Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Lynch
Screenplay by
Based onTwin Peaks
by Mark Frost
David Lynch
Produced byGregg Fienberg
Starring
CinematographyRon Garcia
Edited byMary Sweeney
Music byAngelo Badalamenti
Production
company
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 16, 1992 (1992-05-16) (Cannes)
  • July 3, 1992 (1992-07-03) (France)
  • August 28, 1992 (1992-08-28) (United States)
Running time
134 minutes[1]
Countries
  • France
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million
Box office$4.2 million (North America)[2]

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a 1992 psychological horror film[3][4] directed by David Lynch and written by Lynch and Robert Engels. It serves as a prequel to the television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991), created by Mark Frost and Lynch, who were also executive producers. It revolves around the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley) and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), a popular high school student in the fictional Washington town of Twin Peaks. Unlike the series, which was an uncanny blend of detective fiction, horror, the supernatural, offbeat humor, and soap opera tropes,[5][6][7] the film has a much darker, less humorous tone.[8]

Most of the television cast reprised their roles, though the majority of their scenes were cut. A few notable cast members, including Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn, and Richard Beymer, did not reappear for various reasons. Boyle's character Donna Hayward was recast with Moira Kelly. Kyle MacLachlan, who starred as Special Agent Dale Cooper in the series, was reluctant to return out of fear of being typecast, which resulted in a smaller presence in the film than originally planned. Two planned sequels never came to fruition, but 91 minutes worth of deleted scenes were released in 2014 through the compilation Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces, and the story's narrative continued through the 2017 miniseries Twin Peaks: The Return.

Fire Walk with Me premiered at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. It has long been reported that the film was booed and jeered by the audience there, though co-writer Robert Engels denies this happened.[9] Upon release, the film received polarized reviews from critics in the United States and was a box office failure domestically, although it fared much better in Japan. The film has been positively reevaluated in the 21st century,[10][11][12] and it is now widely regarded as one of Lynch's major works and one of the greatest films of the 1990s.[13][14]

Plot[edit]

Deer Meadow prologue[edit]

In 1988, in the small town of Deer Meadow, Washington teenage drifter Teresa Banks' body floats down a river, wrapped in plastic. FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole sends agents Chester Desmond and Sam Stanley to investigate.

While examining Teresa's body, the agents notice that a ring is missing from her finger, and find a small piece of paper with the letter "T" inserted under the fingernail. A local waitress later tells them that Teresa's arm went numb before she died. At Teresa's trailer, Desmond notices a photo of her wearing a strange ring. At dusk, Desmond finds the ring on a mound under a trailer. He reaches out to take it.

At FBI headquarters in Philadelphia, Agent Dale Cooper tells Cole of his foreboding dream. Their long-lost colleague, Agent Phillip Jeffries, materializes and insanely rants about a meeting he witnessed involving mysterious spirits. A vision of these spirits—the Jumping Man, the Man from Another Place, Killer BOB, and Mrs. Chalfont and her grandson—appears briefly before Jeffries vanishes. Sitting nearby, Agent Albert Rosenfield reports that Jeffries was never there and Desmond has disappeared. To search for Desmond, Cooper is sent to Deer Meadow, but he learns nothing.

The Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer[edit]

One year later in Twin Peaks, high school homecoming queen Laura Palmer uses cocaine and cheats on her boyfriend Bobby Briggs with biker James Hurley. She discovers that pages are missing from her secret diary, and gives the rest of it to her agoraphobic friend Harold Smith for safekeeping.

Mrs. Chalfont and her grandson later appear to Laura. They present a small framed picture for her wall, and warn her that the "man behind the mask" is in her bedroom. Laura runs home and sees BOB behind her dresser. She rushes outside in terror and sees her father, Leland, emerge from the house. That evening, Leland accusingly questions Laura about her romances and screams at her to wash her hands. At bedtime, he offers her a tearful apology.

After hanging the picture on her wall, Laura dreams about entering the Lodge. There, she sees Cooper and the Man from Another Place, who identifies himself as the arm and offers Teresa's ring to Laura. Cooper tells her not to take it. Laura sees Annie Blackburn next to her in bed, covered in blood. Annie tells Laura to write in her diary that "the good Dale is in the Lodge and cannot leave" and then disappears. Laura sees the ring in her hand, but when she wakes up, it is gone.

That night, Laura goes to the Roadhouse, a bar where she works as an underage prostitute. From there, Laura and her pimp Jacques Renault, along with two of their clients, relocate to another bar just over the border in Canada. Donna Hayward, Laura's best friend, is naive to prostitution and hard drug use. She follows Laura there and crashes the group. After seeing a drugged and topless Donna making out with her "John", Laura drags her off. She begs Donna not to become like her.

The next morning, Philip Gerard, the one-armed man possessed by the spirit MIKE, approaches Leland and Laura. He shows Teresa's ring to Laura while accosting Leland about canned corn. Leland remembers his affair with Teresa. He had asked Teresa to set up a foursome with her friends but fled after glimpsing Laura among them. Teresa realized who he was and plotted to blackmail him, so Leland murdered her. While Leland and MIKE yell, Laura becomes greatly disturbed and screams at them to stop. MIKE quickly drives away.

That night in a forest, Bobby and Laura wait for Jacques's drug contact. They are approached by Deputy Cliff, who produces a package of white powder. He fumbles to draw a gun, but Bobby shoots first, killing Cliff.

The next night, while she is high on cocaine, BOB comes through Laura's window and rapes her. She asks, "Who are you?" and sees that BOB is her father.

Laura attends school in distress. Deciding she is using him for cocaine access, Bobby breaks up with her. Laura is increasingly erratic and disturbed. At night, she ends her relationship with James, jumps off his motorcycle and escapes to a cabin in the woods, where Jacques, Leo Johnson, and underage prostitute Ronette Pulaski are waiting. The four take cocaine and have sex. During it, Jacques ties Laura up and rapes her. Leland shows up and beats Jacques unconscious while Leo flees. Leland takes Laura and Ronette to an abandoned train car. Laura asks him if he is going to kill her. BOB tells her that he wants to be her. BOB pummels Ronette unconscious. MIKE, having tracked Leland there, rescues Ronette and tosses Teresa's ring into the train car. Laura wears it. Enraged, BOB kills Laura and sends her body, wrapped in plastic, floating down a river. He then passes into the Red Room, encountering MIKE and the Man from Another Place. Together, they demand their "garmonbozia" (translated on-screen as "pain and sorrow") from BOB, as a separated Leland floats beside, unaware.

Epilogue[edit]

Laura's dead body is discovered by the residents of Twin Peaks. Agent Cooper comforts her in the Red Room. She sees her angel floating above and cries tears of joy.

Cast[edit]

The following actors and characters appear in scenes cut from the theatrical version but later compiled in Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces.[15] After the Cannes showing, Lynch commented on having to cut characters from the theatrical version: "It was a little bit of a sadness, [...] You'd like to have everybody there, but their characters didn't have a bearing on the life of her [Laura Palmer].":[16]

Production[edit]

Aaron Spelling Productions wanted to produce a third season of Twin Peaks, but ABC cancelled the series due to declining ratings and high production cost.[17] Lynch and Spelling Productions decided to conclude the series as a film trilogy, quickly securing a $75 million three-film deal with the French company Ciby 2000 and announcing the first film just a month after the series' cancellation.[18][19] Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost, whose relationship soured during the second season, disagreed on whether to make the project a conventional sequel or a non-linear prequel.[20][21] Frost ultimately left and directed his own film Storyville.[20]

Lynch wanted to make a Twin Peaks film because, as he claimed in an interview, "I couldn't get myself to leave the world of Twin Peaks. I was in love with the character of Laura Palmer and her contradictions: radiant on the surface but dying inside. I wanted to see her live, move and talk. I was in love with that world and I hadn't finished with it. But making the movie wasn't just to hold onto it; it seemed that there was more stuff that could be done",[22] and that he was "not yet finished with the material".[23] Actress Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer, echoed these sentiments. "I never got to be Laura alive, just in flashbacks; it allowed me to come full circle with the character."[19] According to Lynch, the movie is about "the loneliness, shame, guilt, confusion and devastation of the victim of incest. It also dealt with the torment of the father – the war within him."[22]

The film was originally going to begin filming in August 1991.[17] But on July 11, 1991, Ken Scherer, CEO of Lynch/Frost productions, announced that the film was not going to be made because series star Kyle MacLachlan did not want to reprise his role of Special Agent Dale Cooper to avoid typecasting. MacLachlan's reluctance was also caused by a decline of quality in the second season of the show. He said "David and Mark [Frost] were only around for the first season... I think we all felt a little abandoned. So I was fairly resentful when the film, Fire Walk with Me, came around."[19] A month later, MacLachlan agreed to appear and pre-production resumed. As a compromise MacLachlan demanded a smaller role, only appearing for five days of shooting. Lynch and co-writer Robert Engels rewrote the screenplay so that Teresa Banks's murder was investigated by Agent Chester Desmond and not by Cooper as originally planned.[18]

The film was made without Twin Peaks series regulars Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn, and Richard Beymer. At the time, these absences were attributed to scheduling conflicts, but in a 1995 interview, Fenn said that her real reason was that she "was extremely disappointed in the way the second season got off track. As far as Fire Walk with Me, it was something that I chose not to be a part of."[19] In a 2014 interview, however, Fenn said that it was a scheduling conflict with Of Mice and Men that prevented her from committing to the film.[24] In a September 2007 interview, Beymer claimed that he did not appear in any scenes shot for the film, although his character, Benjamin Horne, appeared in the script.[25] Fenn's character was cut from the script, Moira Kelly was cast as Donna, and Beymer's scenes were not filmed.

Principal photography began on September 5, 1991 in Snoqualmie, Washington, and lasted until October of the same year, with four weeks dedicated to locations in Washington and another four weeks of interiors and additional locations in Los Angeles, California. When shooting went over schedule in Seattle, Washington, Laura's death in the train car had to be shot in Los Angeles on soundstage during the last day of shooting, October 31.[26] The production progressed very quickly.[18] David Bowie expressed disappointment with his role in the film, saying "They crammed me. I did all my scenes in four or five days, because I was in rehearsals for the 1991 Tin Machine tour. I was there for only a few days."[27]

Several Twin Peaks regulars filmed scenes but were cut from the final version. These actors included Michael Ontkean (Harry S. Truman), Warren Frost (Will Hayward), Mary Jo Deschanel (Eileen Hayward), Everett McGill (Ed Hurley), Wendy Robie (Nadine Hurley), Jack Nance (Pete Martell), Joan Chen (Jocelyn Packard), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran), Harry Goaz (Andy Brennan), Michael Horse (Tommy "Hawk" Hill), Russ Tamblyn (Dr. Jacoby), Don S. Davis (Garland Briggs), and Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs). Their scenes are among The Missing Pieces, included on the Twin Peaks Blu-ray box set.[15] After the Cannes showing, Lynch said "It was a little bit of a sadness, [...] You'd like to have everybody there, but their characters didn't have a bearing on the life of her [Laura Palmer]".[16]

Release[edit]

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me received a reaction quite the contrary to the television series. The film was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival,[28] where it was met with a polarized response. There is a persistent story that the film was met with boos and hisses from the Cannes audience,[13][29] though co-writer Robert Engels denies that this event ever happened[9] and a contemporary news report only says there were some "hoots and whistles" during a screening for critics and journalists.[30]

According to Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times, the film was met with two extremes, one side being overall positive, while the other side being the exact opposite.[31] Film-maker Quentin Tarantino, who was also in attendance, said in a 1992 interview, "After I saw Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me at Cannes, David Lynch had disappeared so far up his own ass that I have no desire to see another David Lynch movie until I hear something different. And you know, I loved him. I loved him."[32]

According to Lynch, Francis Bouygues (then head of CIBY) was not well-liked in France and this only added to complications at the festival.[33]

U.S. distributor New Line Cinema released the film in America on August 28, 1992. It grossed a total of US$1.8 million in 691 theaters in its opening weekend and went on to gross a total of $4.2 million in North America.[2]

Despite its mixed critical and poor commercial response, Fire Walk with Me gained attention at awards time. The film was nominated for five Saturn Awards and two Independent Spirit Awards, including Sheryl Lee being nominated for Best Actress. Angelo Badalamenti's musical score subsequently won a Spirit Award, a Saturn Award and a Brit Award.[34]

Reception[edit]

Initial reviews[edit]

Upon its release, the film received polarized reviews from American critics. Among the negative reviews, Janet Maslin from The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Lynch's taste for brain-dead grotesque has lost its novelty".[19] Fellow Times film critic Vincent Canby concurred, "It's not the worst movie ever made; it just feels like it".[35] In his review for Variety magazine, Todd McCarthy said, "Laura Palmer, after all the talk, is not a very interesting or compelling character and long before the climax has become a tiresome teenager".[36] USA Today gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it, "dark and depressing".[37] Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers wrote, "though the movie ups the TV ante on nudity, language and violence, Lynch's control falters. But if inspiration is lacking, talent is not. Count Lynch down but never out".[38] In her review for The Washington Post, Rita Kempley described the film as a "perversely moving, profoundly self-indulgent prequel".[39] An exception among American reviews at the time of the film's release came from novelist Steve Erickson, who defended the film in the L.A. Weekly and challenged its reception; in 1998, critic Manohla Dargis, writing in the same publication, called his review "one of the bravest pieces of film criticism I've read."[40][41]

More positive reviews came from British film critics. Kim Newman from the British magazine Sight & Sound stated: "The film's many moments of horror [...] demonstrate just how tidy, conventional and domesticated the generic horror movie of the 1980s and 1990s has become".[42] However, not all British film critics were praising. Barry Norman declared it "baffling", whilst praising Lynch as "a very original filmmaker, and since there are so few of those about, we ought perhaps to give him the benefit of the doubt, and indulge him a little."[43]

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 64% approval rating based on 75 reviews, with an average score of 6.7/10 and a consensus: "For better or worse, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is every bit as strange and twisted as you'd expect from David Lynch."[10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[44]

Reappraisal[edit]

Later retrospective analysis of the film has trended positive, with critic Mark Kermode writing in 2007 that many have come to consider the film a "masterpiece".[11] In a 2002 review, Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine gave the film four out of four stars,[45] and the following year, the publication included it in their list of "100 Essential Films".[46] The film is also listed at #11 on the publication’s list of "The 100 Best Films of the 1990s" and at #18 on the IndieWire list of "The 100 Best Movies of the ‘90s".[47][48] The film is also ranked #76 on IGN’s list of "The 100 Best Horror Films of All Time".[49]

In 2013, The Village Voice wrote of the film, “In its own singular way, Fire Walk With Me is David Lynch’s masterpiece,” while further stating, “Blue Velvet, devised as a kind of distorted TV soap, dug up a small town’s sordid secrets, suggesting that all seemingly good things have a dark side. But Fire Walk With Me taps into something considerably more terrifying: not only the evil buried somewhere in the quintessential middle-class family, but the evil buried somewhere in all of us, and our capacity for it.”[50] In his review for Time Out, Tom Huddleston gave the film five stars out of five and writes, “There's nothing so dark and demented as Fire Walk With Me, the simplest, strangest, saddest and arguably greatest of all his (Lynch’s) films. The critics sneered, the fans balked and the public stayed away in droves. It's their loss: this was a beautiful new kind of madness, terrifying, exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure.”[51] The film is subsequently ranked #31 on Time Out’s list of “The 50 best 90s movies.”[52] Film critic Robbie Collin, writing for The Telegraph, calls the film “a widely misunderstood masterpiece,” stating, “it restores Twin Peaks to writhing, screaming life...Far from cheating viewers, this fresh perspective offered them a new way to decode the entire Twin Peaks mythos, with Sheryl Lee’s extraordinary, soul-tearing performance shaking the franchise out of its cherry-pie-munching reverie...Time has passed, and its brilliance is gradually coming into focus, just as Lynch hoped it would.”[53]

Appearing on the podcast The Cinephiliacs in 2015, film-maker James Gray called it "an incredible film", "a masterpiece", and "a classic example of how the critics get it wrong." Further speaking of the film, he said, "I've never seen a movie that's been made in the last thirty years [...] in America which so asks us to understand and be in the shoes of a person suffering so profoundly. It's a thing of beauty."[54] Film-maker Gregg Araki has also stated, “Sheryl Lee’s performance in this movie is I think seriously one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema.”[55] Araki subsequently included the film in his personal Top 10 list of the greatest films of all time during the 2012 Sight & Sound directors’ poll.[56]

In the book Lynch on Lynch, Chris Rodley described the film as "brilliant but excoriating", writing that "by the time Lynch unveiled Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in 1992, critical reaction had become hostile, and only now is the movie enjoying a degree of cautious but sympathetic critical re-evaluation. It is, undoubtedly, one of Lynch's cruellest, bleakest neighbourhood visions, and even managed to displease die-hard fans of the series. [...] In exposing the very heart of the television series, Lynch was forced to accept that he was unlikely to return to the town of Twin Peaks again."[57]

Lindsay Hallam, the author of a book about the film, attributes the initial negative reaction as being due to the following: "Lynch does not let [the audience] off the hook – we are taken so far into Laura's experience, without any respite and with none of the humour associated with the series".[58]

In an article for The Guardian published in 2017, critic Martyn Conterio wrote of the film's reappraisal: “Fire Walk With Me is not just an artistic triumph in its own right, it’s the key to the entire Twin Peaks universe. A quarter of a century on, the film is being rightly rediscovered by fans and critics as Lynch's unsung masterwork. It took a long time, and it took its toll on its maker, but Fire Walk With Me has finally come in from the cold."[58]

In 2019, the film was ranked the 4th best film of the 1990s by the British Film Institute.[59]

Legacy[edit]

According to cinematographer Ron Garcia, the film was popular in Japan, in particular with women, as Martha Nochimson wrote in her book on Lynch's work, "he surmises that the enthusiasm of the Japanese women comes from a gratification of seeing in Laura some acknowledgment of their suffering in a repressive society."[60] Released under the title Twin Peaks: The Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer, it was greeted with long lines of moviegoers at theaters.[61]

In retrospect, Lynch has said, "I feel bad that Fire Walk with Me did no business and that a lot of people hated the film. But I really like the film. But it had a lot of baggage with it. It's as free and as experimental as it could be within the dictates it had to follow."[33]

Mary Sweeney, the film's editor, said, "They so badly wanted it to be like the TV show, and it wasn't. It was a David Lynch feature. And people were very angry about it. They felt betrayed."[19]

Sheryl Lee is very proud of the film, saying, "I have had many people, victims of incest, approach me since the film was released, so glad that it was made because it helped them to release a lot."[19]

Twin Peaks: The Return[edit]

The film contains a dream sequence in which Annie says the line “The good Dale is in the lodge and can’t leave. Write it in your diary.” This was originally intended to set up two more films in which Laura's diary entry was discovered, continuing and then concluding the series' narrative in a non-linear style going across time. However, the two planned sequels were cancelled because of the poor performance of the film.[18] By 2001, Lynch said that the Twin Peaks franchise is "dead as a doornail."[62] In 2014, however, it was announced that the series would continue with Lynch involved.[63] Lynch confirmed that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me would be significant to the events of the miniseries.[64] In 2017, Twin Peaks: The Return was released. It serves as the third season of the series and depicts events which happen 25 years after the conclusion of the second season, and uses many elements introduced in Fire Walk with Me.

Home media[edit]

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was released on VHS by New Line Home Video on January 6, 1993; a LaserDisc edition was also released that year.

Lynch originally shot more than five hours of footage that was subsequently cut down to two hours and fourteen minutes. The footage nearly appeared on New Line Cinema's Special Edition DVD in February 2002, but was nixed over budgetary and running-time concerns.[65] The film was released on DVD in several other regions in the early 2000s as well, including the United Kingdom (Region 2) in 2001[66] and Australia (Region 4) in 2005.[67]

Most of the deleted scenes feature additional characters from the television series who ultimately did not appear in the finished film.[68] Lynch has said that "I had a limit on the running time of the picture. We shot many scenes that—for a regular feature—were too tangential to keep the main story progressing properly. We thought it might be good sometime to do a longer version with these other things in, because a lot of the characters that are missing in the finished movie had been filmed. They're part of the picture, they're just not necessary for the main story."[57] According to Lynch, had the film included these scenes, it "wouldn't have been quite so dark. To me it obeyed the laws of Twin Peaks. But a little bit of the goofiness had to be removed."[57]

In 2007, DVDrama.com reported that MK2 was in final negotiations with Lynch about a new two-disc special edition that would include seventeen deleted scenes hand-picked by the director himself. It had been tentatively scheduled for release on October 17, 2007, but MK2 subsequently opted instead to re-release a bare-bones edition of Fire Walk with Me, citing a new version including the deleted scenes has been put on hold indefinitely. In November 2008, Lynch said the following regarding the deleted scenes:

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is owned by a company called MK2 in France. And I spoke to them a couple of months ago. [...] I've spoke to them several times about this. [...] I think it will happen, but maybe the financial crisis is [...] affecting that in some way. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm pretty sure there's seventeen scenes in that at least but it's been a while since we've looked into that.[69]

Paramount Pictures, which has DVD distribution rights to the TV series via CBS Home Entertainment, acquired the rights in Germany and most of the world excluding the US, UK, France and Canada. Paramount/CBS released their DVD in 2007. The DVD was a port straight from the MK2 French edition.

Fire Walk with Me was released on Blu-ray in France on November 3, 2010 by MK2.[70]

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Australia by Madman Entertainment on February 8, 2012, marking the 20th anniversary of the film's theatrical release.[71]

The film was also released on Blu-ray on June 4, 2012 in the UK by Universal UK Home Video, although it has been reported that the release suffers from defects in the audio track.[72] The film was released on Blu-ray in North America on July 29, 2014, as part of the Twin Peaks entire mystery Blu-ray collection, and contains more than 90 minutes of deleted and extended scenes from the film.[73]

The film premiered on Showtime on March 1, 2017, in honor of the series continuation.[74]

The film was released as part of the Criterion Collection (whose parent company, Janus Films, currently owns the North American rights), on both DVD and Blu-Ray Disc, on October 17, 2017.[75]

The Criterion version of the film was re-released as part of Twin Peaks: From Z to A, a 21-disc limited edition Blu-ray box set, which aside from the film also includes all three television seasons in their entirety, The Missing Pieces, previously released special features, six hours of new behind-the-scenes content, and 4K versions of the original pilot and episode 8 from The Return, released on December 10, 2019. However, this collection lacks two Criterion-exclusive interviews that were on their release of the film.

Soundtrack[edit]

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedAugust 11, 1992 (1992-08-11)
GenreJazz, ambient
Length57:04
LabelWarner Bros.
ProducerAngelo Badalamenti, David Lynch
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[76]
Calgary HeraldB+[77]

The soundtrack to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was released on Warner Bros. Records on August 11, 1992.[78] It includes music by Angelo Badalamenti, who had composed and conducted the music on the television series and its original soundtrack.[79]

In addition to his instrumental compositions, Fire Walk with Me's soundtrack features vocal accompaniment to Badalamenti's songs by jazz vocalist Jimmy Scott and dream pop singer Julee Cruise. Badalamenti performs vocals on "A Real Indication" and "The Black Dog Runs at Night", two songs by the Thought Gang, a musical project between Badalamenti and David Lynch. Lynch wrote the lyrics for several of the soundtrack's songs, including "Sycamore Trees", "Questions in a World of Blue", "A Real Indication" and "The Black Dog Runs at Night", and was the soundtrack's producer alongside Badalamenti.[80]

Upon its release, Fire Walk with Me's soundtrack charted in the United States, peaking at number 173 on the Billboard 200.[81] It was nominated for, and later received, the Best Music at the 1992 Saturn Awards[82] and Best Original Score at the Independent Spirit Awards.[83] In March 2011, British music publication NME placed Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me's soundtrack at number 1 on their list of the 50 Best Film soundtracks Ever, describing it as "combining plangent beauty with a kind of clanking evil jazz, this is one of those endlessly evocative soundtracks that takes up residence in your subconscious and never leaves".[84]

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Theme from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" Angelo Badalamenti6:40
2."The Pine Float" Badalamenti3:58
3."Sycamore Trees" (vocals by Jimmy Scott)David LynchBadalamenti3:52
4."Don't Do Anything (I Wouldn't Do)" Badalamenti7:17
5."A Real Indication" (by Thought Gang, vocals by Badalamenti)LynchBadalamenti5:31
6."Questions in a World of Blue" (vocals by Julee Cruise)LynchBadalamenti4:50
7."The Pink Room" Lynch4:02
8."The Black Dog Runs at Night" (by Thought Gang, vocals by Badalamenti)LynchBadalamenti1:45
9."Best Friends" Badalamenti2:12
10."Moving Through Time" Badalamenti6:41
11."Montage from Twin Peaks: 'Girl Talk'/'Birds in Hell'/'Laura Palmer's Theme'/'Falling'" Badalamenti5:27
12."The Voice of Love" Badalamenti3:55
Total length:57:04

Awards and nominations[edit]

Award(s) Category – Nominee(s) Result
Brit Awards Best Soundtrack – Angelo Badalamenti[34] Won
Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or – David Lynch[85] Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards Best Original Score – Angelo Badalamenti[82] Won
Best Female Lead – Sheryl Lee[82] Nominated
Saturn Awards Best Music – Angelo Badalamenti[83] Won
Best Actress – Sheryl Lee Nominated
Best Horror Film – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Ray Wise Nominated
Best Writing – David Lynch and Robert Engels[86] Nominated

References[edit]

  1. ^ "TWIN PEAKS - FIRE WALK WITH ME (18)". British Board of Film Classification. June 12, 1992. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  3. ^ Oscar Winner Hildur Guðnadóttir Reveals Her 5 Favorite Film Scores Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me: Angelo Badalamenti created the music for David Lynch's psychological horror film from 1992.] – Billboard.com
  4. ^ Decades after it was ignored by nearly everyone, Fire Walk With Me feels at once like a psychological horror classic just finally getting its duecollider.com
  5. ^ O'Connor, Tom (December 1, 2004). "Bourgeois Myth versus Media Poetry in Prime-time: Re-visiting Mark Frost and David Lynch's Twin Peaks". Social Semiotics. 14 (3): 309–333. doi:10.1080/10350330408629682. ISSN 1035-0330. S2CID 145369643.
  6. ^ Lacey, Stephen (June 3, 2016). "Just Plain Odd: Some Thoughts on Performance Styles in Twin Peaks". Cinema Journal. 55 (3): 126–131. doi:10.1353/cj.2016.0026. ISSN 1527-2087. S2CID 147831181.
  7. ^ Dean, Michelle (June 10, 2016). "Twin Peaks' final scene: 25 years on, it's as disturbing as ever". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  8. ^ Jackson, Matthew (March 23, 2017). "Why Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is one of the most powerful prequels ever". SYFY WIRE. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Kelley, Shamus (June 15, 2017). "Was Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Really Booed At Cannes?". Den of Geek. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
  10. ^ a b "Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me (1992)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  11. ^ a b Kermode, Mark (February 8, 2007). "David Lynch". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  12. ^ "David Lynch's Acclaimed Films". They Shoot Pictures, Don't They. Archived from the original on January 15, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  13. ^ a b Collin, Robbie (October 13, 2014). "Fire Walk With Me: the film that almost killed Twin Peaks". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2016. "Fire Walk With Me was Twin Peaks’ missing head, and perhaps the cinemagoers of 1992 weren’t quite prepared to find it in the fridge, beside the fruit juice. But time has passed, and its brilliance is gradually coming into focus, just as Lynch hoped it would."
  14. ^ Marsh, Calum (May 17, 2013). "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Is David Lynch's Masterpiece". The Village Voice. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  15. ^ a b Lacob, Jace (July 17, 2014). ""Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces" Makes You See "Fire Walk With Me" In A Different Way". Buzzfeed. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  16. ^ a b MacInnis, Craig (August 28, 1992). "Panned at Cannes: Peaks prequel proves it was Lynch who killed Laura". Toronto Star.
  17. ^ a b "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  18. ^ a b c d "11 Fascinating Facts About Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me". www.mentalfloss.com. June 2, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g Hughes, David (2001). "The Complete Lynch". Virgin Media.
  20. ^ a b Woods, Paul A. (1997). "Weirdsville USA: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch". Plexus.
  21. ^ "Twin Peaks FAQ: Mark Frost". www.twinpeaks.org. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  22. ^ a b Lynch 2005, p. 184.
  23. ^ Müller, Jürgen (2003). Best Movies of the 90s. New York: Taschen. pp. 64–66. ISBN 3-8228-4783-6.
  24. ^ Harris, Will (January 22, 2014). "Sherilyn Fenn talks David Lynch and how Twin Peaks should have ended". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  25. ^ "Twin Peaks Archive: Exclusive Richard Beymer interview!". twinpeaksarchive.blogspot.com. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  26. ^ Ferrante, Anthony C. (October 1992). "The Fire Walkers of Twin Peaks". Fangoria (117): 55–57, 68. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  27. ^ MacDonald, Patrick (December 20, 1991). "Beaming Bowie excited about current direction of his life, music". The Seattle Times.
  28. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  29. ^ "Booed at Cannes: Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me". Double Exposure. May 11, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
  30. ^ Comte, Jean-Michel. "Another Vietnam Movie for Stone; Lynch Presents 'Twin Peaks' ". Associated Press, May 16, 1992.
  31. ^ Ebert, Roger (May 24, 1992). "David Lynch, once again at the 'Peak' of controversy". Chicago Sun-Times.
  32. ^ Peary, Gerald, ed. (August 1, 1998). Quentin Tarantino: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. p. 48. ISBN 9781578060511. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  33. ^ a b Lynch 2005, p. 190.
  34. ^ a b "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) - Awards". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  35. ^ Canby, Vincent (August 29, 1992). "One Long Last Gasp For Laura Palmer". The New York Times.
  36. ^ McCarthy, Todd (May 17, 1992). "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me". Variety. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  37. ^ Wloszcyna, Susan (August 31, 1992). "Dark and depressing doings in Twin Peaks". USA Today.
  38. ^ Travers, Peter (April 18, 2001). "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  39. ^ Kempley, Rita (August 29, 1992). "'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me' (R)". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  40. ^ Dargis, Manohla. "They Lost It at the Movies". L.A. Weekly. No. November 18, 1998.
  41. ^ Wallace, David Foster. A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again : essays and arguments (First Back Bay ed.). Boston. ISBN 0-316-92528-4. OCLC 41459863.
  42. ^ Newman, Kim. "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me". Sight & Sound. No. November 1992.
  43. ^ "Barry Norman reviews Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me" (Film '92), YouTube.com. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  44. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  45. ^ Gonzalez, Ed (March 1, 2002). "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me". Slantmagazine.com. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  46. ^ "100 Essential Films". Slant Magazine. January 15, 2003. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  47. ^ "The 100 Best Films of the 1990s". Slantmagazine.com. November 5, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  48. ^ "The 100 Best Movies of the '90s". August 15, 2022.
  49. ^ [1]
  50. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is David Lynch's Masterpiece". May 17, 2013.
  51. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me". March 20, 2014.
  52. ^ "The Best 90s Movies | Incredible Films from the 1990s". June 23, 2023.
  53. ^ "Fire Walk with Me: The film that almost killed Twin Peaks". October 13, 2014.
  54. ^ Labuza, Peter (July 6, 2015). "Episode #61 - James Gray (Nights of Cabiria)". The Cinephiliacs. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  55. ^ "EXCLU VIDEO - Kaboom : Le blind test de Gregg Araki". September 17, 2015.
  56. ^ "Gregg Araki | BFI". Archived from the original on March 11, 2016.
  57. ^ a b c Lynch 2005, p. 185.
  58. ^ a b Conterio, Martyn (September 2, 2017). "Fire Walk With Me: how David Lynch's film went from laughing stock to the key to Twin Peaks". The Guardian. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  59. ^ "90 great films of the 1990s".
  60. ^ Nochimson, Martha P. (1997). The Passion of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood. University of Texas Press.
  61. ^ Regelman, Karen (May 26, 1992). "Japanese piqued by Peaks as picture opens in theaters". Variety.
  62. ^ Hughes, David. "David Lynch, Weird on Top". Empire (November 2001). Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  63. ^ "David Lynch back on 'Twin Peaks' after salary standoff - CNN.com". CNN. May 16, 2015. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  64. ^ "Twin Peaks - Variety.com". Variety. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  65. ^ "Total Movie Magazine - FWWM DVD article". lynchnet.com. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  66. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (DVD) (1992)". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
  67. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Region 4)". Roadshow Entertainment. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
  68. ^ Horowitz, Josh (August 22, 2007). "David Lynch On His Empire, Turning Down Jedi — And Cooking Quinoa". MTV. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  69. ^ "Twin Peaks Collector Encore RepoussÉ... - Les actus DVD - Excessif" (in French). Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  70. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Blu-ray (France)". blu-ray.com. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  71. ^ Morris, Clint (October 12, 2011). "Madman announces Fire Walk With Me on Blu-ray for Feb, 2012!". Moviehole.net. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  72. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me [Blu-ray] (1992)". Amazon.co.uk. June 4, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  73. ^ "'Twin Peaks': Watch 'Fire Walk With Me' lost scenes before entire series hits Blu-ray -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. May 15, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  74. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 1, 2017). "David Lynch's 'Fire Walk With Me' To Air On Showtime Before 'Twin Peaks' Return". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  75. ^ Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me at Criterion.com
  76. ^ Ruhlmann, William. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me at AllMusic. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  77. ^ Tremblay, Mark (August 30, 1992). "Recent Releases". Calgary Herald.
  78. ^ Eddin, Stephen. "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me – Angelo Badalamenti: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  79. ^ Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), retrieved August 17, 2017
  80. ^ Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (CD). Angelo Badalamenti. Warner Bros. Records. 1992. 9362 45019-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  81. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me – Angelo Badalamenti: Award". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  82. ^ a b c "History Search Results". Independent Spirit Awards. Film Independent. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  83. ^ a b "Past Saturn Awards – Best Music". Saturn Awards. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Archived from the original on February 7, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  84. ^ "50 Best Film Soundtracks Ever – Photos". NME. IPC Media. March 1, 2011. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  85. ^ "Official Selection 1992". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
  86. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) – Awards". Internet Movie Database. Amazon. Retrieved March 5, 2013.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]