Twin Peaks the Movie-a Poetic Favorite

Like an almost inordinate number of poets, I am an impassioned David Lynch fan, thus is it difficult for me to narrow it down to only one selection from his repertoire that is my favorite film. However, I think I will choose the movie that first introduced me to Lynch (even though it was not his first movie) and that would be the pilot to the Twin Peaks television series.

As those who have familiarity with the Twin Peaks series may know, this series took a whodunit approach, in which an idiosyncratic detective came to town to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer, a popular high school girl and prom queen. Although Twin Peaks appeared to be a friendly and peaceful small town on the surface, as the investigation delved deeper, a darker and seedier underbelly incrementally emerged.

Although this premise may not sound incredibly unique, David Lynch's treatment of the subject matter was most certainly fresh and original, even to the point of seeming cryptic or weirdly alienating to some viewers. Perhaps those viewers were just not equipped with the right sensibilities for enjoying Twin Peaks. As for me, I was enamored from the beginning, starting with the aforementioned pilot movie and its introduction of a cast of intriguingly quirky characters and scintillatingly peculiar imagery. As the Twin Peaks series developed, so did its own complex and multi-layered mythos. Viewing the pilot movie offers a wonderful opportunity to trace the multifaceted story's strange trail of clues back to its origin.

In addition to being a filmmaker, David Lynch is also a painter and some say that his painterly sensibility comes through in his films. The sensibility that comes through could also be described as poetic. Careful attention is devoted towards visual detail and towards conjuring up on almost palpable tone, with the use of dialogue, soundtrack music, and imagery, including evocative repeated motifs. His imagery tends to be unusual, striking, and sometimes jarring due to disconcerting frissons or disturbing juxtapositions. Even the unlikely juxtapositions are precisely planned and presented in such a way that they impart a memorable resonance that lingers in the psyche with a kind of subconscious power. Frequent Lynchian themes and motifs include characters with strange deformities, tics, or other eccentricities (in Twin Peaks, there are eye patches, dwarfs, and a one-armed man among others), as well as a fascinating preoccupation with doppelgangers, doubles, and double lives.

As already mentioned, David Lynch films seem to appeal to a lot of poets (and other artists) and I think that part of this appeal is connected to the carefully cultivated mythos, the quirky yet strangely precise details, the evocative symbolism, the multiple connotations, and the underlying meanings. Also poetically appealing is the fact that so much of his content is so open to interpretation. Rather than cut & dry terrain, viewers are presented with troubling nuances, shifting perimeters, and other difficult to pin down provocations. The thought-provoking ambiguity of many of the characters and much of the story's content allows viewers to play an active part in contributing to this content by way of creating their own interpretations, analysis, or detective work to the developing story lines. In this way, viewing Twin Peaks can seem like a creative act rather than just passive consumption. In this way, Twin Peaks also seems to harbor the ability to catalyze further creativity or to serve as a sort of portal for the emergence of other creative materials.

The poetic presentation and provocative sensibilities of Twin Peaks had such an impact upon my psyche that in addition to adoring the show itself, I found myself further imagining the inner life and other aspects of the character of Laura Palmer, beyond what was presented by the show itself. Prompted by these imaginings, I created an impressionistic series of poems based on the character of Laura Palmer, which I worked on, on and off, for years, until I was finally compelled to start my own small press, so that I could publish this series of poems in a chapbook format. Thus, my own independent literary small press, Blood Pudding Press, was born, and although it has since expanded in multiple directions, Twin Peaks and other Lynchian visions were a definite catalyst towards its inception. Take a peek at 'The Laura Poems' if so inclined by visiting the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop at www.BloodPuddingPress.etsy.com.

I was certainly not the only writer or artist so inspired. Twin Peaks was associated with conjuring up countless magazines and websites and essays both formal and informal, as well as numerous artworks. Just search the web for a fascinating bounty of such materials. In the literary realm, another independent small press, The Private Press, also used the films of David Lynch as a creative catalyst, for an ongoing series of unique chapbook projects. The first such project, 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' was a poetry chapbook also inspired by the mythos of Twin Peaks. Next, The Private Press published 'We Don't Stop Here', a chapbook of poems inspired by the Lynch film, 'Mulholland Drive'. Currently the Private Press is in the midst of collecting material towards the publication of yet another Lynch-inspired chapbook anthology, based on the groundbreaking David Lynch classic movie 'Blue Velvet'. Find out more about The Private Press if so inclined by visiting the press's website at http://zoo.f2s.com/privatepress/

If any of this has piqued your interest, why not view the Twin Peaks pilot movie for yourself and find out what kind of creativity it might inspire for you? Listed below are a few links to online sources where this unique movie can be acquired. The first link is for only the Pilot episode itself. The second two are for the Definitive Gold Box Edition, which features the pilot episode AND Seasons 1 and 2 of the Twin Peaks television series.

(Just a quick note that there are many different Twin Peaks items available including the various episodes of the series and also a second Twin Peaks movie subtitled Fire Walk with Me, which is a movie prequel to the series that actually came out several years after the series itself had come to an end. All of these items are well worth partaking of, but if it's the pilot film itself you would like to start off with, then you will want to look for the Twin Peaks movie that came out in 1989.)

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Twin Peaks at alibris:

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch.detail?S=R&bid=9775632443&cm_mmc=shopcompare-_-base-_-movies-_-na

Twin Peaks at Movie Gold Mine:

http://www.moviegoldmine.com/product_info.php/products_id/97150

Twin Peaks at SuperDuperClub:

http://www.superduperclub.net/par-d130904d.html