Mr. Lynch, got a light?
An FBI agent comes to a small, picturesque town in the north-west of the USA to investigate the murder of a 17-years-old, an A- student, a beauty, the most popular girl in the local school. How many movies and TV shows start out the same way? Of the 15 seasons of the popular TV series Criminal Minds, more than half of the episodes are devoted to investigating the brutal murders of young girls in different parts of the United States, but Twin Peaks is special. It seems similar but completely unlike a typical movie or TV series in which the best FBI investigators can understand and analyze the train of thought of the most sophisticated criminals. The main impression from all three seasons of Twin Peaks is an amazing combination of comic and mundane, weird and tragic, surreal and ordinary. There are parodies and homages everywhere, love-hate for the American dream, and a very definite moment in history when humanity crossed the line of no return and broke the fragile balance between good and evil in this world. All of it reflected as in a drop of water on the fate of the inhabitants of a small, picturesque town in the northwestern United States in the first and second seasons, and far beyond Twin Peaks, Washington, in the third season.
With a rich imagination and a strange unusual artistic vision, David Lynch believes that life is complex, and films reflecting it should not be simplified. The plots of his films, especially the three seasons of Twin Peaks, where supernatural worlds with their inexplicable mysteries coexist with ordinary reality, are often confusing and discouraging for viewers, but Lynch is known for never having offered an interpretation of his work. According to him, people cannot accept for granted that life, existence, consciousness have neither meaning nor causes, and religion and mythology are human attempts to comprehend its reality, to bring logic into the subconscious chthonic horror of the unknown. Nervousness, uncertainty, and insecurity flow from the screen, enveloping and overwhelming the audience. Somebody said about the first two seasons of TP that it was a combined vision of Rockwell Kent with his majestic and soulful romantic-idyllic landscapes and the shocking Salvador Dali, whose works were distinguished by carefully written details and the morbid beauty of surreal visions of monsters and phobias, tormenting mind of the artist. While you can add other comparisons, influences, initiations, and mixtures of genres that overwhelm both Twin Peaks space and the entire Lynch galaxy, the idea of combining majestic and shocking represents the most important, integral part of the magical mystical realism of David Lynch.
It is in his burning interest in the ambiguity, duality, complexity of the surrounding world and the inextricable connection between beauty and ugliness, the triumph of life and a brutal unexpected death, bright blossoming under the sunny sky and the gloomy decay of matter under our feet. Most importantly, the magical realism of David Lynch is in eternal struggle between good and evil in the human soul. That is why doppelgangers look-alikes are so common in Lynch's films. That is why his heroes gaze into their mirror reflections so often - they are not sure who is gazing back at them on the other side. That is why he made the center of the battle between invisible, but real and powerful forces of supernatural evil and human dignity, courage and honor, a small town in the mountains, surrounded by a forest, with a population of 52001, typical Any Town, USA. And immortalized it. And returned 25 years later. And with him returned the inhabitants of Twin Peaks. 25 years is a long time. Familiar faces have changed. Someone returned only in memories. Someone appeared as a different entity. Someone - in three persons. New faces appear only to flicker in a short scene but remain in the viewers' memory. Some stories have come to a well-deserved happy ending, but these are very rare cases. Some stories are not finished, which is typical of Lynch. The journey ended on an uncertain note. Is it over? I would like to believe that this is not the end of the road.
It's hard to forget Twin Peaks, especially the 8th episode of the third season that polarized the viewers and critics. Some are delighted with it, some believe that Lynch's disregard for his loyal fans is growing stronger. An amazing hour on TV, the 8th episode brings to mind Tarkovsky with Solaris, the Mirror and the Sacrifice, Kubrick with Space Odyssey and Doctor Strangelove and Malik with the Tree of Life. Ridley Scott's "Alien" also came to mind. Trent Reznor found a place in the 8th part with a very heavy, very dark song, aggressive and creepy - exactly what Lynch ordered: "Make it so that I get goosebumps." But in essence, "Part 8, Got a light?" - is Lynch in his purest "heroin" form, where he deliberately blurs the lines between experimental film and non-diluted nightmares. Lynch saved his best and most horrifying vision for the final scene of Episode 8, using "My Prayer," one of the nicest and most melodic songs ever written. What is happening on the screen accompanied by that prayer, to some extent, explains and illustrates what evil to which humanity has deliberately doomed itself is capable of. Where are its origins. What are its consequences. The way it bizarrely connected the lives of the inhabitants of Twin Peaks and other cities and towns of the country. You cannot defeat evil. But there will always be those who will try, no matter what. In our reality and in the alternative. Today, tomorrow, yesterday. At all times.
An FBI agent comes to a small, picturesque town in the north-west of the USA to investigate the murder of a 17-years-old, an A- student, a beauty, the most popular girl in the local school. How many movies and TV shows start out the same way? Of the 15 seasons of the popular TV series Criminal Minds, more than half of the episodes are devoted to investigating the brutal murders of young girls in different parts of the United States, but Twin Peaks is special. It seems similar but completely unlike a typical movie or TV series in which the best FBI investigators can understand and analyze the train of thought of the most sophisticated criminals. The main impression from all three seasons of Twin Peaks is an amazing combination of comic and mundane, weird and tragic, surreal and ordinary. There are parodies and homages everywhere, love-hate for the American dream, and a very definite moment in history when humanity crossed the line of no return and broke the fragile balance between good and evil in this world. All of it reflected as in a drop of water on the fate of the inhabitants of a small, picturesque town in the northwestern United States in the first and second seasons, and far beyond Twin Peaks, Washington, in the third season.
With a rich imagination and a strange unusual artistic vision, David Lynch believes that life is complex, and films reflecting it should not be simplified. The plots of his films, especially the three seasons of Twin Peaks, where supernatural worlds with their inexplicable mysteries coexist with ordinary reality, are often confusing and discouraging for viewers, but Lynch is known for never having offered an interpretation of his work. According to him, people cannot accept for granted that life, existence, consciousness have neither meaning nor causes, and religion and mythology are human attempts to comprehend its reality, to bring logic into the subconscious chthonic horror of the unknown. Nervousness, uncertainty, and insecurity flow from the screen, enveloping and overwhelming the audience. Somebody said about the first two seasons of TP that it was a combined vision of Rockwell Kent with his majestic and soulful romantic-idyllic landscapes and the shocking Salvador Dali, whose works were distinguished by carefully written details and the morbid beauty of surreal visions of monsters and phobias, tormenting mind of the artist. While you can add other comparisons, influences, initiations, and mixtures of genres that overwhelm both Twin Peaks space and the entire Lynch galaxy, the idea of combining majestic and shocking represents the most important, integral part of the magical mystical realism of David Lynch.
It is in his burning interest in the ambiguity, duality, complexity of the surrounding world and the inextricable connection between beauty and ugliness, the triumph of life and a brutal unexpected death, bright blossoming under the sunny sky and the gloomy decay of matter under our feet. Most importantly, the magical realism of David Lynch is in eternal struggle between good and evil in the human soul. That is why doppelgangers look-alikes are so common in Lynch's films. That is why his heroes gaze into their mirror reflections so often - they are not sure who is gazing back at them on the other side. That is why he made the center of the battle between invisible, but real and powerful forces of supernatural evil and human dignity, courage and honor, a small town in the mountains, surrounded by a forest, with a population of 52001, typical Any Town, USA. And immortalized it. And returned 25 years later. And with him returned the inhabitants of Twin Peaks. 25 years is a long time. Familiar faces have changed. Someone returned only in memories. Someone appeared as a different entity. Someone - in three persons. New faces appear only to flicker in a short scene but remain in the viewers' memory. Some stories have come to a well-deserved happy ending, but these are very rare cases. Some stories are not finished, which is typical of Lynch. The journey ended on an uncertain note. Is it over? I would like to believe that this is not the end of the road.
It's hard to forget Twin Peaks, especially the 8th episode of the third season that polarized the viewers and critics. Some are delighted with it, some believe that Lynch's disregard for his loyal fans is growing stronger. An amazing hour on TV, the 8th episode brings to mind Tarkovsky with Solaris, the Mirror and the Sacrifice, Kubrick with Space Odyssey and Doctor Strangelove and Malik with the Tree of Life. Ridley Scott's "Alien" also came to mind. Trent Reznor found a place in the 8th part with a very heavy, very dark song, aggressive and creepy - exactly what Lynch ordered: "Make it so that I get goosebumps." But in essence, "Part 8, Got a light?" - is Lynch in his purest "heroin" form, where he deliberately blurs the lines between experimental film and non-diluted nightmares. Lynch saved his best and most horrifying vision for the final scene of Episode 8, using "My Prayer," one of the nicest and most melodic songs ever written. What is happening on the screen accompanied by that prayer, to some extent, explains and illustrates what evil to which humanity has deliberately doomed itself is capable of. Where are its origins. What are its consequences. The way it bizarrely connected the lives of the inhabitants of Twin Peaks and other cities and towns of the country. You cannot defeat evil. But there will always be those who will try, no matter what. In our reality and in the alternative. Today, tomorrow, yesterday. At all times.