linked witch-also played by Richardson-Cronenberg implied that Lynch was also a delusional and memory haunted child man whose overriding obsession with the possibility of murderous and Evil wrongdoing in the TZ disaster had killed his Good and gentle film art and replaced it with Evil and Hollywood linked witchery, an implicit Lynch roasting intent affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, ERASERHEAD, THE ELEPHANT MAN and THE GRANDMOTHER.
Curiously, Neil Jordan implicitly came to the defense of the long suffering Lynch on September 6th of that same year, allowing the implicitly Lynch linked, painting loving and down on his luck gambling thief, Bob Montana-played by Nolte-to triumph over the implicitly Cronenberg linked police inspector, Roger-played by Tcheky Karyo-and the implicitly Cameron linked transgender bodybuilder, Phillipa-played by Julien Mourel-at the end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced film, THE GOOD THIEF (2002), an implicit intent affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, LOST HIGHWAY, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, THE DEAD ZONE, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and WILD AT HEART. For his part, Keith Gordon implicitly mocked Lynch’s love of strange and surreal imagery, people lip synching to classic pop songs, and his obsession with murderous and bewildering mystery-All clues! No solution!-in his allegorical film art since BLUE VELVET in the twilit and allegorical film, THE SINGING DETECTIVE (2003), released on January 17, 2003.
On June 30, 2003 of that same year, Jonathan Mostow curiously and implicitly linked Lynch to the new CGI enhanced female TX Terminator-played by Kristanna Loken-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced film, TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003)-this despite the fact that CGI was still absent from the moving paintings of Lynch! Just as curiously but fortunately for Lynch, on December 4, 2003, Burton implicitly came to his defense and wrapped up his implicit Lynch Trilogy in fitting Edwardian fashion in the symbolic form of Edward Bloom-played as a young man by Ewen McGregor, and as an older man by Albert Finney-in his sweet and sympathetic twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced animaction artbuster BIG FISH (2003). Ang Lee also implicitly sympathized with Lynch in the implicit form of Ennis Del Mar-played by Heath Ledger-in his twilit and allegorical film, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005), released on September 2, 2005. For his part, Richard Kelly implicitly roasted Lynch in the implicit form of aspiring film artist and time traveller, Boxer Santaros-played by Dwayne Johnson-a character trapped between implicitly CGI supporting Republicans and implicitly CGI rejecting Neo-Marxists in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced film, SOUTHLAND TALES (2006), a film released on May 21, 2006 and whose implicit intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, LOST HIGHWAY and MULHOLLAND DRIVE and the return of Del Rio as herself. As for Lynch, he implicitly roasted and triumphed over Kubrick again, responded to Kelly and reflected on his life in moving painting art when he teamed up again with Coffey, Dern, Harring, Ladd, Stanton, Sweeney, Theroux, Watts and Zabriskie to wrap up both his Dern and Los Angeles Trilogies in inimitable style with another dream-like and dream filled non-mainstream moving painting with mainstream cinema in it, the twilit, allegorical, Ozian themed and CGI free indie moving painting, INLAND EMPIRE (2006), released on September 6, 2006.
‘Cast out this wicked dream
that has seized my heart.’
Curiously, the film began with a black and white sequence that immediately sent the film into a dream-like and dream filled non-mainstream moving painting with mainstream cinema in it like LOST HIGHWAY and MULHOLLAND DRIVE that was implicitly set in ‘…a Baltic country’, evoking the Eastern European countries of origin of the ancestors of Kubrick and Spielberg and involving an unidentifiable young woman being forced into prostitution by an equally unidentifiable man before heading off into a colour sequence involving perhaps the same and implicitly Dorothy linked woman-played by Karolina Gruzska-in a hotel room watching a bizarre sitcom complete with canned laughter involving a family of rabbits on television, evoking the mysterious and haunting Bunnyman called Frank-played by James Duval-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Kelly film, DONNIE DARKO (2001), implicitly affirming that the film was replying to Kelly on one level. This bunnyman sequence sequed into a scene involving an implicitly Kubrick or Spielberg linked Wicked Phantom-played by Krzyztof Majchrzak-who arrived to confront another man in an opulent room straight out of the surreal ending of the allegorical Kubrick film, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), or throughout the allegorical and implicitly Landis addressing film, BARRY LYNDON (1975), affirming the implication that Kubrick was being implicitly roasted on one level of the film.
Then the opulent room faded away, and Part One of the film began, which saw the Eastern European or Russian accented and implicitly Glinda the Good linked Zabriskie in an emerald green dress walking agitatedly through a wealthy neighbourhood to pay a visit to the equally opulent Los Angeles mansion of the possibly SCC linked film star, Nikki Grace-played by Dern. Significantly, while talking to Nikki, who was linked to moving paintings as she sat in a chair with a painting behind her in the first of a number of links of Nikki to paintings in the film, the Good Witch used her magic to get Nikki to fittingly look to her right into a possible Good future, sending Nikki into a tomorrow world where Nikki got the lead female role in a twilit and allegorical film variously called ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS (200?) and 47 (200?), a film based on ‘…a Polish gypsy folk tale’ that was produced and directed by the Folsey jr. and Landis evoking pair of Freddy and Kingsley Stewart-played by Stanton and Jeremy Irons.
Indeed, Stewart’s last name evoked that of Paul Stewart, the special effects supervisor on the Landis set of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, who was one of the five co-defendants in the TZ disaster trial, affirming the implicit link of Stewart to Landis. Stewart’s last name also reminded us of 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 as Irons was linked forever to the twilit, fateful, fatal and disastrous year of 1982 forever by way of his character Nowak in the allegorical Jerzy Skolimowski film, MOONLIGHTING (1982). All of which implicitly affirmed that a twilit cadence haunted the creation of Stewart’s new film 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 film was a remake of a twilit and murder scarred film based on a Polish gypsy folk tale called ‘Vier Sieben’ (‘Four Seven’ in German).
Curiously, Nikki slowly became one with the film and transformed into the film’s lead female, Susan Blue, and fell in love with the film’s implicitly Kelly linked male lead, Devon Berk, and his character, Billy Side-both played by Theroux-the names of Billy and Susan evoking Billy Zane’s Sam and Natassja Kinski’s Susan in SUSAN’S PLAN. Not surprisingly, the amorous relationship of Nikki and Devon annoyed her possessive and intimidating husband, Piotrek Krol-played by Peter J. Lucas-who was dragged into the film as well. Curiously, at one point, Nikki/Susan snuck into the back of the soundstage and saw herself in the distance going over a scene with Devon, Kingsley and Freddy which had happened earlier, affirming that Nikki/Susan had become one with the timeless dream-like and dream filled moving painting like FBI Special Agent Cooper in the Red Draped Room. When the foursome heard her in the back of the soundstage and Devon left to investigate the sound, Nikki/Susan fled from Devon and her husband and hid inside the 1358 Smithee house set that was being constructed for ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS/47.
Curiously, Part Two saw Nikki/Susan trapped in the Smithee house and discovering that it was occupied at times by the dance loving Dream Girls-including one who resembled Scarlett Johansson-whose dance to the sound of the allegorical Gerry Goffin and Carole King written Little Eva Boyd tune, ‘Locomotion’ (1962), evoked the Sparkle Motion girl dancers of DONNIE DARKO to implicitly reaffirm that Lynch was responding to that film in INLAND EMPIRE. Significantly, Nikki/Susan also discovered that the Smithee house was as timeless as the Red Draped Room and filled with insights and visions-one of which evoked HOOK-that 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 the streets of Los Angeles. Eventually this led Nikki/Susan to be stabbed by an implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked woman who had been hypnotized by the Wicked Phantom, Doris Side-played by Julia Ormond-the wife of the fictional film character, Billy Side. This stabbing led to the final moving scene shot for ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS/47, then to another real life theatre of the imagination whose back stairwell and winding hallways led briefly back to the Smithee house where Nikki found a gun that she used to triumph over the Wicked Phantom, implicitly freeing film art in general and that of Lynch in particular from either the Wicked grip of Kubrick, Spielberg or both. Then Nikki used her insight to free the young imprisoned woman and return her to her husband, which turned out to be Piotrek. This loving union achieved, Nikki returned to exactly the moment that Zabrinda had worked her magic on Nikki the day that they met, only to turn to the right again and find herself looking at her whole and harmonious self, evoking the back to the future past ending of DONNIE DARKO to reaffirm that Lynch was addressing that film on one level in INLAND EMPIRE. Leading after a short pause to a curious musical epilogue as the final credits played that saw Harring and Kinski reappear, the former implying that some unresolved issues in MULHOLLAND DRIVE had been neatly tied up by INLAND EMPIRE, and the latter implying that those issues involved SUSAN’S PLAN, as she had played Susan in that film.
As for the Boy Scout from Arrakis himself, the irrepressible Lynch confirmed that he was his most quirky creation in the twilit and allegorical BlackandWhite film, LYNCH (one) (2007), a film released on June 23, 2007 which followed him along as he created INLAND EMPIRE. A quirky character who made one wonder again why he hadn’t just taken advantage of his name and reputation after ERASERHEAD to secure indie financing for his moving paintings and avoid Hollywood and its beastly blockbuster machinations altogether, given how happy and alive he was creating the indie INLAND EMPIRE. Then Cronenberg implied on September 8, 2007 that he was roasting Lynch yet again and INLAND EMPIRE and THE GOOD THIEF in his allegorical film, EASTERN PROMISES (2007), an implication affirmed by the presence of Watts as a London midwife named Anna Ivanovna.
For his part, Coppola implied that he was roasting the sight and sound of the older Lynch getting hit with Cupid’s arrow and marrying a young actress that he met on the set of INLAND EMPIRE named Emily Stofle-who played a Dream Girl named Lanni-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 and romancing the young, beautiful and reincarnated Laura/Rupini/Veronica Buhler-played by Alexandra M. Lara-and predicting that the marriage end as quickly as that of Matei and Buhler in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature indie film, YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH (1997), released on October 20, 2007 and whose implicit Lynch addressing intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to DUNE, ERASERHEAD, LITTLE BUDDHA, SOUTHLAND TALES, THE DEAD ZONE, THE ELEPHANT MAN and TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME and 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 going despite one cinematic disaster after another in the implicit 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 artbuster, THE HURT LOCKER (2008), released on September 4, 2008, and affirmed her implicit intent with allusions to DUNE, GARDENS OF STONE, INLAND EMPIRE, MULHOLLAND DRIVE and a suicide bomb victim at the end of the film referred to in the closing credits as the Black Suit Man-played by Suhail Al-Dabbach-who resembled the Wicked Phantom of INLAND EMPIRE. Then it was off to implicitly roast Cronenberg and several other Canadian and American film artists when Lynch returned with Ormond for some seriously crazy clown time as executive producer for daughter Jennifer Chambers Lynch on the twilit, allegorical and CGI free moving painting, SURVEILLANCE (2009), released on May 21, 2008.
‘David, grow up!’
Curiously, the film began with the Cooper evoking FBI Special Agent Sam Hallaway-played by Pullman-and his female partner, 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, as Ironside began his film career as the Evil and implicitly Meyer linked scanner, Darryl Revok, in SCANNERS. Indeed, the film’s many allusions to the twilit and allegorical Cronenberg film, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005), reaffirmed that the film was roasting Cronenberg. The appearance of Kent Wolkowski as a befuddled and pouty teenager named David also affirmed that the Lynches were addressing Cronenberg in SURVEILLANCE, and also implied that the Lynches thought that Cronenberg was but a lost boy. And not just Cronenberg, as the other officers in the police station were implicitly linked to Cameron, Folsey, Landis and Ivan Reitman.
Thus, the sight and sound of FBI Special Agents Anderson and Hallaway initially fooling Capt. Billings and his fellow officers with their FBI routine before being slowly revealed over the course of the moving painting to not be on the side of Good but on the side of Bad as the deceptive duo were actually the two gleefully insane and unrepentant serial killers that Captain Billings and his fellow officers were looking for and killing all of the police officers one by one implied that Hallaway symbolized Lynch pere and that Anderson symbolized Lynch fille and that father and daughter had teamed up for a gleefully demented implicit slaughter of all of the American and Canadian film artists that had driven them the most crazy in order to truly cleanse the Temple Theatre and lead audiences out of the twilight-kull wahad! Indeed, the appearance on the film’s soundtrack of the allegorical Lynch tune, ‘Speed Roadster’ (2009), a tune that later appeared on the allegorical Lynch recording, CRAZY CLOWN TIME (2011), affirmed the importance of the moving painting to Lynch
For his part, Antoine Fuqua implicitly linked Lynch to ex-U.S. secret agent 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 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. Significantly, and speaking of blockbuster CGI enhanced beasts, with its allusions to BLUE VELVET, DUNE, ERASERHEAD, INLAND EMPIRE and LOST HIGHWAY, Joss Whedon implied that the renegade AI, Ultron-voiced by Spader-was not only linked to Lynch but in need of being defeated by the dissembling Avengers in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced super satirical film, AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015), a film released on April 13, 2015 that saw the implicitly Cronenberg linked Vision-played by Paul Bettany-destroy the last robot Ultron, and, hence, implicitly Lynch, in the end. Indeed, the implicit link of twin siblings Pietro ‘Quicksilver’ and Wanda ‘Scarlet Witch’ Maximoff-played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen, respectively-to Riley and Emily Lynch implicitly affirmed that Lynch was being roasted in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.
As for Lynch, he curiously returned again to Twin Peaks as if to finally exorcise the TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME disaster and implicitly joined the odd subculture of the dread allegorical Zone Wars perhaps best described as Cinema Garite when he teamed up 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 twinamic duo of Brent Briscoe and Robert Forster-who played Detective Domgaard and Detective 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, dream-like, dream filled and slightly CGI enhanced 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 never seen before rather than the colour dreaming Red Draped Room. This black and white theatre of the imagination evoked early black and white Lynch moving paintings such as THE GRANDMOTHER, ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN, implying that it symbolized his cinematic roots. Then the POV switched to reality and the implicit The Dark Half linked Dark Side of Cooper-now indigenous looking with dark skin, long black hair and black leather jacket and played again by MacLachlan-still on the violent rampage in the real world, which caused the world of dreams 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, which perhaps symbolized television. This Cooper managed to escape with the help of the implicitly Besson linked One-Armed Man, Phillip Gerard-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, a kind of purple lighthouse floating in space which perhaps symbolized the new world of digital and CGI enhanced film 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 in the real world trapped in the body of a Las Vegas based Lucky 7 Insurance agent named Douglas ‘Dougie’-HellOOOOOOOO!-Jones, but wearing the familiar black suit, tie and dress shoes and white dress shirt 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, Cooper’s struggle to free himself from Jones also implied and interest in exorcising Gary W. ‘Gardevil’ Wright, for only after leaving behind an implicitly Greater Toronto Area linked Greater Las Vegas Area and several characters that evoked Gardevil and his ‘insightful’ website could 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 of the series in Toronto, while the Mississauga evoking Vegas suburb of Rancho Rosa where Jones lived and the resemblance of Dougie’s wife, Janey-E-played by Watts-to current Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, affirmed the implicit interest in Zone War film ‘scholars’ residing 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 reminded us that the eerily twilit, prescient and allegorical John Boorman film, EXCALIBUR (1981), inspired and even anticipated Gardevil. The resemblance of Lucky 7 Insurance boss Bushnell ‘Battlin’ Bud’ Mullins-played by Don Murray-to John Tory, the current Mayor of Toronto; the resemblances of LVPD Detectives D. and T. Fusco to Rob Ford, the last mayor of Toronto, and his brother Doug, 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 Christophe Zajac-Denek reaffirmed the implicit interest in GTA film art, film artists and film ‘scholars’ in the series.
In fact, the presence in Twin Peaks of Amanda Seyfried and Caleb L. Jones as the implicitly Sarah Polley linked Rebecca ‘Becky’ and Steven Burnett, respectively, 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 implicitly Polley linked prostitute Chloe in the twilit and allegorical Atom Egoyan film, CHLOE (2009), and Jones played Syd March in the twilit and allegorical Brandon Cronenberg film, ANTIVIRAL (2012), both created in the GTA. In addition, the presences of Jennifer J. Leigh and Tim Roth as Chantal and Gary ‘Hutch’ Hutchens, respectively, also affirmed the implicit interest in Canadian film art and film artists in the series, as the two hillbilly assassins evoked Cameron and his latest wife, Suzy Amis. An implication reaffirmed by the resemblance of Twin Peaks Deputy Chad Broxford-played by John Pirruccello-to Canadian film artist Denis Villeneuve. Of course, the brief appearance in Twin Peaks of the legendary biker Wally Brando-played by Michael Cera-also openly affirmed the implicit interest in Canadian film artists in TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES. Last but not least, the inclusion on the soundtrack of the allegorical and Lynch re-mixed Muddy Magnolias tune, ‘American Woman’ (2015), which evoked and mocked the allegorical Guess Who tune, ‘American Woman’ (1970), reaffirmed the implicit interest in Canada and its art and artists in TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES.
In addition, 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 reaffirmed the implication that the Boy Scout from Arrakis was interested in Toronto and its film art and film artists and in exorcising its Zone War obsessed film ‘scholars’ throughout TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES. Indeed, the fact that a Buckhorn, South Dakota character named William ‘Bill’ Hastings-played by Matthew Lillard-resembled CBC television personality, Jonathan Torrens, and that Hastings was accused of killing the town librarian and was also killed real dead for being the writer of a blog devoted to revelations about the Zone that evoked the dread allegorical Zone War obsessed blog of the poor ol’ Gardevil reaffirmed the implication that Lynch was addressing Gardevil on one level in the series.
Finally releasing all of these implicitly Canadian and GTA film art linked characters, the newly restored FBI Special Agent 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 dreaming Red Draped Room and the Forceful Green Rubber Glove of Destiny (YoW!) ably worn by Jake Wardle’s Freddie Sykes in the real world, in the end. Significantly, this concluding triumph evoked the triumph over the equally nightmare linked Wicked Phantom at the end of INLAND EMPIRE, and implied that Lynch also used the new series to release any ill feelings 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 an equally world weary Lynch-tracking down Cooper throughout the series and helping him in his triumph over his Dark Side implicitly affirmed that Lynch released King on one level at the end of the series. The increased horror content of TWIN PEAKS: A LIMITED EVENT SERIES compared to TWIN PEAKS also affirmed the implicit interest in King. Alas, the increased horror content, overall grimness, listlessness, lifelessness and lack of the irresistible and quirkily upbeat charm of TWIN PEAKS also made the reboot less enjoyable and memorable than the original telemoving painting series.
Curiously, Agent Cooper’s Dark Side also evoked Johnny 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 Cooper’s Dark Side beat the big and intimidating gangland boss, Renzo-played by Derek Mears-in an arm wrestle, for the boss evoked Marlon Brando, who played the sinister McCarthy in THE BRAVE. Thus, Lynch also implied that he was not pleased that the mega-successful and wealthy actor/director/writer and symbol of commercial Hollywood film art had linked himself to the far less successful and film art for art’s sake Lynch, and was also triumphing over and exorcising Depp with Cooper’s triumph over his Dark Side. Last but not least, the fact that CGI realized or enhanced dream people and creatures helped Agent Cooper defeat his Dark Side-including Joy Nash’s Senorita Dido 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 Cooper 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 Cooper and Page/Palmer’s trip back to the Palmer house in Twin Peaks, WA and the series itself ended with the two standing in the darkness in the street outside the Palmer house with Cooper uncertain as to what year it was as if he had stepped back into the Red Draped Room and Page/Palmer 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 Sir Scott executive produced and implicitly A.I. addressing Villeneuve film, BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017), released on October 3, 2017. For his part, King implicitly reaffirmed that Cooper was an implicit roast of him by implicitly roasting Lynch again and the Twin Peaks reboot and petulantly dismissing him and his moving paintings as being as insubstantial, in the end, as the implicitly Lynch linked Scott Carey in his allegorical novella, Elevation (October 2018), and affirmed his implicit intent with allusions to Badalamenti, MULHOLLAND DRIVE and Thinner. All of which implicitly affirmed that, right to the end, in order to understand and truly appreciate the dream-like and dream filled moving paintings and telemoving paintings of Lynch and those who implicitly roasted him in fiction and film important it was to intuit things with the gift in order to truly succeed at cracking the dreamcode and understanding what the dream unfolds.
Notes
1. Lynch, Catching The Big Fish, 19.
2. Lynch 59-60 and 179, and Rodley, Lynch On Lynch, 116.
Bibliography
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-----. Thinner. New York: Signet, 1985.
Lynch, David. Catching The Big Fish: meditation, consciousness and creativity. New York: Jeremy P.
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Lynch, David and Kristina McKenna. Room To Dream.
New York: Random House, 2018.
Naha, Ed. The Making Of DUNE. New York: Berkley Books,
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Rodley, Chris, ed. Lynch On Lynch. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1997.
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