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| Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco |
This is third time that the Mahoning Drive-In Theater has hosted The Wild World Of David Lynch weekend. but it's my first time attending the event. While I enjoyed the first season of Twin Peaks very much, I wouldn't describe myself as an especially big fan of the works of David Lynch. In fairness, I haven't seen very many of his movies, but with the exception of The Straight Story which I just saw for the first time earlier this week, the films that he's made that I've seen prior to this weekend weren't a particularly enjoyable experience for me. I saw The Elephant Man when I was a teenager and found it to be kind of boring. Maybe I'd think differently if I saw it again as an adult, but I'm not interested enough to want to see it a second time. I also saw his adaptation of Dune when I was a teenager, and to say that I strongly disliked it would be an understatement. The only other one of his films that I've seen was Eraserhead when it was a Thursday Thread-Up screening at the Mahoning last May, and while I found it to be intriguing, I really just don't get it. I'm told that it's supposed to be about a man's fears of becoming a father, and... I guess... maybe? I don't know. All I see is black and white scenes filled with artsy fartsy symbolism that don't advance the plot, assuming there's a plot to advance.
David Lynch once said that "I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense". I wouldn't say that I expect life or art to make sense. Here's the problem: I don't like when life doesn't make sense, so I don't usually enjoy art that doesn't make sense. I'm kind of jealous of the people who enjoy the movies that I just mentioned above because they're seeing something that I'm not seeing.
Both nights of The Wild World Of David Lynch were sold out with fans coming to the Mahoning from as far away as the UK and Japan, so I spent most of the daylight hours parking cars on the lot crew. I did get a little bit of time to hang out with Ben and to meet his mom who was up from North Carolina.
I was very psyched to have had the opportunity to meet Ray Wise. He's best known for his role as Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks, but he's has a long and distinguished career and has appeared in quite a few movies and television shows that I've seen, including a starring role in Swamp Thing, and roles in Robocop, The Chase, X-Men: First Class, Big Ass Spider (which is much better than the name might lead you to believe), and a recurring role as The Devil in the 2007-2009 series Reaper.
Actor Richard Green who appeared in Saturday night's first film Mulholland Drive was also in attendance to meet fans. Time got away from me and I didn't end up getting a photo with him, but I did get to spend quite a bit of time talking with him. More on that later.
F*** You Tammy performed an incredible concert on Friday night in the daylight hours prior to the start of the films. I don't know very much about them, but they have an ethereal sound that I can't really compare to anything else.
This is their latest album, Sycamore Tree, which was released last November. You can stream it for free, download it for $5, or buy their record for $20.
After the concert, we celebrated the 40th birthday of the woman who made The Wild World Of David Lynch weekend possible, Faye Murman Dorsey. Dave and I carried this incredible birthday cake out to her as a surprise, and let me tell you, that was a mildly nerve wracking experience. I spent the ninety seconds that it took to carry the thing out thinking "please don't drop the cake, please don't drop the cake" and sang Happy Birthday with a mental chorus of "thank god we didn't drop the cake".
Our friend Ash was also celebrating a birthday on the lot. We all got together in the concession building after it closed to the public to have cake and wish her a happy birthday.
And now, onto the films...
The first film on Friday night was the 1992 feature film that serves as a prequel to Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me. I've been meaning to watch this for quite a long time now, but hadn't gotten around to it. I think that I wanted to re-watch the television series first before I dove into the movie, but I'm really not great when it comes to binging tv series these days. They're too long, and as soon as they get a little bit dull or repetitive, I'll allow myself to get distracted and lose the plot entirely. I've tried several times to watch the second season of Twin Peaks, and every time, I've gotten to around the third or fourth episode before I lose interest altogether. I understand that there was a third season that was released in 2017 and I haven't watched any of it.
Fire Walk With Me is very good and I'm glad that I got to see it on 35mm on the big screen. The only critique that I have is that Kyle MacLachlan and Miguel Ferrer feel like they were kind of shoehorned into the plot. There's no sensible reason that either of these characters would be involved in any way with the town of Twin Peaks prior to the murder of Laura Palmer. They're both incredible actors and they play two of the most interesting characters in the series, so I can see why they did it, but it felt pretty obvious that they were jumping through hoops to try to make their inclusion make sense.
The second film of Friday night was a digital presentation of a fascinating documentary on the life of actress Catherine E. Coulson who played The Log Lady on Twin Peaks. Ms. Coulson passed away from cancer in September 2015, very shortly after her final on-screen appearance in the third season of Twin Peaks, and her story is both very interesting and inspiring.
The second film of Friday night was a digital presentation of a fascinating documentary on the life of actress Catherine E. Coulson who played The Log Lady on Twin Peaks. Ms. Coulson passed away from cancer in September 2015, very shortly after her final on-screen appearance in the third season of Twin Peaks, and her story is both very interesting and inspiring.
Richard Green produced, edited, and directed this documentary. I have a pretty cool story to share about him, but I'd like to talk about his most famous role in a feature film which we watched on Saturday night.
Saturday night kicked off with a 35mm presentation of the 2001 film Mulholland Drive. This has been on my watchlist for many years and I was looking forward to seeing it for the first time. It did not disappoint. It was definitely a bizarre story that was told in a strange way. However, in contrast to Eraserhead, I found the story that it told to be very interesting and I was invested in the outcome. I won't pretend that I understood it completely, but it wasn't so drenched in symbolism that I found myself staring at the credits thinking "what the hell was that". So, my personal David Lynch scorecard is now at two movies that I loved, one movie that I liked very much, one movie I didn't get, and one movie that I just flat out dislike. I guess I'm a Lynch fan after all... just not quite as die hard as most of the other folks who joined us on the lot this weekend.
The second film shown on Saturday night was Blue Velvet. I wasn't able to stay on the lot to see it, but it was for a very good reason. During the intermission after Mulholland Drive, I was approached with a request. I mentioned earlier that actor Richard Green was on the lot to meet fans, sign autographs, and to introduce his documentary I Know Catherine The Log Lady. In addition to his directorial work, he appeared in Mulholland Drive as the magician at Club Silencio in the pivotal scene at the middle of the film. Mark told me that Mr. Green's travel plans had fallen through and he asked if I'd be available and willing to drive him to the airport this morning.
And that's a wrap on The Wild World Of David Lynch III, and while I wouldn't classify myself as a superfan of his work, I can say that I've grown to appreciate his movies quite a bit more over the past few days.
Saturday night kicked off with a 35mm presentation of the 2001 film Mulholland Drive. This has been on my watchlist for many years and I was looking forward to seeing it for the first time. It did not disappoint. It was definitely a bizarre story that was told in a strange way. However, in contrast to Eraserhead, I found the story that it told to be very interesting and I was invested in the outcome. I won't pretend that I understood it completely, but it wasn't so drenched in symbolism that I found myself staring at the credits thinking "what the hell was that". So, my personal David Lynch scorecard is now at two movies that I loved, one movie that I liked very much, one movie I didn't get, and one movie that I just flat out dislike. I guess I'm a Lynch fan after all... just not quite as die hard as most of the other folks who joined us on the lot this weekend.
The second film shown on Saturday night was Blue Velvet. I wasn't able to stay on the lot to see it, but it was for a very good reason. During the intermission after Mulholland Drive, I was approached with a request. I mentioned earlier that actor Richard Green was on the lot to meet fans, sign autographs, and to introduce his documentary I Know Catherine The Log Lady. In addition to his directorial work, he appeared in Mulholland Drive as the magician at Club Silencio in the pivotal scene at the middle of the film. Mark told me that Mr. Green's travel plans had fallen through and he asked if I'd be available and willing to drive him to the airport this morning.
It's not often that you get to see an iconic film that's nearly 25 years old for the first time on 35mm at a drive-in theater, and then get to spend a few hours with one of the films stars just a few hours later. It did mean that I had to head home during intermission to get a decent night's sleep so that I could be well rested to drive to Philadelphia this morning, but it was absolutely worth it. He was a very nice man and we spent the entire drive talking about all sorts of different things. He's working on a project now called The History Of Cool that sounds pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. My only regret is that I didn't take a picture with him when he was on the lot. I was going to ask when I dropped him off at the airport, but there didn't feel like a right time to ask, and I didn't want to bug the dude when he was trying to get home.
And that's a wrap on The Wild World Of David Lynch III, and while I wouldn't classify myself as a superfan of his work, I can say that I've grown to appreciate his movies quite a bit more over the past few days.
