David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE

If you want to see a pair of tits in a non pornographic context then take an arts class or watch art films. Lisa and I went to see David Lynch‘s (not so) newest film INLAND EMPIRE (all caps) in the Rechbauerkino in Graz today (actually yesterday). Because these little artsy theaters don’t sell popcorn or nachos we went to the Cineplexx first, that was swamped with rednecks from the peripherals of Graz and got us a hunk of nachos with cheese and salsa for a bunch of money. Funny thing was that we even made it back downtown in time and got seats in the second row ¹. And then INLAND EMPIRE started.

Don’t worry! No spoilers ahead!

This film is the most Lynch-esque movie out there, it’s like a combination of Mulholland Drive mixed with Lost Highway and Blue Velvet, as pure Lynch as possible so to speak. And it starts off surreal — just as anticipated: The weird prologue consists of a Polish hooker (there are lots of them later on!), scraps of conversation reveal one of Lynch’s most dearest symbols in his movies: Doors, passages and gates, that lead you through time, space and even into different personalities. Other typical themes observed in this film are

• The voyeur.
• Close-ups of silently crying women.
• The gun.
• A rather brutal paternal character.
• Telephones and phone calls.
• Flats in the style of Lost Highway.
• The lesbian kiss.
• The point where you are certain that “this time I almost know what this movie is about!”…
• …closely followed by the point where everything stops making sense.

Then follows a sitcom-situation starring three rabbits with random laughs from the audience and one hare-character in an noble environment, a short dialog in Polish about a certain “entrance” one is looking for. Fade out.

Axx°Nn

After this disturbing prologue the Hollywood-Lynch directs: Time and people behave (rather) logical and there are only a few jumps in time. Most enthralling are the dialogs in the first part of the movie, strange, yes, but terrific and exciting. Listen closely and pay attention because it will help you deciphering (a bit) of the movie later on. Jeremy Irons as the director is doing a great job, actually that’s the kinda guy you like having on a set, very dear and very authentic.

David ♥ Dogma

David Lynch is like Picasso: After mastering the realistic and “beautiful” he turns more and more to the abstract and ugly, MiniDV in the case of INLAND EMPIRE. Learning about that after a few minutes made our decision to sit in the second row rather painful: Blurry and grainy, shaky and low-res. Mixed media (DV and film) would’ve fit better I think. Now it is just painful observing 35mm Panavision cameras in the film that are filmed with a low res DV cam.

Dogma is the way: Sometimes the camera-lens nearly touches the sweating, dirty, wrinkly, imperfect faces of the actors, so close that it’s not even possible to focus on them. Terrible light situations, especially in Poland or on the Hollywood Bld/Vine Str. intersection. But why not? It’s not the reality, it’s a movie.

On one hand it looks more realistic hence to the media, on the other hand less realistic because the DV footage screams “I am a video, not any reality!”; just the way Chris Marker experimented with analogue image samplers in Sans Soleil in 1981.

The film INLAND EMPIRE and the film that the characters are shooting become closer and closer until you can’t tell what is what. A little hint to keep them apart: Pay attention to the camera: If its focus is not where it usually should be thanks to technical limitations then the scene is probably no part of the film within the film. But if the scene looks just like you’re used to, and the music is as kitschy as it gets, then you’re most likely observing a scene from the film in the film.

To sum it up:

Great movie, especially for Lynch aficionados, but after the break to the completely surreal and twisted world that exists in David Lynch’s head (after about half the film) it sometimes gets a little hard, especially when the actors and actresses take their time discovering things that you didn’t dare to think of. The total running time of 180 minutes is a little hard to sit through.

Oh, one last reason to watch the movie if you can’t make up your mind: Did I mention the tits?

If you want to see a pair of tits in a non pornographic context then take an arts class or watch art films. Lisa and I went to see David Lynch's (not so) newest film INLAND EMPIRE (all caps) in the Rechbauerkino in Graz today (actually yesterday). Because these little artsy theaters don't sell ...

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