Subject: Re: Sheryl Lee's "wretched" acting (Re: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
From: daq@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom)
Date: 1992-09-08, 13:32
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
In alt.tv.twin-peaks, v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:
>> > >Yeah, if you mean, by good acting, the regular descent into tear
>> > >filled histrionics that are barely justified and not especially
>> > >convincing. About half way through the movie I was hoping Leland
>> > >would hurry up and kill her so she would stop crying all the time.
> >
> > "Regular" as compared to what?
Regular as opposed to occasional.
> > Barely justified?
Barely justified by the screenplay.
> > If being
> > regularly raped by your father since the age of twelve, not
> > to mentioned being bombarded by BOB's desire to take away
> > your body and keep you prisoner in it for fifty or sixty years...
Hey, I am NOT denying that these are good reasons. The screenplay
did nothing at all to create the emotional horror that these
would cause. Sure, it SHOWS us that the character feels it, but
early on it gives almost no logical justification, and it never
gives an adequate sense of the emotional justification for
her reactions. The CLOSEST it comes is to show her father raping her,
but that whole scene is so ethereal and abstract that one is left
to suspect that it was entirely a dream. The whole business
is just too plodding and matter of fact to convince me of any
justification for her distress. The screenplay seemed to assume
that all it had to do was go through the motions of making us
feel Laura's horror, and I think it failed miserably compared
to the little tidbits that were offered on TV.
Of course rape and possession are good reasons for hysterics, but
the screenplay managed to turn these things into poorly managed
props rather than things of horror.
> > Sure, I'd call that barely reason to cry once or twice... or
> > be scared... or to lose your mind and go on coke binges to
> > forget your pain (or do anything else that might lessen the
> > pain)...
> > Sure, I see your point almost immediately.
No, you don't. You see your point, and you want pretend that this
gives you a reason to be sarcastic about MY point. You do
not see my point at all.
> >
> > As for convincing... Well... I guess it is pretty easy for
> > us all to be familiar with what kind of person a victim of
> > all the above would be like...
Of course it isn't easy. The movie is supposed to pull us along into
that horror, much like the tv show managed to do far more effectively.
> >
>> > >On the whole, I thought her acting job was pretty wretched, and
>> > >the only real reccommendation I could give is, 'go see the movie
>> > >if you want to see Sheryl Lee's breasts'. Other than that, filming
>> > >this movie was a pretty big mistake as it tries to embody the
>> > >mystery of Larua P, and merely reduces her to a whiny and less
>> > >than sympathetic little twit. It really may not be something
>> > >Lynch could have changed. This series was driven and empowered
>> > >by the very mysterious nature of Laura. They removed that.
> >
> > A little more than half of TWIN PEAKS occured AFTER Laura's
> > murder was solved... How does THAT embody her mystery?
It doesn't, but it still left her a mystery. Even with the diary,
there were very broad parts of Laura's character that had to
be fleshed in by the imagination. This left that fleshing in
job to the icons and symbols and archetypes of the imagination.
This is far more powerful than the picture we were given on the screen.
Admittedly, this is just my opinion, but I think there is
a great deal of truth to it. Embodying L.P. reduced her.
> >
> > If you think Laura in FWWM was unsympathetic, I'd hate to
> > be judged by you. Whiny? You'd whine a little if your
> > father was molesting you.
ITS A MOVIE. If your father was molesting you, I would NOT condemn
you for crying. I am condemning a SCREENPLAY and an editing and
directing job. These are completely different things, as you well
know. My judgement of things in the REAL world is somewhat different,
and I find your personal attack to be a cheap and offensive attempt
to make your point through sarcasm.
FWWM is an attempt at art, and hence the burden of proof rests
on its shoulders, not mine, and I was left somewhat unconvinced.
> >
> > What's the problem with a movie that isn't driven on the
> > mystery of how she wound up dead, but driven by HOW she
> > wound up dead? I thought FWWM was not only driving, but
> > also intense and, incredibly, suspenseful.
It was vaguely suspenseful in periods when I was not looking at
my watch and thinking, "Well, at least it isn't Prospero's Books".
> > I think Lynch
> > and Engles really turned our foreknowledge of the ending
> > into a strength.
No, he wasted a screenplay.
> >
>> > >And the teaser scenes in the series about the murder in the train
>> > >car are FAR more effective dramatically than what they actually
>> > >filmed for the movie.
> >
> > For sheer effect, I think I'd have to actually agree with you
> > here. Ronnette's flashbacks were goddamn scary, much more
> > intense than what we saw in FWWM.
I am glad we agree on at least this, because I found these scenes
in the tv show to be some of the most distubing things ever
shown on tv. I wish the movie had achieved this effect.
Its failure to do so, is a big part of the reason that I
was ultimately disappointed.
> > But the FWWM train car
> > scene (while one of the most faulty in the film, I think)
> > put a new and wonderful twist on it -- how Laura BEATS BOB,
> > how even though she dies, it's in dying that she wins. For
> > Lynch, this is indeed a happy ending -- that is the gold
> > in the FWWM version.
This is not a new twist. That whole viewpoint was adequately
pointed out in the tv show. The tv show made it clear that
it was a battle for possession of her soul. It made it clear
that she died so that she would not lose her soul. The
implication was obvious to anyone who gave it some thought.
> >
>> > >I was disappointed.
> >
> > I'm really sorry you feel that way, because I'm thrilled with
> > FWWM... The explanations are shocking and interesting, the
> > possibilities are open... and the "passion play" mythology --
> > I think shown for the first time to their potential (as the
> > snippets we got of LMFAP and BOB and Red Room stuff in the
> > series was way too few and far between).
You have your right to your opinion. This movie made me not care
if Lynch EVER does a T.P. subject again. In fact, I hope that
he doesn't. The series stands as an artistic statement, and there
is no reason to flog the corpse. The movie strongly reinforces
that view in me.
doug
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