While Hollywood continues to wrangle with ongoing revelations in the evolving #metoo movement, and actual awards season itself has been mostly controversy free so far. If there have been whisper campaigns against certain pictures, it hasn’t yet reached the mainstream, and with no clear frontrunner, it’s actually shaping up to be one of the more interesting Oscar races in recent memory. However, there is one question that has left cinephiles in knots — is David Lynch‘s “Twin Peaks: The Return” a movie or television show?
When high brow movie mags Sight & Sound and Cahiers du Cinema placed the narrative on their Best Films lists for 2017, Film Twitter exploded with some championing them for recognizing Lynch’s 18 hour masterpiece as a single entity. Others, however, argued that cinematic storytelling can still arrive in your home, and be called “television,” without it seeming like a dirty word. Indeed, there is an underlying feeling of trying to lift Lynch’s work out of a presumed “gutter” of network television by those calling “Twin Peaks” a movie. But, with so much great stuff in both mediums, why not just make two different lists, and argue about semantics elsewhere?
I digress, but this conversation is sure to spark up again, now that New York’s Museum of Modern Art has decided to screen “Twin Peaks: The Return” — for free. That’s right, if you want to lose yourself in Lynch’s world on the big screen, you can do just that (as long as you’re in New York). And curator Rajendra Roy is using the opportunity to show all eighteen episodes to keep the film versus TV argument going.
“David Lynch’s latest ‘Twin Peaks’ season is simply unclassifiable: something totally and spectacularly unique. However as the Chief Curator of Film, and not Television, at MoMA, I will simply say that my opinion on the matter can be interpreted through the fact that I have invited it to be screened at the Museum. Interpret that how you will, and we hope you will join us in this debate by experiencing this incredible work on the big screen for free this January,” he said.
If you want to experience “Twin Peaks” again (or for the first time), “Part 1” through “Part 4” will be screened on January 5, “Part 5” through “Part 11” will be screened on January 6, and “Part 12 through “Part 18” will conclude on January 7, 2018 all at MoMA. [Vulture]