This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of David Lynch’s surreal skewering of suburbia, Blue Velvet. A 2002 documentary illuminated that story’s darkest shadows. Here’s IndieWire with the word…

The 70-minute-long, 2002 documentary The Mysteries Of Love dives deep into the 1986 film, with interviews with key members of the creative team, including Lynch himself, along with Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and Dennis Hopper. It has some great insight into how the film came to be, both in terms of the financing and in the creative origins, as well as some great Lynch anecdotes from the actors, almost all revolving around Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank. The doc also talks about the use of nudity, the first reaction from producers and test audiences, and much more. This is one Lynch fans have to watch.

Here’s The Mysteries of Love…

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Continuing with the scary October posts, and reveling in the announcement of the return of Twin Peaks, I found an example that distills the aesthetics of the original, providing a map back to the place where Laura Palmer and a beloved, bizarre television series were both killed.

While the mind reels at what David Lynch might do with a long form television series one is always uneasy when a beloved work of art gets a revisiting. I’d love to see the show re-invent itself — a lot of time has past since the last episode, and the hints that Kyle Maclachlan may be back for the new show, and the “25 Years Later” text in the series’ new lo-fi trailer, all necessitate a contemporary updating.

That said, fans also want Twin Peaks to feel like a familiar place, and they want the new season to feel like a continuation of the first two. Here’s the clip I found that boils down the nuances, techniques, actors, creators, places and characters that make this return a worthwhile one: breaking the fourth wall; the use of antiquated slang in place of contemporary profanity; sets that recall a timeless, mid-century America; an appearance by “David Finch,” “Laura” and a talking log; Diane’s tape recorder; suspenseful music, and a diner that serves “darn fine” pie.

Here is Sesame Street‘s darn fine version of Twin Beaks…

While most loved the first season, many loathed the second. Overall, I love the entire series thus far and I felt the end of the second season marked a return to form before its ill-timed end. I’d like to to see Lynch pick up the Wyndaham Earl storyline from the beginning as I never felt Earl got a chance to really show us the evil. Here’s looking forward to the darkest chapter of the story yet.

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For fans of David Lynch’s classic cult TV show, Twin Peaks, the secrets of the Black Lodge and the Log Lady’s prophecies hold an endless fascination. But, in a show full of dark mysteries, the relationship between agent Dale Cooper and the never-seen “Diane” may be the most intangible of them all.

Lucky for us, YouTube may be able to shed some light on the pair’s deep connections. In 1990 Simon and Schuster released an audiobook of Agent Cooper’s recorded messages to his shadowy assistant, “Diane.” The release featured a number of the actual recordings from the TV show, but also collected original bits that shed light on Twin Peaks’s central mysteries. Everything here is read by Kyle MacLachlan in a performance that’s as silly, scary, absurd and obtuse as his unforgettable turn in the original series…

Collectors interested in owning the document for themselves can find it on Amazon for about $50.

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