David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was screening for one-night only during the 42nd Melbourne International Film Festival on June 13, 1993. Fans who missed this sold-out showing would have to wait months to see Lynch’s masterpiece which arrived in Sydney and Melbourne theatres in November and December 1993 respectively. Here’s a look back at newspaper ads, reviews and contests from that time.
‘TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME” DEBUTS IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA ON NOV. 4, 1993
David Lynch’s feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 1992. In the months that followed, it was screened in countries around the world including Japan, France, Germany, United States, Canada, United Kingdom and more. More than a year later, the film would officially arrive in Australia, with split screenings about a month apart in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
In anticipation of the Sydney screenings, David Lynch was interviewed on The Movie Show on one of five main free-to-air networks in Australia known as Special Broadcasting Service or SBS. The conversation between David Stratton and Lynch was aired on Nov. 1, 1993 at 7:30 p.m.
“There’s never been a film of mine everyone likes,” said Lynch to Stratton in reference to critical reactions to his films, especially Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Jon Casimir’s article continues:
“Lynch has always been, erm, controversial. With a resume that includes Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and Twin Peaks, he hasn’t left much room for critics to dismiss him as middle-of-the-road or populist.
Mr Stratton’s excuse to talk with the director is Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the cinematic prequel to the television program. He tells Stratton that the allure of Laura Palmer (the girl whose death sparked off and then dominated the series) captured even him – he felt drawn to see his dream walking and talking.
After his petulant and viewer-insulting end to the second TV series, no doubt the result of the network canning it prematurely, it might have been difficult for some of us to drum up enthusiasm for the movie, but the overseas reports have been intriguing
As the program notes put it, Fire Walk With Me has been “hailed by some as a masterpiece and condemned by others as a spectacular, incoherent disaster.” As with all of Lynch’s films, it could be worse – it could be dull.”
The Sydney Morning Herald ran a large advertisement for Lynch’s film on Thursday, Nov. 4, 1993 stating the movie was “now showing” at three theatres – Village Cinema City, Greater Union in Mosman and Village Double Bay. As an aside, all three theatres would later be demolished and replaced with either apartments or office buildings.
A small review was published the next day on Nov. 5 in the The Sydney Morning Herald. News flash – they didn’t like it.
“David Lynch’s pointless and ponderous ‘prequel’ to his cult television series traces schoolgirl Laura Palmer’s last few days before her murder in the Pacific North West [sic] town of Twin Peaks. Lynch ups the ante on the sex and violence, lops out (or seriously reduces) several of the best roles (including Agent Dale Cooper), and after a promising prologue, replaces the quirky humour with all-round nastiness. Village City, Village Double Bay. GU Hurstville, GU Campbelltown, GU Miranda.”
Additional theatres were listed including Greater Union theatres in Hurtsville, Campbelltown and Miranda.
About a week later, only Village City was showing the film.
‘TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME” DEBUTS IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA ON DEC. 9, 1993
Aside from the one-night only screening of the film at the 42nd Melbourne International Film Festival on June 13, 1993, Twin Peaks fans in Melbourne waited until Thursday, Dec. 9 for Lynch’s film to have a wider release in the city.
The film would be teased in movie advertisements published in The Age leading up to Dec. 9.
A similar “These are the last seven days of Laura Palmer” ad was published on Dec. 9 announcing the film “commences today” at Lumiere Cinema and Village Knox 10.
The film was billed as a “Exclusive City Release” at the arthouse theatre, Lumiere. That theatre would continue showing it through the rest of December and into January 1994.
Movie critic Neil Jillett reviewed the film for The Age on the same day of release. I’m sure you’re not surprised – Neil didn’t like it.
“There are moments in ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’ when i is clear what its director and co-writer, David Lynch, is on about, although his reasons are usually opaque. For in-stance, few of us are likely to complain about one of his film’s messages: cocaine is bad for you, especially if you are a highly strung, promiscuous high school student and are not sure whether you are being raped by your father. But why does Lynch use Canada as a metaphor for hell?
This 1991 film is billed as a prequel to an inconclusive feature and a long TV mini-series, both called ‘Twin Peaks’. It begins with the murder of one young woman and ends with the murder of another, Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), who was found dead at the start of the first “Twin Peaks’. The publicity says it is “a dark meditation on the magic and extraordinary violence of life as we know it”. In fact, it is a mishmash of TV soap, religious symbolism, magic realism, hallucinatory sequences, teen drama, psychological thriller, high school sex romp, Hollywood Gothic, police procedural and attempts at assorted parodies and satires. Lynch might have been expected to get the handling of at least one of these elements right, but he doesn’t. Even considered as an elaborate spoof, the film fails to work satisfyingly.
‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’ is extraordinarily slow. If Lynch had directed at an ordinary pace, all the happenings could have been packed into 60 minutes at the most.”
The publicity image of Laura Palmer at the Red Diamond City Motel was published in reverse, not only in the newspaper review but in all of the advertisements.
LUMIERE CINEMA CONTESTS FOR “TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME” IN MELBOURNE
During my research, I discovered The Age ran two contests sponsored by Lumiere Cinema that included movie passes the film’s soundtrack on CD.
The first contest was held on Dec. 10, 1993 where readers had to call a number between 10:00 to 10:15 a.m. and “mention the title of the film directed by David Lynch’s daughter.” (The answer is Boxing Helena). Winners received CD soundtracks and double passes to the film.
Two days later on Dec. 12, another contest for Sunday readers included a CD soundtrack and double passes. Readers needed to clip the image above and take it to Lumiere Cinema after 8:30 a.m. The first five people who showed up could attend the 9:00 p.m. with one “friend.”
LUMIERE CINEMA SCREENINGS OF LYNCH’S FILM CONTINUE THROUGH 1993 INTO 1994
Screenings would continue throughout December and into January at Lumiere Cinema. The Age ran several different advertisements to close out the year.
The Dec. 11 ad included a snippet from “Video Watchdog” publisher Tim Lucas who called the film, “A major event in the cinema of the imagination.”
One of my favorite ads was published on Dec. 13 calling the film “Something Different … Something Wild.”
The Dec. 18 ad included a quote from an “LA Weekly” review stating Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is “one of the most disturbing and authentic pieces of surrealism the modern American cinema has produced.”
The same “LA Weekly” quote appeared in the Dec. 19 paper.
The ads got smaller as December drew to a close, as seen in this Dec. 21 snippet.
On the last day of 1993, The Age published a shorter review of the film calling it, “Extraordinarily slow and stylistically and thematically muddled prequel to David Lynch’s attempts at an American Gothic film and TV series.”
The start of the new year meant it was the final days for the film at Lumiere Cinema.
On Jan. 6, 1994, Lumiere Cinema began it’s “Last Days” push in newspaper ads.
“Ends Wed!” stated an advertisement on Jan. 10, 1994, meaning the film would close on Wednesday, January 12, 1994 at Lumiere Cinema.
One more ad would appear on the final day with two showtimes at Lumiere Cinema – 2:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me then disappeared like Special Agent Chet Desmond reaching for the Owl Cave ring.
I did, however, find one more showing roughly two months later at the Union Cinema at Melbourne University. It was screened as a double billing with Mel Gibson’s The Man Without a Face on Friday, Mar. 25, 1994. This was most likely a student screening at an on-campus theatre.
The Australian releases followed trends from other countries around the world where it was only shown for a handful of weeks (the exception being Japan’s screenings in which was considered a top film in 1992). It would take decades before critics reevaluated the film which is now considered one of Lynch’s best.
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