TWIN PEAKS

US, 1990, 120 minutes, Colour.
Kyle Mc Lachlan, Michael Ontkean, Richard Beymer, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, Sherilyn Fenn, Madchen Amick, Peggy Lipton, Everett Mc Gill, Jack Nance, Piper Laurie, Russ Tamblyn, Sheryl Lee, Joan Chen.
Directed by David Lynch.

Twin Peaks is the pilot movie for the series which initially received such acclaim in the US. It is the work of David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) and Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues). The film is reminisent of many of Lynch's films especially Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart with their being located in suburbia and ordinariness - but illustrating another world, weird and wild at heart.

The film relies on audience familiarity with television series - a type of Peyton Place. However, esoteric elements are also added and event piled on melodramatic event. The cast is a strong one - especiall Kyle McLachlan? from Lynch's Dune and Blue Velvet as a very fussy FBI agent. Michael Ontkean is more normal as the local Sherrif, Harry S. Truman. A range of younger and older televisions stars bring the oddball characters to life. The pilot for television was varied for video release. A killer of Laura Palmer is actually identified with a coda by Lynch set in the future.

1. The work of David Lynch? His perspective on American society, surfaces and deaths? The quirky and the weird? The success of the pilot and the series?

2. A telemovie for the television audience? Introducing characters and situations, mystery? The wide audience? The American audience, overseas? The small town, melodramatic and exaggerated? The two versions for video and for television?

3. The title, the visuals of the credits, audience expectations?

4. The portrait of the town, the timber town, the Canadian border, the beauty o the surroundings, the trees? Homes, big business, schools? Musical score and atmosphere?

5. The town's sub-culture - youth, drugs, sexuality, the mysterious?

6. Laura Palmer and her death, the body, her background, her family? Her relationship with Bob, secret relationship with Jim, friendship with Donna, the video? Her parents and their shock,? At School? The seeming teenage queen of the town and the murkier side?

7. The portrait of the police: Harry S Truman, his style, ordinary policeman, his relationship with Miss Packard? The contrast with Cooper, his driving into the town, knowledge of other crimes, talking into his tape, the great attention to detail of meals, trees etc? His mannerof interrogation? His speech to the assembled townspeople? With Truman tracking Jimmy? Jimmy in Jail? Bobby and Mike? The possibility of a solution?

8. The timber town, Miss Packard and her ownership, her closing down the mill for the day? The contrast with Catherine Martel, her husband, the discovery of the body? her affair with the businessman?

9. The kids, teenagers at school, the football team, classes? The background of drugs, bikies, sex and rape, the discos, their behaviour in prison?

10. Bobby and his relationship with Laura, with the girls at the diner, affairs, driving the girl home and finding her husband with his truck? The arrest, the video? Mike and his crazed behaviour? The scream in the prison? (And his killing the murderer in the video version?)

11. Jimmy and Donna in class, the news of Laura's death, their grief? Jimmy and his bike, riding into the hills? Donna and her parents, getting out of the window, her sister and her answers to her parents? The clash in the disco? Going to the mountain? The background of Jimmy and his breaking the ring with Laura? The railway car? Burying the ring?

12. The businessman, the Norwegian takaeover, Audrey as the rich girl, Her behaviour
in class? With the police? Telling the businessrian about the murder?

13. The Palmers, in the big business league? The news from the police? Mrs Palmer, the search for Laura, her reaction and grief, sedated? Interrogation? Her vision in the dream of Laura's murderer?

14. The open ending of the pilot? The suspicions for the murderer? The crazed Bob and his killing at the end of the video feature?

15. The cult status of the film? Of David Lynch's work and vision? Relying on television cliches - more than television cliches or not?