Saskatoon's Broadway Theatre gets weird with week-long David Lynch retrospective

The Broadway Theatre is launching a one-week retrospective of the work of acclaimed film director David Lynch tonight, to coincide with the release of a new documentary offering a rare glimpse into the eccentric artist's creative process.

It's the first director-focused showcase mounted by the Broadway Avenue revival house and concert venue since Scott Hamilton took over as film programmer several years ago.

And it's the kind of thing Hamilton would like to do more of — David Cronenberg, anyone? — but only if this Lynchfest is a success.

"This is a bit of a test balloon," said Hamilton. "No matter how it turns out, if we find out there isn't quite as much of an appetite for it, we will have at least won a week of film that we're really proud of."

Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks bracket lineup  

The retrospective kicks off tonight with a 7 p.m. screening of The Art Life, a new documentary tracing Lynch's early creative evolution up to Eraserhead, his 1977 midnight-movie cult breakthrough (which screens on Saturday with a new, high-resolution digital transfer of the film print).  

Then at 9 p.m. is Mulholland Drive (2001), Lynch's dark, later-career exploration of Hollywood ambition turned sour, starring then-breakout Naomi Watts and featuring one of the most obsessively picked-over narrative turns of the director's career.

But the centrepiece of the retrospective is May 12's A Damn Fine Twin Peaks Double Feature, a special event looking forward to the May 21 premiere of a new season of Lynch's iconic early-'90s cult TV series, Twin Peaks.

The series followed F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper's (Kyle MacLachlan) investigation into the death of Laura Palmer, a homecoming queen in the fictional Pacific Northwest lumber town of Twin Peaks, where everyone has a secret.  

"Our staff are all very dedicated and they've been bugging me about doing this for a number of years now," said Hamilton.

The Broadway will screen the series pilot and its feature film followup, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me — both essential viewing before the new season.

Creepy posters haunt downtown 

In between, the theatre will invite attendees (who are encouraged to dress up as their favourite Twin Peaks denizens) to take to the stage and dance in an approximation of the show's nightmarish Red Room, the home of the dark spirits who haunt the show's characters.

To promote the event, the theatre has sprinkled Saskatoon with posters featuring the show's creepy demonic villain, Bob.

There will be red drapes — a recurring motif in the Lynch oeuvre — and Angelo Badalamenti's slow-jazz score to the series will be piped in through the theatre's sound system.

Coffee, cherry pie and doughnuts — staples of food-obsessed Agent Cooper — will also be on offer.