Surrealism and Fire Walk with Me

Sarah McConnell

COM 232: Visual Literacy

Surrealism and David Lynch’s Fire Walk with Me

Surrealism is an artistic movement that has influenced many different aspects of the art world. From writings and paintings to the big screen, many surrealist elements transcend cultural and regional differences within the human race. The famous cinematic director, David Lynch, takes the surrealist movement to a new level in the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Using all of the standard elements of the surrealist movement, this movie allows the audience to release personal inhibitions and expectations and follow a tragic tale full of inexplicable imagery, the psychology of the human mind without the restrictions of academia and science, along with the idea of humanity in its simplest forms. Understanding the surrealist movement and its origins can help the audience see the beauty within this film and the thought process that went into creating an artistic masterpiece of the human mind.


The word “surrealism” first appeared in 1917 by the writer Guillaume Apollinaire in Paris. The word was to describe the elements that were “truth beyond realism”. Seven years later, Andre Breton adopted the word in “The Manifesto of Surrealism.” The Surrealist group was formed in Paris in October 1924, and looked for a way to escape the intensity and overwhelming emotions caused by World War I as well as the current state of the art world. They wanted to change the ideals of society and brought together artists, the most brilliant minds, and different researchers to translate the pure expression of the unconscious mind. They were searching for new aesthetic as well as a new social order free from the conventions of societal mind control and exact reason. Surrealism was similar to current Dadaism movement as it was anti-rationalist, but differed with the intention of lightness in its very own spirit. Some of the main elements of surrealism include elements of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions, and nakedness of the human body but also of the mind involving dream sequences and subconscious imagery.

Between 1924 and 1935, surrealist Antonin Artaud was the only surrealist writer to create a piece of theoretical work about “the potential of the medium”, coining "raw cinema." His aim was to discover and recreate the intense and violent power of the subconscious. He took a pure and simple image from a dream and waited as “spectators in a subjugated position reacted to the experience triggering a violent reaction of their senses.” David Lynch took this concept and recreated it with the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

In the opening scene of the film, we are introduced to FBI agents who have a unique and unorthodox way of executing their power and position representing the anti-authority elements of surrealism. This sets the stage to let us know that our predisposed societal notions of will not be followed or entertained during the film. The transsexual informant shows symbolic images that reference specific details of tale involving corrupt police, drugs, sexual assault, and murder, things that we view within society to be wrong. Processing this scene requires a free association of visualization combining auditory and visual response. Once the visualization aspect is comprehended, the verbal script was written in metaphors allowing the audience to develop an egoless connection of the spoken word and its visual meaning.

Throughout the movie, the score moves your mind through a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere; however the visual scenes of murder, drugs, and sexual abuse cause violent feelings contradicting the feeling of peace. This sets up spiritual symbolism of the Black Lodge and the White Lodge. The Black Lodge is seen throughout the movie as a place of deep concern and twisted inexplicable imagery. The ridged patterns of the floor, the dark tapestries, and the unusual cast of characters cause a sense of darkness and turmoil (a lot like Dali’s paintings during the surrealist movement) within the visual sensory portion of the brain. This is where Lynch reveals his most honest, raw, and dark secrets. The alter egos of Leland Palmer present themselves within the Black Lodge as a source of “good and evil” within the human mind. The constant struggle between what is right versus what is wrong is represented with the man who has half of an arm (a symbolic reference within itself), the little person in red who speaks in a demonic voice, and Bob, the pure monster who controls an incestuous relationship with Laura Palmer, Leland’s daughter. Bob manifests himself into a viable character during the rape scene between Leland and Laura.

Laura’s own version of Bob feeds the original interpretation and validation of a monster brought upon by a defense mechanism within her own brain to rationalize and suppress her feelings regarding her father’s sexual abuse. These defense mechanisms manifest themselves into Laura’s everyday life that includes extreme promiscuity, alter egos (of her own), and rebellion with drugs. Laura’s appetite for sex and promiscuity shows her fear of intimacy with others who are close to her. This is shown in her relationship with her best friend Donna by not trusting her and concealing her dark secrets. She will brag about the men who “love” her but not the intimate details of the relationships or her rendezvous with strange and random men. That side of Laura is only revealed when Leland stumbles upon her about to participate in an orgy with two other women and him. This surrealism element tests the thought of societal judgment of a “good girl’s behavior, showing no boundaries when it comes to the naked body or the limits of eroticism of sexual acts between adults. Lynch explores that theme with the sexual orgies, and the lost innocence of a teenaged girl by having Laura say “…so you want to fuck the homecoming queen?” This shows that Laura still has the thought of teenage innocence, but the rebellious and broken mindset to detach herself from that persona and what ultimately got her killed by her father who lived with the torment of society’s standards and his own personal demons.

It is the innocence of Laura that turns the Black Lodge into the White Lodge. The Black Lodge is the place of darkness and brutally honest reconciliation of good versus evil. Leland is ordered by the little person to “give me all of your pain and sorrow” and then blood is dumped on the Black Lodge’s floor, the Black Lodge begins the transformation into the White Lodge for Laura. The White Lodge cleanses Laura of her sins and creates a peaceful place without the torment of her abusive father and the guilt of her past. It allows her to feel the innocence of her soul without societal judgment. The Angel who cleanses Laura of her sins brings a sense of peace to the audience that allows us to reconcile our own feeling of guilt towards our past mistakes. This ending scene is the pivotal piece that expresses surrealism’s light spirit. It changes the audience’s perspective of judgment as we do not know that everyday dealing of people living within our society. It expresses the thought - can we judge others for what we think is wrong, when we don’t really know them or their life. David Lynch’s film expressed the elements of surrealism in almost every way, solidifying himself as the “modern” surrealism artist.