Twin Peaks and the colour blue

[claaa7]

Recently I read (with great interest I might add) the excellent "Reflections" book by Brad Dukes and in an interview with one of the episode directors, possibly Caleb DeSchanel he said that usually the directors were very free to do what they wanted with the visuals of their episodes, and follow production all the way through, etc. He did mention that the one time he got a distinct "NO" that was absolutely unchangable was for a later season 2 episode where DeSchanel (or whoever it was) wanted to use a blue suitcase for one of the characters.. David's mind was absolutely unchangabele about this, I'm not sure if this was only pertaining to this episode but the colour palette of Twin Peaks are a very distinct feature of its visual brilliance and when i came to think about it i can't remember all that many blue objects in the series. Can you?

I was also just watching the Missing Pieces, and while it's from FWWM which was a theatrical experience and obviously different, much of the colour palette stayed the same within the town of Twin Peaks. However Sarah Paulmer makes a big deal of that Blue sweater that Laura had borrowed, this is a recurring storline if you can call it that since the first scene has a follow-up where she asks again with Laura pointing out that Sarah is actually wearing it right now. Something I find very interesting in this scene is that this makes Sarah break down in tears, exclaiming several times "it is happening again...", "it is happening again", with Laura trying to assure her that "No it's not mom!". I wondered what it is that triggered in Sarah, had she previously been hospitalized in a psych ward and was afraid she was starting to lose her mind again. i don't know, but i find it interesting... Build

[dronerstone]

Could also refer to Leland drugging her.

[Gabriel]

Could also refer to Leland drugging her.

Also, 'riding the white horse' refers to using powdered stimulants such as cocaine. As Sarah is drugged with a soporific, she sees a white horse – Laura's drug of choice – out of arm's reach.

[claaa7]

Could also refer to Leland drugging her.

Also, 'riding the white horse' refers to using powdered stimulants such as cocaine. As Sarah is drugged with a soporific, she sees a white horse – Laura's drug of choice – out of arm's reach.

i Always took the horse to represent Sarah's mind vision of impending doom... whenever a Death in her family or to someone Close was near she would see that horse. kind of like she had her own type of "shining".

one thing that i Think is very interesting that i don't see discussed or mentioned very often is that Laura has a premonition of her Death during the Dream sequence in "FWWM". at one Point her attention is drawn to the door, in fact so much so that she has to open it up and go look. the reason is that she can hear her mother Calling for her (in her Dream), "Laaaaura....", "Laaaura"... i actually didn't Catch this until i saw it in the theater, and it was also an original film print where the Pink Room sequences was turned all the way up and dialouge very low.

the Zabriskie shouting Laura line in the Dream is a sample from the Pilot, it's her searching for her in the morning after her Death... i Think that would Count as a pretty strong premonition of Death. i wonder why Lynch choose to pitch it down relatively low (even in the theater it wasn't exactly loud but it was evidently there)

[tmurry]

Also, 'riding the white horse' refers to using powdered stimulants such as cocaine.

Have heard this phrase all the time since the late 70s and it is always heroin (alternate: simply "horse"). Cocaine has a less common "white pony" nickname. But there are always overlapping symbolic meanings in Lynch so here we have: being drugged into halucinogenic torpor, the "pale horse" of impending death which Sarah associates with the drugged state due to her history, the pop-medieval (people don't talk about how much the show loves this aspect) appearance of a horse that would be ridden by a princess or a white night (note - no rider is present), and one of the show's (as opposed to the movie's) few Christian symbols relating to Revelation 19:11-16 (German title: Christ on a White Horse ):

11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had[a] a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp[c] sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS.

So, there is a lot going on on horribleness of "who will save you now? Noone" existence and promised salvation/transcendence.

But, the blue suitcase. I think Lynch wanted to keep his powder dry. He had played with blue before but was about to start taking it more seriously (the Blue Rose, Muholland Drive) as a primary symbolic color. It was already set in opposition to red (doplar shift/towards-away/fast-slow, Jacobi's glasses with the reason hemisphere filtered to favor passion and the emotional side filtered to favor logic, Coop's light blue shirt, association with some other effects that push in the white lodge/Giant/electrical direction), but Lynch soon would start using heavily saturated blue (sometimes flashing to white) in partnership with stillness to indicate gnosis - deep understanding that can give enlightenment or destroy the self. The suitcase was going to be letting a kid play with an RPG - too good of an image to waste: a case of knowledge that you might not be able to handle.

[claaa7]

Also, 'riding the white horse' refers to using powdered stimulants such as cocaine.

Have heard this phrase all the time since the late 70s and it is always heroin (alternate: simply "horse"). Cocaine has a less common "white pony" nickname.

speaking of this something has always bugged me about Laura's cocaine habit.. in FWWM and The Missing Pieces were she is snorting one to two pretty large lines of coke while laying in bed getting ready to sleep. NO ONE does that. If it was heroin or morphine, hell yes, but Cocaine? no fucking way, it doesn't matter how addicted you are.

[Ratmeat]

I've noticed a few characters occasionally wear blue throughout the series.
For instance, Dale's pajamas, Catherine Martell wears a bright blue blazer, Shelly wears a blue silk robe and a blue knit sweater, Donna wears a blue sweater, Bobby wears a blue t-shirt. The RR uniform is light blue and Cooper often wears a light blue shirt.
I'm speculating if there could be any significance to when someone wears blue but I haven't really looked into it. I can't seem to recall any blue items that isn't a part of a character's wardrobe.

[Soolsma]

54d56bb7f404d7dd9f0bbed9e567e8a8.jpg (41.39 KiB) Viewed 10512 times

By Lynch

Note the blue face has fire above it.

[claaa7]

54d56bb7f404d7dd9f0bbed9e567e8a8.jpg By Lynch

Note the blue face has fire above it.

nice one.. i read a book by a swedish author that was released this year on Stanley Kubrick (recommended though i'm not sure it has been translated yet), but he went pretty deep in his analysis of Kubrick's use of colour and their meanings in his movies. is there anything similiar for Lynch that anyone knows?

[Mace]

Just a few:

In Episode 1 Hawk enters a hospital hallway that is saturated in a blue light.
Ronnette's IV that is tinged with haloperidol is blue.
Bob's denim outfit is blue.

[Mace]

Two more from FWWM:

Leland has a rendezvous with Teresa Banks at The Blue Diamond Motel.
Lil has a Blue Rose pinned to her dress.

[laughingpinecone]

There's a frickin blue tulip in the Briggs' house in FWWM and it cracks me up to no end. Behold, the blue tulip!