Inland Empire (being promoted with coasters, coffee)

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So, those who have seen it, can someone convince me it wasn't a mistake for Lynch to go DV? I'm not really impressed with the look as showcased in the trailer.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 9 December 2006 08:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I said on the NYFF thread that the gritty dirty look just heightens the dread -- content and style say "I do." It's a good change from the pristine images of Frederick Elmes (one reason I've never signed on to the alleged greatness of Blue Velvet -- OH,

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 10 December 2006 08:26 (seventeen years ago) link


THE WRIGGLING WORMS BENEATH THE BEAUTY OF SUBURBIA!).

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 10 December 2006 08:27 (seventeen years ago) link

This was very, very good.

Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 10 December 2006 11:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Although I disagree with the people who say you should just let the film wash over you and not worry about plot coherence. I found I was able to enjoy the look/sound/feel of the characters/scenes as well as comprehend a lot of what was going on.

Also, the people sitting behind us in the theatre were laughing throughout the movie at the most inappropriate times.

Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 10 December 2006 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

and you didn't tell them to go home and watch Lost?

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Monday, 11 December 2006 14:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh the ZING!

David RER (Frank Fiore), Monday, 11 December 2006 14:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't stand Lost! There's no end in sight for that show.

I did "confront" them at the end of the movie, and I got a "you'll get over it, buddy."

Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 11 December 2006 21:59 (seventeen years ago) link

One of my intro to film classes screened "Blue Velvet" and it was pretty painful in that auditorium. You could barely hear the movie at times over the snickering.

cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Monday, 11 December 2006 22:05 (seventeen years ago) link

WHAT.

I WOULD KILL ALL THIS STUPID PEOPLE.

Jessie the Monster (scarymonster), Monday, 11 December 2006 22:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Hippies :(

cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:12 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm still processing this. it felt much longer than it was, and in some respects the length and slllowww pacing annoyed me (i had to pee, and my cell phone rang towards the end, d'oh!) and in other respects i appreciated that i was getting a lot of david lynch for my $11. everything was very very beautiful, all the decay and the garishness and the awkwardness. but there was definite self-indulgence and overwroughtness there too. there are times when the "you just have to GO WITH lynch" stipulation is way OTM, but i hope people aren't using that as a way of saying "i'm not sure if i liked it, but i don't want to tell anyone i hated it because i'll look like one of the great unwashed who don't 'get' these sortsa art fillums."

i want to watch it again sometime when i don't have to pee.

boo you whore (get bent), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:34 (seventeen years ago) link

b-b-but Blue Velvet is totally funny!

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:38 (seventeen years ago) link

(I mean its disturbing too, but don't act like there isn't plenty to laugh at - Frank Booth, the fake bird, MacLachlan being a clueless tool, etc.)

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:39 (seventeen years ago) link

ALSO RAPE IS HILARIOUS.

Jessie the Monster (scarymonster), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, I am aware that it is funny at times. Thank you for your help. I was referring to people being douchey and laughing at totally inappropriate moments. Giggling college kids, "intro to film", etc etc.

cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

(xp) Don't act like rape isn't hilarious.

cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link

anyway with lynch i know audience discomfort is part of his whole sociopath-sadist trip so i thought it added to the er um experientialness of it all.

boo you whore (get bent), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:44 (seventeen years ago) link

multiple xposts

boo you whore (get bent), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:44 (seventeen years ago) link

oh I was being totally serious. xxpost

Jessie the Monster (scarymonster), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Ok, so throughout the film you are seeing the same set of people in different times/days, in different identities, in conscious and subconscious moments, in reality and parallel reality, but you aren't really able to distinguish one from the other. I agree there are plenty of moments that are just "there" which you can't pin down to a plot, but now I'm thinking the seemingly random house party at the end with all the characters together seems to suggest that life is at its most joyous when all these alternate/parallel worlds somehow collide.

Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 11 December 2006 23:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Great sound design, as usual. I thought the long discussion of the bus schedule was the best absurdism I've seen in awhile.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 December 2006 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

but don't act like there isn't plenty to laugh at - Frank Booth, the fake bird, MacLachlan being a clueless tool, etc.

don't forget the chicken walk

this is cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 12 December 2006 19:09 (seventeen years ago) link

there are times when the "you just have to GO WITH lynch"

And then there are other times, like Wild at Heart.

someone who likes Blue Velvet lots more than I do claims that Frank Booth is truly SCARY, not funny. I really think D.L. was going for the former.

I have forgotten the chicken walk.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 December 2006 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link

I like Wild at Heart.

cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Tuesday, 12 December 2006 19:23 (seventeen years ago) link

The frequently asinine exchanges between characters, for example, only strike us as such because we're not used to hearing the kind of aimless talk we enage in daily in movies. And if we closely examine Jeffrey and Sandy's tentative romance, we realize how mannered young love can be. Jeffrey's offer to demonstrate his "chicken walk" for Sandy, apart from being a uniquely eighties gesture, draws attention to itself because of its astounding sincerity. The mystery itself is similarly routine, anticlimactic in its solution, yet it only seems that way in relation to other pictures about small-time crooks.

this is cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 12 December 2006 19:29 (seventeen years ago) link

"scary? fuck that shit. funny!"

latebloomer's mayan name is tapir ballz (clonefeed), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 03:55 (seventeen years ago) link

if "mullholand drive" was never existed, the movie would seem much better,but,cause of the fimiliarity, the viewer must compare ,and "mullholand" is so much better.
the lo-fi dv quality, and the failure to push the limits of film making into new teritory of sub-conscious and new,pure cinema is evident.
sometimes putting limits to lynch, only makes him (and other artists as well) a better director.not everyone is orson wells.

so it's an interesting, but not really touching movie.and again,"mulloland" is the masterpiece.

john lang (emekars), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 04:38 (seventeen years ago) link

the failure to push the limits of film making into new teritory of sub-conscious and new,pure cinema is evident.

Since when is it the obligation of a film to do this? I think Mulholland is likely his best, and it doesn't do that either (as far as I can tell, since I'm not sure what kind of "new territory" you're talking about, specifically). ie, compare it to everything new in 2006 and it looks fine.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link

if "mullholand drive" was never existed, the movie would seem much better,but,cause of the fimiliarity, the viewer must compare ,and "mullholand" is so much better.

Weird, Mulholland Drive was already a version of Lost Highway... I kinda wished Straight Story would've signalled a new direction to Lynch, but apparently not.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Not that I don't like his weirdness in general, but it gets kinda repetitive. I wish he'd do conventional films more often than once in 20 years.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 14:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Because the two he has made (Elephant Man and Straight Story) are among his best.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link

The Straight Story is only 'conventional' on a plot level; it's mighty strange, and identifiably his work.

Smashing theater records in New York, so buy in advance:

http://www.thereeler.com/the_blog/lynch_inland_empire_boom_in_ny.php

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 16:55 (seventeen years ago) link

i went during the day and the theater was fairly empty.

j.m. goatse (get bent), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess that's cool that he's breaking records, but a $21k opening for a film seems ... well, kinda depressing.

It opens here in SF on the 29th, altho I'm not sure where.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

If it opens in Miami, I'm going to send the distributors coasters with my face on them.

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

i think inland empire is pretty great, even though significant chunks -- especially the stuff set in poland -- are careless and much less interesting than the rest of it. (just because something's not "linear" doesn't mean you can stick just anything in anywhere and have it work.) the major advantage of the dv is how much it lets him get away with playing in the dark.

i thought the conceptual key was in two lines -- where abused-wife laura dern says to the weird guy in the dark office at the top of the stairs something like, "i don't know what came before or after. i don't know what happened first, and it's kind of laid a head trip on me." and then in another scene, someone (one of the hooker greek chorus maybe?) says, "it had something to do with the passage of time."

a few days after seeing it, for unrelated reasons i looked up the wikipedia entry on the theory of relativity and came across this line: "it is an open question whether or not there is some fundamental principle that preserves causality." that seems like part of what lynch is after -- this sense cause and effect moving in circles, or mobius strips, with all these repeats and echoes and twists. which was present in mulholland drive too, but it's more deliberate here.

the whole thing also made me think of "stuck inside of mobile": people just get uglier, and i have no sense of time. (not to mention, "Waiting to find out what price/ You have to pay to get out of/ Going through all these things twice").

anyway, i want to see it again. and this time i can time a bathroom break to coincide with a lesser scene.

tipsy mothra (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:24 (seventeen years ago) link

def need to see it again

hated the beck song though

this is cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Beck song?!?!

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:42 (seventeen years ago) link

yes :(

this is cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:44 (seventeen years ago) link

beck was more than offset by nina simone, tho.

tipsy mothra (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link

also, i don't know how serious lynch is about his interest in buddhism -- i know he's a big advocate of meditation, and i've seen him reference buddhism in some interviews -- but the movie works pretty well as buddhist allegory. if you called it something like "hungry ghost wandering through her lives" and showed it in a zen monastery, you'd probably get a lot of monkish nods of comprehension.

tipsy mothra (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess I survived being exposed to Marilyn Manson in Lost Highway, I can probably ignore Beck too...

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Roy Orbison escaped not only unscathed but his reputation enhanced.

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Lynch's interest in meditation/buddhism seems pretty intense to me. You don't meditate every day of your life for the last 30+ years without taking it seriously.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 18:00 (seventeen years ago) link

well consciously or not this film is a much more sophisticated expression of some buddhist ideas than any other hollywood "buddhist" movie i can think of. (although groundhog day i guess comes close.)

tipsy mothra (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

even more than "Little Buddha"?!!?

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 18:16 (seventeen years ago) link

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Events/906-dog/th-reeves_keanu2

whoah

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link

more than the golden child, even

tipsy mothra (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

a $21k opening for a film seems ... well, kinda depressing.

Not for ONE theater! But I'm really glad I came to love films in an era where nobody -- NOBODY, aside from biz people -- knew or cared what the opening grosses of anything were.

Dr M (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Has anyone run across any nerd-level breakdown of what Lynch's camera/production set-up was on this? I loved how some of this (esp. the early bunny sit-com scenes) looked like those tilt-shift photos that distort the focus and make things look like miniatures.

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 18 December 2006 04:44 (seventeen years ago) link

it was all dv except the bunny scenes.

spoilers and and reactions to this thread so if you havent seen it dont read this.

apparently david lynch sings the song in the trailer?

the song is called fucking 'ghost of love' and its dl singing through crazy amounts of anteres autotune which actually happens throughout the movie during the dialogue. autotune and digital distorion happen during different words throughout the movie but i havent been able to tell if theres a connection.

Also, if anyone spots Nastassja Kinski in this thing, yell bingo -- I didn't

i think shes the prostitute with the burred face in the beginning.

So, those who have seen it, can someone convince me it wasn't a mistake for Lynch to go DV?

it was not a mistake. he gets some really amazing textures with the dv. it fuckes with you. like for real. he says he'll never work with celluloid again and i say fucking cool. theres shit that he does with the dv that he would never be able to do with film. sometimes, during the darkest scenes the, the screen seems to disapear and it seems real.

plot wise my theory is: that polish chick is stuck in purgatory cuz her movie was never finished and she died cuz she got preggy from some trick (or the other actor?) and her husband kicked the shit out of her or she killed herself with a screwdriver giving herself an abortion and laura dern like 50 years later or whatever finishes the movie or something and the crying polish chick watches the finally completed movie and is sent on her path to heaven or happiness or whatever during that emotional scene where they kiss or i dunno.

keep in mind i saw this movie twice. once on shrooms months ago and once sober last weekend so i dunno i might be wrong. someone help me. i still dont know that the fuck "hes good with animals" thing means.

chaki (chaki), Thursday, 21 December 2006 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link

haha! great review chaki

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 21 December 2006 16:44 (seventeen years ago) link

The ifc center in new york offers a free ticket for those who will see the movie there for the 10th time.
as for now, there are 2 people who saw it 4 times.
and i say - isn't 1 is more than enough?

john lang (emekars), Thursday, 21 December 2006 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link

isn't 1 is more than enough?

No. I'm going to see it again over the weekend sometime.

The one negative thing I can say about DV is that it's like the old saw about musicians who put a studio in their house and then discover that absolute freedom = absolute indecision. Chaki OTM about what Lynch does with it... If this film is Lynch experimenting with what he can do with DV and self-distribution, I can't wait until his next movie.

My theory on the plot: The curse is a Limbo/Purgatory-like actuality that exists on some meta-temporal level with all of the cursed rattling around inside it. The motel room is a mental safe place to hide from the curse/dysreality outside. "Inland Empire" isn't just a geographic place, but a mental/emotional retreat from outside horror as well as something that actors tap into when playing roles.

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 21 December 2006 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link

WAHT WAS "LB?"
a pound?
Louise Brooks?
LB Mayer?
Left, Back?

sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Saturday, 30 December 2006 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...
Any walkouts in Minn, Eric?

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 17 February 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

& how much laughing?

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 15:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I think there was one couple that left, but this theatre was solidly filled, so statistically none.

Quite a bit of laughing here and there, though. Maybe more so during the first hour, but the dialogue during Dern's Passion of the Hollywood Walk Of Fame got a lot of response.

Of course, it helps that it's incredibly funny in addition to being horrifying.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Plus, almost everyone I've talked to about it since (including one random person who approached me and was all "didn't I see you at the pre-MEER of Inland Empire?") has liked or even loved the film, so maybe it's not as difficult as it's rumored to be. Or it is but people know what they're getting with Lynch.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link

It must be difficult -- Hoberman called it "a miasma"!

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I should've guessed I'd probably like it, though. Whereas I initially couldn't see the trees for the forest, I see that it showed up on the top 10 lists of nearly every critic whose taste I even vaguely understand (Ed G., Nathan Lee, the whole House Next Door crew) and even Jonathan Rosenbaum, who I've given up on but still respect for his writings in the past.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 16:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Mike D'Angelo, otoh...

they reserve their most tortured arguments for Lynch's use of the Sony PD150, a consumer-grade video camera with such poor resolution that anything beyond ten feet resembles congealed oatmeal. It's fun to hear them maintain that his vision is somehow enhanced by severe pixelation [sic] and zero depth of field, but there's simply no excuse, apart from frugality or aesthetic disinterest, for an artist of Lynch's stature to make a movie that looks as hideous as this.

http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/070205_mfe_March_07_Alt_Oscars.html


But it DOES enhance it, Blanche.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

It must be difficult -- Hoberman called it "a miasma"!

he later noted that another critic who hated it congratulated him for saying this, thinking it was a pejorative

jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 20:09 (seventeen years ago) link

actually in the context of his review, it read like a pejorative.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 20:10 (seventeen years ago) link

the attempts at decoding begin. this is pretty good, actually

http://greenliefonfilm.blogspot.com/2007/02/examining-empire-deconstructing-waves.html

milton parker (milton parker), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:19 (seventeen years ago) link

No appearances in Miami of either Laura Dern, Lynch, or his cow.

Alfred Soto (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Completely god awful. His worst since Dune.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:38 (seventeen years ago) link

contrarian!

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha not this time I'll bet.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link

well, at least you're closer to Armond White on this one than I am.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I really liked Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive (the former especially), but usually the best Lynch films are probably his most mainstream ones (The Elephant Man and The Straight Story.)

What is the song that plays in the closing credits?

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link

"Sinner Man" by Nina Simone

jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Really? When the hell is that from? It sounds totally unhinged.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Wiki sez: "Sinnerman" (spelled as one word) is one of Nina Simone's most famous songs and she recorded her definitive 10-minute plus version on her 1965 album Pastel Blues.

jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:52 (seventeen years ago) link

1964

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:54 (seventeen years ago) link

arrghh x-post!

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:55 (seventeen years ago) link

I will have to buy that album now.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I seriously thought it was some crazy Hustle Disco cover of Peter Tosh and the Wailers' "Downpresser".

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 21:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Lynch:Dern :: Sternberg:Dietrich?

http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/film/2007/02/12/lost-lost-lost-/


"The truth is I didn't know who I was playing," she said, "and I still don't know."

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link


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