It is poignant that in the opening of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a television is smashed to pieces. The series, cancelled by ABC in 1991, was already hailed as a seminal piece of Western television, but fame had its downside. The 1992 Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of this cinematic prequel to the TV show, focusing on events before the pilot; the murder of waitress Teresa Banks and, in particular, the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer, who in the series was mostly relegated to a picture frame. In cinematic form, Lynch was able to delve into the bleak themes of sexual abuse, substance addiction and mental breakdown, that before streaming platforms could for the most part only be referenced to in prime-time TV. Back then, fans waiting for easily digestible jazzy forest antics may have given the prequel a mixed reception but, at least for posterity, this film is the best kind of 90s conundrum, topped with iconic faces and tunes from maestro Badalamenti.
Fire Walk with Me was originally meant to be the first in a trilogy, but the mystery-hungry public had to wait 25 years for a continuation of the story. This time, those in the know knew not to expect neatly wrapped solutions from David Lynch. Now, if you have somehow avoided the world of Twin Peaks for the last 30 years, you can now conduct a human experiment and dip your toe in linearly.
Liina Härkönen