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Twin Peaks ‘The Missing Pieces’ Premiere in Hollywood

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I feel nothing but a great sense of… Garmonbozia, as I write this story, alas really stoked for those that could attend last night’s premiere of Twin Peaks : The Missing Pieces.
Nah, not really. But I’ll suck it in.

Those who believe Twin Peaks belong only under a cuffed bra wouldn’t have much cared, but for those that have been hankering to see ‘more’ of David Lynch’s 1992 film “Twin Peaks : Fire Walk With Me” – since it, er, quickly disappeared from theatres and made itself a comfy home at the bottom of a shelf of video tapes – it was as if Christmas had come early, and Santa left the carrot and beer for us, with the unveiling of 90 minutes of deleted scenes from the cult classic movie. All those scenes we read in the shooting script, and all those bits we believed ‘destroyed’ or lost (depending on who you were asking), were restored – to be released along with the rest of the “Twin Peaks” anthology in a Blu-ray box set in a couple of weeks.

Though not woven back into “Fire Walk With Me” (like many of us had hoped), the deleted scenes are now, at least, finally out there. And last night, the cast of ABC’s short-lived gem, gathered with fans and media to preview what was left from the 1992 movie.

Word is, those deleted scenes are magnificent – and really make one look at “Fire Walk With Me” in a different way. Different light. Through a different lens. Now, say those that saw the deleted scenes, the film makes [somewhat] more sense, and it’s not as fragmented as the cut that New Line released.

“These deleted scenes range from the bizarre to the truly heartbreaking; they shine a stark light on Laura’s relationships with those around her, including the dynamic at play between her, her fragile mother (Grace Zabriskie), and her father, and that with Donna Hayward (Moira Kelly, replacing the show’s Lara Flynn Boyle), her far more innocent best friend”, says Buzzfeed. “One sequence depicts Laura at the Haywards’ house and reveals a sad longing for a sense of normalcy, one glimpsed in the easy intimacy between Dr. Will Hayward (Warren Frost), Eileen (Mary Jo Deschanel), and Donna… which is at odds with the horror unfolding at Laura’s house. While the film goes to great lengths to capture the trauma experienced by Laura, there are scenes of exquisite happiness as well, such as when Leland, Sarah, and Laura join hands to recite a Norwegian phrase (“Hello! How are you? My name is Leland/Laura/Sarah.”) around the dining room table. These light and playful scenes — Sarah’s crazy laugh alone makjng it worth inclusion — are in stark contrast to the pain and sorrow of many of Laura’s other scenes, including one in the Briggs’ basement in which she begs Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) for cocaine in order to dull the constant horror of her life.
“Some of the scenes are little more than fragments. Laura becomes transfixed by the ceiling fan in the hallway outside her bedroom, an otherworldly voice calling to her and freezing her in place, a creepy smile slowly passing across her face, until she’s awakened from her reverie by her mother. In another, she snorts cocaine from a small plastic bag with a key in it, secreted in a locked diary, a clue that will play into the murder investigation in the show. In another, she hides in the bushes, waiting for James (James Marshall), as Leland arrives home: As he makes his way up the stairs towards the house, Laura waits in terror that he will spot her, his eyes darting widely towards her hiding place. There’s a phone call between Laura and Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn), in which he begs her to make him a tape and we sense Laura’s vexed frustration with these silly, stupid men who want to own her. There’s a high-speed drive to a redneck bar for Laura and Donna and some drunken guys, a sign that reads something like Cana-DUH and the U.S. of Fucking “A” slung above the wooden bar. The sight of logging trucks passing by as they walk down the road is a glimpse at the world of the past, of another time, of wood and death and possibility.

Some of these deepen the aura of dread surrounding the overarching plot or Laura’s inevitable end. Others are simply unnecessary detours. There is a long scene in which Chris Isaac’s Agent Chester Desmond beats up a local police officer in order to transport Teresa Banks’ body to Portland. Another has Desmond and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland) interviewing Teresa’s employer as a worker noisily fixes a light bulb. Another has Stanley showing Cooper the letter “T” that was found beneath Teresa’s fingernail. A quick scene has “the dashing” Cooper playing a game with the always-unseen Diane, in which he has to guess what the secretary has changed about her office. (It’s sort of adorable.) The terrifying world of the Little Man From Another Place and his cohorts is given a little extra time, with a series of scenes capturing a bizarre meeting between the Little Man, BOB, Mrs. Tremond (Frances Bay) and her grandson, a jumping child in a pointed white mask, and what appear to be demonic lumberjacks. There are additional close-up shots of a mouth screaming in agony or pleasure, unnerving in both in its intensity and shot composition.”

The site says that the deleted scenes – all restored and assembled by Lynch himself – don’t resemble a movie, but they’re a treat nonetheless.

“As Missing Pieces goes on, it begins to coalesce into something… it’s not quite a film in its own right, but rather a series of vignettes that capture stolen moments. Some give us a deeper portrait of Laura and those around her — laughter at a family dinner table, a woman crying in an empty diner, the Log Lady (Catherine Coulson) hearing Laura’s screams echo through the night, electricity crackling through power lines. It adds up to something alternately funny and heartbreaking, terrifying and uplifting. There’s a rare humor and a raw horror at play here, subtly shifting the tone of Fire Walk With Me in the process.
Missing Pieces may not pull back the curtain on the larger mysteries of Twin Peaks or give us a definitive look at what happens to Cooper after his possession (other than his presence in the Black Lodge and him comforting Laura, whose spirit has arrived there — more time shifts!), but what these deleted and extended scenes do is give us a deeper appreciation both for what Lynch’s maligned film set out to do and for the incredibly nuanced and powerful performance achieved by Lee here. Laura isn’t a character in Twin Peaks, but rather an emblem. Here, Lee gives television’s most famous dead girl a profound sense of vulnerability, exploring both her flaws and her strength in the face of a harrowing experience. Twin Peaks might best be summed up in a sentence uttered by Lara Flynn Boyle’s Donna in the show — “It’s like I’m having the most beautiful dream and the most terrible nightmare all at once.” — and Fire Walk With Me turns up the temperature on that whole statement, resulting in a film that pulses with Hitchcockian tension but also a strange and ineffable humanity.”

/film say the best of the deleted scenes is the most imminent one; in it, Agent Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) goes bare-knuckle on Sheriff Cable (Gary Bullock).

“Of all the deleted scenes, this might be the most famous amongst fans, because it’s one from which a couple photos have floated around for years. Special Agent Desmond brawls with the aggressive Sheriff Cable (Gary Bullock). Their fight is set up in the existing version of Fire Walk With Me, and takes place when Desmond attempts to move the body of Teresa Banks to Portland for forensic tests. The bout between Desmond and Cable is extended to an almost comic degree — it’s not as long as the alleyway fight in They Live, but the effect is similar. This is the moment where several character beats come to a head, and so it acts as a previously unseen resolution to a dramatic setup early in the movie.”

The cast in attendance included Mädchen Amick, Catherine Coulson, Mary Jo Deschanel, Miguel Ferrer, Peggy Lipton, Sheryl Lee, James Marshall, Victor Rivers, Kimmy Robertson, Russ Tamblyn, Lenny von Dohlen, Ray Wise and Grace Zabriskie.

Here’s Lynch’s hilariously awesome introduction last night :

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