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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) and David Lynch's Aesthetics of Frustration

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This article focuses on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch,1992), the prequel to the TV series produced by Mark Frost and David Lynch (1990-1991), which represents a turning point in Lynch's filmography. The author argues that the film's aesthetics frustrate viewer expectations, and especially the fan of the TV series, by addressing the issue of the film's relation to the TV series. Special attention is payed to the aesthetics of time passing and to the accumulation of unusual signs in the first part of the film, with reference to Deleuze and Michel Guiomar, and the way they lead the spectator, fan or neophyte, to expect something Fantastic to happen. The article then addresses the spectator's (as well as the director's) paradoxical and perverse relation to the film's main protagonist, Laura Palmer, whose fate is utterly expected but who further engenders frustration as her presence on-screen only underscores her elusiveness as a subject.