swansong

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OK,Bob
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Re: swansong

Post by OK,Bob »

Qubism wrote:Maybe someone here can remember, did Lynch once say he would love to do Franz Kafka's Metamophosis?
"I don't like to say again that I love Franz Kafka because everybody says that. But I truly love him. We had a plan with Frantisek Daniel, to make a film based on Kafka`s story The Metamorphosis. I've even finished the storyboard, but the problem is the beetle. In Kafka`s story the man metamorphoses into a beetle. It would have been good to make it as a mechanical puppet five years ago, but now it would be possible to do it only with computer animation. And that is very expensive. Maybe after another five years the prices will be lower and maybe than it will be possible to make it. That would be wonderful."

http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/metamorphosis.html
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owlsseemrealtome
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Re: swansong

Post by owlsseemrealtome »

james wrote:
owlsseemrealtome wrote:I just wondered if any of you guys think that with this new series that Lynch is going out with a bang and that he will retire from filming after it?
This is a very odd and funny thing to enquire here when you consider that Lynch has not done any film-making since INLAND EMPIRE, which was released in the US in 2006.

So, more than anything, this is a very welcome return to making a 'film' (as such) for Lynch.

I would imagine that Lynch himself is planning a feature film after the Peaks series - the success of the show would most likely result in some deal falling into place. He has mentioned film plans over the last decade or so, but the difficulty of funding them.
I don't think it is an odd thing to mention at all, considering that many people have been concerned that he had all but abandoned film.There has even been the odd comment here and there in the past from entertainment publications who have said he has retired from film making altogether , although this has been purely speculation on their part and is not due to any pronouncements by Lynch himself. I guess one of the reasons that many people have had these misgivings around Lynch's long hiatus in film is due to the fact that he is not a young man anymore and perhaps he has not got the flame within himself to take on "The Machine of Hollywood" like a young buck ( I don't mean he hasn't got an artistic flame within him as he is one of the most creative people in the world). Its also worth considering that he now has a young daughter whom he probably wants to spend a lot of time with and doesn't want to miss out on her childhood as he might have had to do with his other children due to working. Conversely his commitment to this new series of Twin Peaks would seem to contradict what I have just stated. But I could imagine that once he has completed the series and released it to the world that he will be wanting a long, long break. The reason I mentioned the word Swansong was purely because there seems to be a slow release of cast names to this project who have worked with David before, in some ways it feels as though we are getting a retrospective assemble of actors from his past work which makes it feel finale , although that is just my gut feeling and I have nothing tangible to attach this to.
I do agree with a lot of the comments that people have mentioned here in that he is an artist who enjoys working and that is unlikely to dry up whilst he is alive whether that be in the mediums of music , photography, painting or even furniture making.
I really hope that he continues to make movies after this series is over though as that would be a real gift to the world.
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the haystack
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Re: swansong

Post by the haystack »

OK,Bob wrote:
Qubism wrote:Maybe someone here can remember, did Lynch once say he would love to do Franz Kafka's Metamophosis?
"I don't like to say again that I love Franz Kafka because everybody says that. But I truly love him. We had a plan with Frantisek Daniel, to make a film based on Kafka`s story The Metamorphosis. I've even finished the storyboard, but the problem is the beetle. In Kafka`s story the man metamorphoses into a beetle. It would have been good to make it as a mechanical puppet five years ago, but now it would be possible to do it only with computer animation. And that is very expensive. Maybe after another five years the prices will be lower and maybe than it will be possible to make it. That would be wonderful."

http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/metamorphosis.html
Awesome! Creativity. I love it. This is where art lives, begetting art begetting art. This is just the best. Good luck with that beetle, my fingers are crossed.

Aside: does it not stink when popular media vernacularizes (temporary word) something special without our approval. Suddenly, everybody has to fit "kafka-esque" somehow into their article...usually incorrectly.
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james
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Re: Owlsseemreal

Post by james »

Owlsseemrealtome -

It is an odd thing to post from my perspective because it feels like you are predicting that this is the end of Lynch's career. I just find the idea depressing, to post that up.

On the other hand, you seem to not want that to be the case at all in fact, so I am left even more confused.

:?
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David Locke
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Re: swansong

Post by David Locke »

It's all speculation of course, and I'd love to be proved wrong, but I think the reason many suspect Lynch may not make another film after the new Twin Peaks episodes is that he had such a long period of no output after INLAND EMPIRE. He's admitted to having problems not only with funding but with coming up with ideas himself, and seems more interested in music/painting/coffee or whatever else than another film.

It's just kind of a sense I get, that it would be very surprising if we get another Lynch feature. And part of this is because I think you could argue he's kind of said everything he has to say (if such a thing exists). 10 features is not many compared to most directors but they are all major works to contend with, even the weaker few of them. And it's like from FWWM to LH to MD to IE we've witnessed an evolution in aesthetics and theme which doesn't really seem like it can get any bigger and weirder. Returning to TP makes sense, he's always wanted to do it and it's a world he loves, but it's kind of like getting the chance to definitively close a chapter of his career that was never really properly finished. Otherwise, though, it's difficult to envision Lynch making more films, and maybe he's satisfied enough with his output and lacking sufficient inspiration enough that he's happy to go out with IE and the end of TP.
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Re: swansong

Post by MasterMastermind »

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the end, but he has talked about Ronnie Rocket, and Jennifer Lynch talked about a "mind-boggling" new film idea he was working on, and Laura Dern has mentioned a mystery project, and he wrote a script for a stop-motion children's film called Snoot World with Caroline Thompson. Any of these could still come to fruition I suppose.
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Re: swansong

Post by Metamorphia »

I think (hope) the opposite: that it will spark a stream of creative filmy thoughts and he'll start making things again (didn't Laura Dern talk about him having a loose idea for something a few years ago and it was "his best yet"?)

There were set reports that he was in his element, improvising etc and it gave me a bit of hope.

I watched Inland Empire again recently and it's funny how perfectly it seems to represent the closure of a career.
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Gabriel
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Re: swansong

Post by Gabriel »

Actually, I wonder if this represents a fresh start for Mr Lynch, rather than a swansong. Inland Empire, perhaps, was a kind of 'creative closet cleaning exercise' a few years before making an 18-hour Twin Peaks film. I suspect Lynch will continue to find a welcoming home in the modern world of subscription cable TV and VOD. Lynch's old VOD website was a great idea, but was ahead of its time by about a decade. The only way I could watch his website stuff was at work – I didn't even know have dial-up in my flat at the time.

I can well imagine Netflix or Amazon Prime jumping attempt the chance to make a David Lynch movie or TV show. And, face it, if Twin Peaks impresses the network and audience enough, they'll want more, be it a continuation or spin-off. At that point, it boils down to whether Lynch would want to become an overseer or continue co-writing and directing them all.
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Re: swansong

Post by Metamorphia »

I think the internet is definitely going to aid him if he wants to get more esoteric things made. There's a big place for cult on Netflix/on demand.
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LostInTheMovies
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Re: swansong

Post by LostInTheMovies »

Gabriel wrote:Actually, I wonder if this represents a fresh start for Mr Lynch, rather than a swansong. Inland Empire, perhaps, was a kind of 'creative closet cleaning exercise' a few years before making an 18-hour Twin Peaks film. I suspect Lynch will continue to find a welcoming home in the modern world of subscription cable TV and VOD. Lynch's old VOD website was a great idea, but was ahead of its time by about a decade. The only way I could watch his website stuff was at work – I didn't even know have dial-up in my flat at the time.

I can well imagine Netflix or Amazon Prime jumping attempt the chance to make a David Lynch movie or TV show. And, face it, if Twin Peaks impresses the network and audience enough, they'll want more, be it a continuation or spin-off. At that point, it boils down to whether Lynch would want to become an overseer or continue co-writing and directing them all.
I know I'm being redundant (since there was a whole other thread devoted to this haha) but I just gotta reiterate how difficult it is for me to envision any scenario in which Lynch accepts an overseer role of a continuing Twin Peaks. Whenever he talks about the first experience going south, he also emphasizes two things above all else: the forced killer's reveal, obviously, and second only to that his inability to control the final product (can't find the exact quote on the other directors at the moment but something to the effect of "they were really good, but still it isn't the way you'd do it.") Unless Lynch completely lacks self-awareness, and I don't think he does, he has to realize that the showrunner role doesn't suit him and that he's pretty much an all-or-nothing type of artist. A Twin Peaks that he didn't take direct responsibility for as a writer/director of every episode would quickly get away from him just as the other one did.

If I'm wrong about that I think I'd be ok with the idea of a continuing Twin Peaks in which Lynch didn't direct every episode (after all the first series is only 20% Lynch-directed and it's probably my favorite TV show) BUT I would really hope that a) the seasons are much shorter than the ABC s2 episode order of 22 (as I'm sure they would be in this day and age), b) that they are written and shot like this season apparently has been, not delivered before the end is in sight and most importantly c) he directs the finale of each season, which could serve as an effective conclusion if the series doesn't continue after said season.

My biggest fear, honestly? That after this new season - which I fully expect to be the most brilliant, consistent part of Twin Peaks we've yet experienced (normally I wouldn't want to set myself up for disappointment, but I feel pretty confident in that assessment) - the show drifts out of Lynch's control and keeps going for years and (God forbid) he is eventually unable to direct the final episodes and so the saga ends on an anticlimactic, undeserving, very un-Lynchian note. A whimper rather than a bang.

Endings are important to me. They aren't dealbreakers, l but I like the way Twin Peaks ends now and am nervous about the prospect of a strong, powerful, cathartic ending being taken away. And aside from everything else that's the #1 reason I kinda think I don't want more Twin Peaks after this new season and definitely don't want more Twin Peaks that Lynch can't control.
MasterMastermind
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Re: swansong

Post by MasterMastermind »

Don't Mark and David have full control of Twin Peaks or something?
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LostInTheMovies
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Re: swansong

Post by LostInTheMovies »

I just mean that he can't control directly. I just don't see him playing that Matthew Weiner/David Chase/whoever role of sitting in an office and supervising other directors realizing the vision on set. He's such a hands-on director (literally in many cases) and I think that's how he has to be on a project or else it gets away from him. There are film directors who can also have an affinity for showrunning but Lynch's filmmaking approach is too contrary to that mentality. So I think if he isn't literally the one standing on set calling the shots, it's gonna get away from him.

That plus the fact that a Lynchian vision can only be truly realized by Lynch. The non-Lynch episodes of Twin Peaks are many things but at their best they are usually going for something different than he achieves (ep. 6 is a great example, it's refracting Lynch's world through its own prism). I can think of a few exceptions - Mike's emergence at the end of ep. 13 & some of the stuff in ep. 27, for example (though Lynch was at least present for the first) - but in general, he can't be effectively imitated.
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Gabriel
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Re: swansong

Post by Gabriel »

Thing is, as Lynch himself has stated, Twin Peaks has thousands of citizens, all with their own stories. It would be perfectly possible to tell a different story about different characters in the town, potentially even in a different era.

The original show was a dark riff on 1980s soap operas, so I have no doubt the new show will have decisively moved past that style at the outset. The Cooper story can comfortably be wrapped up, and then I'd be happy to see a season-by-season anthology format introduced. That way, every season is a definitive ending.
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OK,Bob
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Re: swansong

Post by OK,Bob »

Regardless if this turns out to be Lynch's swan song, it seems much more certain that - at roughly 10 to 20 hours - this "third season" will be his Magnum Opus as a director/filmmaker*. Something thrilling to look forward to, indeed!

[*"filmmaker" to include shooting digitally, of course]
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LostInTheMovies
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Re: swansong

Post by LostInTheMovies »

OK,Bob wrote:Regardless if this turns out to be Lynch's swan song, it seems much more certain that - at roughly 10 to 20 hours - this "third season" will be his Magnum Opus as a director/filmmaker*. Something thrilling to look forward to, indeed!

[*"filmmaker" to include shooting digitally, of course]
Tbh, something that kind of surprised me is that this hasn't been a bigger topic of conversation - at least as far as I can tell - in cinephilia circles and among serious critics and scholars. What Lynch is doing here is almost unprecedented - even Berlin Alexanderplatz and Dekalog were short by comparison; add in the scale of this production and the fact that it is at least in part a mainstream project which is going to have major promotion & distribution behind it - and the fact that a premium cable network has given an avant-garde filmmaker virtual carte blanche and we are possibly on the verge of one of the most revolutionary, groundbreaking moments in the history of cinema. EVEn if it ends up being a one-off (inasmuch as the circumstances have to be Jupiter-and-Saturn level out of the ordinary for a filmmaker of Lynch's proclivities to receive this much creative leeway on this scale) this is still going to be a massive landmark in the history of movies, not just TV.

Maybe it's residual prejudice against television in film circles, or maybe most people don't realize yet just how this production is unfolding (I've encountered film buffs who are still under the impression that Lynch left the project once and for all, and I think few realize the degree of autonomy he has, or the "shooting as a film" aspect). But for whatever reason, beyond cinephiles, critics, or writers who are TP fans almost "on the side," I don't feel like I've seen much recognition of what is in store here.

If the first Twin Peaks radically changed what was possible on TV, I suspect this one will radically change what's possible in film more generally.
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