Alexandre O. Philippe has directed many films about films. His specialty is to take something we know well (the shower scene in Psycho, the fights between fans of Star Wars and George Lucas) and make us see things in a new way. In his latest film Lynch/Oz, he creates a documentary that digs deep into how The Wizard of Oz influenced the films of David Lynch.
The poster for Lynch/OZ
I was able to interview Philippe at the Dallas Lynch Retrospective moments after seeing the film for the first time. Now, after much thought, and settling down a bit, I invited him to be my guest on It’s Our Time with Scott Ryan. We discuss how he came up with the idea of just using film clips, why Lynch fans should see this in the theater over at home, and a bit about his favorite Lynch film, Lost Highway. You can head out Janus Films to get the schedule of where the film will play and you can watch my interview right here.
Listen to this episode of The Red Room Podcast before your friend does. Scott Ryan interviews someone from Fire Walk With Me that has NEVER been interviewed before. No clues here. Just listen and enjoy. This interview is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fire Walk With Me. Special Thanks to Dugpa and Steven Miller for doing the research. You won’t want to miss this podcast. Also be sure to pick up Scott Ryan’s book about Fire Walk With Me that interviews Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer) and cast and crew. Also subscribe to the latest issue of the Blue Rose magazine which covers Lost Highway or preorder Scott’s upcoming Lost Highway book.
Click Play to listen to the surprise interview or head out to iTunes and download.
Daniel Knox joins The Red Room to discuss his upcoming, week long, David Lynch Film Festival at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. You can get tickets by clicking here.
Listen to Scott and Daniel explain the week, what is going on and what to expect. Scott will be on hand all week long to do the Q&A’s with Charlotte Stewart and Duwayne Dunham. Scott will also be selling The Blue Rose’s new subscription and his new Fire Walk With Me book. Come see EVERY Lynch film in 35MM on the big screen.
Press Playbelow to listen or head out to iTunes and download.
Authors of Fire Walk With Me books are hard to find, but the latest Red Room Podcast has 2 of them. Lindsay Hallam (Devil’s Advocate: Fire Walk With Me) interviews Scott Ryan (Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared, The Blue Rose magazine) about why the film matters so much 30 years later. You can listen to the podcast or watch them talk on Youtube.
The Podcast Press Playbelow to listen or head out to iTunes and download.
In May 2022, my new book Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappearedwill be released. Over the next few months, I will be giving readers a sneak peek at this 30th anniversary look at David Lynch’s film in the Twin Peaks franchise.
Over July 4th 2021, my wife and I left social media behind and took a trip to Snoqualmie, Washington to stay at the Salish Lodge & Spa. We booked a package that came with dinner and a message. (I never felt more like George Constanza in my life.) Five times from 2015-2019 we had visited the area where Twin Peaks had been filmed. Three for the now defunct Twin Peaks fan-run festival and twice on our own. But in 2020, as we all know, life changed. During that time of true lockdown, I was certain I would, not only never travel again, but never see those Snoqualmie Falls again. I told me wife if we somehow get out of COVID alive, we were going to treat ourselves to a stay at the Salish. (I have never felt more like Donna Meagle in my life, “Treat Yo-Self!”) I just wanted to see those falls one more time. And I got to.
A picture of the falls taken in the early morning on July 3, 2021. Photo by Scott Ryan.
In all the times we had gone to the area, we had never done the full Salish treatment. We left our rental with the valet and didn’t get back in a car for 24 hours. We hiked around the area, had the message, lunch on the patio, and dinner overlooking the falls that evening. We never left the premises and there was no reason to. The time we picked to go was perfectly chosen as there was no Delta variant, and at the time, Seattle had a 70% vaccine rate. We felt safe and were safe. The point of the trip was to learn to get back into the world and take a moment to celebrate surviving 2020. Another point of the trip for me was to grab some photos for my upcoming book, and to write a chapter that was hanging over my head.
I needed to write Chapter 11 which is called “The One That Is Meant to Help.” I had been putting it off for a couple of reasons. The main reason was that I didn’t want to write it. The fake reason was that I had decided that the only place to write it was IN Twin Peaks at the scene of the crime, if you will.
The chapter art from my upcoming FWWM Book
I had a story to tell and I wanted it to be in my FWWM book. The thing that is crazy about Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared is that it will actually be the first Twin Peaks book that I have written. I have produced or edited quite a few, but I have never sat down and wrote about how I have carried FWWM and Twin Peaks with me for thirty years. I had things to say about the history of the show and film, but also my history with it. You don’t start a magazine and launch more books on the subject than Frost/Lynch have overseen unless the show has some personal weight for you. I stepped out onto my balcony in room 301 (Couldn’t get 315 because David Lynch was staying there while he was filming Season 4. Nice guy. Real quiet.) and I wrote Chapter 11 without thinking or stopping to edit what was pouring out of me. I let it flow faster than Bobby forgets that a girl puked all over the place in the middle of the street. I knew I could edit what I was writing once I got home and make it presentable. I had things to share. Twin Peaks had been such a part of who I had become.
I couldn’t stay in room 315, but I could grab a photo before David got back to his room. Photo by Erin O’Neil.
I’m excited for people to read the book to learn from the people who crafted the film about how they did what they did. But I am also excited (and nervous) to share how FWWM and Sheryl Lee’s performance helped me make it through my dark times. I am honored to also share my story of meeting Catherine Coulson in the very place that I wrote the chapter. I had a ton to be thankful that weekend. I had survived COVID, America, and I was just a traveller who was heading back to where it all began. Twin Peaks has been such a life long love and being there, looking at the falls and the Great Northern, I was “Falling” all over again.
Preorder The Art Issue of The Blue Rose which focuses on the Art of Twin Peaks. New interviews and art by Michael Horse (Hawk) and Charlotte Stewart (Mary X, Betty Briggs) and over 50 other artists.
In May 2022 my new book Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappearedwill be released. Over the next few months, I will be giving readers a sneak peek at this 30th anniversary look at David Lynch’s film in the Twin Peaks franchise.
Over the July 4th weekend, I took a trip back to Twin Peaks. No, I didn’t pop in the DVDs or stream it for the last time on Netflix. I boarded a plane and flew to Snoqualmie, Washington, the filming site of FWWM. In September 1991, director David Lynch and his cast and crew filmed around the sleepy Washington area. One of the places they filmed was at Olallie state park which became the setting for much of Deer Meadow, the first half hour of the film. I used my vaccination and Washington state’s 70% vaccine rate to justify my first trip back to this location in a few years. My first trip to the area was captured in my 2015 documentary A Voyage to Twin Peaks. [This 35 minute look at the final year of the Twin Peaks fan festival is available for rent on Amazon.] It is such a rare opportunity for a television fan to get to visit the filming locations and feel like you are actually in a fictional town that you watched on your home screen. Most TV shows film in a sound stage so there isn’t much opportunity to visit the actual locations.
The location of the autopsy of Teresa Banks, now with a sign saying Private Property.
At Olallie state park, you can see the exterior of the Deer Meadow Sheriff station, and if you are invited in, the interior as well. In 2015, I got to go inside and see Sheriff Cable’s office and the waiting room where the secretary didn’t have coffee, but had a phone with a little ring. The house used to be the Ranger’s station, and even had a WiFi router called Deer Meadow. They were happy to allow entry to fans of FWWM. Things had changed since my last visit. The small house now seemed to be a residence and had signs posted in the front, back, and side explaining this was private property. So approaching the building where Chet and Sam conducted the Teresa Banks autopsy was not a good idea, unless you wanted to meet the actual local authorities.
The river that Teresa Banks floats down while wrapped in plastic.
Instead, I walked down to the river and saw the location where Banks’s body floated down the river. I walked through the woods and saw Jack Rabbit’s palace from Twin Peaks: The Return, the tree that Alicia Witt’s character huddled behind, and the spot where Laura and Bobby buried Deputy Cliff’s body. (Or the half-hearted attempt to bury it. I mean seriously how did this body never show up? Must have been the three sticks Bobby put on his body.) In my upcoming book, I interview Ron Garcia who was the director of photography for the film. He tells a great story about filming in these woods and how he tussled with Lynch on this scene. Garcia says, “I think I was just ornery that night.”
Jack Rabbit’s Palace has seen better days. It has crumbled since the filming of The Return.
This was just one of the places I visited to get new photos for the book. I am planning on offering a full color version of the book which readers will only be able to get when they are ordered through the Blue Roseor FMP websites. The rest of the outlets will have a black and white, pod version so this might be a reason to not order from the American church of Amazon. If you already placed the order from me, you will get the color version, providing we can make it happen. It will depend on preorders and interest in the book. I am working on a few other surprises, but I can’t tell you about that.
Part 2 covers my overnight stay at the Salish. Thanks for supporting all my projects and remember to order the Art issue of the Blue Rosewhich Blake Morrow, The Women of David Lynch cover, is curating. Maybe he will print one of my pictures from the bottom of the falls? Doubtful, I don’t have that kind of pull.
Thanks, Scott
Preorder The Art Issue of The Blue Rose which focuses on the Art of Twin Peaks. New interviews and art by Michael Horse (Hawk) and Charlotte Stewart (Mary X, Betty Briggs) and over 50 other artists.
Episode 191 of The Red Room Podcast is an interview with the David Lynch/Twin Peaks cover band Fuck You, Tammy. The band members join Scott Ryan (The Blue Rose Magazine) to talk about the songs of Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch, Julee Cruise and why they like covering these songs. The band is also going to record a 7 inch vinyl record just for you. They are going to the studio at the end of July and they do a song live and you get the Vinyl Copy. All are one of a kind. Click here for more information.
You can watch this interview on Youtube.
Press Playbelow to listen or head out to iTunes and download.
Order the new Special Edition of The Blue Rose Magazine. It is the Art of Twin Peaks with a special pull out poster, new art by Michael Horse (Hawk) and Charlotte Stewart (Mary X). Order here.
Scott Ryan hosts two Q&A’s at the Mahoning Drive-in’s David Lynch Weekend. The event sold out so you might have missed the panel. Don’t worry, we have the audio from both panels right here on Episode 190 of The Red Room Podcast. Scott interview Charlotte Stewart the first night about Eraserhead and Twin Peaks. Night 2, Scott interviews Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs), Harry Goaz (Deputy Andy), Charlotte Stewart (Mary X, Betty Briggs) and a special guest.
Thanks to Faye Murman for planning the event (It was the most professional event Scott has ever attended). Please support The Blue Rose Magazine buy picking up a book or magazine or pre-order Scott’s 2022 book Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared. All the support helps. Also, be sure to email The Blue Rose Magazine and get on our mailing list. Then you won’t miss the next event like this.
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Scott interviews Faye Murman who is hosting a weekend Lynch Drive in event atMahoning Drive In. Tickets go on sale March 19th to see 5 Classic Lynch films, meet Charlotte Stewart and Dana Ashbrook, and hear a Q&A hosted by Scott Ryan (The Blue Rose, Red Room Podcast). Listen to all the details about the event on Episode 188 of The Red Room Podcast.
Press Playbelow to listen or head out to iTunes and download.
Episode 187 of The Red Room Podcast is a therapy session between Scott Ryan (the Blue Rose) and Andrew Grevas (25YL). Two content creators who focus on Twin Peaks, but want to cover all kinds of entertainment get together (for the first time) to talk about creating small businesses, working with others, dealing with hate email, and interviewing Twin Peaks stars.
Please be sure to check out Andrew Grevas’s website by clicking here.
Press Playbelow to listen or head out to iTunes and download.
