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Six Times Poster Artists Probably Didn't See the Film

These posters don’t exactly fit the tone of the films they’re for and we love it.

If we didn’t know any better, we’d think The African Queen was a kids’ film, Close Encounters a stoner screwball, and Rebel Without a Cause a celebration of peace and love. And is this the Scenes from a Marriage we’re thinking of? Or was it confused with Smiles of a Summer Night? Send us your own favorites of off-key art and we’ll feature the best.

Rebel Without a Cause, Czech Republic, 1969

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Poland, 1977

Tootsie, Poland, 1984

The African Queen, Poland, 1951

Scenes from a Marriage, USA, 1973

The Birds, Czech Republic, 1970

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The looting of the National Museum of Iraq and other cultural sites in Baghdad in the wake of the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003  Documentaries without people: No End in Sight (2007, Charles Ferguson, dir.)

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La Jetee, 1962

Charulata, 1964

The Cincinnati Kid, 1965

Sleepy Hollow, 1999

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Scully eye roll, or My Struggle IV

I’ve been watching and following the X Files since my early teens in the 90s. From the great beginning right through to the truly terrible season 10. Season 11 had a couple of excellent episodes, plus a couple of decent ones, which ignited my love for the show all over again. The last scene in ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ was beautiful and I suspected I should pretend this was the last scene ever, and not watch the finale. I knew it would be Chris Carter’s usual late season garbage fire. Yep, unfortunately it was.

In My Struggle IV David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson did well what they were given. That last scene was so well acted and the old Scully/Mulder chemistry was there making it quite moving, but also was a complete mess that made no sense. 

Mulder’s line: “What am I now, if I’m not a father?” What? Since when? Since when has Mulder’s identity been wrapped up in being a father? This could have been an interesting story line, but instead we were given a conclusion without a story. 

It could have gone something like this: We see Mulder feeling aimless over a few episodes (similar to the beginning of the 2nd movie) but this time whilst actually working, sitting in his office going through the motions of the x files (perhaps we a conclusion to a case that happened off screen that ended up not being an x file), starting to think about his missing son. Misses him in the same way he missed Samantha. Thinks about fatherhood, perhaps  a visit to his Dad’s grave, or his mothers, whatever. This would actually give some pay off to his line at the end about being a father. It’s actually a great line, and Duchovny acts the hell out of that scene. It’s a shame it meant nothing. 

Scully no longer cares about William? Since when? That one conversation she had about the paternity of the father about 5 minutes earlier, that she barely had time to process? Chris Carter pulled a Samantha on William. He was the most important person, until he is suddenly not, in about a minute. And if she is not his mother then why do they both have the same visions? And she doesn’t care about him now that she is pregnant? Scully is pregnant? In her 50s with no ova? Uh huh. Why is this even a story? She can only let go of William if she has another baby in her life? She seemed to forget about Emily too once she had William. This isn’t how a mother feels. 

Again, Scully admitting that William was an experiment, not their son, could have been an interesting storyline. Again, we are given a conclusion with no story. Scully letting go of William could have been a really dramatic arc if it was given some time. 

Something like this: A couple of episodes earlier Scully has that conversation with Skinner about CSM being the father. She is shocked and disgusted. Grapples with this. Contacts Monica to get her in touch with CSM. Without telling Mulder she meets with CSM. He confirms it. Is she still the mother, or was it alien DNA (rolls eyes) with Scully just being the carrier? She asks for evidence. Sees evidence. Scully leaves traumatised but doesn’t tell Mulder. Deals with this news on her own. When Mulder talks about their son she stays silent. Still cares and wants to find him though. 

Scully is actually present when William is shot. Her line to Mulder about William not being their son includes telling Mulder what she knows about the true parentage. NO new baby, no inappropriate pregnancy. The cliffhanger is whether William is evil, like his real father CSM, or good- influenced by the shared visions with his surrogate mother Scully. And if he isn’t really dead, then she would know, she would still get the visions. Lol at the “visions” anyway. What a tired trope.

And is this really how they are going to end Reyes and Skinner’s stories? Monica’s whole storyline these past two seasons have been completely against character. She would never go along with CSM. It’s not clear whether she was playing him all along, or just at the last moment. She then gets shot by Skinner in a car that then runs him down. The end. #justiceforreyes #justiceforskinner

Chris Carter doesn’t know how to end anything. He just kills off any character that he doesn’t know what to do with. So that pretty much everyone around Mulder and Scully has died. And CSM was dispatched again. This scene was almost good due to Duchovny and William/Mulder, but it doesn’t have much weight when he has died before. How many times now? Is he really dead? Who cares. He shouldn’t have been back in these last two seasons anyway.

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Oh ffs James Cameron. Comparing Sarah Connor to Wonder Woman is like comparing John Connor to Superman. Sarah Connor was an ordinary person who got caught up in an extraordinary battle between man and machine. Her ordinariness is the point. Wonder Woman is a superhero with super powers. Superheroes are almost always buff, good looking and hyper stylised, even the men. For example: Thor. Have you seen Chris Hemsworth? Where are your comments that Chris Hemsworth should look more like Edward Furlong? Or that Captain America be more like Kyle Reese? There can be more than one female action hero. There is room for all of them, just like there is room for all of the male ones. 

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RIP Harry Dean Stanton

Paris, Texas

Alien

Pretty In Pink

Twin Peaks: The Return

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Laura is the One

I’m seeing some fans theories around the web regarding Dale Cooper and his “mistake” in ep 17 and 18 of trying to save Laura. Some fans are speculating he messed Twin Peaks up, and in particular messed up Laura forever by erasing her from her own story, overriding her agency in her own story and stopping her from defeating Bob all in an attempt to make himself a hero. Firstly, Laura did not defeat Bob in FWWM. He went on as an inhabiting spirit in the bodies of people who went on to kill more people. 

And how much agency did Laura really have? Yes, she stopped Bob from consuming her soul, but she still died -and possibly did not go on to the white lodge as we thought at the end of FWWM, but stayed trapped in the black lodge for 25 years (why that might be is another post).

What we learn in this new season is that Laura's story is so much bigger than we originally thought. There is a reason Bob targeted her. We learn in episode 8 that Laura was created by the Fireman and Dido to stop the evil Judy/mother (who also created Bob.) This was meant to be her destiny, but Bob intervened and prevented it. Cooper is trying to go back and stop her from dying so she can fulfil her destiny. He knows that only Laura can face off against Judy. She is the stone in “two birds, one stone”. And as Log Lady says in ep10 “Laura is the One”. Cooper is not making himself the hero, or the centre of the story, he is helping her to become the centre again. Cooper is Laura’s helper. He can’t destroy Judy himself, he needs to guide Laura to do it. It’s the same as Bob: Cooper was not the one who destroyed him, it was Freddie. Coop showed up just in time to guide and encourage Freddie to use what the White Lodge gave him(a green glove) to destroy Bob (again, why that might be is another post).

The original series of Twin Peaks Laura was the centre of the story. In FWWM Laura is the centre of the story. In season 3, Cooper is the centre. All season he was slowly moving to make Laura the centre again. By the last episode, he attempts to do that. This time, it’s Judy who intervenes. 

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Now, there are some things that will change

Cooper’s mission this season was not his slow return as Good Coop, or to Twin Peaks. It wasn’t to destroy Bad Coop, and not to save Laura from dying. His mission was to destroy Judy. 

In episode 17 we learn that Major Briggs told Gordon Cole and Cooper about Judy, an extreme negative force. Cooper, Gordon and Major Briggs make a plan to destroy Judy. Then Major Briggs disappears. Cooper tells Gordon to look for him if he disappears, as he is trying to “kill two birds with one stone”. 

  The Fireman, episode 1: “Remember 430. Richard and Linda. Two birds, one  stone”.

Laura is the stone. He needs her to live to help destroy Judy (I guess Bob is the other bird?). It’s been his mission since the opening scene in the 1st episode. 

We know from episode 8 of this season that Laura, or a spirit to inhabit Laura, was created by Dido and the Fireman to counter Bob and the mother/Judy.

  Log Lady, episode 10: “Laura is the One”

Initially when watching episode 18 I was wondering why Cooper would intervene in Laura’s last night alive to stop her from dying, only to take her back to her home to Bob and possibly Judy (either as Sarah Palmer or an entity inside her home). She would also still have all the trauma from past abuse. Now I see that he isn’t our Dale Cooper white knight trying to save her from dying a painful death, but to save her from dying and putting on the ring(he warned her in FWWM not to take the ring) and spending 25 years in the lodge. He wants to prevent her from dying so she can face off against Judy.

When Richard/Coop and Carrie/Laura meet in Odessa he says he would like to take her to her mother’s house. Of course, this has a double meaning as the Mother is another name for Judy. And Judy is possibly inhabiting Sarah Palmer, or her house. Philip Jeffries tells Cooper he can find Judy in 708, (Sarah’s house), and that someone might be there. Around the moment Laura disappears we see Sarah in her lounge room smashing up Laura’s portrait. In season 1, episode 3 Leland dances around with Laura’s portrait in the same room and accidentally smashes it before Sarah screams “What is going on in this house!?!”

So, Cooper goes back to 1989 to the night Laura died. He tells her he is taking her home. As Cooper is leading Laura out of the woods he turns and she disappears. A few people have noted this is like the Greek tragedy of Eurydice and Orpheus (thank you! I haven’t studied the Greek myths and would never have known that). 

     “…When Eurydice dies of a fatal snake bite to her foot, Orpheus refuses to accept that he will never see his beloved wife again, and so attempts to achieve the impossible by retrieving her from the Underworld. Putting the supernatural creatures in his path under the spell of his divine lyre music, Orpheus manages to get through all of the obstacles of the Underworld. As a reward, he is granted the opportunity to lead Eurydice back to life with him, on the condition that he never looks back at his ghost wife as they exit the Underworld…Tragically, Orpheus fails to meet the obligations of the deal and in a moment of madness he looks back at Eurydice, condemning her once more to the shadows...” 

http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/virgil/georgics/orpheus-eurydice.shtml

Laura disappears into the Underworld. Or the alternate reality/Odessa. Has season 3 been Cooper as Orpheus, trying to get through obstacles to get to this Underworld? It could explain why Freddie- a new, minor character introduced late in the season- is the one to dispatch Bob, not Cooper himself. It isn’t his main goal. 

Also, just before Laura disappears in the woods Coop hears the record scratching sound. In episode 1 The Firemen tells Cooper to listen to the scratching record and that “It is in our house now”. In season 2 when Leland/Bob attacks Maddie we also hear the record scratches. The record scratches might indicate the presence of evil including Bob and Judy. Perhaps Judy intervened and caused Laura’s disappearance.  

So, Cooper remembers 430, Richard and Linda etc. He crosses a threshold to a different reality to find Laura, to bring her to confront Judy

Of course it isn’t that simple. It may be a different timeline, or an alternate reality. Despite RichardCoop’s line “What year is this?” I’m leaning toward it being a different reality/the Underworld. It’s a kind of mirror of the Twin Peaks world but there is something so off about this place. The presence of Judy, or evil is like an oppressive fog. The whole episode is flat, nihilistic, and a little sleazy. It’s like Twin Peaks with the colour drained out. Both Laura as Carrie and Cooper as Richard have none of their original’s charisma. The “Welcome to Twin Peaks” sign is missing. Laura/Carrie doesn’t recognise anything until the very end. Coop recognises the places but can’t seem to process it. He barely reacts to the dead guy at Carrie’s. He doesn’t see the Tremond/Chalfont connection. There is no music in this place, Badalamenti’s score is noticeably absent, except The Platters song “My Prayer” playing over the sex scene. It’s the same song playing at the end of episode 8 from the radio station which the girl is listening to just before the bug/frog/roach crawls into her mouth and the woodsman shatters skulls.

And of course, Laura/Carrie works at a diner called Judy’s. There is a white horse outside Judy’s diner, a porcelain white horse in Carries house, and she wears a horseshoe necklace (in the original series Sarah Palmer sees the white horse just before Bob appears; the got-a-light woodsman mentions a horse in his incantation: Log Lady mentions a pale horse in a poem in the original series “Woe to the ones who behold the pale horse”). When Richard/Coop tries to complete his mission, the Tremonds now live at the house and Sarah Palmer is no longer there. At first. We hear Sarah the very last moment, as Laura/Carrie becomes aware.

Many fans are speculating that the town of Twin Peaks is now irrevocably altered and lost forever because of Cooper trying to save Laura and crossing thresholds. I thought this at first too. But now I think the town in ep 18 is not our Twin Peaks at all but is the alternative Twin Peaks. This means the only thing that changes in our TP, at Cooper’s intervention, is the death of Laura Palmer. We see in episode 17 Laura’s dead body disappearing on the shore, Pete Martell fishing as usual, and not finding her body. She is now a missing person. In the Red Room she disappears, meaning she never put the ring on, never died and never ended up in the Black Lodge. And of course, if there was no murder, then Cooper never came to Twin Peaks.

 Cooper, episode 17: “Now, there are some things that will change. The past    dictates the future”

He knows he is going back to stop Laura’s death. If Laura doesn’t die, if Judy and Bob are eradicated, then Dale Cooper never came to Twin Peaks. But he will still remember it. He will remember his time there that never happened. This is the dream. Dale Cooper is the dreamer. The whole show is now his dream.

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A curtain call

So, there might be a season 4 of Twin Peaks, or there might not be. If there is no season 4, then I just witnessed one of the most depressing, and one of the most audacious series finales ever.

Cooper goes back to stop Laura’s murder from even happening, therefore cancelling out the entire series, and then goes further and cancels himself out in the process. It’s a bold move for a tv show that was so incredibly influential, and twice changed the nature of tv, to erase itself. Twin Peaks as we know it never happened. It’s a big middle finger, and on an intellectual level I think it’s brilliant but on an emotional level it’s crushing. 

Like every fan who watched it I am still processing it, two days later. The first night after watching it I slept poorly, dreamt of Twin Peaks and every time I woke up I was immediately thinking about the finale. I think my brain was trying to process all the puzzles in my sleep. I can’t recall being effected by an episode of tv so much before.

If there is going to be a season 4, then I have some thoughts, questions, speculations. Here goes: Did Cooper go back in time, or is this an alternate reality? The Fireman/Giant tells Coop in episode 1 “Remember 430. Richard and Linda. Two birds, one stone”. Cooper becomes Richard, and Diane becomes Linda. Why give Richard the same name as Bad Coop’s son? Is our Coop inside Richard Horne in this alternate reality? Richard Horne was zapped by electricity at the co-ordinates given to Bad Coop by Philip Jeffries. There was no body- perhaps he didn’t die but was sent to this new reality by the electricity, same as Good Coop. It might explain why RichardCoop’s personality seemed to be an unsettling mix of Good Coop, Bad Coop, and Dougie. Diane/Linda seemed to vaguely remember something of Bad Coop also. Can someone remind me- were the co-ordinates on the librarian’s torso also the ones for where Richard Horne died? Was it established where Major briggs was “hiding” when Bill Hastings and the librarian found him in the other dimension? Could Briggs have been in this alternate reality, or was it the white lodge? I can’t remember. And perhaps Audrey is also in this alternate reality. She also doesn’t seem to know who she is, or where she is going. 

I’m wondering if the alternate dimension was part of the series all along. Some of the stuff that happened at the roadhouse seemed unrelated to anything else in the plot. Someone posted a video of the end of Ep. 15 where the scene of Dougie being electrocuted had exactly the same timing as the girl, Ruby, at the Roadhouse who crawled along the floor and started screaming.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZJ__doruW4 (But then, it could also just be how David Lynch paces many scenes) Anyway, is this alternate dimension running alongside the season 3 Twin Peaks storyline? 

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I got some Blue Velvet vibes from Twin Peaks Finale with Laura Dern & Kyle MacLachlan ❤️

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2016:181 — The American Friend

(1977 - Wim Wenders) ***

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This whole shoot is a blessing.

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Stranger Things

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Passion of Joan of Arc

Alien 3

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9 to 5

Norma Rae

Party Girl

Waitress

***Ghostbusters 2016 spoilers**** (or rather, what is not in Ghostbusters).

I finally saw the new Ghostbusters yesterday. When the movie ended I felt like skipping out of the cinema yelling “Fuck Yeah!” whilst fist-punching the air.

Turns out it fell into one of my favourite movie micro genres: Women At Work. Where the main characters are female, and the main storyline is about work. I think perhaps Ghostbusters may be the most pure of this genre because there were no romantic or domestic drama subplots. No other subplots at all! I can’t recall ever seeing another mainstream Hollywood movie like that. It was just ladies doing their job. Aaaamazing.

Also, there wasn’t a shopping montage. No fat or skinny jokes. No jokes about how much or how little sex someone is getting. No jealousy. No excessive materialism. No expensive clothes/apartments that the characters wouldn’t actually be able to afford. Etc etc etc etc...

Also, has there ever been another movie that scored so high on the Bechdel test? Blitzed it.   

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Rest In Peace Mr Cunningham. A true artist and gentlemen.

Your eye, your work ethic, and your integrity will always be an inspiration xoxo

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Women’s Noir - A list of films made during the Hollywood studio system that mix the genres of film noir and “women’s pictures” (melodrama) and place a woman who is more than a man’s love interest, girl friday, or femme fatale at the center of the narrative.

Ladies in Retirement (1941, Charles Vidor) The Seventh Victim (1943, Mark Robson) Christmas Holiday (1944, Robert Siodmak) Mildred Pierce (1945, Michael Curtiz) My Name is Julia Ross (1945, Joseph H. Lewis) Shock (1946, Alfred L. Werker) The Spiral Staircase (1946, Robert Siodmak) Strange Impersonation (1946, Anthony Mann) Shock (1946, Alfred L. Werker) It Always Rains on Sunday (1947, Robert Hamer) Born to Kill (1947, Robert Wise) The Man I Love (1947, Raoul Walsh) Possessed (1947, Curtis Bernhardt) Deep Valley (1947, Jean Negulesco) Lured (1947, Douglas Sirk) Sleep, My Love (1948, Douglas Sirk) Secret Beyond the Door… (1948, Fritz Lang) Raw Deal (1948, Anthony Mann) Sorry, Wrong Number (1948, Anatole Litvak) Caught (1949, Max Ophüls) The Reckless Moment (1949, Max Ophüls) Beyond the Forest (1949, King Vidor) Flamingo Road (1949, Michael Curtiz) Whirlpool (1949, Otto Preminger) No Man of Her Own (1950, Mitchell Leisen) The File on Thelma Jordon (1950, Robert Siodmak) Born to Be Bad (1950, Nicholas Ray) Woman on the Run (1950, Norman Foster) The House on Telegraph Hill (1951, Robert Wise) Clash by Night (1952, Fritz Lang) Don’t Bother to Knock (1952, Roy Ward Baker) Sudden Fear (1952, David Miller) One Girl’s Confession (1953, Hugo Haas) The Blue Gardenia (1953, Fritz Lang) The Bigamist (1953, Ida Lupino) Dangerous Crossing (1953, Joseph M. Newman) Private Hell 36 (1954, Don Siegel) The Scarlet Hour (1956, Michael Curtiz) Crime of Passion (1957, Gerd Oswald)

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Rest in Peace you beautiful royal purple love symbol xoxoxo