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Lynch has acknowledged that if Mullholland Dr had gotten picked up that some of the more random seeming scenes would have become part of the larger plot/story of the series or season.

Wouldn't be surprised if he liked that randomness and ran with it on purpose in Inland Empire and The Return.

We watched Mulholland Dr. last night. It was my third or fourth viewing, but the first for my wife and kids. God damn, what a great movie.

So many incredible scenes:
Silencio
The audition
The Cowboy
The dinner party at the end
The hit
The monster behind Winkie’s

Wood Goblin wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:29 am We watched Mulholland Dr. last night. It was my third or fourth viewing, but the first for my wife and kids.

The idea of watching erotic scenes with my kids sounds weird to me but part of that might be because they're little, and maybe part is some kind of American puritanical hang ups.

I don’t think it’s puritanical. Our kids are older and have experience with a pretty wide range of movies, so it didn’t seem like a big deal. It would’ve been a lot weirder a couple years ago.

brephophagist wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2021 11:47 am The Roadhouse scenes that have little if any relation to the rest of the plot feel like a very explicit indicator that it was by design.

I felt like The Return mostly tied up its plot threads fairly neatly (before exploding everything again at the end).

But the original conception of the show was that everybody has a story; the metaphor he used in Blue Velvet was there's bugs under every lawn. The murder of Laura Palmer was supposed to be a MacGuffin, a reason to investigate the secret lives of the townspeople. That's why Lynch left in a huff after the murderer was revealed in the original show, saying they'd "killed the golden goose". I guess the idea is there's no such thing as a background character, there's only characters whose stories weren't told.

I agree with most of what you're saying, Flack. What i meant earlier is: the tenuousness of the connection from those Roadhouse scenes (the arm rash, etc.) to the rest of the plot feels intentional to me. Those mysteries (e.g., who is Billy? is he a real person?) will never be solved. And that's a good thing.

brephophagist wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:35 pm I agree with most of what you're saying, Flack. What i meant earlier is: the tenuousness of the connection from those Roadhouse scenes (the arm rash, etc.) to the rest of the plot feels intentional to me. Those mysteries (e.g., who is Billy? is he a real person?) will never be solved. And that's a good thing.

This was my reading too, and I loved those scenes even more once it became clear that the threads wouldn’t be followed.

Some of those scenes provide echoes of other characters and events. One in particular is an echo of Laura Palmer: a nerdy good girl, who is waiting for an unnamed person, is hoisted out of her booth by a couple dudes. She crawls through the crowd and then lets out a blood-curdling scream.

Wood Goblin wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:53 pm Some of those scenes provide echoes of other characters and events. One in particular is an echo of Laura Palmer: a nerdy good girl, who is waiting for an unnamed person, is hoisted out of her booth by a couple dudes. She crawls through the crowd and then lets out a blood-curdling scream.

Related: One of the interpretations floating around my circle of Twin Peaks crazies around the time the Return was airing was that these Roadhouse scenes were the "Invitation to Love" of the new series. That take does have some charm, but it feels a little too easy to me. It seems too much like the sort of rehash that the rest of the Return violently resists. Edit: IDK, I guess one could interpret it as a perversion of nostalgia in the same sense that a lot of The Return is.

Worth pointing out, since this is the David Lynch thread and I'm talking about writing: Mark Frost is severely undervalued for how much he contributed to both Twin Peaks shows, because he just isn't as weird and public a person as Lynch.

brephophagist wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:35 pm Worth pointing out, since this is the David Lynch thread and I'm talking about writing: Mark Frost is severely undervalued for how much he contributed to both Twin Peaks shows, because he just isn't as weird and public a person as Lynch.

I've always thought this kind of funny.
Especially given that for 20 years people wouldn't shut up about TP to Lynch, even when he would show a complete lack of interest.
It's like folks were either dying to get shot down by Lynch, or somehow thought they would be the one to get "the scoop".
You'd think some of that attention would have gone Frost's way...

Wood Goblin wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:04 am I don’t think it’s puritanical. Our kids are older and have experience with a pretty wide range of movies, so it didn’t seem like a big deal. It would’ve been a lot weirder a couple years ago.

Incidentally, I made my mom take me to see Wild at Heart in the theaters when I was 15.