David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE

02:19 / 29.09.06

Lynch's new film debuted at Venice last month and got a generally negative reaction, with critics citing narrative incomprehenisibility, and a lack of cohesion. I'm hestitant to come to a conclusion from this early buzz, because you could give the same criticism to nearly every Lynch film. But, this does sound like a much more abstract narrative structure than even Mulholland Dr, he's said it's a film driven entirely by instinct, there was no script, he would just shoot whatever came to mind that day.

So, anyone actually seen it yet? I'll be checking it out at the New York Film Festival in a couple of weeks, and will report back then.

05:57 / 29.09.06

You're damn right that for every film I love by Lynch the initial journalistic criticism has always been negative - for clarification purposes I'm talking about Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, FWWM and Lost Highway - only to have been redemeed in retrospect. The press for LH was especially joyous: Two Thumbs Down in giant letters on the poster during the US release. Even when Lynch isn't as great as he can be in his shining moments - Dune, The Straight Story - there's always something to be gained from them. Dune is entirely flawed but compelling nonetheless. The initial buzz means nothing more than buzz created by a select few people. I won't make up my mind until I see it for myself.

ghadis

06:41 / 29.09.06

Well, i've heard initial reports that it has more in common to his sitcom, Rabbits, than to any of his films. Now, i love David Lynch films but i'm not sure that i could sit through three hours of that.

07:57 / 29.09.06

Don't you mean sickcom? I don't know about you but I found very little of it ho-ho-funny but liked its consistent mesmerising tone.

Cool.

08:04 / 29.09.06

Actually, when one glosses over the negativity from Premiere's Venice Report it looks set to be the kind of thing he does best:

Bewildering and infuriating if occasionally inspired, the near three hour film is filled with many of the director's usual preoccupations — perception, memory, characters within characters, worlds within worlds — and the sound design, as you'd expect from Lynch, is amazing.

Lynch, apparently, filmed this over the course of two and a half years with no script — which actually makes Dern's performance ever more astonishing — marking it out as his most experimental work since Eraserhead.

04:00 / 11.10.06

I saw the film yesterday and loved it. It's got some flaws, but the good stuff far outweighs it. However, I do think it's Lynch's most insular film since Fire Walk With Me, and the leisurely paced three hours will likely limit the film's audience. But if you like his stuff, this full of the kind of things you can't see anywhere else. It's very challenging, and I can't wait to see it again.

More detailed reaction's on my blog in spoiler and non-spoiler flavors.

14:05 / 11.10.06

Ooh, you lucky bastard. I can't wait for this. All the negative reviews I've read of it have generally been fairly detailed about WHY they didn't like it, and pretty much everything they gave as a reason it was shit was the stuff that really appealed to me.

One of the broadsheets (I forget which one) gave it a stunning review, though.

On the other hand, one of them said something along the lines of "I was going to walk out, but I decided to stay to the end just so I could boo". And then was disappointed when the film wasn't booed. How fucking mean-spirited is that?

I totally can't wait.

14:09 / 11.10.06

As I said in my reply, nice review on your blog, btw (only read the spoiler-free one).

ghadis

14:16 / 11.10.06

Sounding pretty good (Like Stoat i only read your spoiler free review). Now, anyone have any ideas of a UK release date? It's released in much of Europe (Germany and France)in January.

19:37 / 02.12.06

The film's trailer and official site are now up. Some US release dates are there, but still no word on international.

Spaniel

20:07 / 02.12.06

Yeah, I just checked the UK film distributors site and no sign of it there

uncle retrospective

09:01 / 03.12.06

I really looking forward to is and to know that season 2 of Twin Peaks is finaly coming out? Kick ass!

Might -*shudder*- take a while:

David Lynch has sworn off movie studios forever. "A conventional distributor is a heartache, and I'm finished with that," the director said as he unveiled plans to release his psychodrama "Inland Empire" through his distribution company Absurda and 518 Media in December.
(...)
"With self-distribution I'm able to shape the outcome of the film so much more," Lynch said. "I'm looking forward to meeting theater owners and getting out among the people with the cow."

10:49 / 03.12.06

14:19 / 03.12.06

Okay, now that trailer has got me even more unreasonably excited than I already was. You could watch that with the sound down, not know he even had a film coming out, and you'd still know that THAT's a Lynch movie right there.

CameronStewart

15:13 / 03.12.06

Does anyone know what that song in the trailer is? Is it a new song by Badalamenti for the film or is it something else? I love it.

19:22 / 03.12.06

It's definitely an original Badalamenti, made for the film, and I'm pretty sure the vocals are by Lynch himself. I remember in the credits reading that one of the songs was performed by him and that sounds pretty close to his voice.

06:19 / 08.12.06

Ugggghhhhhh.

You know those bass-heavy and creepy unsettling parts in every David Lynch movie? Imagine three hours of those, with none of the stuff around it that actually makes you give shit about anything.

Easily the creepiest most terrifying thing he's ever made, though. Satisfying in that regard. There's one image towards the end that was kindly branded into my consciousness, never to leave. It actually made me gasp in abject horror. Worse than a million Dancing Dwarfs.

So, yeah, as a Haunted Mansion of terror, successful. As any kind of semblance of a compelling narrative, it never showed up for even a second.

Benny the Ball

06:37 / 08.12.06

The problem for self distribution is that theaters want such a chunk of the money made because they lose favour with the studios, plus with most studios having an interest in many theaters (particularly in UK) there is the issue of catering for the studio boss rather than the public. Even Indie cinemas (of which there seems to be less and less in the UK each year) feel the sting of this somewhat. Anyway - should start a new thread on this really.

07:57 / 08.12.06

well, shit, that's a slim chance of it being shown in Brazil then... to this day of all his flicks I've only watched LOST HIGHWAY in a proper theater.

no matter it was shot in DV, a piece like that has to be seen in a darkened room and big screen to improve the otherworldly experience.

I *do* wish Lynch [my favorite living movie auteur] switch gears in a next picture, though; for three movies now he's dealt with similar themes in similar structures.

18:50 / 10.12.06

Yeah, I can see how the themes and the structure of the Straight Story is interchangeable with his two most recent flicks.

20:46 / 10.12.06

I misplaced SS, but surely you see my point, no?

20:52 / 10.12.06

...similar structures.

Oh don't worry about that. INLAND EMPIRE has NO structures.

20:52 / 10.12.06

the movies I was including in the argument were LOST HIGHWAY, MULLHOLAND DRIVE and [apparently, for what i've read] INLAND EMPIRE which dealt with troubled murderous characters that dealt with their fate by trying to evoke a second personality that lived in a surreal reality where things worked out better for them.

there, I just ruined them.

20:55 / 10.12.06

...murderous characters.

No characters in INLAND EMPIRE to speak of, if by characters you mean men or women with discernible motives and anything about them that would engender sympathy or even interest.

CameronStewart

20:57 / 10.12.06

>>>Easily the creepiest most terrifying thing he's ever made, though. Satisfying in that regard.<<<

This is really all that I'm looking forward to anyway. Lynch is by far my favourite "horror" director, being able to scare the shit out of me in some vast and profound way and it's those moments that really stick with me.

21:00 / 10.12.06

It will definitely deliver for you, then. That one shot I spoke of is still creeping me out when the lights are off. Eek!

00:40 / 11.12.06

Hector, Inland definitely works in similar territory as LH/MD, but it's not quite the same. And, the structures are more fluid, pretty much erasing the idea of any definitive reality. I came up with my own theory to make it all fit together, but unlike with Mulholland Dr., I don't think there's an easy way to break everything down and fit it into a linear narrative.

Aha! I am Klarion

05:57 / 13.12.06

David Lynch's films are great. But without a doubt, every film of his that I've seen I disliked on the first view. However it just grows on you. Now Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart are two of my favorite movies.

While, I am leary about the 3hr run time, I am very excited about the film

Plus, lynch is the reason I meditate now

13:47 / 13.12.06

Lynch is by far my favourite "horror" director, being able to scare the shit out of me in some vast and profound way and it's those moments that really stick with me.

Got to agree with you there. To my mind he makes some of the greatest horror movies there are; but for some reason "horror" as a genre is often regarded (like SF) as being stupid and juvenile, so Lynch never gets tagged with it.

"vast and profound way"... yeah, there's something almost Lovecraftian about the sheer relentlessness of his work. There is no easy way out; you can't ever escape this shit. THAT's scary.

15:03 / 13.12.06

thanks for the info, guys. glad to know IE has this kind of primal-fear-inducing scenes.

ERASERHEAD and THE ELEPHANT MAN remain to this day 2 of the movies that scare me the most. WILD AT HEART is pretty "Pop" but has some [literally sometimes] rotten stuff here and there that just crawls under your skin, like the Bad Witch idea, the old guy running in flames and Crispin Glover.

I remember as a teen being afraid of going to sleep in the dark after I turned the off the TV on Sunday nights when a given week's TWIN PEAKS episode ended. a few sequences:

hidden B.O.B

Leland's dance

Ronnette dreams of Laura's death

and the now classic Cooper's dream.

15:10 / 13.12.06

WHY WOULD YOU POST THAT. WHY ARE THESE THINGS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET. NO.

(Oh, god, seriously.)

Spaniel

17:27 / 13.12.06

I really don't like looking at that stuff out of context. It loses a lot of it's power.

18:03 / 13.12.06

I really don't like looking at that stuff. Ever.

I'd be really curious to hear exactly what he sees as terrifyng, the instinctual things that scare him, etcetra. Maybe if I could deconstruct what it is about so much of this stuff that is so very unsettling, I could start leaving the house again.

11:07 / 15.12.06

It actually gets a lot better. From my favouritest* episode ever, the last one, here's Cooper in the Black Lodge Part 1 and Part 2.

* Best because not only are, what, 6 (or possibly more) recurring characters killed off and a beloved, mild mannered character made a murderer but Lynch outdoes himself in the freak department with the Black Lodge stuff. Particularly scaaary is part the second.