Subject: saturated vs. subdued color
From: pane@cat.cmu.edu (John Pane)
Date: 1991-01-29, 05:48
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

The vivid saturated colors in the opening scene of the 1/19 episode reminded
me of the opening and closing scenes of Blue Velvet.  In Blue Velvet, those
scenes presented a overly-romanticized, naive view of life (white picket
fence, robins, green grass).  Then a shocking tragedy with a garden hose
followed by the switch to subdued color and lighting for the "real" story.
Again back to exaggerated color for the "happy" ending with the characters'
expectations that all evil is gone and now everything will be wonderful.
The urge to see all of the bad guys eliminated has been satisfied, but
somehow the audience is left a little more unsettled than the characters are.

It is interesting that the Major's chair-in-the-woods scene is shot using
this same technicolor device.  The concensus (which I agree with) is that
the Major is more enlightened than most, if not all, of the other characters
in the story.  Is the point being highlighted by saturated color in Twin
Peaks something other than a naive view of life?  Should we beware of
placing too much hope in the Major and his White Lodge?  Will Twin Peaks end
in a sickeningly happy resolution that leaves the audience satisfied on one
superficial level (bad forces apparently eliminated), but disturbed on
another (the knowledge that things are not as good as they seem)?  

Where there any other scenes in Twin Peaks that were shot in this colorful
film?  

-- John Pane pane+@cs.cmu.edu School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University (412) 268-3650