World of Blue - Archived Forum 2007-2022

I was intrigued to watch this film due to the two blatant references to it in Twin Peaks. Audrey mentions the line to Charlie and then 'The Arm' asks Cooper if it is the story of 'The little girl who lives down the lane'. Although there are plenty of allusions to other films/works within Lynch material, it is very unusual to get this sort of direct reference...assuming this is how it is intended.
I watched the film last night, and in general I'm not sure if there's that much direct relevance. However, there are some clear thematic and visual similarities. These are the connections I made:

1. There is a conversation about turkey (it's set around Christmas time). This reminded me of Sarah Palmer's incident with the turkey jerkey and the references to turkey in FWWM.

2. There is a predominance of reds and greens throughout the film. Reds and greens are similarly prevalent in Twin Peaks season 3.

3. There is a magician character who wears the appropriate get up (the cape is red inside) and displays magical trickery. In TP there is Red (who performs magic) and Tremond/Chalfont's grandson who also practices magic.

4. There is a hamster named Gordon.

5. There are 2 adult characters who are abusive. One is a child molester (specifically of young girls, it seems).

6. The protagonist is a 13 year old played by Jodie Foster. She wears a chain necklace that the abuser grabs, much like Leland grabs Laura's in FWWM. The child's haircut is similar to Laura.

7. The house interior is similar to Audrey and Charlie's place. Especially the study with its bookshelves, rotary phone etc.

8. There is a telling shot of a fireplace.

9. There are strained relations/absences of parents.

I was curious to check out the film too when I heard the reference. It's quite possible both that film and the TP lines are referencing the nursery rhyme "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep".

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

The gender is being notably inverted with both, which reminds me of the tale Grace Zabriskie told in Inland Empire.

A little boy went out to play. When he opened his door, he saw the world. As he passed through the doorway, a ghost—a reflection—evil—was born. Evil was born and followed the boy . . . And, the variation. A little girl went out to play. Lost in the marketplace as if half-born. Then, not through the marketplace—you see that, don't you?—but through the alley behind the marketplace. This is the way to the palace. But... it isn't something you remember.

The connection I made was that Jodie Foster's character basically becomes a murderer to avoid being abused, which might explain the random dead dude in Carrie's house, or even Audrey choking Charlie. Audrey and Charlie also mention they have a 'contract' in the movie JF uses the knowledge she murdered her mom in exchange for sexual favors. Also the evil mom could be referring to Sarah Palmer/Judy. Maybe Audrey is trapped inside Laura? Audrey does wake up in a room full of white light, just like when Laura pulls off her face. Just a theory...

When Cooper tracks down Laura, she is called Carrie Page, and she is living on her own in a house. So she is like the little girl who lives on the lane, in the title of the film. In the 1976 film, the girl is suspected of killing someone. Likewise, in Odessa, Texas, Carrie may have killed the man in her living room. Or is she just an accessory after the fact?

Also, the name Carrie Page contains a clue: "carry page". Perhaps she carries a page from her diary. In an earlier episode, Deputy Hawk finds 3 pages of a diary, but the fourth page is missing. This is because Laura is carrying the page with her! (Or perhaps Laura is the fourth page? Or perhaps she has the fourth page tattooed onto her body?)

These are all really good observations. When I originally heard the line, it did remind me of Grace Zabriskie's story from Inland Empire. That's before I knew of the film.
Yes, Carrie Page's predicament is very similar to the little girl's. I suppose we can deduce that Carrie has retaliated against a sexual predator.

Certainly the phrase causes all of the above things to ring.

For me it also stirs memories of the line from FWWM in Hap's Diner, from the patron with the French companion, who can differentiate Shinola from shit: 'Are you talking about that little girl that got murdered?'

Not to forget, from later in the same scene: 'Are you talking about that little girl that got murdered?'

Don't forget that "The little girl who lives down the lane" is originally a book.

There is no confirmation that Audrey and TMFAP talked about the movie.

I've neither seen the film or read the novel but from reviews of the latter I've been reading, apparently a lonely young boy, an amateur magician, befriends the eponymous child killer, becomes her confidante and co-conspirator, and moves in with her.

AgentEcho wrote:I was curious to check out the film too when I heard the reference. It's quite possible both that film and the TP lines are referencing the nursery rhyme "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep".

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

The gender is being notably inverted with both, which reminds me of the tale Grace Zabriskie told in Inland Empire.

A little boy went out to play. When he opened his door, he saw the world. As he passed through the doorway, a ghost—a reflection—evil—was born. Evil was born and followed the boy . . . And, the variation. A little girl went out to play. Lost in the marketplace as if half-born. Then, not through the marketplace—you see that, don't you?—but through the alley behind the marketplace. This is the way to the palace. But... it isn't something you remember.

In Gnostic myths about Sophia, she finds herself lost, without her memory, having cast herself into the material world, lost and abused in the marketplace, before she eventually finds her consort, Christ and hence her completion and ascends back to her place with the Father.

During this process, Sophia begets the Demiurge, or the false God, Yaldabaoth. Who may as well be Satan, yet with the key difference that he mistakes himself to be the true God of the Universe and presents himself falsely in that way to the writers of the Old Testament.

There are direct parrallels also to Diane and Cooper's relationship being one of mystical union. It is Cooper that frees the entrapped Diane from her literally fallen form as Naido.

It is through the pain of over-coming her rape (Sophia's abuse in the darkness of the material world/marketplace) in a mystical union with the real Cooper, that Diane (Sophia) ascends again, leaving Cooper behind.

Yet Laura is just as much Sophia as Diane is.

http://thegodabovegod.com/spiritual-mea ... ry-sophia/