David Lynch's 'Inland Empire'.

Take a cushion, it's over three hours long. :eek: And supposed to be his most surreal film since Eraserhead :eek: :eek:

I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
 
I'm waiting for the dvd, video and 3 hours will not be good for me.

But it looks amazing, adore his films. Eraserhead being my favourite.
 
ah - i didn't realise it wasn't out yet. you kind of need an ear to the ground with his films.

love his stuff, and mulholland drive absolutely blew me away, so l'll look out for this - although am away for a month from the 8th, so unlikely it'll be on when we get back.

maybe there'll be an art house cinema in sydney showing it.

Iain
 
Saw this last month at the NFT in London followed by a Q&A (hosted by Mark Kermode) with Lynch himself!

It is definitely his weirdest film since Eraserhead, and I'll need to see it again before I even attempt to work out what the hell is going on! Enjoyed it though, and Laura Dern should have been nominated for an Oscar.
 
Wow, that sounRAB excellent. Was he asked to give his take on what the hell Mulholland Drive is about? :D

I think I read that Inland Empire is on the dreaded "limited release", so god knows who'll be showing it. :(
 
It was excellent indeed - the audience were hanging on his every word.

Mark Kermode asked a few questions and showed a few clips from some of his films first, then it was thrown open to the audience. I don't think anyone dared to ask the meaning of any of his films though!
 
I am watching it at the moment- wow... so surreal that really the only way to watch is to believe all you see and to go along with the ideas!
The only other Lynch I have seen is MD and thought that was brilliant- this is far more abstract and requires more thought to the different levels it sits on.
Personally, there is more work in this film with the camera work and the brilliant sound all the way through the film.
Quite freaky and keeps you on the edge- not for the weak hearted in some points and the way that Lynch builRAB up so much tension is just amazing!
 
Have to say that I wasn't all that keen on 'Inland Empire'. I felt it was a little too self-indulgent; it's certainly twisted, weird and surreal like all good Lynch movies should be, but it was slightly overwrought and needlessly sprawling at times.

I think the transition to DV has allowed Lynch to explore his strange worlRAB more liberally, but the narrative is stretched far beyond breaking point.
 
I'd agree with that, but then again I've thought that about all of DL's movies on first viewing. Some I've thought were utter tripe, but then there's always something in there that sticks in the mind and draws me back in to give it a second try. And then usually I change my own perceptions of what I think narrative should be a bit and accept the new version. On past record I'm due to decide it's a masterpiece in late 2014.
 
LOL Above!
Anyway... I find that with a Lynch film, you have to take what he is giving you and take it as the truth. This sometimes makes it easier for you to understand the characters and follow the journey they go on.
When I told somebody this, they said, would believing all just make you more frightened that some of the stuff Lynch does is real? I would answer that with, if you believe in the surreal stuff in the FILM, then the FILM seems to follow a path- not a predictable one but funnily enough a believable one.
With Inland Empire- it seemed to have made some sense to a point- then it did not- then it did again (those who have seen it would know what I mean)... You fall in and out of following a story and what Lynch does with one's expectations to a point is that he gets rid of them and then takes on a non-linear path through each of the characters worst nightmares making you think one thing when in fact something totally different is going on.
The most incred thing I found with Inland Empire is the tension and the sound. With the DV camera, he was able to explore much more and remembering it's a Lynch movie- the speech sometimes is not the most important. The sound in the movie is used the whole way through, it's in your head and then when something happens the sound explodes and effects you as an audience member.
The tension is amazing, with the noises, the faces and the places we expect the worse and take one view when Lynch is taking another.
Brilliant! :D
 
:D I think that's about right...perhaps 2018...

The material in Lynch's celluloid efforts required a lot of "packing" on a 'shot-by-shot' basis - it may have been frustrating for him, having to spend 10 hours setting up the lighting in the scene, but at least it focused his pacing and created a certain level of audience engagement.

With the DV footage, however, he became a little too self-indulgent. It felt saggy toward the end, even in a purposefully sprawling piece such as this one.

Even if you don't watch a film for understanding or entertainment, it should still offer engagement of some kind - otherwise you drift of into 'home movie' teritory, which unravels at the very thread of "the construction of film".

Of course, you can always say, "Ah ha! That's why Lynch is such a genius", and that's fine. But for me there's an invisible barrier that cannot be crossed in cinema - it goes something along the lines of, "I will bring to this movie only as much as you do as a director" - ambiguity, surrealism and hyper-reality are fine, just as long as they retain a level of active participation.

When it becomes passive, which 'Inland Empire' does at several points, you begin to wonder whether you'd rather be emotionally disengaged watching this or the action-blockbuster playing next door - at least that has flashing lights and 'splosions :D;):p
 
That's a very good thought. I'm probably totally wrong in this summation, but I have a feeling this movie was financed in a different way to his others. I think previously he had to fight to get finance from mainstream studios and that meant however oblique his storylines the uncreative men in suits probably forced him to rein in his excesses and provide something for the popcorn crowd, or at least on paper. And it's those nuggets of plot that give an access point for everyone to enjoy the film, if they're prepared to put in the effort. This one was financed mainly by himself, and brave though that is, it does take out a layer of control and encourage a bit of, shall we say, self-indulgence.
 
I think that's exactly right. I've only watched it once so far. I thought it was amazing, but I had no idea what it was that I had just seen! I'm going to have to give it a while before watching it again.
 
Back
Top