How did you react to these turning points in Twin Peaks?

[BlackMoonLilith]

For compilation post:

In terms of the show's big moments, I marathoned the entire series during spring of 2010, from pilot to FWWM over a Monday-Friday period. Most of my major reactions have been echoed in the various posts here, so I won't bore you with them. One thing that does surprise me in retrospect is that I watched them while I was at work! I had to deal with customers, but a typical day had very few actual people come in so I would browse the Internet on thework computer and bring my laptop and headphones to watch stuff at the same time. Five years later, I'm surprised, not just that I first saw such dark and harrowing things in that context, but that I had the balls to do that!

Fire Walk with Me is an interesting case though. I loved it when I first saw it and love it now... but for very different reasons. When the show took that infamous mid-S2 turn, I was hanging on by my fingernails to the mythology as something to look forward to. I think Lynch's last episode fulfilled my hopes that it'd be a way to save the show, but even more than that, I thought the film was an absolutely satisfying and complete experience to someone who was interested in BOB/MIKE/Red Room and wanted answers. We often hear that Lynch's work "doesn't make any sense," but I completely disagree. His vision has such a unity to it that even though I may not able to use words to explain to you what exactly happened in Scene X or Scene Y, it DOES make sense on an emotional level. I think a lot of his critics even realize this, but then overthink it; Eraserhead is a good example of a film that I think almost everyone "gets" in terms of what's Henry's going through, on romantic, parental, and existential levels, and then assume they didn't get the film because they don't have a rational explanation why the chickens twitched and squirted blood/vomit/goo.

All of which is to say that while I may not have known exactly what MIKE was talking about when he mentions a "formica table top," I got that this was a connection between him and the Little Man, even before he places his hand on Gerard's stump. I didn't know why the left arm went numb, but I knew that it linked Laura and Teresa's experiences and lives and their connection to both the supernatural and Leland. Once MIKE asked for the garmonbozia and the subtitles revealed their meaning, the whole context of BOB and MIKE and their role within the town suddenly makes sense: BOB horded Leland and Laura's grief and suffering, MIKE wedded him to the ring and gave Laura a chance to die, thus allowing the grief to be spread more evenly out across the town (as we see in the pilot). For the humans, it's incomprehensible cruelty and misery, but it's only currency or maybe even a drug to beings who don't have our morality. I thought this was a more than satisfactory conclusion to what was set up by Episode 2's dream as well as Frost's late S2 stuff. I felt like the mythology was wrapped up in a nice little bow, even if I couldn't tell you how Lynch tied the knot.

The funny part about is I failed in terms of instinctively grasping the story Lynch actually wanted to tell. Laura's own story didn't really get me that much. LostInTheMovies has talked about how it wasn't until rewatches that he realized the power in 2x01's final scene and Maddy's death, but I can honestly say the film was that with me too. Perhaps it was the Deer Meadow section, perhaps it was watching it at work on a laptop with headphones, but I was distant from Laura. I have no idea how now, as everything after "Who knows where or when CLICK" is drowning in Laura's perspective, but it was still more of a "finale" to the mythology to me, than an exploration of sexual abuse. Along the same lines, it wasn't until I was discussing the film with a friend did I realize all the stuff that suggested Leland wasn't an innocent. I mean, it's clear as day now, but at the time, I had just taken Episode 16 on its word and viewed all the creepy dad and Teresa stuff as that evil spirit indulging in an innocent man's body. It took me the second or maybe even third rewatch to really get the film on this human level, which is weird cause I feel like more people connect with the human stuff and THEN the supernatural, but for me it was the other way around. I still love and am fascinated by not just the mythology of TP in general, but the mythology of FWWM which I think is some of Lynch's strongest "weird stuff," but I more prefer the film now as the broken life and eventual redemption of this endlessly fascinating character, given one of the two best performances from an actress I've ever seen in a film along with Megumi Ogata in The End of Evangelion (another franchise that has me hooked on both the complicated mythos and the raw humanity).

But at the time, it was all "Of course! The Little Man is MIKE's arm! The Little Man IS MIKE!"

[hopesfall]

I mentioned in the OP that I might sample these responses in a compilation post at some point and I was thinking that maybe the time has come. There's such a great variety of reactions here that I think the result could look really interesting. I would probably post it on my blog in a few weeks, sort of in similar fashion to the media round-up and alt.tv.twin-peaks round-ups I did last year.

It would look something like:
1. How did you respond to the pilot?
- StealThisCorn: "..."
- LostInTheMovies: "..."
- Audrey Horne: "..."

etc. Probably everybody would be featured at least once.

But before that I wanted to give anyone else who hasn't responded yet the chance to chime in. Now's the time...

IMPORTANT: If you DO want to participate in the compilation post please write "for compilation post" or some other acknowledgement in any subsequent responses. If you DON'T, no need to say anything, my default assumption will be that you would prefer your comments just to remain in the context of this thread which is obviously perfectly fine!

If you already contributed to this thread, check your inbox - I sent PMs to everyone for their approval. Again, no need to reply if you don't want to participate, that'll be the default assumption (but if you do want to, let me know). Normally I don't worry about these things (I didn't exactly look up the alt.tv people when I compiled their old posts) but in this case, as it's a forum I actively participate in and a thread that I invited people to join in the first place I think it'd be kosher to run it by people first before putting their words in a different context.

This is rather timely, as I revisited this thread just the other week after remembering how much I enjoyed reading it the first time. I was hoping this suggestion might come to fruition, and would be delighted to contribute to it. I'm about to go to bed right now (!), but I'll type up my memories on my break tomorrow for sure.

Great to read your story by the way LiTM!

[HoodedMatt]

For compilation post:

1. The pilot
They had me from "Lonesome foghorn blows". I was around 10 or 11 when it aired in the UK and it only vaguely appeared on my radar. Somehow I managed to go from then until last year without getting majorly spoiled, so it was all fresh and new for me. We sat down to watch it - my wife had been trying to get me interested for ages, but it took us having a free weekend with nothing new to watch for me to agree - and I was hooked.

2. The appearance of Bob in episode 1

There was a raised eyebrow. I think I said something like "is that the killer? No it can't be. Is she remembering?"

3. The Red Room dream in episode 2

Being told that there is a dwarf who talks backwards and experiencing it are two entirely different things. I was not prepared for the beautiful absurdity that is the dream sequence.

4a. The season finale - the fact that Laura's killer was not revealed

It didn't bother me at all that Laura's killer wasn't revealed. I'd become so caught up in all the various plots, and the fact that they all seemed to be playing into the main one at this point, that it didn't matter.

4b. The season finale - Cooper being shot

I flip flopped over who shot Cooper a lot, mainly between Leland (he was wearing a black coat too) and Ben.

5. The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer - did you read it before watching season 2? Did it point you in a certain direction?

I didn't read the diary until after I'd seen the series and the movie, so I probably didn't get as attatched to it as I may have done. While I do love it as a piece of writing and think it is invaluble as an artifact detailing Laura's mental state during her ordeal, I have to say that I find some of the events don't really work for me in regard to the series. I really can't imagine either Donna (Moira Kelly or LFB) doing the whole skinny dipping thing as it's written in the book, and the whole business with Leo and Bobby doesn't really ring true to me for some reason. I think it was probably more useful to Sheryl Lee than it is essential for fans of the show & movie.

6a. The season 2 premiere - the very long opening with the waiter

I loved it. Pure genius. It still makes me grin when we rewatch the episode. The juxtaposition between the bleeding to death Cooper and the semi-oblivious Senor Drool-Cup is just brilliant.

6b. The season 2 premiere - the appearance of the giant (which certainly takes the vaguely supernatural air of the show in a new direction)

I think I did an actual double take. I wasn't sure where the sequence with the waiter was going, but I didn't expect it to go there!

6c. The season 2 premiere - the violent flashback to Laura's murder, with Bob making his first sustained appearance

I was surprised at how far they went with the sequence given the time it was made. Seeing Bob for as long as we do was creepy as heck, too.

7. Bob crawling over the couch in episode 9

It made my skin crawl the first time. There's a hunger in his eyes that, coupled with his primal movement, just chills the blood. Sheryl Lee's reaction as Maddy put the icing on the cake, too.

8a. The killer's reveal in episode 14 - the fact that it was Leland

I had an inkling that it might be him after he killed Jaques and the way he switched from high emotion to stone coldness when he heard someone coming, but seeing that confirmed the way it is in the episode was almost traumatic. I'd grown to like Maddy a lot and to see Leland & Bob imperfectly recreating their murder of Laura was frightening. Again, I was shocked at just how much they got away with in that sequence. Like the flashback (or, as I take it, Ronnette's imperfect memory) of Laura's murder, they really pushed the envelope. About halfway through it I realised that they had had to shoot the whole thing twice, with Leland and Bob killing Maddy, and my level of respect for Sheryl Lee went up so much.

8b. The killer's reveal in episode 14 - the fact that it was also Bob

That was an interesting twist that part of me had been expecting since the flashback, but I wasn't sure exactly how they'd play it. To be honest, I'm still not certain if the show portrays it as a pure posession or not, despite that being Ray Wise's view point. I like the ambiguity.

8c. The killer's reveal in episode 14 - Maddy's murder (maybe the most disturbing thing I've seen in a TV show or even movie)

Totally heartbreaking.

9. The way the discovery & capture of Leland/Bob is handled in episode 16

I'm torn on this. On the one hand, I find it too on the nose and corny - the bit with the waiter, Leland and the gum is possibly the worst moment of that sequence for me - but at the same time it does kind of work. I do wish they had waited until the end of the season before capturing Leland, though. I would have liked to have seen Leland/Bob and Windom Earle taxing Coop, Harry and the gang and working at cross purposes for a time.

10. Leland's wake in episode 17, with the comic subplots emerging and the writers trying to move past the mystery

Worst idea in the show. Sarah gets brushed off, nobody reacts to the reveal and it feels almost like another show altogether.

11. The realization that the Cooper-Audrey storyline was not going to play out

Disappointed. They should have stayed friends and then grown to become more as the series went on. Probably by series three or four. Alas, it wasn't to be.

12. The stretch of episodes 17-23 (you know the ones)

I'm not as down on them as many people seem to be, but they are the worst episodes of the show. There are some diamonds in the rough, but they are mostly moments rather than storys. I do love how Andy and Dick become awkward friends over the Little Nicky thing, even if the kid himself is a little irritating (and the thought bubble is facepalm material). The least said about Evelyn Marsh, the better.

13. Where you felt the show picking up again

Not until the final three or four episodes. I'm an Annie fan and her whirlwind romance with Cooper warmed my heart - Annie's insecurities really spoke to my own and I loved how she seemed to lose them when she was around Coop - and I really like the stuff with Windom Earle in disguise and the Angels thing.

14. The finale (and I know it was a 2-parter in '90 but I'm particularly keen to hear how the Lynch half played)

The true return to form for the show. Lynch brought the quality right back up to season one heights and I loved all the little call backs he did and was so happy to see Sarah Palmer again after so long away. The ending left me stunned. A real jaw-dropper of a moment. I love just how much Kyle commits to the "how's Annie?" moment.

15. Fire Walk With Me

Loved it, in spite of and because of its darker tone. The Chet Desmond and Deer Meadow part was a little disconcerting at first, but I got into it as soon as they hit the airport and saw Lil. The FBI sequence was a surprise, in part because of David Bowie and in part because of the Convenience Store footage. By the time we hit Twin Peaks itself, naturally, I did miss some of the series characters who weren't there - Lucy & Andy the most - but it felt right that we stayed with Laura and her ordeal. The ending felt like it was the perfect way to end the story - not totally closed or tied up, but Laura was free from her torments and looked truly happy. I cried when she broke out into that beautiful smile in the Red Room with Cooper stood behind her.

[hopesfall]

Gutted. I just spent my entire lunch break typing this up, only to be taken to the login screen when I pressed submit. Went back to the reply screen with an empty box.

Fantastic.

Another time perhaps...

[EDIT: I'll type it up in notepad and copy/paste next time. Lesson learnt.]

[trevanian]

8c)
Just drove me up the wall. I had really been expecting a very traditional melodramatic resolution; in fact, ever since seeing the falls outside the hotel, I thought Cooper and BOB would probably tangle and go off the falls together a la Holmes' original death with Moriarty. Also when it did start up, I thought Leland would throw off the mantle of BOB before killing her. So I was practically kicking the TV set in as it went down. My longtime girlfriend and I were in the final stages, but had been watching the show together up till that point, and she didn't come home in time from an outing to watch that episode, so I was very angy about that too.

I think the show started winning me back even during the worst run of shows, because I was absolutely fascinated by the whole lodge idea (Frost's version of it, anyway - Lynch's is visually appealing but not intellectually satisfying, not that he is going to lose any sleep over that complaint from me), and I knew I was going to hang in till the end just to see how that played out (though the end of the series was nearly 'maddy dies' in the level of feeling infuriated.)

For me, the joys associated with Annie and Heisenberg really elevate the final batch, and also pretty much every Miguel Ferrer moment is a rewatcher - I used to leave the tape with the 'I love you sherriff truman' line cued up, I so love that bit. His reaction to Ed shooting Nadine's eye out is still the biggest laugh in the whole series for me.

[LostInTheMovies]

For compilation post:

Fantastic post in general, but I'm commenting specifically on this:

given one of the two best performances from an actress I've ever seen in a film along with Megumi Ogata in The End of Evangelion (another franchise that has me hooked on both the complicated mythos and the raw humanity).

Wow! a) Love this movie (doing a series on the show right now on my blog which will include coverage of the film in late Oct/early Nov: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/sea ... evangelion) and b) love that you identified a voice actress in particular! For some reason, I was misremembering her as being Rei's voice (who I think is very underrated, but still, doesn't speak much in that movie), but then double-checked and ok, yeah, Shinji, it all falls in place. that scream, shit...

Anyway, should've guessed you were an Eva fan based on your name haha.

[LostInTheMovies]

That's why you never try to edit a post on your phone. I just accidentally deleted a massive post

Gutted. I just spent my entire lunch break typing this up, only to be taken to the login screen when I pressed submit. Went back to the reply screen with an empty box.

Fantastic.

Another time perhaps...

[EDIT: I'll type it up in notepad and copy/paste next time. Lesson learnt.]

Ah yeah, that's the worst, happened more times to me than I care to remember!

Hope you both return with (properly backed-up) memories though.

[BOB1]

I reread Audrey Horne's impressions on the initial part of this topic. It's incredible.

As much as I never at any point shared your heavy criticism of the later episodes, your reactions from then written down years later are both a powerful testimony to the old first-time-peaks times and a super enjoyable read right now.

As much as I find any cult of Lynch episodes (which you seem to share) sort of overdone, your "oh god is twin peaks back" reactions to the first Ep.29 scenes are soooo in tune with mine!

Only thing I cannot find anything "as much" about is of course your underestimation of Ep.16. It just downright sucks

[LostInTheMovies]

Hey everyone, just wanted to say that my plan is to assemble the collective post of responses on Monday, unless it takes longer than expected and I have to postpone it (but I think I should be able to manage).

If you've posted on here and haven't yet given me approval to use your response (see my above post), please shoot me a DM unless of course you'd rather I didn't use it, in which case you don't need to do anything. If you haven't posted your memories yet but want to be included, please do so as I will re-check this board in the next day or two and add any new replies. Same goes for people giving approval after the fact.

I do plan to continue sporadically updating the piece as new memories come in but now is probably the best time to join if you haven't yet.

As mentioned before, please write "intended for group post" or something like that if you share a new post on here, so that I know it's cool to incorporate it.

[LostInTheMovies]

The compilation is up!

http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/201 ... peaks.html

[N. Needleman]

Thank you for that. The closer we get to something tangible, the more it hits harder to remember. I don't know what I'll do with myself when we have visual or physical evidence.

[Louise Dombroski]

I'll talk about "8c. The killer's reveal in episode 14 - Maddy's murder (maybe the most disturbing thing I've seen in a TV show or even movie)" because what happened as a result of my reaction was kind of funny.

I saw it at its original airing, and was incredibly disturbed and frightened by it, moreso than anything I'd seen before. I went into work the next day and the colleague I always discussed the episodes with said, "Oh my GOD! Are you OKAY?" And I was like, "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you?" and she was like, "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A few days later I had my standing appointment with my therapist, and I brought up the episode and how much it had freaked me out. She said, "Yeah, I've had a lot of people come in here talking about it."

THAT EPISODE LITERALLY REQUIRED PSYCHOTHERAPY TO RECOVER FROM.

[LostInTheMovies]

I'll talk about "8c. The killer's reveal in episode 14 - Maddy's murder (maybe the most disturbing thing I've seen in a TV show or even movie)" because what happened as a result of my reaction was kind of funny.

I saw it at its original airing, and was incredibly disturbed and frightened by it, moreso than anything I'd seen before. I went into work the next day and the colleague I always discussed the episodes with said, "Oh my GOD! Are you OKAY?" And I was like, "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you?" and she was like, "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A few days later I had my standing appointment with my therapist, and I brought up the episode and how much it had freaked me out. She said, "Yeah, I've had a lot of people come in here talking about it."

THAT EPISODE LITERALLY REQUIRED PSYCHOTHERAPY TO RECOVER FROM.

Wow! That's wild...

One thing that's always amazed me about that episode is how...little people talked about it at the time, at least publicly. I couldn't find many articles - other than "Incest for the Millions" by Warren Goldstein - in which viewers reported being traumatized by the reveal. The more ordinary reaction was something like "Oh, ho hum, so they revealed the killer, what a plot twist, anyway ratings sure have slipped for Twin Peaks amirite?" It's almost like people were trying to convince themselves they weren't disturbed as fuck haha. I think that's one reason the film struck such a sour note: it forced the audience to confront the ugly facts of Laura's life that they didn't want to see.

That said, I've heard a lot of anecdotal reports of viewers being traumatized. John Thorne said he and his wife had a houseguest over while the murder of Maddy was happening and she had to turn away from the TV because she said she couldn't watch.

I feel like a lot of casual viewers of Twin Peaks have forgotten this element of pitch-black darkness in the series, remembering spooky and quirky moments instead. It will probably be a surprise for many in the media when it (inevitably) reemerges in 2017.

[Louise Dombroski]

I do remember there being sort of a gendered response at the time--my women friends were freaked out in a way that the men I knew were not. I have no memory of media coverage, and of course, the internet wasn't in wide use at the time. I just remember friends' reactions because we'd usually watch it in a big group when possible.

[the haystack]

OK, just the Pilot.
He's typing this in Notes for later cut and paste into the thread, hoping that this too-intimate feeling of sharing won't be too strong when it's time to hit Submit. It may take several weeks, a lot of nerve, and quite a few scotches to get that Submit button. Reading everyone's personal reactions has made him realize that Twin Peaks is beyond personal to them, just like him. It is, in fact, to him, too personal. Maybe he never had an experience like writing in a diary, like Laura did. Now, maybe this is what that's like, and he stumbles at the idea of hitting Submit. Intimidating; should he do this? He was 30 when It aired. Now, it seems like he may be the old man on this board.

I had just finished my first year in a new job on the Chicago board of options exchange. I was attending the Vancouver Int. Film Festival when I learned that limited tickets were available for a new David Lynch feature, but I was too late. As a great fan of Blue Velvet, I was disappointed but not overly so at the circumstances. It was fall '89. The feature, it turned out, was the international version of the Pilot. I went back to my slave work, and promptly resumed a life of greedy capitalism, devoid of entertainment. Except, missing that screening always nagged my mind. When ABC began marketing the April '90 premier, I promised myself I'd take the time.

The 80s had turned me into a TV avoider. There just was nothing, and sorry, no, the Cosbys and Dynasty--I just never got the point. So, I expected the Unveiling to be like everything else, vapid, one-dimensional, and more of the same pablum. Within one minute I was startled into suspension. The opening credits were displaying all these scenes from my childhood. Our family had been a railroad and lumber family. The mill, the trains, the foggy woods--my knees locked. These things were not Hollywood; they were un-TV. And then Jack Nance stepped out onto a gravelly Washington beach with driftwood, dammit! I could smell the salt water all the way back in Chicago. (They said it was a river, but I knew the scenery too well).

Joan Chen's eyes spending their unique mystical capital, and her delicate humming, lingering in the mirror, dark cedar panelling. Snoqualmie Falls with the focus on the cataract spray. The billowing fir and hemlock branches. The paralyzing camera direction tracing the extended spiral cord, slowly down to the dropped receiver with Sarah Palmer's tortured moans of horror conveyed in hollowed-out phone-wire-mono. These scenes branded my eyes. It was not Hollywood; it was un-TV. This was cinematography, on a Sunday night in my home. Prior TV was not filmed in this way, not ever.

I'd stayed standing, planning to turn it off after 5 minutes and go to work on something, but my legs were stuck there, disabled, and then the scene of Harry Goaz seated in front of the locomotive came on, and he cried. I went from stunned to addicted. My dad and his dad had both been engineers for the Great Northern (no, really) railroad. We grew up learning how to recognize trains by their markings and numbers. As a kid in the 60s, it was not especially hard to find decayed, decommissioned train cars in remote woody stretches of dead lines. This scene was like lightning to me. And it was just beginning to dawn on me that I'd never seen a man cry on TV. The world, my world, was shifting.

Prior to my new job, I'd been a high school English teacher for about 6 years, grammar and composition. One year after she graduated, a girl whom everybody truly adored was killed in a highway car crash. The Pilot school scenes rang exceedingly true in my experience, in particular, Donna. The deputies roaming the hall gave me shivers. When the homeroom teacher's voice failed "There'll~~be an announcement," I felt weak. To this day, after nearly 50 viewings, the principal's intercom announcement, where he breaks down, makes me look away until the shudders pass. But most devastatingly of all, when the tension is still ramping and, musically, Angelo conducts a faintly audible sustained treble pitch--more of an electric signal, really--the camera finds Audrey's eyes performing a variation of Joan Chen's opening gaze, but more cryptic, and suggestive of secret knowledge mixed with uncertainty. That look just sticks with me; it is a portrait I see perpetually. I went to bed that night betting that Audrey knew before the principal took the microphone.

Absolutely everyone was talking about it on Monday morning on the floor of the exchange. I was being a complete weirdo: That's my home, that's Washington state, guys. Look, look, that was the Salish Lodge and Snoqualmie Falls. No one, and I mean no one, had the faintest clue where Snoqualmie, WA was--back then it was BFE, for God-sakes.

And all alone, the dear, sweet, inscrutable Log Lady.

To throw gas on the fire, somehow the cosmos ordered Lynch and Ray (or whoever) to cast Michael Ontkean as Sheriff. He had not seen that guy since The Rookies in the early 70s. He was his first absolute, blinding,TV crush, and now here he was wearing a cowboy hat. This was getting to be like a dream to him. Everyone loved Agent Cooper instantly and without hesitation, but he alone worshiped Sheriff Truman. It also hadn't been that many years before when I was shocked and fearful of Piper Laurie in Carrie. In high school, somehow that movie seemed only sensational to me, like a roller coaster ride. But, in subsequent years I began to regard Piper Laurie as a real life monster on some ethereal plane. From her first appearance in the Pilot, I winced. I knew she could represent nothing wholesome. I was right.

If life had been different for him, Peggy Lipton would have been someone who could slay his heart. She had been strong and delicate in The Mod Squad, and she had worn the face of an angel. She was exactly the same in the Double R diner. He would have spent every possible morning there, drinking coffee and adoring her, not unlike Gordon Cole and his sudden addiction. And then, they introduced Madchen. THE Madchen. Once again, the shaky knees and dizzy head. There was not that attraction, for men of his kind; but this was a pure love and there was adoration, and respect, and a kind of desire to protect. He imagined these women could do no wrong, and he was again proven to be right.

I hurt for Leland Palmer--never guessing; it's just as I had ached for the poor father of my innocent student. But mostly, Sarah's initial decline and deconstruction worried me. The smoking worried me; it was a bad sign, and I was afraid for her. She was trying to catch some sleep on that sofa, but Angelo's music was unsettling. And then, the fan, the close-up. I thought, what the….? The fan was moving, but somehow it was a still life. And there's that electrical pitch again. So, the neck hairs are starting to stand up, and I thought something…bad… and sure enough, the vision of the woods, the western sword ferns, the rock, the necklace, and Sarah's siren of realization--God-sakes, the look on her face. Since then, the bolting upright in horror has become stock cliche, seen in nearly every damn thing--so flipping predictable, but never capturing fear, true terror, the way Lynch and Sarah did.
My heart stopped.

I try not to watch Twin Peaks more than 2 or 3 times a year, for fear of wearing it out. But I never tire of it. Probably, my close second favorite Lynch work is Eraserhead, but it doesn't live for me the way that Twin Peaks does.

There are literally hundreds of scenes, facial expressions, stories, confusions, and wise words whose power he feels, the way the camera captures them, and the camera itself behaving as if a living partner in this, in Twin Peaks.