Matthew Kalil on David Lynch – Episode 5

Welcome to Talking Movies, I’m Spling. We begin episode four of our conversation with ‘Three Wells of Screenwriting’ author and David Lynch film school’s Matthew Kalil, a tribute to the late filmmaker David Lynch.

So I watched Twin Peaks: The Return and I really love it because it is Lynch unhinged in a way and so funny and so entertaining and so wild and so beautiful and coming back to the Twin Peaks universe you could just stay there for days and enjoy it.

Yeah, what’s interesting is that you know it’s coming back to the Twin Peaks universe but also not coming back to the Twin Peaks universe, which I think he did very consciously is that people who watched Twin Peaks the first two seasons way back in the ’80s [, it was ’80s wasn’t it?

Yeah. Okay who watched Twin Peaks, people who watched the Twin Peaks universe way back in the 80s] were expecting 25 years later to go back to that universe but Lynch very purposefully doesn’t take you back to that universe for a very long time.

They were expecting to see Agent Cooper – he only appears much later. I don’t want to do any spoilers for The Return but it’s very interesting there was this meme going around that was like you know Twin Peaks fans meet David Lynch fans because David Lynch is now in Twin Peaks: The Return in a huge way much more so than he was in the TV series. So I think people were a bit freaked out by The Return in some ways and actually every time I meet somebody who enjoys The Return I’m like what you do?

Why? I love it but I’m always amazed when people love it because it’s not he’s not doing what traditional TV series do. Traditional TV series the whole point is get your audience hooked make them care about the characters and bring them back for the next episode.

Those three things Lynch is not busy with in The Return. He doesn’t care if you like the characters or not he’s not really gonna you know bring you back he doesn’t care if you come back for the next episode so it’s very different to the more commercialised TV series that we watch you know if you watch Lost or any of these shows the point and you can see the writers doing everything they can to bring you back so that you watch more so that you consume more so that you watch more adverts or stick on a streaming platform.

In The Return Lynch is not doing any of these things as a matter of fact sometimes it feels like he’s actively trying to make you not come back and watch more.

It’s kind of like he’s trying to draw you through the wall socket and hoping you’ll just come along.

There we go that’s very good especially if you’ve seen The Return very good. Yeah I’m going to talk a little bit more about it and then we can skip if you want but actually what’s really interesting in Twin Peaks: The Return is that and we call it The Return apparently Lynch didn’t actually call it The Return but the studios wanted to call it The Return.

I think he just called it “Twin Peaks Part 3” but anyway it doesn’t matter that’s a small aside. In that series he’s got this character called Dougie Jones who is the ultimate passive character.

Now me with my book ‘The Three Wells of Screenwriting’ and teaching screenwriting one of the things you always ask is like how do I make this character active… give them a goal put obstacles in their way make sure that they’re active and that they can do things.

Dougie Jones is the opposite of that he’s an extremely passive character and the only thing he does is repeat the last thing anybody says.

The last thing anybody says.

Exactly and that gets him involved into some really interesting situations and it’s a cunning technique but it really works well and what’s fascinating if you watch the show is how much Dougie Jones affects other people around him and the world around him.

I think he’s a sort of a seminal character in the litany of film characters because Lynch is doing something totally different with him and he’s not like the sort of one normally male protagonist who’s charging into the world trying to change things for the best.

As a matter of fact in this Twin Peaks: The Return Agent Cooper does become that towards the end and he does try and change things and he does try and make things the way they were and it ends up in perhaps a bit of a nightmare for perhaps someone called Laura Palmer.

Thanks Matt I really appreciate you giving us a quick speedy run through the whole Lynchland universe. I mean it could take hours for this conversation but we don’t have hours at the moment and I really appreciate you being so succinct and helping us take a little rabbit hole run through the thing.

Thanks very much. That was a speed run.

Thanks for listening. This episode was recorded at Best Case Scenario Media in Muizenberg.

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