film diary

Film Diary Friday (on a Monday): Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

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Some things are better enjoyed at certain periods of our lives. I can think of several examples of books and films I tried reading/viewing in years past and just couldn’t be bothered, only to change my tune when I tried them later. Twin Peaks (1991-1992) is a perfect example. I remember my former roommate and pop culture/crafting maven Tatiana marathoning this show about 5 years ago when we lived together, and didn’t think much of it then. It wasn’t until this past Christmas when I was still unemployed and I had plenty of time to kill that I gave it another go…and loved it.

David Lynch’s strange soap opera-turned-cult phenomenon centers on the town of Twin Peaks, Washington where the body of high school homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) has been found on a beach wrapped in plastic. Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan as one of the most charming and quirky male characters in TV history) is sent in by the FBI to investigate. He teams up with local law enforcement to unravel the case, only to be sucked in to a bizarre, nightmarish otherworld where dreams, reality and time operate differently and no one is who they seem. Twin Peaks launched many famous faces including Sherilyn Fenn, Lara Flynn Boyle and Mädchen Amick.

Laura Palmer is in high school? Sheryl Lee is like 35

With the success of the show, Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost planned a series of films that would explore the mysteries of Twin Peaks‘ uncanny elements. Fire Walk with Me was the first and only film to actually be produced in this series. Essentially a prequel to Twin Peaks, the first part of the film follows Special Agents Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak. Yes, that Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland), who are sent by Agent Gordon Cole (Lynch) to a small town in Washington to investigate the murder of waitress Teresa Banks. After finding a vital clue, Chester Desmond disappears. Enter Special Agent Cooper, who has been dreaming about the Black Lodge. Cooper has visions of the killer’s next victim, a blonde high school girl who is sexually active and likes taking drugs. The film then jumps forward a year to follow the last week in the life of the girl in Cooper’s vision, Laura Palmer.

“Diane, something about this case gives me a strange feeling…”

Fire Walk with Me was obviously intended for audiences who were already familiar with the TV show. There are many familiar faces: Shelley and Leo Johnson, Bobby Briggs, James Hurley and Leland Palmer and the inhabitants of the red room, to name a few. But there are also key characters from the show that didn’t make it into the film — Audrey Horne and Sheriff Harry S. Truman, most noticeably — and are sorely missed. Some characters in the film are played by people other than the actors who embodied them in the show, which makes me question whether the original cast members were unavailable or simply uninterested in reprising their roles for the big screen. The film touches on many of the plot twists that unravel in the show, but without solid knowledge of what these twists and nuances refer to, it would be hard to piece together what happens in the film without getting confused. In fact, I feel confused simply trying to explain how others might feel confused, which is, in itself, confusing.

On the whole, Fire Walk with Me is typical, dizzying Lynch but lacks the suspense and chilling creepiness that permeate films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. I enjoyed meeting many of these characters again and hearing Angelo Badalamenti’s iconic theme, and I suppose it was nice to see Laura Palmer alive, but one of the best things about Twin Peaks is that although it’s a bit of a mindfuck, it’s also a really great mystery. In the film, everything that had slowly been revealed in the show is spelled out directly. For example, it took several episodes to reveal who really killed Laura Palmer, and in the film we see it happen. It probably wouldn’t have worked as a film otherwise, but even though I already knew what was going to happen, the film felt like one giant spoiler, and I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

If you’re a Twin Peaks fan, Fire Walk with Me is worth a watch, but perhaps only to remind you how much more amazing the show was.

Rating: B –

photography vivien leigh

The colors of of India

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Vivien Leigh (right) riding an elephant in India, 1964

India has been on my mind quite often lately. While watching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (John Madden) and Trishna (Michael Winterbottom) recently, I couldn’t help thinking that the thing I loved most about these two films was the cinematography and the beauty of the Indian landscape. A couple weeks ago, I sat in the library reading through the letters Vivien Leigh wrote to Jack Merivale. In the autumn of 1964, Vivien returned to the East for the first time since she left Darjeeling for London at age 6. Vivien’s letters, some of which were reprinted by Anne Edwards in her 1977 biography, describe her adventures in Nepal and India, the beauty of the people, the landscapes, the culture. Katmandu, Delhi, Madras, and Karanjia were on her list. She wrote with great delight about the temples, funeral pyres on the rivers, friezes of erotica, elephant rides and a journey in the Raj’s plane for breathtaking views of the Himalayas and a close-up look at Everest. It was a “return to her roots” although she never went back to Darjeeling.

Needless to say, all this reading and film viewing has made India jump to the top of my bucket list. Some day, I hope to take my own photos, but for now, I’ll leave you with some stunning images by photojournalist Steve McCurry. Best known for his  striking “Afghan Girl” portrait, McCurry has photographed for National Geographic and other publications for decades. A couple of years ago, he was entrusted with the last-ever-produced roll of Kodachrome film. The images are currently on his website. Whether shooting with film or digital, McCurry expertly captures the colors, faces and lifestyles of one of the most classically fabled countries in Asia.

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What she wore: Vivien Leigh and Oscar fashion

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Vivien Leigh Academy Award

At the Oscars, fashion is almost more important than the films. Not many celebrities dare to show up looking like hobos or circus clowns, and when they do, they are slashed by the people of E! as the “worst dressed” abominations of the evening. Never mind that the Oscars are really supposed to be about cinematic achievement. However, it’s true that fashion and the Academy Awards have always gone together.

In 1940, Vivien Leigh was the belle of the ball. Her performance in Gone with the Wind was a guaranteed winner and her ensemble for the evening is still written about in retrospectives about Oscar fashion history. Her dress was designed by Irene Gibbons of the famous Hollywood department store Bullock’s Wilshire. Irene was considered the Coco Chanel of American fashion and frequently dressed the likes of Carole Lombard, Eddie Goetz and Marlene Dietrich. Bronwyn Cosgrave describes Vivien’s dress in detail in the book Made For Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards

Irene’s program described Leigh’s Oscar dress, which debuted as look fourteen on a pale blond model, simply as “Red Poppy Evening Gown.” Green-stemmed red poppies exploded like fireworks upon the long chiffon gown. Its vibrant floral print carried on a theme Irene had been exploring for a while. She produced sexy gowns drenched with big, bold blooms including a frisky white dance dress dotted with perky black-eyed Susans in which Ginger Rogers boogied alongside Fred Astaire in 1937’s Shall We Dance. A year later, at a San Francisco hotel party, Marlene Dietrich caused a sensation in a low-cut, spaghetti-strapped Irene frock of white silk enlivened with purple hydrangeas. “The bigger, the better” was Irene’s pattern philosophy.

 …Within its bodice was a light, inner support necessitating that nothing need be worn beneath it. “[Irene’s] soft crêpes and chiffons were meant to be worn without a brassiere—a discreet construction underneath them lifted the breasts delicately,” wrote Hollywood costume expert David Chierichetti of the frocks Irene built for maximum comfort because so many of her movie star clients, like Leigh, spent long days on film sets bound in tight-fitting, corset-topped period costumes.On the night of the twelfth Academy Awards, between Red Poppy Evening Gown and Leigh’s skin mingled merely the rose and jasmine scent of Jean Patou’s Joy, her favorite perfume. She splashed it on and fastened an aquamarine pendant. Olivier had purchased the semiprecious piece in New York from Van Cleef & Arpels, the Fifth Avenue jeweler, and sent it to Leigh in Los Angeles as a token of his affection as she suffered through Wind. On Oscar night it hung from a long gold chain and drew attention to the plunging bodice of Irene’s dress. Like a trophy medallion, it displayed that after a tough seven months of portraying Scarlett O’Hara, Leigh was finally free. She and Olivier set off by limousine to a pre–Academy Awards cocktail party at David Selznick’s sprawling home on Summit Drive. “Everybody was keyed up—they all came in limousines,” recalled Irene Mayer Selznick, David’s wife. Celebrating at Selznick’s lofty abode, Leigh discovered she had won an Academy Award. In banner headlines, the Los Angeles Times’ early edition published results it was meant to print the following day—Wind had set an Academy record, winning an unprecedented nine Oscars. Supercharged by the news, Selznick hustled Leigh, Olivier, Clark Gable, and Olivia de Havilland into the back of a limousine bound for the ceremony at the Ambassador Hotel’s nightclub, the Cocoanut Grove. The Twelfth Academy Awards, February 29, 1940. Veiled in stardust, gowned by Irene, Leigh was ushered into the Ambassador’s lobby by David Selznick as a “near riot of admirers” rushed toward them, wrote Variety’s Alta Durant. Leigh, noted the columnist, was the “star” of an illustrious Academy Awards.

[Note from Kendra] A a color photo by Peter Stackpole  housed in the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills reveals Vivien’s pendant to have been topaz rather than aquamarine.

Vivien was able to keep the Irene gown and its lightweight material made it an ideal costume to perform in while touring North Africa during the war (see photo below).

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Being Nancy Drew: 5 things I’ve learned from researching the Oliviers

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Research materials

My favorite part of writing is not so much the creation of a narrative as the research that is necessary to piece that narrative together. I love rummaging through the stacks (the basement) in libraries for books that have been collecting dust for God knows how long; physically touching paper that was handled by an historical figure who contributed something meaningful to society; looking at personal photos that have never been published;  reading correspondences between fascinating personalities. It’s like history coming to life in my hands and I feel like a proper detective looking for clues to solve some kind of mystery.

I consider myself lucky enough to have been able to scour special collections in Universities and national libraries on both sides of the Atlantic for this particular project. I find archival materials especially significant when researching the life of a person who is no longer alive. (Auto)biographies may tell one version of events, but archival materials are physical evidence — proof — that an event did or didn’t happen as it was later reported. From Hollywood to London (I even went to Birmingham!), I’ve spent hours upon hours over the past three years searching for the answers to the question “Who were Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh?” Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

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the oliviers

Celebrating love

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Vivien Leigh Laurence Olivier in 21 Days Together

(via Zsazsa)

“My dearest Heart,

Goodness knows when all my various letters will reach you or in what order…I will tell you again that your letters are unspeakably precious…Okay darling darling love. I will never get used to these separations. I miss you every minute of the time…” — Fragments of a love letter from Vivien Leigh to Laurence Olivier, 1943

Happy Valentine’s Day from vivandlarry.com!