Surrendering Logic in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Between the end of his landmark network-television series Twin Peaks in 1991 and its much-discussed revival on Showtime earlier this year, David Lynch turned to another medium to conduct his ongoing investigation into the dark underbelly of a fictional Washington town, fashioning a feature-film prequel to the murder mystery that has propelled the show. Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me imagines the double life of the troubled homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), and her vulnerability to shadowy forces, in the days leading up to her death, conjuring the lucid-dream ambience that has defined all of the director’s greatest cinematic works. One of the movie’s most vital assets in maintaining its eerie spell is its large ensemble cast, which placed series regulars Lee, Kyle MacLachlan, and Ray Wise alongside newcomers such as David Bowie, Chris Isaak, and Kiefer Sutherland. In the clip above, taken from an interview piece included on our brand-new edition of the film, Lee gives a sense of how Lynch guided his actors through the surreal world of Fire Walk with Me, discussing how he taught her to surrender to moments that defied conventional logic, as well as his sparing but “potent” use of words on-set.
