Song of Philadelphia

Julien Suaudeau
  • 5.0 (22)
  • DOCUMENTARY
  • SERIES

How much remembering and forgetting happens in a city every day? Can you hear the past humming through the present on the streets? Julien Suaudeau came to Philadelphia from Paris in 2006 and started to hunt for sounds and stories. Now you can listen to his audio archive, Song of Philadelphia, an exclusive podcast from Hidden City.

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  1. Smiling Bags of Death

    EPISODE 1

    Smiling Bags of Death

    David Lynch passed on January 16th, 2025. In the Song of Lynchadelphia season opener, Julien Suaudeau travels sixty years back to January 1966 on 13th and Wood, where David Lynch has just moved in with Jack Fisk. As the song of the city echoes in Lynch's films and across the Twin Peaks universe, and as other voices familiar with his work chime in, Jack Fisk recalls how his best friend dreamed up his art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition to his collaboration with Lynch (Eraserhead, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive), Jack Fisk has worked as production designer and art director with Terence Malick (Days of Heaven, Badlands, The Thin Red Line, The New World, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, Song to Song), Brian de Palma (Carrie, Phantom of the Paradise), Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), among others. His most recent collaboration is with Josh Safdie, on Marty Supreme. Photo: Jack Fisk and David Lynch standing near 19th and Chestnut in December 1967 (Credit: C.K Williams) This episode contains audio from the following sources: Carrie Rickey's interview of David Lynch at Bryn Mawr Film Institute in 2014 Twin Peaks Kim Lin Short's The End of Howard's End Wild at Heart Mulholland Drive Gerard Malanga's Screentest: A Diary Twin Peaks: The Return Josh Hitchens' interview of David Lynch in 2022 Blue Velvet Room to Dream, by Kristin McKenna and David Lynch Lost Highway

    36 min
  2. Part 2: The Art Life

    EPISODE 1

    Part 2: The Art Life

    Philadelphia, 1966. In his studio at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, David Lynch is experimenting with ideas, forms, materials, shapes. He is looking for something exciting. One night, he sees movement in the painting he is working on and starts thinking about film. Feeding on the effervescence of the local artistic scene, with the help of his best friend and roommate, fellow PAFA student Jack Fisk, Lynch is going to make three films in two years, while getting married and becoming a father. In this episode, Julien Suaudeau continues to weave the memories of Lynch's early years with soundscapes from his cinematic work (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks: The Return) and examines the micro-events that encouraged a young creative mind to pursue the art life. With Jack Fisk, Bruce Samuelson, Bob Bruhin, and Josh Hitchens. The portrait of David Lynch used as artwork for this episode was taken in 1967 by C.K Williams in the Father, Son, Holy Ghost house on Aspen Street.

    36 min
  3. F**k You, Gordon

    EPISODE 3

    F**k You, Gordon

    Although Philadelphia is visible only in a couple of shots in the entire David Lynch's filmography, the city's aura is the primary color and the thread of the cinematic language we have come to recognize as "Lynchian". In this episode, Julien Suaudeau dives deeper into the David Lynch dreamworld and examines the wild ways in which Philly manifests itself in Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, and the Twin Peaks universe. What if Lynch's reinvention of the city actually was the artist's "room to dream"? An MRI of his creative mind? And maybe the place where we find out that life is but a dream? The episode contains audio from the following works: Laura, Sunset Boulevard, Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Twin Peaks: The Return. Artwork: Diane - screen capture of Twin Peaks: The Return

    31 min

  4. SEASON 3 TRAILER

    Season 3 Trailer: Who's the Dreamer

    This season: how David Lynch invented his cinematic language of fear and strangeness in Philadelphia. Julien Suaudeau walks around the Eraserhood and explores other Lynchian places in the city, tracking the impressions of Philly in Lynch's work, from the Twin Peaks universe to Mulholland Drive, and wondering how Lynch's art is the product of what he experienced in the city from 1965 to 1970.

    6 min
See All Season 3 (4)

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

How much remembering and forgetting happens in a city every day? Can you hear the past humming through the present on the streets? Julien Suaudeau came to Philadelphia from Paris in 2006 and started to hunt for sounds and stories. Now you can listen to his audio archive, Song of Philadelphia, an exclusive podcast from Hidden City.

Information

  • Creator
    Julien Suaudeau
  • Episodes
    16
  • Seasons
    3
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    Song of Philadelphia

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