Dine with Leatherface, Go Nightclubbing with David Lynch

Now here's an unlikely night out to savour. Were you aware that the house originally used to film Tobe Hooper's mad horror masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is actually used these days as a restaurant? Sitting in the town of Kingsland, Texas, an hour out of Austin, the Junction House (bar and grill?) features a downstairs restaurant and an upstairs bar that even serves chili fries. It's all set in the atmospheric surrounds of Leatherface's abode; there's the chicken bone room, the staircase and the dining hall where Marilyn Burns was famously and sadistically tortured by a family of lunatics and old goons bearing straws (to drink her blood!)

I'd heard about this place, but never really investigated it. Thanks now to AV Club though you can take a virtual tour of the Junction House in all of its refurbished glory. I'd order the prime ribs (served with side of baked potatoes and house vegetables) if I were there, but on Tuesday they have "all you can eat fried chicken", which - let's face it - is hard to pass up! Wednesday's offer of "all you can eat catfish" doesn't sound quite as appetising.


Austin: The Texas Chain Saw... family restaurant?
Put on your freshest mask of skin with a good ol' smearing of rouge and lipstick and chow down!

When you're done digesting whatever the chef prepares you can jump onto your waiting jet plane and travel to Paris where David Lynch is apparently setting up shop with a nightclub based upon 'Club Silencio' as seen in Mulholland Drive. The description of the club, open only to select clientele, sounds nothing like the venue from the film - the one that sees Spanish singers miming to pre-recorded music as visitors convulse in their seats, blue boxes of mystical origin appear willy nilly and creepy old ladies with hyper blue rinses sit in the stalls whispering "silencio" over and over - but it's fun to imagine it anyway.

The nightclub, located at 142, Rue Monmartre, isn’t set to officially open until September. The club will house a bar, concert hall, art library and in-house movie theater. But don’t expect to sip champagne with Lynch and friends during your next trip to France — access to the très private Silencio will be reserved for members only from 6 pm until midnight, with events such as concerts, movie premieres and literary conferences. Then, after midnight, Silencio will make noise as a private club open to a non-member, yet still elite, Parisian crowd.

Oh, that David Lynch! So wacky! What will he think of next? A movie? Doubtful... You know what though, if you're a member of the "elite" that is allowed into Lynch's Club Silencio then you probably can afford that private jet from Texas to Paris, so if you're rich, hoity toity and like a steak just as much as you like discussing art then you really can make a day of this movie-themed adventure. Just don't try and recreate Hilary Swank's final scenes in Amelia on your way there. The gazelles were not so free any more after that!

Babies, Crazies and Ladies in Radi...ators: What is Eraserhead?

Damn. I nearly made that title rhyme, didn't I?

Last night I went to see David Lynch's bizarre 1977 debut feature Eraserhead on the big screen in a new 35mm print at the Astor Theatre. A marvellous experience - "experience" being a very apt word to describe any David Lynch viewing, especially on the big screen - to be sure, and one that left me rather speechless. Having seen it once before on DVD, I couldn't have estimated the power that the film has on a cinema screen. Of particular note are the final 30 minutes or so, during which the strange peculiarities that Lynch had been stirring for an hour finally start to sputter and boil out of control, becoming a deranged fever dream of surreal and even spiritual images.

But what exactly is Eraserhead? That, I couldn't possible answer. Is it a grave look at the consequences of bringing a child into the world? Is it a look at the suffocating and depressing lives of the lower class? Is it merely a look at the gradual mental breakdown of a couple, brought to the brink by the cruelness of life? It could be one, all or none of these things.

It rightly secured it's place amongst the original and the greatest cult films ever made, but if you look carefully there is so much to admire from a pure filmmaking stand point. Firstly, surely Eraserhead ranks as one of the most assured directing debuts of all time. The audience would instantly understand what "a film by David Lynch" is and he has, more or less, continued to give audiences just that for decades since to cheers and chagrin of viewers. And while several aspects of this film have been reworked by Lynch into his other films - the discovery of a body part (Blue Velvet), the art design (Twin Peaks), the peculiar bond of family (The Straight Story), the dread-filled sound design (INLAND EMPIRE), even the fade to white operatic final shot (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, right) - never were they done so authentically and as honestly as here. With his budget of only $10,000 - some of which provided by Sissy Spacek and Jack Fisk! - this is a vision Lynch absolutely had to believe in and while it's not my favourite of his films, it stands up as perhaps his most daring and personal work to date.

In fact, while we're on the subject, while I've always believed Mulholland Drive - my favourite Lynch film - was a "best of David Lynch" type of affair, I'd never really noticed just now much was taken from the 1977 film and supplanted to the 2001 film. The man cranking the levers behind the scenes in Eraserhead could easily be altered as the mysterious homeless man in the alley off Sunset Blvd; the radiator and the blue box are both mystical portals; Laurel Near and Rebekah Del Rio, hello!; the deranged descent into madness of the final scenes; the excruciating meet-the-parents dinner sequences. It doesn't make me think any less of Mulholland Drive mind you, just might make me look at it in a different light upon next viewing. A modern day Eraserhead, perhaps? One without the main character having her brain processed into the little eraser nubs on the ends of pencils, obviously.


Other than Lynch's obvious filmmaking skill, however, there is the performance by Jack Nance. The man who would go on to become a Lynch regular - most famously as Peter Martell in Twin Peaks - gives a performance that somehow manages to emerge clear as day from all that surrounds him. His assortment of confused faces mix perfectly with several moments of inspired, if under-appreciated humour. I particularly love the moment after the chicken has bled on the dinner table and he calmly puts down the carving knife and fork. It's hard to explain, but if you see it I think you'd see what I noticed.

And while Charlotte Stewart (the future Log Lady), Allen Joseph and Jeanne Bates are all macabre and odd as the family X, I want to single out Judith Anna Roberts as the "Beautiful Girl Across the Hall", who I always think looks a bit like Sandra Bernhard. Lynch's camera - cinematographers Herbert Cardwell and Frederick Elmes, presumably two due to the five year filming schedule - frames her gorgeously, constantly emerging and disappearing into pitch black. Those close-ups in the bedroom sequence with Jack Nance are perfection. There's a real old school glamour (to coin a frequently used phrase) and film-noir classiness to the way she is shot, which is surprising giving the rest of the film is not filmed like that at all, instead taking inspiration from the likes of German expressionism.

To say nothing of Laurel Near's "lady in the radiator"... well, even if I haven't the foggiest idea what it means, yet is pure bliss. As has become a regular thing with Lynch, his soundtracks are given just as much prominence as anything else, and while Eraserhead doesn't have much in the way of a traditional score - instead relying more on the omnipresent industrial sound effects and ominous sound design - the moment when Near's heavily made-up, blonde-wigged radiator girl starts to sing a song called "In Heaven", you'd be forgiven for thinking you had in fact been taken there. She's like an older, grotesque Shirley Temple, and it's a rare moment of peaceful clarity in an otherwise terrifying, exhausting and stunning movie. A

You've Been Inception-ed

I tend to go hot and cold on "fan made posters" (aka, posters that people made out of the goodness of their empty bank accounts - they're not getting paid, they just had a nifty idea and did it). Sometimes they can be really quite fun, and other times they can look just as bad as the ones Hollywood churns out on a regular basis, having made their own style cliches. I mean, those minimalist posters that people rave about can be nice, but they're not really posters, you know?

Anyway, thanks to Jason at MNPP for directing to me this fan made Inception poster at Reelizer. Can we all get zapped into somebody's dreams and have the idea implanted that this was the actual poster for Inception, rather than the dodgy ones that we did get. Sure, many salivated over them like little lapdops, but they were hardly visionary. At the worst they were far too cluttered and messy.


As a matter of fact, that website features quite a lot of great pieces. While there are official onesheets scattered about, it's mostly concept designs and festival works like the Alamo Drafthouse. I've included some more of my favourite "concept" designs below as examples of great "fan" work. They're pretty darn cool!

The Full Blossom of the Evening: Some Thoughts on Twin Peaks

Please note that although this blog entry discusses a lot about Twin Peaks there are no actual plot spoilers if you haven't seen the series and wish to do so. Feel free to keep reading.


I noticed today that David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has made its way to Blu-Ray. That's great news in one respect for fans of the series and the film, but it's disappointing to note that this release still doesn't include the two hours of deleted scenes that David Lynch excised from the finished product. I know the history of why we've never seen them - legal wranglings between the European production company and New Line Cinema - but it's still a damn shame!

Nevertheless, seeing the Blu-Ray release reminded me that I had never spoken about "Laurathon", an event held in November at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) here in Melbourne. I love living in Melbourne, have I mentioned that before? Yeah, I do, because of events like this! 9 and a half hours of Twin Peaks goodness on the big screen in a room lined with red curtains and a seemingly endless supply of donuts at our disposal. It began with the pilot episode, which is - in my humble opinion - the greatest episode of television ever crafted. So, really, not that big of a deal. Alongside that episode they screened episode 7 ("Realization Time"), episode 14 ("Demons" where Laura's killer was reveals), episode 30 ("Beyond Life and Death", the series finale) as well as the movie prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

That pilot... will it ever be topped? Who knows what television has in store for us, but it's just a slice of perfection, that pilot, isn't it? So many memorable moments that are forever branded upon my brain. If I had to choose but just two - my two favourites - I would have to go with Ronette Pulaski's walk across the train tracks since the imagery is so frightening with those "twin peaks" in the background and the tattered dress that'll make you really question where the series is going. Secondly, I'd choose the school sequence towards the beginning, starting with Audrey's smoke in the locker, her flitter of fingers in home room, the screaming girl across the school yard and that eerie tracking shot down the corridor towards Laura's homecoming photo in the displace case. The entire scene really captures that feeling of other-worldliness... I can recognise it as the real world, but there's a quality there that just feels slightly alien. The characters act just slightly off, don't they? Twin Peaks was always the best with it straddled that line delicately. Both are viewable below.


Episode 14 is - here we go again - probably the second greatest episode of television that I can recall. In fact, just the other day I was at my mother's house and turned on the Foxtel and what should be on? Episode 14 of Twin Peaks! Needless to say I rewatched it even though I've seen it many times, including as recently as a month earlier. Such powerful stuff, and yet, in everything that happens in that episode, you know my absolute favourite moment? Favourite of moments above all?


"I want you /
Rockin' back inside my heart"
There's something about that moment that speaks to the innocence and the childhood that these characters (Donna and James) have lost, and that Laura had lost long ago. It's a moment is minute beauty surrounded by so much doom and gloom. Love.It. Plus, the song is pretty great, too!

The final episode? Yeah. I can't even go there.


Of course, the movie is something else entirely, isn't it? Yowza! I'd never seen it on the big screen with a proper sound system, and it's a glorious thing to behold. Admittedly, I am a huge fan of the film - I'd rank it somewhere behind Mulholland Drive as my favourite David Lynch movie - unlike some people, but to see it projected onto the big screen is an experience to treasure. Lynch knows how to work sound and he certainly turns the volume up to 11 here.

The final 30 minutes are, of course, some of the toughest cinema you'll ever see. Fire Walk with Me is rated R18+ for a reason (equivalent to America's NC17 if you'd like). The culmination of two series worth of mystery, intrigue and wonder combined with the film's near-apocalyptic sense of menace and dread, all rolled up into a terrifying package. The sort of horror you don't even find in more traditional horror movies. Scarier, too.

And that ending... wow. As much as I would be intrigued to see where Lynch would go by picking the story up again 25 years later (and it most certainly will remain a rumour, but an interesting one nonetheless with Laura's "you will see me again in 25 years" comment don't you think?), I think the final few minutes of Fire Walk with Me (below) are the perfect coda to the entire Twin Peaks saga. If you watched everything in a through line - pilot episode through to Fire Walk with Me, despite their flip-flop narrative - then I can't imagine a more apt ending. Laura and Dale, the two driving forces of the show, together in the black lodge as Angelo Badalementi's haunting synth score floats overhead, an angel appearing as if by pure virtue of David Lynch's oddity and then.... the laugh. It's just perfect. I know I'm typing similar things a lot in this entry, but it's one of my all time favourite endings.


Speaking of Twin Peaks - obviously - I recently did a piece for Trespass Mag that looked at the fates of the actors and their subsequent careers after the untimely demise - or was it perfectly timed? - of the series. Whilst I was at Laurathon I gave a little bit of a vox pop soundbite to the Boxcutters crew (Australia's best - only? - TV-themed podcast, run by exceptional people I'm glad I know in real life) and you can listen to it here.

Merry Christmas

"Give me back my phone."
This has nothing to do with Christmas, but I hope its juxtaposition to the day can bring about a smile. We'll be back in the new week. Until then...

Molly Shannon on Twin Peaks

As I was clicking around through the IMDb the other day, doing research, I came across Molly Shannon's page and I discovered she had an early career credit of Twin Peaks. I've seen season 1 countless times, but season 2 only twice and the memories are foggier. So much going on in that season and so many characters that come in and out of play. I went back and watched the episode, episode 12 entitled "The Black Widow", and there she is playing an adoption agency representative named "Judy Swain".

This was only Shannon's second role after a turn in Dwight Little's 1989 horror version of The Phantom of the Opera that starred Robert Englund (aka "Freddy Krueger"). As these things go, you could hardly do any better at the time than a gig on Twin Peaks, surely, even if she is only on screen for a couple of minutes. But there she is in all of her odd glory. Wonderfully, this episode also marks the second appearance by David Duchovny as cross-dressing DEA Agent "Denise Bryson". Oh, the many treasures of Twin Peaks.

RIP Dennis Hopper

I know I am late to the table in regards to Dennis Hopper's death, but I didn't exactly have anything different to say about the man. He was one of a kind, from the early days with James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause, Giant), to starting a revolution (Easy Rider, not a film I like), to his portrayal of one of the all time great movie villains ("Frank Booth" in David Lynch's Blue Velvet), his multiple career revivals and everything in between.

However, I wanted to briefly discuss some of the movies that I haven't seen mentioned once in the few Dennis Hopper obits that I have read; Red Rock West and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. The former is, I think, a stunning movie with a great performance by Hopper in the same year that brought about his blockbuster turn in Speed. Severely underrated that film. The latter, however, is a very symbolic movie in Hopper's career. It was one of the very first films that he made after his stint in rehab for drugs along with Blue Velvet and I think it's more insane than that iconic role. He plays a relative of one of the dead characters from the first movie and it's just flat out bonkers.




Hopper directed Easy Rider, and is famous for it, but he also directed one of my favourite movies of the 1980s and that is Colors. It stars Robert Duvall and Sean Penn and is such fascinating exploration of 1980s gang culture in Los Angeles. It's great stuff and I implore you to go watch it if you never have (and Ice-T's theme song, "Colors", is a masterpiece). The last movie I want to mention is Tycus. It is a terrible movie, but hilariously so. Just watch the trailer and I'm sure you'll agree. Watch the movie and laaauuugh your heart out.


RIP Dennis Hopper.

Five Shots: Peek