plato's cave thirty eight (being a film journal) mike leigh

Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky - 2008

The films of Mike Leigh part six

Mr. Leigh's “anti-miserablist” film, or Poppy's joie de vivre

Sally Hawkins
other Mike Leigh films :
- All or Nothing - 2002
- Vera Drake - 2004

Eddie Marsan
The heavy master of actorshippe, Mr. Marsan, first saw him in Vera Drake or 21 Grams, I was surprised he has only been in two Mike Leigh films. Also makes a strong impression in The New World, Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 & 1980, Southcliffe, God's Pocket, and Ray Donovan.
other Mike Leigh films :
- Vera Drake - 2004

Nonso Anozie
as Ezra, his only Mike Leigh film

Stanley Townsend
as the tramp, his only Mike Leigh film

Kate O'Flynn
other Mike Leigh films :
- Mr. Turner - 2014

Elliot Cowan
as the bookseller, his only Mike Leigh film

Karina Fernandez
other Mike Leigh films :
- Another Year - 2010
- Mr. Turner - 2014, as Miss Coggins who plays Purcell whilst turner sings along

Cinematography by Dick Pope

other Mike Leigh films :

- Life is Sweet - 1990
- Naked - 1993
- Secrets & Lies - 1996
- Career Girls - 1997
- Topsy-Turvy - 1999
- All or Nothing - 2002
- Vera Drake - 2004
- Another Year - 2010
- Mr. Turner - 2014

Music by Gary Yershon

other Mike Leigh films :
- Another Year - 2010
- Mr. Turner - 2014

plato's cave thirty seven (being a film journal)

George Lucas - American Graffiti - 1973

Cinematography by Jan D'Alquen & Ron Eveslage

Film Editing by Verna Fields, Marcia Lucas, and George Lucas

Climactic Seventies Nihilism

A race between Paul Le Mat (John) and Harrison Ford (Bob Falfa).

Not unlike Two‑Lane Blacktop or Rebel Without a Cause.

plato's cave thirty six (being a film journal) it is happening again

Mark Frost and David Lynch - Twin Peaks: The Return - 2017

From Part One

Connections between Buella's house of debauchery, vice and business-unlawful in South Dakota and Ethan Edwards return to the Edwards West Texas homestead in John Ford's The Searchers from 1956. Ethan and Martha (brother and sister in law) surely want to get into the pursuit of pleasure in The Searchers but have restrictions that make it not possible, these restrictions don't exist at Buella's.

Heavy connections between Otis from Twin Peaks and Mose Harper (Hank Worden) from The Searchers. Otis is a heavy puller of the cork; god only knows what he is drinking, some Sadean moonshine. Kind of looks like something from The Silence of the Lambs, in the Baltimore Self Storage scene.

darkness enters

 

Glorious line "It's a world of truck drivers"
Comes off as nonsense, but surely has layers of meaning in the world of Twin Peaks

plato's cave thirty five (being a film journal) it is happening again

Mark Frost and David Lynch - Twin Peaks - 2017

From Part One - New York establishing shot

Obsessing over the imagery of the New York "screening room" from Part One of Twin Peaks. The screening room is presented initially as a place for the young man to look into the "glass box".  It reminds this viewer not only of the obsessiveness some people (myself included) have for watching films for hours and hours a day, it also has a connection to the binge watching of television that was made possible by netflix and the like.

Our viewer has interruptions though.... from an attractive young women presenting coffee and wanting possibly other things that may not be considered christian. This begins one of the great mysteries of the show, who is the billionaire that is paying for this? what is going on in the box?

In terms of the visuals; it is easy to make connections to some 20th and 21st century artists. From the architectural monumentality of Richard Serra to the quiet contemplativeness and voyeurism of Edward Hopper.

Edward Hopper - Intermission - 1963

Edward Hopper - Solitary Figure in a Theatre - c.1902-4

Edward Hopper - New York Movie - 1939

tall pretty young women in periphery of "screening room"

Hiroshi Sugimoto theatre

Dan Graham glass mirror sculpture

plato's cave thirty four (being a film journal) it is happening again

From The Secret History of Twin Peaks, A Novel by Mark Frost

Mark Frost and David Lynch - Twin Peaks - 2017

From Part One

Recurring establishing shot for the environment of Twin Peaks. First shot we see after Cooper has his discussion with ???????? in Part One.

The above quote is from Colonel Douglas Milford, in an encrypted message to Major Garland Briggs. Briggs' response is the words "seared his soul". Briggs is revealed earlier as "The Archivist". His presence in the new series is quite strong, more discussion on this forthcoming.

plato's cave thirty three (being a film journal)

Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk - 2017

A film with virtuosic construction. In addition to Nolan making it one hell of a film with his vision, writing and direction; the following people (and many more) had much to do with the look and sound of the film and the extreme pleasure it was to watch.

music - Hans Zimmer

cinematography - Hoyte Van Hoytema
(Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Fighter, Interstellar, Let The Right One In, Spectre)

film editing - Lee Smith
(The Truman Show, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, X-Men: First Class, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Spectre)

sound
sound effects recording - Peter Albrechtsen, John P. Fasal, Eilam Hoffman, Ken J. Johnson, Max Lachmann, Anders Lindahl, Mats Lundgren, Bernard Löhr, Mikkel Nielsen, Eric Potter
supervising sound editor - Richard King
re-recording mixer - Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo
sound effects editor - Michael W. Mitchell, Randy Torres
foley artist - Shelley Roden, John Roesch
dialogue editor - Hugo Weng

plato's cave thirty two (being a film journal) it is happening again

Mark Frost and David Lynch - Twin Peaks - 2017

From Part One, Introduction of an essential element in the new Twin Peaks : electricity

Cooper is with the Giant (or ????????), played by Carel Struycken, in a backwards space; similar but most likely not the Black Lodge. The giant has been seen previously in another form, as the Room Service Waiter of the Great Northern Hotel (played by Hank Worden, the great John Ford actor, the Shakespearean fool who only longed for "a roof over his head and a rocking chair by the fire."). 

Different from the Black Lodge which is red, this space is black & white. Initially when seeing the Black Lodge in the 90s, this viewer was struck by the method Lynch achieved the oddness of these scenes.... having the actors go through the lines backwards and then playing them backwards so they appear forwards (image and sound). The glitches and imperfections became quite striking from this technique. Here in the phonograph scene, the backwards technique is present. The backwards technique is truly one of the most unique and otherworldly techniques in film history.

In this scene one observes the phonograph crackling... it is more an electrical crackle rather than the sound of a a needle on a record. These electricity sounds continue through the series. Here the sound mimics crow caws.

Cooper listens to the electricity.....

The sounds are followed by the Giant saying "Agent Cooper. Listen to the sounds (electricity loop). It is in our house now. It all cannot be said aloud now. Remember … 430. Richard and Linda. Two birds with one stone.”

The electricity continues to crackle and Cooper crackles into disappearance.

More detail emerges on ????????'s environment especially in The Return: Part 8 (episode 8). It is a fascinating place, more on this space later.

"Richard" is Richard Horne? the sadistic trash offspring of Audrey Horne and Bad Cooper? Linda? Linda remains unclear.