Ooh an interesting topic that I missed...

My background: watched most of series 1 & 2 when originally aired and saw the FWWM movie mid 90's...and I have to say that initially I didn't like FWWM.  This was probably due to the gap I left between viewing the series and the movie.

Now then...after having rewatched the series and FWWM inside a close time frame...I have now ended up preferring FWWM over the series.  I do tend to think that sometimes the series was 'overpadded' (understatement) and when that is coupled with the various people (too many) who took directorial stints etc...then it became even more vague and at times laughable, but for the wrong reasons.  I adored the pilot episode though and I'm very keen on the first episode of series 2 (especially the 1st 7/8 minutes).

Someone listed the 'dinner scene' in FWWM and criticised it...I can't see why, imo it was one of the greatest scenes in the entire movie...I thought it was outstanding., especially in its context. I also loved the whole Deer Meadow thing, the bang,bang scene (my fav)...the 'bowie' convenience store thingy.  To add...I'm also a fan of the FWWM Donna (Moira Kelly) over the series LFB.

Anyway...ultimately its all good and obviously without the series...there wouldn't be a film with which to compare.

  Sorry I'm not able to qualify my statement better- but I really like FWWM better than the series.  That said, the first season runs a close second.  Incest is a horrific world, and I think FWWM captures it perfectly. 

This may be a cop out, but I have a really difficult time separating the two at this point. I dearly love both, and though they are done in very different styles I feel that they mesh perfectly (the recasting of donna aside) into a whole.

I also think there's more to the drastic stylistic difference between the series and FWWM than just "oh, Lynch is unrestricted by the confines of television now and he can let his freak flag fly". I think the shift is very calculated. It's a very different story being told. In the series, the audience is taking a journey akin to the one Cooper is taking. We're introduced to this seemingly quiet, idyllic town, only to have the veneer slowly peeled away, eventually revealing the darkness and strangeness underneath. But in FWWM, we are on a journey that is more like Laura's, and Laura's world (and mind) is fragmenting at an alarming rate. I don't know if this makes sense, but I can envision a version of FWWM that looks and feels more like the series, but I don't think that would be true to the story that we're watching unfold. It would remove us from Laura's torment.

WilliamTheBloody, you could not have said that better! 

I just saw the last episode and I am confused as all hell...when and where does BOB/Cooper ask "How's Judith?" and Isn't Annie supposed to be dead or was Harry just trying to ease Cooper? And why in the hell didn't sweet innocent Miss Catherine get blown to hell (or even make an appearance)? I swear that bitch gets away with everything!

I just saw the last episode and I am confused as all hell...when and where does BOB/Cooper ask "How's Judith?" and Isn't Annie supposed to be dead or was Harry just trying to ease Cooper? And why in the hell didn't sweet innocent Miss Catherine get blown to hell (or even make an appearance)? I swear that bitch gets away with everything!

 youre getting them mixed up. judy is the unknown personage in FWWM that Agent Phillip Jeffries doesnt want to talk about and is also the name quitely said by the monkey at the end of FWWM, before laura's garmonbozia is eaten by the LMFAP. in the series the question is "how's annie?" which is directly mocking cooper's question to truman after waking, she wasnt supposed to be dead. just in the hospital. and of course BOB inside of him is just waiting to start the downfall of coop.

wow, re-reading these posts objectively, disregarding any knowledge or the series or FWWM, id say we were all raging lunatics. but i like it that way.

So Annie is supposed to be alive? I thought from Laura's vision of her in FWWM that she had been killed and her ghost was visiting her or something. Damn I must've missed that monkey part, was it when Pierre moves his mask to reveal a monkey face? I'll go check later I still have it on my DVR...

As far as I know, Annie is meant to be alive at the end of the series. My take on Laura's vision of her in FWWM is that she is not so much a ghost as a projection of the Lodge. It seems to me that time inside the Lodge is sort of a closed system, meaning once you enter the Lodge you have thenceforth "always" been in the Lodge in some way. That's how Cooper and Laura are able  to interact in FWWM even though Cooper doesn't enter the Lodge until the end of the series.

I think the darkness of the film definitely works in its favour... but with too many great moments/scenes/lines/characters, I think the series would just have to edge it.

*Wonders where her (rather lengthy) post went about how I like both and their merits*

 I'm sure I posted here..:s

 Anyway..in a nutshell, I do love both..  I could sit here all night and rant about both but tbh I can't be bothered.  They are each their own pieces of art and strong enough to stand on their own. I think Lynch did the best he could for the fans regarding the film that any director could in any situation.  Two of his leading actresses (Lara and Sherilyn) refused to reprise their roles, as well as Kyle's lazily "oh I'll film a couple of days" so he had no choice but to recast with Moira.  I think she was as close to a Donna you could get.  She filled Lara's shoes pretty well in my opinion.

 I think Sheryl looks incredible in all of those shots she looks neither "plump" or "old".  And yes, she might have looked tired in FWWM, but she did suffer from nervous exhaustion while filming if I remember correct and was in hospital.  I agreed with what David Lynch said - it WAS like a beautiful dream watching Laura Palmer walk, talk, breathe...I'd ALWAYS wanted to see her character alive and FWWM, while not providing all the answers at least gives us a rare glimpse into that.

I agreed with what David Lynch said - it WAS like a beautiful dream watching Laura Palmer walk, talk, breathe...I'd ALWAYS wanted to see her character alive and FWWM, while not providing all the answers at least gives us a rare glimpse into that.

 

I think this is a thread with a similar title to another...

I agree, too.

I have said it before, but the seed of TP came from a racy Marilyn Monroe bio-murder mystery, Goddess. MM was the most biographed woman of all time, (a lot of it fiction posing as fact, and then real fiction posing as biography.) When authors revisit her narrative, they are practicing necrophilia (in life, her body is commodified by men, and in death its found naked and endlessly analyzed and embraced,) but also necromancy. In telling her story, she rises from the dead. The story of Snow White is this way, too. I think this is also Laura's and FWWM's appeal. TP dug her up, but in FWWM she came to life!